The Ecphorizer

Act Like a Dummy and They'll Treat You Like an Equal

Barry Leff

Issue #48 (August 1985)

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Putting your head under a bushel

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If you are a modestly successful Mensan you have probably done a good job of learning that if you "act like a dummy they'll treat you like an equal." If you have been fired from a succession of entry level jobs you have probably failed to learn the lesson. (My [quoteright]wife

...no one likes a bully...

was once fired from a job for speaking French.) If you are wildly successful, you may not have had to learn the lesson (unless you are in sales).

Many Mensans I know have complained about feeling socially inept, especially among the lower 98%; Mensa is often seen as a refuge, where one can speak of Heisenberg, Kant, Botticelli or the Beverly Hills Diet without fear.

The way to feel socially comfortable with the lower 98 is simple: "Act Like a Dummy and They'll Treat You Like an Equal."

Avoid being overly anxious to show off how smart you are. If you talk about things that are too far over the head of, or outside the realm of experience of, your audience, you  receive a most negative reception.

The key to being socially acceptable while still occasionally finding an interesting conversation is to start with the "dummy" assumption. Throw in an occasional higher-level concept as a "test." If the more arcane concepts meet with blank looks, resign yourself to the dummy level. If you get an "aha" or "of course" response, you can start elevating the level of intellectual discourse until the conversation finds its natural level of homeostasis.

Remember, no one likes a bully. If you engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person you are at the same maturity level as the weight lifter kicking sand in the eyes of the 97-pound weakling. 

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BARRY LEFF has lived in Thailand and Iran, teaches flying and scuba diving, and once worked as a bouncer in a disco. He is the inventor of the World's Least-Known Religion.

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