"People should realize we're jerks just like them"
About this Quote
A neat little ego-puncture disguised as a shrug, Edward de Bono’s “People should realize we’re jerks just like them” aims straight at the mystique machine. De Bono spent a career selling tools for clearer thinking, lateral creativity, and better decision-making; the public tends to reward that kind of expertise by turning the expert into a priest. This line refuses the collar.
The specific intent is corrective: don’t confuse competence with character. The “should realize” isn’t casual, it’s admonishing. He’s pushing back against the way audiences outsource judgment to credentialed figures, then act betrayed when those figures reveal ordinary pettiness, vanity, or blind spots. “Jerks” is doing strategic work here: it’s blunt, slightly comic, and socially leveling. Not “flawed,” not “imperfect,” but the everyday word you use when you’re fed up with someone’s self-importance. That choice prevents the quote from becoming a moral lecture; it stays in the realm of lived experience.
The subtext is both defensive and democratic. Defensive, because any public intellectual gets mythologized and then punished for failing the myth. Democratic, because de Bono is insisting that thinking is not a rare bloodline; it’s a practice, and the people practicing it are still human animals with bad moods and ugly incentives. It’s also a quiet warning about guru culture: if you need your thinkers to be saints, you’ll end up choosing saints over thinkers.
Contextually, it reads like late-career realism from someone who watched ideas become brands. He punctures the brand from the inside, reminding us that insight doesn’t redeem you; it just equips you.
The specific intent is corrective: don’t confuse competence with character. The “should realize” isn’t casual, it’s admonishing. He’s pushing back against the way audiences outsource judgment to credentialed figures, then act betrayed when those figures reveal ordinary pettiness, vanity, or blind spots. “Jerks” is doing strategic work here: it’s blunt, slightly comic, and socially leveling. Not “flawed,” not “imperfect,” but the everyday word you use when you’re fed up with someone’s self-importance. That choice prevents the quote from becoming a moral lecture; it stays in the realm of lived experience.
The subtext is both defensive and democratic. Defensive, because any public intellectual gets mythologized and then punished for failing the myth. Democratic, because de Bono is insisting that thinking is not a rare bloodline; it’s a practice, and the people practicing it are still human animals with bad moods and ugly incentives. It’s also a quiet warning about guru culture: if you need your thinkers to be saints, you’ll end up choosing saints over thinkers.
Contextually, it reads like late-career realism from someone who watched ideas become brands. He punctures the brand from the inside, reminding us that insight doesn’t redeem you; it just equips you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sarcastic |
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