The smartest people in the world are listeners, not speakers. If all you’re doing is speaking, how do you learn anything new? To get ahead, you need to be smart enough to act dumb. You need to also learn how to convince people you’re not very good at what you do to lower expectations.
There was once this portfolio manager I covered who had this uncanny ability to make you feel uncomfortable without saying anything at all. He had a poker face when you spoke to him, and when he felt like changing expressions, he’d go from solemn to smiles in a millisecond.
We nicknamed him Crazy Face. It turns out that he was literally a genius with an IQ over 160. He also consistently beat his index benchmark for eight years in a row and made millions because of it.
The earliest examples of acting dumb to get ahead starts in grade school. You know what I’m talking about. Those kids who were too cool to study and too cool to sit still in class as they flicked spitballs from the back of the room. These kids weren’t just acting dumb, they really were dumb.
When you purposefully waste your opportunities growing up, you’re not only disrespecting your parents, but also the millions of other kids around the world who will never have the same opportunities.
This post will do the following:
1) Argue why acting dumb is a smart move to get ahead.
2) Provide some tips to help you look and seem a little dumber than you are.
3) Share three personal examples of how acting duhhh, has helped in work, stress management, and relationships.
Be Smart Enough To Act Dumb
There are three main reasons why acting dumb will help you succeed in life.
1) You no longer become a threat.
If you have ever competed in sports, debates, game shows, or worked in super competitive industries such as finance, consulting, or law you know how cutthroat everybody is. Someone is always gunning for you if you are one of the top dogs. Online entrepreneurship is even more competitive because the barrier to entry is low, and ideas get stolen all the time. Be smart enough to realize these realities.
When you are considered dumb, or at least not a threat, people stop looking to undermine your abilities. It’s natural for anybody in the work environment to feel threatened by a new hire, a lateral hire, or a superstar colleague.
We all have our insecurities. The more you can pretend not to know as much as you do, and the more you can include other people in your successes, the better you will be.
2) You can more easily surprise on the upside.
Getting ahead is about underpromising and overdelivering. Eager people have a tendency to overpromise and put so much stress on themselves that they underdeliver instead. The key is to contain your pride by highlighting 80% of what you can do, and deliver 81%+. Be smart enough to set expectations low.
I remember improving in ranking with one client from #10 to #6 and getting praised for the move. Then with another similar client I slipped from #3 to #5 and was admonished.
Because I worked for a large firm, we were always expected to be in the top 3 with clients, even though only three firms can be in the top three! But if you work at a lesser tier firm, or even a bucket shop, then just getting ranked in the top 10 was good enough.
3) You’ll have a much happier life.
When you’re constantly expected to be the best, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Everybody eventually has a misstep or loses some steam at some point. The goal is to find that steady state where you can continue to progress while giving yourself room to progress a little more. Be smart enough to be happy with what you have.
A big part about building wealth is longevity. If you burn out 20 years too early, or before your peak performing years, you’ll have a serious financial deficit to make up if you don’t have a plan.
Like the Stealth Wealth concept, you don’t want to stick your head out too far out of fear of it being cut off by the government, your jealous colleagues, or nefarious characters looking to rob you blind.
What If You Are Are Not Smart Enough to Act Dumb?
Acting dumb is easy for me because I’m pretty dumb in a lot of things e.g. college level math, art, history, languages, making women stop hating me, and so forth. Just read some of the comments some lovely readers leave telling me how dumb I am for proof!
But there used to be a time when I just couldn’t help but brag about my achievements. And when you start bragging about your achievements, people start hating your guts. When people start hating your guts, you get into fights in school (check), your business model gets stolen (check) and you get passed over for a promotion or a raise (check).
The higher up you go in any work organization, the more collaborative you must be. It’s all politics up there. The “superstar syndrome” is a dangerous syndrome to exhibit because everybody higher up will act in unison to keep you down, even if you’re a pretty nice person.
Be smart enough to suppress your achievements. Share your failures instead.
Good Tip In E-mail Communication
The one tip I can give is to NEVER use the word “I” when sending an e-mail or giving a talk about some successful business win. Always, always use the word “we” and point out individual’s names that helped make the work win a success.
