10 common phrases really smart people almost always avoid

Tina Fey by Tina Fey | August 16, 2024, 9:45 pm

Want to know if someone’s actually smart?

Simply pay attention to their speaking habits!

While most of them talk about everything under the sun, there are certain phrases that all of them avoid.

In this article, I’ll share to you 10 of them.

If you NEVER heard someone say these lines, then they might be smart.

But if you hear someone say these lines ALL THE TIME, chances are that they’re probably not as smart as they seem.

1) “Is that so, Einstein?”

The first thing that smart people will never do is smart-shame. 

They don’t say things like “Right, you’re the smartest here, we get it” or “Is that right, Einstein?”

But people who are trying to look smart will turn to attacks like these once they feel like they’ve “lost the argument.”

Genuinely smart people don’t think there should be “losers” or “winners” in a conversation.

They believe in their ideas and are open to being proven wrong, because hey, that’s how people learn from one another!

But people who are simply trying to seem smart will instead shut down the convo if they feel like they’ve met someone who knows better.

2) “Keep your opinions to yourself.”

They spend more time chiding you or talking down on you instead of actually having a conversation with you.

And instead of trying to understand what you said and addressing that, they instead spend their time policing the way you spoke.

Now it’s important to be aware that sometimes smart people DO say things like “shush” or “keep your opinions to yourself.”

They avoid it when they can, but it’s needed sometimes when people who clearly don’t know enough to have a say try arguing with them.

After all, you can’t expect a scientist to waste their time arguing with a flat earther, or for someone talking about college genetics to have patience for someone quoting high school biology.

The difference is that smart people who are tired will shut you down and stop interacting with you, while those who want to feel smart will go out of their way to tear you down and make you feel small.

3) “That’s just stupid!”

The thing with smart people is that if something is too “stupid” for them, then it’s not worth reacting to.

Even if you tell them something that might be “stupid” they’ll just keep their mouth shut and nod along.

Why?

Well, the way they see it, nothing is ever truly stupid. 

Sometimes people simply don’t know better. Sometimes what seems like a stupid idea now might end up being useful later.

Hell, sometimes something might only seem stupid because THEY don’t know enough.

Smart people realize that the world doesn’t revolve around them and their opinions, so rather than dismissing things left and right they instead try to keep an open mind and listen.

4) “This is good, that is bad.”

We live in a world full of shades of gray. 

Smart people soon realize that it’s generally a good idea to stay away from thinking in absolutes or boxing everything into big categories.

So they’re not just going to say something like “This is bad” or “This is good” and leave it at that.

If they’ve ever come to the point where they can say that something—or someone—is bad, it’s only after they’ve learned what they can about it, thought about it thoroughly, and finally come to their own conclusions about it.

Thanks to that, they’ll be able to explain WHY something is actually bad. 

Even something we take for granted, like “cars are bad for the environment” are things they can explain in exquisite detail.

And as I said before, we live in a world full of shades of gray. They can talk about the downsides of something while also recognizing its good sides.

5) “Stop asking questions.”

Intelligence by itself doesn’t mean much. 

Chances are that you’ve met many otherwise brilliant minds who never really amounted to anything simply because of how closed-minded they are.

Inquiry is the brilliant mind’s first love. 

Genuinely smart people became who they are because they kept on asking questions—and it’s for that reason that they’ll never say something like “Stop asking questions!”

In fact, they encourage it. 

They want people to engage with them in good faith—to ask for clarifications and show a genuine interest in what they’re saying.

If someone asks them “Do you have sources for that?” they’ll be more than happy to provide the sources asked for. They won’t immediately assume that people are trying to attack them.

Of course, sometimes people say things like “I’m just asking questions!” not because they want to learn, but because they want to argue. 

Smart people can usually tell when people just want to argue and refuse to engage with them.

6) “So you don’t believe me?!”

If there’s anything smart people know not to trust, it’s those people who say things like “Why don’t you just trust me?!”

So they’re not going to be caught dead telling people exactly that!

I mentioned before that inquiry is the brilliant mind’s first love—their second is skepticism.

It’s important that you both question everything while keeping an open mind. 

An open mind not balanced by skepticism can easily become a mind corrupted by conspiracy theories and misinformation.

And of course, that means that they understand that people will also sometimes question them, too. 

They’re not going to be upset if someone says “But I heard that this source is already debunked,” or “But this isn’t accurate though?”

Instead, they’ll take that as a moment to reevaluate their sources.

7) “Not my problem.”

It doesn’t take a genius to see that there are a lot of things wrong with the world right now—climate change, food crises, wars, etc.

To the average person, these things usually seem like they’re just either too big for them to bother with, or that they simply don’t matter in the first place.

So they just go “Well, that’s not my problem.”

But smart people don’t think that way. 

They see that all these things are linked and that even things that seem far away can have effects closer to home.

So they watch the news and keep themselves informed. They go to rallies and make their voices heard.

And most crucially, they try to find ways to help. Sometimes, that can be as simple as simply sorting their garbage right.

8) “I read it on a forum therefore it’s true.”

They might say something like “I read about it on a forum, so don’t assume it’s true”, but they’re not going to speak all loud and confident only for them to say “Oh, I read about it on a forum” when pressed for sources.

Smart people are VERY cautious about their sources. 

They know that literally anyone can just post online and try to pass themselves off as authoritative voices even when they’re not.

That’s how misinformation begins and spreads—and if there’s one thing smart people HATE, it’s misinformation. 

They’re not just going to repeat any random trivia as fact. 

If they did read about something on a forum, they’re going to do some research to see if there’s anything true about what they’ve read.

9) “My gut says so.”

Gut feelings have their place. You can almost think of intuition as a superpower that we all have inside all of us.

But smart people know that intuition alone is not the best way to arrive at sound decisions—even if their sense of intuition happens to be razor-sharp. 

It might have not failed them yet, but it can… and will.

So they would listen to it but know better than to trust it wholesale.

Ordinary people would get a gut feeling that it’s safe to jump off the diving board, and then jump. Smart people would feel like it’s safe to jump, but first, check if it’s ACTUALLY safe before they jump off.

This is why smart people aren’t just going to say “My gut says so.”

Because, sure, their gut might have told them so… but they’ll also have double-checked it, just to be sure.

10) “I’m absolutely sure!”

The smarter people get, the less sure they tend to become. 

And this is something that people have noticed time and time again.

There’s a saying that goes “The problem with the world is that stupid people are too confident, and smart people are too full of doubt.”

The thing is that this isn’t restricted to smart people being unsure of their knowledge. It also carries itself to them doubting whether they’re even capable of something that they’re actually overqualified for.

Smart people almost always avoid saying “I’m absolutely sure!” — they just know that they’ll be proven wrong the moment they actually say that.

Final thoughts:

Smart people can be annoying just as often as they can be easygoing. They can be patient as they can be impatient.

What sets smart people apart from the rest is not patience, humility, or being an introvert or an extrovert—none of that!

It’s how they view and give importance to learning. They all see the world with curiosity and an open, yet skeptical mind. 

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