I realized I’ve been saying that quite a bit recently. I used to try to mix it up ("That’s fascinating / provocative / amazing") but now I just stick to this phrase. I am truly blessed to have the number of super interesting conversations I have each hour, each day.
I still stand by the maxim "Surround yourself with people smarter than you," but it’s important to add this one, too: "Surround yourself with people more interesting than you." The crazier their life story, the weirder their interests, the better.
Interesting people are few and far between in this homogeneous world in which bending to the boring norm is the path of least resistance and risk.
Amen to that.
And that’s all I have to say.
Except for I prefer interesting people over smarter people.
I wonder how best the average person goes about following this advice. As you said, this is a homogeneous society.
You can choose to be average, or you can choose to be extraordinary. You can choose to be boring, or you can choose to be interesting.
If you chose not to decide you still have made a choice – rush
Does being smart/interesting necessarily attract the smart/interesting? It seems to me that there are social barriers that get in the way of a lot of very smart people with the potential to be extraordinary. I hate to think of all the brilliant kids (the kind who think different or at least breeze by with 2400 SATs) who become pharmacists or computer programmers not because of a lack of will or idealism, but because they just never thought to work outside, for instance, the careerist mindset. It’s so ingrained into them. As you say, it is a choice to be interesting, but it’s also true that extraordinary people beget extraordinary people. We could use more of them in the world.
Forgive me for playing the Devil’s advocate. This is definitely your demesne; not mine.
“The secret of a man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested.” – William Dean Howells. I’m actually not sure what being “universally” interesting means. But I think if you strike the word universally from this quote, it’s completely correct. Interesting people are usually interesting because of how interested they are in something that is itself interesting.
Also surround yourself with positive, happy people, and remove yourself from negativity.