[muzani]

"...people don't have the ability to determine if someone is smarter than themselves."

I'd disagree. You can look at HN, for example. When we upvote something, it usually means that we've learned something from the conversation and left a little smarter.

Few people are generally smarter about everything, unless you're talking to say, Bill Gates. Most people are smarter in certain topics.

[one2know]

You are talking about knowledge and trivia recall. I am talking about critical thinking, deductive thinking which does not depend on how much information a person has seen.

[meiraleal]

And someone smart with different values and views might not think Bill Gates is that smart.