Three Signs that You’re Wise |
Wisdom is the ability to make sound judgments in complex situations that lack clear-cut answers.
When faced with complicated problems, wise people identify what they don’t know before declaring what they do.
Wisdom recognizes the uniqueness of every situation and avoids the rigid application of universal rules.
Wise people consider multiple perspectives, including contrarian viewpoints.
What does it actually mean to be wise? And what does a wise person look like?
As a child, I pictured an old man perched on a mountain, dispensing cryptic one-line advice to pilgrims. But this is such a distorted image of wisdom, not least because it carries a heavy dose of gender bias. And in my own life, some of the wisest people I know are women.
The wise-person-on-a-mountain image also implies that wisdom is about abstract truth and ultimate concerns in life—territory reserved for philosophers and spiritual gurus. But that’s far from the truth. Because we’re conflating intelligence with wisdom.
Smart people generate ideas. Wise people know what to do with them. Aristotle and the Book of Proverbs both point us toward a more grounded understanding: wisdom is practical. It shows up in everyday decisions—like the ones we make at work, with our partners, and in our families. Decisions like how to navigate an intractable conflict between two family members, parent a “difficult” child, or juggle competing deadlines at work.
Psychologist Igor Grossman offers a helpful definition of wisdom–the ability to make sound judgments in complex situations that lack clear-cut answers.
What does that look like in practice? According to Grossman and colleagues, here’re a few signs that you might be displaying more........