If it was truly only you who made something special happen, then acknowledge the support of your boss and teammates anyway. They’ll know they had nothing to do with the win, but will appreciate your shout-outs anyway.
When we are younger, we tend to always think that we know more than we really do. Humble pie takes time to eat because it tastes disgusting. Once you eat it, you’ll stop trying to look so smart to everybody. And if you haven’t eaten any humble pie yet, then hopefully you’ll take my advice to heart.
How To Make Yourself Look Dumber
Be smart enough to recognitions these strategies that will make you look dumber. Looking dumber is a strategic move that will minimize competition and attention on you.
1) Dress to look younger
You’ve heard the advice to “look sharp” haven’t you? Well dressing one or two levels higher than your peers and boss is a surefire way to get your hands chopped off. Never dress more than a half-step more than your position. These steps are subjective, but if you pay careful attention to what people wear in the office, you’ll understand.
I currently go to work in jeans, a t-shirt, a baseball cap, and a long-sleeve fleece jacket most of the time. In other words, I look like a student even though I’m 37 years old (back in 2014). Being treated like a younger employee than reality is just fine by me because many of my colleagues are under 30 years old as well. Everybody dresses casually, so I fit right in. It’s also about aligning compensation and expectations so you aren’t miserable.
Make it hard for people to see your expertise. Based on the way I look, people have no idea I built an online business from the ground up with consistent margin expansion and operating profits that would make any entrepreneur proud.
What they see is a friendly face who is happy to help, do his contracting job, and provide some occasional insights when asked upon. A larger role for me isn’t really in the cards largely because of the image I portray.
Looking younger doesn’t necessarily mean you will appear dumber. But there’s sometimes no amount of intelligence that can make up for a lack of experience. So if you can mold yourself as looking less experienced, then you will naturally seem less worthy of bigger roles.
2) Alter your speech
Your speech is often a dead giveaway for your level of intelligence. However, there are tricks to alter your speech to make yourself seem dumber.
It almost doesn’t matter what you say in a British accent, you will still sound pretty sophisticated. It almost doesn’t matter what you say in a valley girl or a surfer dude accent, you will sound a little less sophisticated. The way you speak has a tremendous impact on how others perceive your intelligence.
The main ways to alter your speech to make you look dumber is by adding the words “like” and “umm” in your sentences. If you want to take it a step further, include rhetorical questions such as, “You know what I’m saying?” multiple times. The listener will start getting agitated and think to themselves, “No I don’t know what you’re saying you idiot!”
Clearly you must remove SAT type words from your vernacular as well. Unless you are Fraser Crain, nobody speaks with words like “pernicious,” “erudite,” “colloquial,” “nadir,” “vapid,” “boorish” and so forth. Practice speaking like a middle school student and you will do just fine, yo.
3) Slow down your response times
Don’t be quick witted and answer questions in lightening pace. Pretend like you are still calculating answers like a 286 computer instead of the latest microprocessor that you are.
I’ve found myself very agitated when a friend of mine takes a long time to answer a question or recall a song name or whatever. He is clearly very smart, but because his response time is slower than mine, I automatically think he’s dumber than me even though I’m wrong.
The key is to not be so slow as to annoy the other person. During your time of rumination, you should utter phrases like “hmmm,” and “let me think” to keep the other side engaged. You can start answering the question in a round about way, until you finally zero in on the point. Better yet, let them answer their own questions to make them feel smart.
4) Smile a lot
You’ve heard the saying, “I’m going to wipe that dumb grin off his face!” right? People associate smiley people on the dumber end of the spectrum. Furthermore, smiling a lot will make you look less menacing.
People will naturally smile back at you and wonder why the heck are you smiling all the time because work generally sucks! You never see an evil genius smile. They are either smirking or plotting with a furrowed brow.
The pandemic has made it more difficult for more people to see smiles in public. Not having people see me smile has made me realize how much I’m always naturally smiling.
5) Look a little frumpy and out of shape.
Even if you are clearly an intelligent person, showing some physical weakness will help people think a little less of you. The worst is to be physically fit, attractive, eloquent in speech, intelligent in answer, and extremely hard working. You are going to be gunned down before you know it because you are a threatening machine.
Buy some shirts and pants that are one size too big. Don’t cut your hair for a long time. Wear some mismatching outfits. Be smart enough not to look so sharp.
