Defaulting to smart

This is not in line with what I know so it must be wrong.

And yes, it probably is.

Or not?

Because it might just as well be that we’re having this conversation with someone who’s just as smart as we are.

Or smarter.

I’ve found it to be of tremendous value to default to assuming the latter. You can only win. Either you learn something new. Or you dig deeper on what you already know.

Defaulting to assume a smart counterpart when having a conversation, giving a speech, or writing a text does not only help ourselves grow. It’s also generous. It leads to advancing thoughts rather than blocking them.