Get a job as a software engineer and you’ll spend most days feeling like both simultaneously

Tough one.

The nice thing about beeing smart is you can pretend to be dumb. Otherway around is way harder. All im saying

Do I get dumber to become the idiot or is everyone else just smarter than me?

So long as the intelligent people are also kind. A group of intelligent people that are backbiting and cruel is the absolute worst.

I’ve been both on different uni projects. Far better being the smart one in a group of idiots and just banging out the work without interference for a good grade. Being the idiot on the smart team was torture.

“idiot” and “intelligent” are not mutually exclusive. One can be both at the same time. There are intelligent people doing idiotic stuff.

Idiot on a team of intelligent people. I get pissed off at people being stupid. My team might get pissed off at me but that’s their problem. And generally I like being around people smarter than me because I learn a lot from them.

Idiot on a team of intelligent people. Hopefully, they’ll put up with me long enough to point where I learn enough to stop being an idiot.

To be the inteligent person in a team of idiots is certainly one of the worst things that could happen to you.

Idiot on the team of intelligent people. I’d rather just be responsible for educating myself and not everybody else.

Ignorance is bliss. Besides, it’s usually the idiots who get promoted.

If the smart people are nice, I’d be ok being the idiot. Still might feel a little bad over not being able to help. Maybe I’ll be the cheerleader. “Go team! Hell yeah! Crunch those numbers!”

I’ll bring snacks?

Depends what the team is doing. If it’s a marathon running team for charity, or a team of people picking up garbage on a beach, it probably doesn’t matter much.

I’ve gone being the smartest person in the room in my previous couple roles (mostly because I was the only person with any IT or platform knowledge, not because I’m some prodigy) to the bottom of the totem pole and well behind the intelligence of my current team since I changed careers.

It’s wonderful having people around that are smarter than me that I can learn from and ask questions to. It’s hard being the idiot on a team when you’re trying to improve and care about your work. Working with idiots that don’t care or seemingly never improve is the worst. I’ve learned more over the past 8 months than I have since I started my professional career.

I like the phrase, “Never be the smartest person in the room”. Sometimes it happens, but in most situations, there is someone else that is more knowledgeable about something than you, and that’s an opportunity to learn.

Do you continue being an idiot outside the context of the team?

I’d rather be surrounded by people more capable than me (at least if I care about the success of the task), but not at that cost.