6) Just pretend you don’t know
If you know a lot of stuff then a lot of people will come to you for questions. You’ll be so inundated with questions that you won’t be able to get your own work done. People tend to take advantage of your time once you show a little bit of kindness.
For example, I’m constantly answering e-mails from people who have personal finance questions. I would say 90% of the time I respond with a thoughtful answer. And when I do, they will ask for another answer and want me to get into more detail. So instead, I sometimes pretend I don’t have an opinion or I don’t know when an absolute stranger who has never commented here before asks me questions.
The more other people know how much you know, the higher the expectations they have of you. And if for some reason you don’t have time, or you’re past your allotted work hours and don’t want to help, they might develop a sour opinion of you if you don’t spend your remaining free time helping them out en gratis. Be smart enough not to be a smart ass.
Examples Of Where Acting Dumb Helps
Dumb At Work
As a blogger since 2009, of course I know about SEO, social media, marketing, earning online income, and writing content. Every company’s marketing department should hire veteran bloggers because content marketing is huge in the internet world. No longer do people want to just view ads. Consumers want to digest content that provides value before signing up for anything. Strong content helps build a brand and create goodwill.
Bloggers have the ability to build a community, embolden a brand, growth hack with no budget, write engaging content, and understand analytics.
For my consulting gig, I went above and beyond for my first three month contract, working 40+ hours a week instead of 25 hours a week in my contract because I have a tendency to try and always over-deliver. But I realized after three months that the more I do, the more I’m asked to do until the work hours could easily extend to 60 hours a week.
It’s really hard to stop for all parties, once we get going because there’s an endless amount of things to do in startup land. Those who’ve followed me for a while know that I have workaholic tendencies that can easily manifest itself with some prodding. Heck, this post is over 3,000 words long. Who does that, but workaholics!
Slow At Consulting
I had a role as a consultant is to manage a team of writers and write content. I’d help where I could on other things of course. But if I did, I would have easily blown past my contracting hours if I’m tasked to do SEO, manage the social media platform on a daily basis, and provide copy writing for advertisements and landing pages.
Therefore, I was smart enough to act dumb about various topics. I didn’t want the employer to take advantage of me too much.
I’m optimizing for a better lifestyle where I can get paid for good work performed, interact with smart and fun people, and also have a good amount of freedom. I don’t mind consistently giving 120% effort in what I do (20% more time than agreed upon).
But giving much more than 120% over an extended period of time feels off since I’ve got plenty of other things I enjoy doing. I’m currently in a happier place now because things are more balanced. If I do decide I want to work full-time again, it’s easier to surprise on the upside by demonstrating my entire repertoire of knowledge and skills.
Aloof In Investing
If you want to grab someone’s attention just tell them you work or worked in finance and they will pick your brain non-stop for investment ideas. They’ll ask you about the next hot IPO or your views on the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate policies and how it will affect cyclical stocks.
They’ll ask you to analyze their current investments and see if you have recommendation for where they can rebalance. When it comes to getting advice on making more money, people can’t get enough.
Of course I’m going to do my best to help my friends and family when they’re in need, like I spent several hours helping my sister come up with a financial plan last year. But I hardly ever tell anybody that I used to work in finance. I just tell them I’m a writer instead.
The benefit is I won’t get asked for investment advice and I won’t have looks of disapproval about working in finance. Money has a terrible way of getting in between relationships, and that’s the last thing I want money to do.
When folks start highlighting their great investment wins, I simply listen in, congratulate and smile. And if people find out my background and want to really get down and dirty with their finances. Be smart enough to not let anybody know about your investing experience.
Related: How To Convince People You Are Middle Class When You’re Actually Rich
Clueless About Relationships
Great relationships are hard to come by. They take work and a whole lot of listening. I really enjoy making friends with people from all over. But my biggest problem is still coming across as overconfident and a know-it-all type with younger people I meet. I have this automatic desire to teach and mentor younger folks because I’ve seen their movie before and I don’t want them to fall into the same holes I fell into.
I also come from a culture where respecting your elders is of great importance, so I just assume that whatever I say to a younger person will be heard.
Unfortunately, my desire to help can come across as arrogant, particularly in America. Many people don’t want mentors or teachers, they just want to be equal friends. Who wants advice about things when they haven’t asked? Nobody.
