Intelligence is often used as a tool to generate more sophisticated arguments for what one already believes. A higher IQ correlates with the ability to find reasons supporting your stance, not with an enhanced ability to genuinely consider opposing viewpoints.

Smart people use their intelligence to create convincing narratives that justify flawed decisions. This prevents them from acknowledging and learning from their mistakes, making them more likely to repeat the same errors.

Highly intelligent individuals are more prone to the "I'm not biased bias"—the belief they are objective and rational. Their long track record of being right makes them overconfident in their thinking, which paradoxically makes them less likely to question their own assumptions and unlearn outdated ideas.

Smarter people aren't less biased; they are better at rationalizing their biases. Research on motivated reasoning shows that individuals with strong analytical skills are more adept at twisting data to support their pre-existing beliefs, especially on emotionally charged topics.

In a study comparing military captains and generals, novices used data to confirm their initial strategy. The more experienced generals used the same data to question their strategy, treating intuition as a starting point for inquiry, not a conclusion.

Intelligence is a rate, not a static quality. You can outperform someone who learns in fewer repetitions by simply executing your own (potentially more numerous) repetitions on a faster timeline. Compressing the time between attempts is a controllable way to become 'smarter' on a practical basis.

In warfare or business, an opponent's sheer speed can render superior intelligence irrelevant. A novice chess player making four moves for every one of a grandmaster's will win. Similarly, AI systems that can execute faster will defeat more intelligent but slower counterparts.

True human intuition, as observed in Army Special Operations, is the ability to spot "exceptional information"—the data point that breaks the pattern—and leverage it as an opportunity. This is a skill computers, which excel at pattern matching, lack.

If a highly successful person repeatedly makes decisions that seem crazy but consistently work, don't dismiss them. Instead, assume their model of reality is superior to yours in a key way. Your goal should be to infer what knowledge they possess that you don't.