(life’s wisdom)
At some point, it seems that greater intelligence is less influential than lack of wishful thinking, lack of accumulated error, accumulating knowledge, the time you invest in problem-solving, and choosing a narrow field of inquiry.
We believe true things, but largely we believe partly true things, some what true things and false things. Every time we USE one of these not-entirely-true beliefs to make a judgement, we produce, remember and habituate errors. We create a frame: “pattern of decision making”, worldview, and metaphysics, unconsciously.
One can be quite bright, but never express one’s intellectual potential for no other reason than accumulated error.
We all believe in unicorns.
The trick isn’t so much believing anything in particular, as it is not believing so much that is false.
Most smart people I meet suffer from wishful thinking and accumulated error.