I am biased toward bright people. I cut them more slack, I listen more to what they say, I think that they are just more interesting than most people. I know that they can be arrogant, overbearing, pretentious, and all of that. But I like them anyway.
A good example of the kind of people that I like is in the current issue of Time magazine, in an article titled School of Bright Ideas, about the work done by the bright people at the Ideo Corporation, a design firm which has done both practical hands-on work and theoretical process design work. The article is more than a little glib-- its like reading about Apple, way back when all of the people were smart, motivated, and given to wearing sandals and playing Foosball in the office -- and it doesn't give much of a suggestion about how they achieve their results (indeed, the article focuses on the gee-whiz accomplishments, which I sort-of doubt is the meat-and-potatoes of what they do), but its a fine writeup for all of that. Why?
Because its about bright people. And you know how I feel about them.
1 comment:
Me...I prefer dumber people...people who will finish what they start, people who follow the book (but are smart enough to have the book changed if necessary), people who when they push the envelope, they do it with me instead of behind my back. As the following quote indicates, its really just common sense. I have met way too many "bright people" who were really flaky, flighty, finnicky, frustrated, and full of it (and a few other words starting with F)for the well being of my ulcers. Last people you would ever want working for you, and by gawd, you don't want them as a boss. An outside consultant...thats a good place for them.
"When you get on the other side of the design process, you think, Gosh, this is just common sense," says Bob Porter, DePaul's executive vice president. "But because of inertia and conditioning, we quickly lose the perspective we need to see those improvements. You have to do things to provoke creativity, and Ideo is great at doing that."
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