I have discovered a few wise sayings in the website of one Derek Sivers.  This one is, “Smart People Don’t Think Others Are Stupid.”  This is helpful to me.  There are quite a few things I know that most people don’t know, and talents I have, like reading paper maps, that a lot of people don’t have.  And yet there are things that I don’t have, like good short term memory and three-dimensional spatial intelligence, that a lot of people do have.  It is hard to be interdependent, but sometimes I must be.

Anyone who has employees will notice that they have a talent, when you give them any kind of direction, for finding some other meaning in your words than that which you intended, or finding an ambiguity which means they cannot execute your instructions until it is clarified.  I used to think of that as stupidity, but I have learned to see it, if anything, as a form of cleverness!

In response to: “Smart people don’t think others are stupid” by Derek Sivers at sivers.org