Pretending to be stupid

Intellectual horsepower is overrated.

“I’m too stupid to do that,” isn’t helpful and it’s probably not true.

We’re capable of learning Photoshop, We can figure out the arithmetic behind our analytics. We can follow a nuanced discussion of strategy. We can learn to read a balance sheet and we can get sophisticated about long-term decision making.

If we’re being honest, the real reason we don’t do this work isn’t that we’re stupid.

It’s probably that we haven’t made it a priority.

It might be that we’re afraid, that we’re lazy or that we’re underinformed.

All three are temporary conditions if we want them to be. Or we can live with them and assume that we’re stupid instead.

(Which is worse: to be seen as stupid or to have priorities that don’t match the opportunity?)