"Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different... to think out of the box"
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“Smart” is cheap in Isaacson’s framing because it’s become a credential, not a differentiator. The line aims a quiet jab at modern meritocracy: we’ve built schools, resumes, and entire industries around measuring intelligence, then act surprised when measured intelligence mostly reproduces the same safe answers. Calling smart people “a dime a dozen” isn’t literal; it’s a demotion. IQ-as-status gets reduced to commodity.
The real prestige, he argues, sits in “think different,” a phrase that echoes Apple’s famous campaign and Isaacson’s own Steve Jobs biography. That’s not accidental. Isaacson is steeped in the mythology of innovation, where the hero isn’t the valedictorian but the contrarian who recombines ideas across fields and ignores polite consensus. “Out of the box” is corporate shorthand, sure, but he’s using it to smuggle in a sharper claim: the world rewards pattern-breakers more than pattern-solvers.
Subtext: intelligence often flatters itself into conformity. The smartest person in the room can still be trapped inside the room’s assumptions, optimizing within a system that should be redesigned. Isaacson’s intent is motivational, but also diagnostic. In an era where information is abundant and expertise is widely distributed, “smart” becomes baseline; creative synthesis becomes the scarce skill.
There’s a slight romanticization here, too. “Different” isn’t automatically better, and the cult of disruption can excuse ego and sloppiness. Still, the quote works because it reorders the hierarchy: not knowledge first, but imagination; not answers, but the courage to question the frame.
The real prestige, he argues, sits in “think different,” a phrase that echoes Apple’s famous campaign and Isaacson’s own Steve Jobs biography. That’s not accidental. Isaacson is steeped in the mythology of innovation, where the hero isn’t the valedictorian but the contrarian who recombines ideas across fields and ignores polite consensus. “Out of the box” is corporate shorthand, sure, but he’s using it to smuggle in a sharper claim: the world rewards pattern-breakers more than pattern-solvers.
Subtext: intelligence often flatters itself into conformity. The smartest person in the room can still be trapped inside the room’s assumptions, optimizing within a system that should be redesigned. Isaacson’s intent is motivational, but also diagnostic. In an era where information is abundant and expertise is widely distributed, “smart” becomes baseline; creative synthesis becomes the scarce skill.
There’s a slight romanticization here, too. “Different” isn’t automatically better, and the cult of disruption can excuse ego and sloppiness. Still, the quote works because it reorders the hierarchy: not knowledge first, but imagination; not answers, but the courage to question the frame.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|
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