How a Genius Can Also Be a Dumbass

Or, why raw intelligence is overrated…

I’m 55 years old. Throughout my life, I’ve known a lot of people, and I’ve been shocked many times either by someone who is SO SMART, but who underperforms SO BADLY! Or, by someone who is kind of average, but who achieves amazing things and earns huge respect! We hear about IQ all the time, but it’s really a totally useless concept!

What I want to give you is a very simple mental model for “brain value” that explains:

• Why raw intelligence is not enough.
• Why some “average” people consistently outperform “geniuses.”
• Why people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s can be much more valuable thinkers than their younger selves.
• And yes, how a genius can also be a dumbass.

The reason IQ doesn’t help is that it’s essentially a number tied to what I would define as the brain’s raw processing power. Think of your brain like a computer CPU. Some of us have the top of the line latest and greatest chips! Some have models that are a few generations behind. And although at the extreme fringe of what humanity is capable of that might make a difference – for the vast majority of people it actually has very little bearing!

A massive computer with really crappy software still runs like shit. But a weaker computer with excellent, efficient code can be lightning fast. So, we need to incorporate a couple other things if we want to understand where all this performance variability comes from.

The Short Concept: Brain Value

I published a very comprehensive and more scholarly version of this concept, which isn’t very approachable, so here’s the idea in one sentence:

Your effective brain value is your raw mental horsepower multiplied by how much useful stuff you actually know and can do.

The model simply uses three variables:

1. Compute (C) – How fast and flexibly your brain can process information.
   • Think: reasoning, memory, mental speed.
   • This tends to peak in early adulthood and then slowly drift down.
2. General knowledge (G) – All the broad, non specific stuff you know.
   • Words, facts, basic life skills, familiarity with the world.
   • This usually grows for decades and only declines later in life.
3. Mastery (M) – Deep skill in specific domains.
   • Welding, surgery, accounting, plumbing, software, music, etc.
   • Mastery is built by long, focused effort.
   • You can have zero mastered domains, or many – like Leonardo DaVinci.

So, we get a basic formula:

Brain value:
V = C × (G + M)

Not to bore you with how the math is calculated, because you can see that here, but lets suffice it to say that we set the max value for each variable at 1.0. And Mastery is actually a combination of all topics mastered, so a polymath can achieve a score higher than 1 by mastering multiple subjects.

Three Examples of Brain Value

Let’s make this concrete with three simplified “brain profiles.” The exact numbers are made up, but pay attention to kind of how the logic works.

How Extreme Can It Get

When I think back throughout all history, Leonardo DaVinci stands out big time. Leonardo is basically the poster child for “insanely high brain value,” and he demonstrates where polymath synergy starts to break the linear assumption. Historians don’t just call him “familiar with” many fields, they explicitly describe him as master-level in several:

• Painting / art: universally classed as one of the greatest painters in history (Mona Lisa, Last Supper).
• Anatomy: performed dozens of dissections and produced some of the first accurate anatomical drawings.
• Engineering / technical design: designed machines, fortifications, and mechanical systems; his technical drawings are considered precursors to modern engineering drawings.
• Mathematics / geometry & perspective: collaborated with Pacioli on Divina proportione and produced influential geometric diagrams.
• Architecture / technology / natural sciences: serious work in architecture, hydrology, botany, optics, geology and more.

For purposes of our model, we’re giving him complete mastery over 5 domains, plus partial mastery over 5 more. And I think this is conservative. So for Leo we get:

• Compute C = 1.0
  • As smart as it gets
• General Knowledge G = 1.0
  • As educated as it gets
• Mastery M = 4.25
  • Just an all around expert…

So: V=1.0×5.25=5.25

And here’s how Leonardo would blow out the scale compared to our other 3 examples.

What this model is not

A few important caveats:

• This is not a formal IQ test, and these numbers are not “real scores.”
• This is not a measure of moral worth. Humans do not earn value by mastering things.
• This is not pretending that health, disease, trauma, or inequality do not matter. All of those affect C, G, M, or the ability to develop them.

It is a simple way to think about why raw intelligence alone is a terrible proxy for real-world value.

How to raise your own brain value

If you want to use this as a self audit, here is the practical takeaway:

• Stop obsessing over raw compute – You cannot control your starting point. You can protect it with sleep, exercise, and not trashing your brain, but you cannot change your fundamental C very much.
• Grow your general knowledge G on purpose – Read broadly. Ask questions. Learn outside your bubble. G is the “background radiation” of your life. It makes everything else easier.
• Pick at least one domain and actually master it – Commit. Go deep. Finish things. This is where a lot of brain value comes from. One real mastery beats a stack of half finished hobbies.
• If you can, stack domains over time – You do not need four, but if you can build two or three serious competencies across your life, the gains compound. That is the polymath path.
• Audit yourself honestly – Ask: Is my compute being wasted on low G and zero M? Or am I slowly turning a decent brain into a very high brain value by stacking knowledge and mastery?

If this model stings a little, good. It is not here to flatter you. It’s here to explain why the world is full of “smart” people doing dumb things, and “average” people quietly running the place.

And it’s a quiet reminder:

You do not have to be a genius to avoid being a dumbass.
You just have to stop wasting the compute you already have.