 anat- omy is not the same as being a surgeon. People who are naturally smarter than the people around them-and who don't need to flaunt it-are widely known to be smart people. The people who are the smartest are often the most humble, for they have nothing to prove. Make the people around you look stupid This is the way the computer jerk likes to operate. He believes that if he makes everyone around him look stupid, those people will see how smart he is. Sadly, what the computer jerk misses is the fact that all of those people will come to dislike the person who made them look stupid. If computer jerks could stop doing this, many things would change in their lives. Everyone you meet is good at something. I learned this the hard way all those years ago. Remember that there will always be someone smarter than you, and there will always be someone better than you. The smartest person in a computer department often suffers from what I call alpha-geek syndrome. Alpha-geeks need everyone around them to know that they are the smartest and the best. But often, these people are only the "best" within their small circles, and have no real view into their ranks within the wider world of professional IT consulting. When a consultant is brought in, or a new person with a wide breadth of skills is hired, the alpha-geek will try very hard to discredit this person in the hopes of retaining his alpha-geek status. When faced with a confident, intelligent adversary, however, the alpha-geek will usually fail to discredit the interloper and end up looking foolish. Another problem that computer people often have is delivery. Remember that you're not the smartest person on Earth, and that everyone should be treated with respect, and you'll go far. People don't need to be told the mistakes they've made (particularly in front of an audience), and they don't need to be told what they've done wrong. Chapter 38: Avoiding Frustration Tell people that you've done something wrong, and list the reasons why, and they'll respect you for it. Tell