<p>I hear you on the “subtle undertone,” TheGFG. If I’m giving that off, I’m probably overcompensating, because until fairly recently I would have sniffed at anyone who wasn’t, ahem, as intellectual as I! (
I’m giving myself more intellectual bona fides than I deserve and making myself sound snootier than I ever was, but you catch my drift.) I think there are plenty of super-smart people who have it all, really I do. But I often detect this subtext: “There are dumb people or otherwise unworthy people whose success mystifies me.” That attitude drives me up a wall! It’s so presumptuous. I’m not saying you subscribe to that thinking. I will say that in my job, rubbing shoulders with people who did not excel academically but have excelled in other ways has taught me a few lessons about what it means to be a good collaborator.</p>