Turn Your Disdain for Foolishness Into Observation

I have noticed that many smart people share the same flaw: they cannot stand what they think is stupid.

For example, you hear a few people seriously discussing whether a certain zodiac sign is bad at relationships, whether a certain personality type is naturally suited for entrepreneurship, whether Mercury retrograde explains their week, or whether saying "I attract money" in the mirror every morning will make good luck happen. You stand nearby, and your mind may already be rolling its eyes: how is anyone still taking this seriously?

I used to be like this too. Not out of malice. A judgment would simply appear very quickly in my head: this topic is too foolish, this conversation has no value, and I want to leave.

But over time I began to realize that, often, the thing with no value was not the conversation. It was how quickly I had dismissed it.

Because business is not built on who is smarter. It is built on what enough people have already come to believe together.

When a group of people discusses astrology, on the surface they are talking about fate. Underneath, they may be looking for a language to explain relationships.

When a group of people becomes absorbed in personality types, on the surface they are labeling themselves. Underneath, they may be searching for identity, career direction, and the feeling of being understood.

When a group of people believes in manifesting, it may look irrational on the surface. Underneath, it may reflect a shared anxiety about luck, control, money, and the future.

These things are not necessarily smart. But they are real. And what is real is often closer to the market than what is sophisticated.

Many customers will not say, "I need a low-cost form of psychological comfort to help me manage anxiety about an uncertain future."

They will say, "Mercury retrograde has been hitting me. I need to change my luck."

If all you can do when you hear that sentence is laugh, you will see nothing. But if you pause for one more second, you may see emotion, need, consensus, and willingness to pay.

To put it bluntly: the money of foolish people is just as lovely as the money of smart people. In fact, markets often reward people who can understand ordinary people more than people who only know how to judge them.

Disdain is easy because it lets you feel higher than the room.

Understanding people is harder because it asks you to temporarily put down your sense of superiority and ask: why do they believe this? What are they afraid of? What are they hoping for? What are they missing?

The commercially valuable skill is not listening to a conversation and immediately deciding whether these people are smart.

It is being able to hear a conversation that sounds absurd, trivial, or even a little foolish, and still notice what people believe together, what they worry about together, and what they are willing to pay for together.

Disdain is an instinct.

Seeing consensus is a skill.