Jason - Discovery

Self Discovery

Early on in my life, it seemed I was surrounded by people who were smarter than me. They were older, or studied more, or seemed to just naturally know things and remember things I did not. Additionally, it seemed like for them was easy. Less red marks on their tests. They never complained about homework. So, I geared my life, in a way, to become like those who were smarter than me. I wanted to get smarter and smarter. I wanted to take pride in my intellect. I would even put down the role of things like emotion. I loved those robot or emotionless characters that seem to occur so frequently in Sci-Fi. They were always so perfect, so respected and never unhappy. It took me far too long to discover the truth, that Intellect, that trait I prized so much, is not that important.

You might think about all the things that get debated today. After all with Facebook and the current political climate it seems with have crafted a debate culture. And with that in mind, doesn’t intellect become the prized possession? If we were all rational, listening, open-minded and not entrenched in our positions, intellect would be prized. But passion is more important than truth. People come to an argument with a position and then add to it the things that support their position and dismiss everything else as fake. How many people strongly in one political camp have shifted to the other side? How many Pro-Choice have become Pro-Life or vica versa? How many Libertarians or Atheists or even Shih Tzu lovers have budged on their position? Arguments, if they are to be won at all, are won in the heart, not the brain.

The real bastion of intellect, the place where reason should reign supreme should be the workplace, right? It is there where numbers don’t lie, where performance speaks the loudest. This is true, but the deeper truth is this, while intellect makes all of those things easier the best employees cone with a range of intellect, what they share is passion and determination. Often the smartest guy in the room just wants to give ideas, but not get his hands dirty. I’ll take the passionate one over the professor in almost every circumstance at work.

Perhaps I loved intellect because I loved those characters who exemplified it. I loved Spock, who could do right in the face of fear, could hand out fact after fact. Who somehow in his coldness became more attractive. I love Data, his Next Generation counterpart, who was an android. He aspired to be human, but no matter how he tried he could not feel, Could not love. To me this made him strong, made him admirable. This works in fiction, but in the real world, when I tried to mold myself that way, it separated me, it stranded me on an island. What I thought made me inspirational, instead made me cold and unapproachable. If you want to be relatable, useful, you need to embrace empathy and vulnerability. No one cares about what I know, if they can’t care about me and they think I don’t care about them.

So here it is the discovery I made far too late in life. Intelligence is nice to have, but it really is not that valuable. On most topics and in most circles, brains are not going to win debates. In the workplace my brains are not going to make me a great worker. In my relationships, my brains are not going to make me loved and attractive. If I want to change people, it is going to be with my heart. If I want to be a great worker, it will be because of my heart. If I am going to be a great friend and father, it will be through my heart. Heart is greater than brains. Perhaps that is why Data aspired to be human.