An old adage asserts, There are three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. The first category is mainly populated by highly intelligent people, and the third category, by those who are at the other end of the intelligence spectrum. Highly intelligent people learn more easily and more quickly than most people and spend a great deal of time in a rational mode, analyzing situations and problem solving. Those of low intelligence are mainly in reactive mode, responding emotionally to events that enter their lives.
This difference in these two groups has many manifestations, but one of the most evident is the deep humility that stems, in part, from the way they deal with failure. We all experience many more failures than successes in our lives. The highly intelligent, analyze the cause of each failure, accept responsibility for it and learn from it. Others, tend to see their failures as outside their locus of control and see themselves as victims of bad luck or someone else’s agency. By taking responsibility for their failures, the highly intelligent people develop a deep humility, recognizing their fallibility, while retaining their belief that they can overcome problems with sufficient analysis and persistence. Those who succeed at extraordinary levels realize that each “apparent” failure is actually a learning opportunity that enables them to adjust or refine their next effort.
Leonard da Vinci, the poster person for the title “polymath,” who achieved top status as an inventor, scientist and artist, suffered periods of procrastination and self-doubt. Always striving for perfection, he seldom finished projects, as he sought ways to move incrementally closer to perfection. This supreme perfectionist who would become the model of the Renaissance man, recorded in his diary, “Tell me if I ever did a thing”. His self-doubt and humility was part of his genius.
The quintessential inventor, Thomas Edison, when asked by a reporter, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
People who see only one side of a complex issue usually hold their opinions with great certainty because they are unaware of the subtle nuances that reside beneath the surface. Their unawareness of the information they are lacking, enables them to proceed without concern, until they meet with disaster. The foundation of science resides in theories rather than certainties. Theories are “provisional truths” that are held in abeyance pending observations that prove them wrong. This is the humility of science and it’s the same disposition that highly intelligent people bring to their investigation of truth.
