My dad used to say something like that to me- that the problem with me was that I thought I was too smart to have to deal with most things. (It never seemed to occur to him that it was entirely possible, even likely, that he had raised me to be that way!) I thought it was just one of those things that grownups say to provide themselves an escape route when they realize that they’re not going to win an argument.

This, of course, bolstered my already inflated self-esteem- I must be really smart then, if I could drive adults to such desperation!

Over the past few years as I started to get my hands (or mind) dirty with philosophy and meta-thinking, I realized that there was a certain Socratic wisdom to be had, that I was most certainly lacking. The wisest man is self-aware and knows his limitations- he knows that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

I was the opposite of that for the longest time. I was convinced that I had enough knowledge and experience to be independent and improvisational in thought, where everyone else appeared to me to be static and primitive. From time to time I would face circumstances that directly contradicted the picture I painted for myself- but like all other self-obsessed, faulty thinkers- I blamed the world rather than myself. I blamed the territory instead of the map that I’d drawn. (Kinda like Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes!)

What sort of arrogance does it take to convince yourself that your map of the world is more real and true than the world itself? Perhaps it was ignorance, too. The younger me didn’t realize that there was a difference between perception and reality- perception WAS reality, and the map WAS the territory. At least, it was for me. It took me quite a bit of reading, thinking, failing and learning to get past that. It’s still something I need to constantly remind myself- don’t mistake the map for the territory.

Which brings me to my main agenda- developing a practical, applicable understanding of our own weaknesses and limitations, and a system of operating effectively with such knowledge- or more simply, NOT being too smart for our own good.

We gotta define it first- being too smart for your own good is when you think too far ahead, overestimating your own abilities while underestimating circumstances and others. It’s when you’re so smitten by the elegance of your own ideas and systems that you become blinded to reality, to feedback and contrary evidence. Tim Harford described this as the God Complex. (Please watch this!)

I once read an interesting piece about how King Xerxes was advised not to go ahead with his siege- he may have had assembled the greatest army in the history of humanity, but greater still were the Land and Sea that would eventually humble him. Alas, the God-King suffered from the God Complex.

Authority figures tend to develop the God Complex- you’ll frequently find it in governments, economists, parents. Everyone’s convinced that they know what they’re doing. Which is a crazy thing to believe in today’s complex world. You don’t have to think very highly of yourself to develop this complex- I’ve met some people who absolute loathe themselves, yet are almost completely resistant to the idea that their map of the world may be hindering them from getting to where they say they want to go.

Let’s ground this with practical examples- (from my own life, as usual). I used to read and borrow self-help books. I was never a huge-junkie, it was a once-in-a-while thing, kinda like how many people sign up for gym memberships in tandem with their new year resolutions. And like those gym memberships, the books made little difference. Why? I was too smart! I’d read through them, agree with everything, feel temporarily enlightened, motivated and excited about everything… for a few days. And then it’s back to the same old. Why?

I somehow assumed that reading something was good enough for it to seep into your mind and be accessible as part of your cognitive arsenal. However, I didn’t properly test this hypothesis. (Too smart, don’t need to test. I knew, but I did not know.) Even a proper thought experiment would suffice, but when it comes to truly absorbing something, nothing beats practical experience.

Immersion is the only real way anybody ever learns anything. You don’t become a smoker after having one cigarette, you don’t become an alcoholic from having a beer. You won’t get six-pack abs from one visit to the gym, you can’t learn a new language just by watching a video once, and you’re not a musician just because you bought a guitar and strum the three chords that you know from time to time. (Unless you’re The Sex Pistols, maybe. But I’d regard them more as performance artists than musicians.) You’re not a blogger just because you started a blog. Most blogs fail.

Have you read Freakonomics? Anything by Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Ariely, Seth Godin? Hundreds of thousands of people read these authors- so inevitably I find myself asking- why isn’t the world changing faster? Why haven’t we all learnt to embrace the universal principles that have been laid out for us? Why hasn’t the self-help industry become obsolete? It’s because we’re all too smart for our own good. We read, and we nod our heads, but we do not learn. This is why there will always be men who’re lousy with women, even if they read Neil Strauss’s The Game a thousand times. (And then, most probably, they’ll blame Neil for their failures. Or women. Or the circumstances their in. Guess what they won’t blame?)

I was stuck in a plateau as a musician for the longest time. In my fitness, too. It’s actually fairly accurate to describe most of my life as a bunch of plateaus that occasionally get transcended through serendipity. (That’s great, but I find that a little too tedious and slow.) I’m usually stuck because I’m convinced that I know what I know, and that I need to know more things in order to move forward. (That’s another symptom of the God complex- thinking that more data leads to better decision-making.)

I decided to bring my guitar to my army camp to kill time, and I found myself stuck with it for hours- and for some reason I thought I’d practice some scales- basic things that I don’t usually bother with. It’s kind of like practicing your multiplication tables- it’s something meant for kids and amateurs, right? Let’s try them right now. 2, 4, 6, 8. Easy. 3, 6, 9, 12. Easy. 7, 14, 21, 28, 35. Easy. What mindlessness! It’s a waste of time for someone as smart as me. Or is it? How about larger numbers? 17? 34… 51, 68, 85. I had to pause for a few moments there, that’s a little more than I can chew immediately. (What about larger prime numbers? Say, 137. Uh. 274. 411. 548.685. Tough!)

Suddenly, you realise- wow, I’m not as good as I thought I was. If your fundamentals start to give way when you put them under pressure, then you need better fundamentals! I applied this wisdom to my guitar-playing: I started trying odd variations of the chromatic exercises I used to do when I was starting out. It was hard! My fingers were shaken out of complacency and I found myself being forced to focus on my mind muscle connection for the first time in a long time.

It was thrilling! I could practically feel the neurons in my head getting to know each other, first going through the awkward conversations and forced laughter. A few days of focused practice and they’ve become old friends, finishing each other’s sentences and laughing heartily at inside jokes. It’s real, observable and quantifiable progress that feels wonderful- intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. I can’t wait to keep making such progress, and then make progreas on my progress-making system so I can make even more progress, grow even more as a person. It’s so exciting.

And I ask myself, surely I ought to be applying this elsewhere? And I think about my writing, and my relationship with my girlfriend- both of which I have come to get a little to comfortable with to get particularly excitwd about. Surely this can change, surely there are fundamentals that could be practiced better! I can’t wait to find out.

By the way, don’t think that you’re too stupid to understand this, or to find it of any use to your life. If you believe that, you’re making assumptions about reality, you’re mistaking the map for the territory- and you’re being too smart for your own good.