By pretending to be in the dark about many things a new or younger person discusses with me that I know about, I’m able to reduce my arrogance and create a more equal relationship.
As the relationship progresses, I can adjust accordingly. And if there’s a massive trap a friend is about to walk into, I’ll definitely step up and provide some guidance.
I don’t have this arrogance problem at all when I’m hanging out with older people due to my customs. I think I’ve been able to develop healthier relationships with more people over the past five years. Be smart enough to stay humble.
Related: The Importance Of Emotional Intelligence
The Final Strategy For Getting Ahead
Instead of pretending to be unknowledgeable or dumb, go the other way. Demonstrate that you have so much vigor in your craft that people are intimidated by your presence.
Because you are a rockstar who is clearly crushing it, other people don’t want to waste your time with dumb questions they can look up online, so they never ask. Because you are vital to your organization, management knows they can’t screw you.
You want to be a nice and collaborative person no matter your real intelligence. But if you’ve found a happy balance in your life and have a reasonable amount of intelligence, then acting dumb might very well be a great way to keep your happiness going for an extended period of time.
Read The Best Personal Finance Book To Get Smart
At the end of the day, knowledge is power. It’s good to act dumb, but secretly be smart and highly educated. If you want to read the best personal finance book, check out Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom. BTNT is jam-packed with all my insights after spending 30 years working in, studying, and writing about personal finance.
Building wealth is only a part of the equation. Consistently making optimal decisions on some of life’s biggest dilemmas is the other. My book helps you minimize regret and live a more purposeful life as you build more passive income.
You can buy a copy on Amazon today. The richest people in the world are always reading and always learning new things. Learn from those who are already where you want to go.
For more nuanced personal finance, sign up for the free Financial Samurai newsletter. Financial Samurai began in 2009 and is one of the largest independently-owned site in the world.
Related Post:
Be Rich, Not Famous: The Joy Of Being A Nobody
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[…] We become vapid communicators because we no longer remember how to write hand-written thank you letters. A quick text message will do. […]
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[…] 4) You broaden your knowledge and expertise across various topics so you can seem erudite but remain a little dumb. […]
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[…] 8) Pretend you do not understand. You might be a brilliant person, but brilliant people are intimidating. Instead, pretend you don’t fully understand what another is saying by asking questions. Don’t think you’re better than others just because you see solutions easily. Guard your intelligence like you guard your full income and wealth. It’s better to start your intelligence at a base level and dial it up if the occasion requires. Some of the smartest people I know have this eery look about them that screams stone cold aloofness. You know they are already thinking multi-variably, but from the outside it seems like they are a dull brick wall. Read: Are You Smart Enough To Act Dumb Enough To Get Ahead? […]
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[…] a totally rational human being, you are going to make moves that enable you to succeed. You’ll naturally befriend other people with similar interests in your area of expertise. If […]
I understand what you are saying about Stealth Wealth, but it makes me a bit sad. I studied art history in school and the great portraits that I loved, by Velazquez or Gainsborough, or Sargent, or great examples of architecture – Versailles, country estates in England or Rhode Island or Boston, would never have been created if patrons had shied away from showing their wealth. I also love the history of fashion and long for the time when people took pride in looking very sharp and well turned out – up until the 80s. I get what you are doing. I just hope that at some point, you also get to enjoy the aesthetic privileges that wealth allows.
Dude, I guess I’ve been doing this subconsciously, after reading this, I started to catch myself doing it, I’ll be honest I started laughing in my head, I thought I was going nuts
I know one guy that is very smart and very, very rich…he is famous and his trademark is the smile. And I know a lot of dumb people and they never EVER smile. So..I disagree with this aspect. The smile is beauty….most of the people look younger and beautiful when smile. Smile people!!!!! You are not looking dumb for that!
I agree about the smile. That is my trademark as well if you ever meet me in person :-)
But in a room full of sad and miserable people, you don’t really want to stand out and smile. You want to act glum!
