Small hassles and extra steps can sharply reduce action.
More quotesIntelligence improves the production values of self-deception. A weak belief in ordinary hands may collapse after one awkward question. Give it to a clever person and it acquires citations, nuance and a thirty-tab model. The investor explains the failing position more elegantly each month. The expert dismisses criticism because it arrived in imprecise language. The quickest debater answers every objection so fluently that the original assumption escapes untested.
“Hire the smartest people and let them argue” therefore gives you a debating contest, not necessarily a decision process. Argument rewards speed with language. Reality rewards whatever works, and the two competitions frequently crown different contestants.
A mechanic pausing over an unfamiliar noise may know more than the pundit who names the fault before the bonnet opens.
Make beliefs risk something. Write down the evidence that would disprove the preferred view before everyone falls in love with it. Record forecasts plainly enough to compare with outcomes. Give the challenger permission to run a real test rather than add a tasteful question before approval. Treat an early change of mind as evidence of judgement. Performative humility deserves less patience: “we’re all learning” means bugger all when one clever person keeps choosing and explaining every miss.
Ignorance remains ignorance. The useful test is simpler: what result would make the cleverest person here say, “I was wrong”?