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Lijit Search

From the folks at ChangeThis comes an essay titled Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas by Scott Berkun:

When it comes to defusing smart people who are defending bad ideas, you have to find ways to slow things down.  The reason for this is simple.  Smart people, or at least those whose brains have good first gears, use their speed in thought to overpower others.  They'll jump between assumptions quickly, throwing out jargon, bits of logic, or rules of thumb at a rate of fire fast enough to cause most people to become rattled, and to give in.  When that doesn't work, the arrogant or the pompous will throw in belittlement and use whatever snide or manipulative tactics they have at their disposal to further discourage you from dissecting their ideas.

So your best defense starts by breaking an argument into pieces.  When they say "it's obvious we need to execute plan A now."  You say, "hold on, You're way ahead of me.  For me to follow I need to break this down into pieces."  And without waiting for permission, you should go ahead and do so.

Being "smart" can get in the way of learning.  An aggressive advocacy of a bad idea ultimately results in failure.  Expertise causes blindness.  Do you want to be "right," or do you want to be effective?

More:

Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa and Alan R. Hayakawa
The Logic of Failure by Dietrich Dorner
Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris

9:49:30 PM