For a while I’ve felt a sense of deep horrible fear every time I was in the presence of someone I knew to grossly exceed my intelligence and/or competence. Now I think I’ve figured why. I reckon it’s because I’m afraid that in interacting with them, there is some thing I could do to extract lots of value from the interaction, and that I’m scared I won’t do it and that later I’ll think of something I could have perhaps said that would lead the conversation in a really interesting and valuable way.
People that are really smart and competent can have incredibly productive and valuable conversations. How do I know what things to say, that will result in the other person saying things that will be the most useful to me?
For a while I’ve felt a sense of deep horrible fear every time I was in the presence of someone I knew to grossly exceed my intelligence and/or competence. Now I think I’ve figured why. I reckon it’s because I’m afraid that in interacting with them, there is some thing I could do to extract lots of value from the interaction, and that I’m scared I won’t do it and that later I’ll think of something I could have perhaps said that would lead the conversation in a really interesting and valuable way.
Why the extractive frame? I’m genuinely confused.
People that are really smart and competent can have incredibly productive and valuable conversations. How do I know what things to say, that will result in the other person saying things that will be the most useful to me?