Sam, LOVE YOU! Im’m grateful for all that you do. Thanks so much. Now I know why people seem out to get me. I always hate small talk. I’d much rather talk about mycology, physics, brewing beer, the meaning of life and the likes, because it’s interesting to me. I’m very competent, but also obviously a threat. And worst, I’m very physically intimidating, ex footballer, and it’s the first thing people mention when they see me. Also, I come form a minority group people haven’t typically associated with success. So maybe I over compensate by letting them know I’m no dummy and instead I end of up being that super competitor you described. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. This is so upsetting to me. What an Idiot I’ve been. interestingly, I always get super competitive jobs that take 9 months or so to finish the application process. However, when I get there, a lot of haters show up. I’m starting a new job soon, so I’ll keep all of this in mind. Thank you so much for your contribution to this world. You have one of the best financial independence site on the web,and definitely the most unique site. Everyone else out there in the financial blogger world is just a basic repeat of all the same stuff. Well done!
you description fits me perfectly except i’m not physically fit. when i dumb down i’m not taken seriously. when i’m competitive i make a lot of enemies. i can’t progress either way.
Oh and another (former) friend from school always acted dumb, everyone thought she was the “dumb blonde”. Then when she graduated, she got all the best jobs everyone envied/wanted and made more salary $$ than most others. This was right out of graduation in a shitty economy too. Surprised everyone. She’s been through at least 3 gigs all at very good companies in good roles where people would be envious. And here everyone is wondering how the hell a dumbass gets all the good jobs and good pay. She clearly was faking dumb.
I used this trick in High School. The people at the top of my class were extremely competitive with rank and such. If they knew you were smart they would do everything possible to ruin you. So I did things to make myself seem stupid. I kept this up all four years. It was funny to see the people who thought they were so smart actually fall for my dumb act. It worked, no one considered me a threat and I graduated 9/280 and had the highest SAT score in my grade. It all worked till the end of my senior year when the school started announcing this stuff. My cover was blown when they announced who was in the top 15 of my class. Let me tell you those kid’s faces were hilarious. Watching them realize I was smart all along was so funny. Some people still didn’t get I played dumb and that just shows how stupid they were. As much as I hated dumbing myself down it was funny and honestly saved my academic life.
#2 is especially true!!! A colleague did just that (under promise and over delivered while acting dumb), and everyone was surprised and happy with her end result. I knew exactly what she was doing because I was closer to her but nobody else knew. They were all (pleasantly) surprised when she delivered the product. And here I’m thinking about the other people who would’ve delivered the same result but if they didn’t act so dumb, people wouldn’t be so happily surprised with the result. Why the hell should we exert so much more effort when we can do exactly #2. Who’s the dumbass here.
Oh and another (former) friend from school always acted dumb, everyone thought she was the “dumb blonde”. Then when she graduated, she got all the best jobs everyone envied/wanted and made more salary $$ than most others. This was right out of graduation in a shitty economy too. Surprised everyone. She’s been through at least 3 gigs all at very good companies in good roles where people would be envious. And here everyone is wondering how the hell a dumbass gets all the good jobs and good pay. She clearly was faking dumb.
Author:
think about those individuals mentioned, the actually dumb indivduals who think they’re smart. Now per your advice, they’ll be unnecessarily dumbing themselves down. Great.
Granted a lot of what you said just compared being dumb to having a warm personality. In response to that notion; there’s a way to stay 100% mentally sharp while having a friendly, warm personality everyone loves. You just need to be better at being smart instead of getting better at being stupid.
And unless you’re the smartest man in the world you’re obviously gonna have competition putting in more time and effort than you and coming away with more know how and better people skills because they gave it their all. What, you’re about to let those people lap you just because you’ve got experienced? Thats not stradegic that’s lame.
summary of OP’s logic:
Are you smart? But do you lack people skills?
Then take your intellect (power, time, value, whatever measure) and trade it for people skills. Maybe exchange for some for extra free time if you can.
…except your people skills will be easily detected as insincere by people you interact with who are genuine AND intelligent. Theyll probably wish to trade your fake personality for a greater display of intellect. For people who are always betting against themselves investing must seem like a lost cause.
Buts in not.
