Smart vs. Reflexively Smart

There’s a huge difference between being just plain smart (even very smart) and being reflexively smart (self-smart). The latter neologism is intended to convey one’s ability to smartly reflect on oneself, their knowledge, patterns of behavior etc.

As N.N. Taleb has observed in Fooled By Randomness, most very smart people are very self-smart stupid, i.e., in Taleb’s words, “They take their knowledge too seriously”.

This reminds me of Korzybski’s “levels of abstraction” and “consciousness of abstracting” concepts, as well as Bateson’s “levels of learning”.

(I dedicate this post to my dear friend ASK, discussions with whom have had great impact on me.)

@1 year ago
#Bateson #Korzybski #Taleb #smart