I chose the above cheesy title to study if the brand of sensationalism adopted by television channels actually results in higher viewership ..:-) And just like in television channels, I can always safely claim that "I was misquoted" in the title !:-) In this post, I shall instead disclose some methods on how to appear to be a genius. I have listed three methods here. Since I'm running short of time, I will post all the others later ( an application of the first method btw :-)
Disclaimer - If you attempt to apply these methods in real life, you will likely come across as an irritating know-it-all ..:-)
- The tip of the iceberg technique - The idea essentially, is to say everything you know about a topic and yet make it seem like you are only scratching the surface. No matter how complicated a topic you are talking about, you must make it sound like it's a build-up to the basics, an excursion into the elementary, a prelude to the preliminary, a tour of the trivial... This is best illustrated with an example - Say you are a Math Prof who has been teaching Calculus for 15 years. You have written a book summarizing everything you know about the field.What's the simplest way to apply the 'tip of the iceberg technique' ? - Choose the title carefully !
- Disagree with the experts - but( here's the key point ) give them credit ! - For instance, you could say "You know, Einstein was mostly right. Pretty impressive what he managed with the tools at his disposal. No doubt he is overestimated, but its alright - he did do some decent work." Your tone and expression has to be just right for you to sound convincing !
- Acquire a talent for obfuscating the obvious - Isn't this what many 'researchers' do ?:-)
Disclaimer - If you attempt to apply these methods in real life, you will likely come across as an irritating know-it-all ..:-)
10 comments:
Tch tch. Shhh... Don't ruin this for others. Don't give out trade secrets like this. :)
Rafiki, nothing to worry .. I've only revealed the more obvious ones :-)
:))
Unless one is really genius, "appearing" genius is only a short-term disguise one can wear. The long-term reveals reality.
Just as the principle behind how it doesn't matter if you win a lottery. If you don't know how to handle the money, you'll blow it away soon enough.
But because there is abundance of these false geniuses out there, surely the real geniuses must adopt techniques too, choosily and limitedly, to prevent short-term setbacks!
Sometimes, over-abundance of humility, however genuine it might be, works against our own survival, unless the environment is truly fair and intelligent enough to spot the difference between 'real' and 'fake'.
To generalize - Strategy is important, agree, but quality is also important. One seldom succeeds without the other in long term.
A rather serious comment for a light post. But I'm suspecting there is some sarcasm that originated this post. I may be imagining :-) But I do know which set of people you belong to :-) And the world does teach us how to survive.
Best wishes as ever.
Meenakshi, Thanks for your comment:-) I agree with you ! Life is long enough for everyone's true nature to be revealed..
This entire post is a farce;) not even based on my experiences..Just a light post .. And definitely not meant to be applied in real life:-P
Haha :). I have been meeting too many "geniuses" lately ;). This is a nice guidepost on how to recognize such "geniuses"!
Haha thanks Neeraja :-) That wasn't the intent behind writing this post, but good if it serves that purpose :-)
This short summary of the topic was nice. There is of course a lot of psychology that needs to be taken into account when you are talking about this. However, I must say you did a pretty neat job given the time and tools at your disposal.
In the end, with all things considered, with all possibilities cross-examined, given the information at hand, it might be fair to summarise, in general, without putting too fine a point on it, that there isn't much in it, one way or the other.
Hmmm .. ok ..
Well summarized! Am waiting for the part 2 with some not so obvious methods?
Ananth, I will post them some time :-)
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