This is so cool! It reflects on what I have been through. I graduated from a foreign top school and went for professional career. At the same time I was partying with ‘dumb’ people. I fit in well by trying to look dumb. It was all glam. Then I moved to US for school. Got anxiety and always tried to look the brightest/prettiest in class. Ended up with no friend:( and jealous of those that do. Now I’m getting rid of anxiety and am wearing big t shirt and big pants everyday. No makeup no skinny pants. I’m getting friends:)
This site is great. I’m a new analyst at a top consulting firm and the environment is cutthroat to say the least. Anyway, I noticed my peers behaviors towards me after two months of working. I’m on good terms with the other analysts, people want to work with me, and most importantly people come to me to ask for leads on projects. I wondered why the other analysts were nice to to me and then I realized that they didn’t perceive me as a threat. I smile a lot and people describe my personality as bubbly. I know I’m smart, but being a new analyst, I don’t know anything and tend to ask a lot of questions and compliment my peers and superiors. This attitude has helped me so much! I’ve even gotten consultants to give me excel training lessons. They’re taking time out of their busy schedule to help me a lowly analyst. Hah! I love it. But I do realize the importance of walking the fine line. Here’s the trick. I’ve decided to “appear dumb” among my peers because we’re the ones fighting for the same projects. However, among my superiors I try to appear knowledgeable and I work hard because they’re are the ones that have the power when it comes to promotions. Not the analysts.
I think I overdid it with “playing stupid”. I have one of the best grades in class, my test scores are always one of the best and I almost always know the answer to the teachers question, but because I am neither very braggy nor showy and I always play dumb, kids around me apart from my friends think that I’m just not smart.
This situation is very comfortable because as you’ve already said I’m not perceived as “real competition” so no ones out for my head and also no ones coming to me for advice and annoy me in the proccess, but it is kind of damaging to my self confidence. I mean, when everyone around you treats you like youre completely stupid in the end you kind of believe that you are. So what am I supposed to do?
You show them wrong by getting the best grades, best test scores, going to the best school, getting the best job, and have the most amazing life!
I am 23 and very smart. I have always acted dumb because it makes life enjoyable and fun. Was wondering if other smart people did this. I am glad to come across this site.
Well done! How did you come across my site in the first place?
I googoo searched “what to do if your boss is dumber than shit…”
Dude! The world is filled to the fricke’n um, like, brim with sociopaths, do u know what I mean? This article reminds me of Phyllis from the office.
If your office has sociopaths,bullies or groups of sociopathic bullies,then this is probably a very good strategy to avoid their attention,but in other cases it might not be ideal,for example,start ups which actually created products which changed the world would have found people employing such tactics as a detriment to the team and the whole organization,cos acting dumb with your team-mates would only stifle discussions and the results of employing such tactics,even if in your favor would seem selfish,anti-team or even anti-social,it is better to be honest with your team than to look good in front of management,it would be better to just not hire sociopaths in your organization,but the truth is most of these things are not possible even in startups,but if your work environment is pretty perfect and you seem to be the only one using these tactics just to get ahead,then this behavior can be considered pretty individualistic,and if its all about you,if its just what the firm has to offer in terms of social status and monetary income,then whats the point of working with others in a firm,you are essentially working alone in that case,you should enjoy the company of those you work with,but an interesting post with a good bit of social commentary
One very important thing overlooked in this article is playing dumb to make the other person feel smart. If you are in any type of environment that requires others to do work for you, it’s best to act like their job is both important and mysterious, even if it is the most mundane thing in the world. It makes them feel like an expert, not only do they usually not mind doing it for you, but it makes them more productive even when you aren’t around.
Within my group, I’m the guy that is sent out to get other divisions to go along with what we have planned. It isn’t that I’m necessarily persuasive, I’m just very good at making them feel good about the work they are doing. This is both a combination of letting them go on and on about whatever task they are doing, but also taking an active interest and asking somewhat obvious questions that you know they are going to get right about the process.
In essence, it’s all playing dumb, but playing dumb and playing interested go hand in hand and can stroke the ego of both those below and above you in an organization.
Bingo! (for what I think) And it may not be appropriate for “others” situations as they so eloquently state, but you (IMO) are spot-on for what I consider a good reason to “play dumb.” It’s not really the playing dumb, it’s allowing others to contribute and learning from what they know. How to gather information. I think the term “playing dumb” isn’t what some want to be associated with. While for others, it’s not intimidating. Others need to push forward. While others are already “there” without worry of being labeled “dumb.” I might be a bit off here from what O said, but I quite agree with their reasoning.
