i feel every part of this  tldr own the absent-minded-professor schtick  one thing that has helped in my career is to be super humble about being smart and be quick to take your mistakes in stride with self-deprecating humor    people will appreciate that and they will be quick to forgive and enjoy working with you  typical behavior of most people afraid to look dumb in front of others embarrassed by mistakes put up kind of a shell to protect themselves from ridicule  so do the opposite and that whole dynamic is flipped  there arent many people who have enough self-confidence to say oh silly me i screwed that up at work  this disarms people and makes them feel safe around you because you arent part of the pervasive false confidence club  the more perfect you try to act the more others will instinctively look for flaws to ridicule  so do the opposite and you will notice that people tend to look out for you instead of ridicule  people are going to know you are intelligent if they interact with you  theyll notice flashes of brilliance along with obvious lapses in attention  demonstrating that your intelligence comes with severe shortcomings makes people feel good about themselves which makes them feel good about you