The Reason Why There Aren't Many Smart People in the World

They do things like this: run in a traffic lane, in the same direction as traffic over the Mass Ave Bridge, wearing full-ear headphones.

She was clearly either a Harvard or an MIT student, the top 1% academically of the entire United States. Yet she was doing this.

"Ok." I thought. "There is snow on the sidewalk over the bridge. Maybe it's just to avoid slipping."

Because slipping is so much worse than being hit by a refridgerator truck.

But, no. She continued running in the now single lane of traffic on into Boston.

She didn't even look one direction as she was running through intersections on the "don't walk" light, much less two.

I'm glad I'm not that smart.

That got me thinking about smart people. There's a philosopher - arguably one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century - who writes amazing and ground-breaking papers yet who, alledgedly, can't find his way home by himself.

It's as if so much focus is devoted to one thing that other parts of the person atrophy.

Like common sense.

Trundled over the bricks and through the icy intersections to brave the bridge and Boston proper, before turning around.

The slight incline on the way back to Cambridge on Mass Ave is a nice way to end a run. The last 3 miles are all uphill.

Now for push-ups. And brain exercises. Maybe I can get as smart as the girl that I saw running.

There's hope. I do wear headphones running, after all.