Sam,
Thank you for the post. For a long time I didn’t realize why people I barely met hated me so much. I ended up at your website through a google search for “I’m dumb but I think I’m smart.”
Going from an average public high school to a top-tier college really bankrupted my self-esteem. Acting smart was a great bandaid for this confidence issue but not much else.
I find that very few people are exceptionally smart. Most people are really hard-working. No one wants to be friends with someone who think they are better than them.
Just now starting an internship in Finance, I’ve just now started scooping into my humble pie. I’m gonna keep my big mouth shut long enough to learn something.
A song lyric comes to mind:
“Not arrogant, I’m confident. The difference is in the evidence.”
Where would you draw the line between confidence and overconfidence?
(Anyway, subscribed. Great website.)
Good stuff Chris. Funny you found this post with that search term. Glad Google is working!
You sound like me. I went to an OK HS and went to William & Mary, a good public school. I thought I was very smart the first two years on Wall St. (GS), then I realized I thought too much of myself.
Thanks for subscribing!
As stated, this might work for keeping a job, but certainly isn’t CEO material. What kind of impression do I want to give off to my wife and kids by being out of shape, dumb, complacent?
Sam, you say you worked in finance, but what have you created besides elementary “financial” models? Is there not a clear imbalance that you’re paid in the top 1% of workers for basically looking nice (and something any 16 year old can do, I might add)? James Bond (real life version), HFT, and even musicians have much challenging work than LBO modeling.
However, this article hit the nail on the head in many respects to America–land of the corporate* employee (slave), which I applaud you for pointing out. I just find it odd you’re telling your readers to shoot for being mediocre. Tell me Sam, which is more important? Money? Or changing the world for the better?
One of the greatest rewards is being able to give back by sharing my experiences and thoughts here on FS for free. How about you?
Nobody ever did anything great by pretending to be dumber or less capable than they are. At best this article is for climbing a corporate ladder as a cog. True leaders have a way of getting ahead without acting like a sheep. Further, in several industries this “mediocrity” model wont get you promoted. In my industry, for instance, no one was ever promoted for being mediocre.
Jacob, can you share with us your path to promotion and greatness? What is your entrepreneurial business and how have you made it a success? What is your definition of success?
I both hate and love this article. I hate it because in a way it encourages fitting in with mediocrity–the standard nowadays it seems like. I love it because what you write is SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG….
It’s not that I think that I am better than others–ok maybe sometimes I do, but it really is sad to see others who will chose to prefer mediocrity as a way of life and it’s not that there’s anything wrong with it… but it just makes it so much easier to rise to the top almost effortlessly… I didn’t quite understand the concept of “le creme de le creme” until my current boss explained to me that “the top quality cream always rises to the top”.
Unfortunately, hater’s gonna hate and they will do what they can to pull you back down into “mediocrity land” and blending in really is the way to keep things cool. The key is to always remember who you REALLY are.
p.s. love the website name… financial samurai.
Welcome to my site! Your love / hate response sounds like how women view me in real life haha.
How did you find this article?
I was doing a completely unrelated search that included the words “dumb people” because of a comment I heard was supposedly made by a Facebook executive. Alas I didn’t find what I was looking for but your website was the third or fourth link and the title got my attention so I opened it to check it out :)
I am slowly learning this concept. I used to get frustrated that things would get dumped on me, and I’d pick up others slack. I liked the recognition that came with being “needed”. Now I’ve realized how foolish that was. For the past 2 years, I’ve been acting dumb, asking lots of questions, and delegating wherever possible. I never “know” anything off hand- always have to do “reasearch”.
Seems to work for me- I have plenty of time at work, and never work more than an 8 hour day. If I get laid off that would be an added bonus. My current “success metric” is how much time I atually spend having to do work.
Love this post!
It also prevents anyone from ever being able to say, “you KNOW better than to do something like this!” Just kidding.
Yeah I learned about this a many years back when people kept trying to use me for my very “useless” degree (English) and would have me edit EVERYTHING. Long story short now I just don’t correct any of my typos and say that I forgot what learned in college…but it made me a really good person, resourceful, and a hard worker! :)
And uh…. I actually JUST picked a guys brain about his stocks stuff in the break room just now. New hire. He told me a month about how he was trading stocks since he was 13. I just meant for it to be small talk but you are so right that that’s what people do once they catch a whiff.
