It’s true that IQ is a relatively fixed trait, which means our intellectual horsepower doesn’t change much over our lifespans. A Fiat cannot magically turn into a Ferrari. But how you maintain and operate the incredible machine that is your brain makes a tremendous difference in how far and fast it can take you. 

Which is why I’ve always kept an eye out for advice from neuroscientistswriters, and coaches on how to make the most of your brain. There are lots of good tips on how to be smarter out there. But a recent LinkedIn post by star psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant boiled down much of this wisdom into just a few actionable words. 

You can think of Grant’s actionable idea as the 10 percent principle.

How to be smarter: Be less dumb

If you want to figure out how to be smarter, it can help to start by turning the question on its head. Instead ask, what makes people dumb? When we make short-sighted decisions, fail to consider crucial information, or blindly repeat mistakes of the past, what drives us to this kind of stupidity? 

There is no shortage of answers to these questions, of course. Sometimes it’s one of the human brain’s many well-documented biases making fools of us. Emotions can overpower good sense. A stressful environment basically deducts points off your IQ

Even more often, the root of the problem is arrogance. We think we know the right answer already, so we don’t investigate enough to know what we don’t know. Dumbness ensues. 

As psychologist David Dunning, who is famous for studying stupidity, once put it, “Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition.” 

As Grant himself pointed out at a recent conference, being intellectually gifted doesn’t protect you from arrogance. Ironically, it tends to make you more vulnerable to it. “The more brilliant you are, the worse you are at recognizing your own limitations,” Grant said. 

In short, what frequently makes us dumber than we have to be is thinking that we’re smarter than we really are. 

An instant IQ booster 

What’s the cure? If the problem is arrogance, then the solution is humility. As Warren Buffett’s late right-hand man Charlie Munger once memorably explained, “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”

The way to be smarter is to be aware of the human propensity to be dumb (read: overconfident). Then try to correct for it. How do you do that? Here’s where Grant’s 10 percent principle comes in. 

If you want to improve your critical thinking skills, Grant recently wrote on LinkedIn, you should “be ten percent more skeptical of people you agree with—and ten percent more charitable to people you disagree with.” 

It’s easy to say that intellectual humility will make you smarter. Lots of brilliant people from Jeff Bezos to Harvard’s Steven Pinker have said just that. Grant goes a step further and offers a handy rule of thumb to operationalize that insight. 

Putting the 10 percent principle into practice 

Next time you see an outrage-inducing post about what’s wrong with the “other side” and start nodding along, remember Adam Grant’s 10 percent principle. If you allot just a little more brainpower to the issue, you may discover there is some kernel of truth to what they’re saying. 

Your opponents could still be horrendously wrong. But the exercise may point you toward something you could think through more clearly, learn more about, or empathize with more deeply. You will be smarter for the effort. 

The same goes for those you agree with. If your head of marketing or finance chief comes into your office singing your praises and echoing your strategy, don’t bask in the warm glow of their agreement. Remember Grant’s 10 percent principle. Pause and devote 10 percent more brainpower to considering what you all might be missing. 

The overall takeaway here is that arrogance make us dumber than we have to be, and greater humility is the fix. If you’re looking for a handy rule of thumb to help you put this intelligence-boosting advice into practice, then give Grant’s 10 percent principle a try. 

Source INC