How to Have an Intellectually Stimulating Summer

Our newsletter only exists because of your support. Thank you for supporting the work that goes into it, by subscribing or sending it to a friend!!I used to think I was an idiot. I spent years assuming everyone else was smarter than me, which meant I stayed quiet far more than I should have. I wouldn’t speak up in meetings, I’d hold back at dinner parties, and I’d automatically assume the loudest person in the room probably knew the most. Looking back, that belief shaped a lot more than I realized because it made me confuse confidence with intelligence, in myself and others. I realized I’d spent years trying to seem intelligent when the people I actually admired were doing something completely different. Once I figured it out, I saw it everywhere. The people who stay with you after a conversation usually aren’t the ones with the most impressive facts, or the people who brag about the New Yorker article they read. They’re the ones who make you feel like the world is more interesting…