But now I also know why you don’t respond to my comments sometimes. I’m hurt! jk
All good advice though. All very very true.
Well, at least the guy is still new, so you can abuse him a little!
I’m always open to grammatical and punctuation corrections in my writing, so don’t be shy.
Sam,
I sure loved this post. I noticed several tactics that I have used so far in my career to great success, and I learned several new ones as well! Keep up the good work!
This is great advice that I learned early in life, without even trying to or in many situations being smarter than those around or above me. Another thing I’ve learned it that whatever we are, there is always someone who is more or less, better or worse. It is sad to know that even as an adult, playing down my accomplishments or ambitions truly makes others feel that I am not a “threat.” Funny, I never perceive others as threats unless we are talking about criminal behavior. A person’s accomplishments are theirs and even if I don’t like them or vice versa, I can certainly learn something from them even if it’s only from simply closing my mouth and observing.
Sam, your “Final Strategy to Getting Ahead” is spot on.
The comments and rationale that lead up to the “Final Strategy” leave me a bit lost. I understand how your examples can cause someone to believe you or I are dumber than we are and I understand how these moves, when used strategically, can benefit us. The problem I see is that if applied universally, operationally – in all situations, at all times – someone will find they’re getting passed by as opportunities for better work, advancement, or more responsibility are given to those that are clearly acting the part (or smart enough to do the work.)
I work in consulting, and I realize my daily work experience may differ from others. In my work I’m available for advancement and promotion only after I’ve been able to prove I can do the next job before being promoted, in essence I need to be smarter, more capable, than my current role requires to continue to advance. I’ll admit that I do “act dumb” with clients, particularly when trying to understand their business, but in reality it’s not acting dumb as much as realizing I don’t know as much as them until i’ve spent time with them.
If I slow down my response times my boss will ask the guy/gal sitting next to me to do the important work next time. If I change my speech to sound dumb I’ll lose credibility with my colleagues and clients. If I pretend to not know the details when I’m asked about them I’ll appear to not be taking my job seriously.
You’re right that perception (for right and for wrong) means a lot. If I perceive that someone on my team isn’t understanding the content or capable to deliver the work I need him to do i’ll give that work to someone else – if he/she is “acting dumb” they’ve wasted my time and they’ve allowed themselves to miss an opportunity.
There are certain industries such as teaching, consulting (anything that requires advising etc), medicine, research that acting smart is the way to go no doubt. And you should absolutely demonstrate your smarts and know-how in these professions until you reach a happy state in your career. Then, acting dumb to get ahead in lifestyle is a decent strategy to consider b/c you might reach a point where you become inundated with work and absolutely unhappy with all the stress and pressure.
Most jobs just don’t require THAT much intelligence, at least not as much intelligence as needed in school. Therefore, if you stand out too much you will probably get hammered down unless you are a super nice person who tries to bring EVERYBODY up with you.
Got it, that explanation makes a lot of sense.
I do have one more question though – can you be that person that tries to bring everybody up with you? Can you include me in the group you label as “everybody”?
I want to go to where you’re going!!!
The main problem with acting dumb is it can become a hard habit to break, especially habits of dress and speech.
Working in Silicon Valley tech companies and research labs I’ve worked with some scary smart people.
However, the truly impressive smarties are the ones who are smart enough to adjust to your level invisibly so you never know just how smart they are. Whatever your interaction with them, it’s fun, successful, and you go away from it feeling that they’re smart and wonderful, but nothing exceptional. It’s only when you see them interacting with other scary smart people that you realize just how truly intelligent they are. And the odds of you ever finding out? Slim.
It’s like you wrote this for me. :-/ I run my mouth more than I listen, and it always gets me into trouble. Trouble with my boss when I’m not laid off, trouble with my wife, trouble with my family…it’s hard to help it though when people say stuff that’s stupid!
The good thing TB, is that you know what you’re doing! All you gotta do is change or adjust :)
Playing possum….the Ali “rope-a-dope”…Saying very little yet collecting information… These are all techniques I use in life. Being underestimated by others truly is a gift. Great article.