[iJohnDoe]

> Intelligent people are great at recognizing which of your ideas are half-baked and they can also be catastrophically bad at recognizing which of their own are. The smarter they are, the more elaborate the justification, the more airtight the rationalization, and the more spectacular the eventual collapse.

Thank you for this. I’ve experienced this firsthand, so it’s helpful to have an explanation.

I worked with someone who was arguably a genius. However, they were the "stupidest smart person" in many situations; specifically in the way you described. You could tell they had an "airtight rationalization," and no amount of explanation would help; you just had to wait for the eventual collapse. Very frustrating.