The Smartest Person in the Room [View all]

[MineralMan]

often isn't who the rest of the people in the room think it is. All too often, the smartest person in the room gets ignored. That's especially true when that person is a woman. That is a sad, sad state of affairs.

I've been in many situations during my life where the smartest person in the room was a woman. All too often, though, few people there noticed that. Often, they thought that the loudest person in the room was the smartest. Or the one who used the most words. Almost inevitably, that person was a guy who had learned the techniques of dominating the discussion.

All too often, too, some of the people in the room would rather that the smartest person in the room would either be silent or leave. In some cases, that is exactly what happens, and the room full of those who stay are the worse for it.

On MSNBC, for example, I think it's pretty clear that Rachel Maddow is the smartest person in the room. There are other women on the air at that cable channel, too, who seem to me to understand situations better than most of the men who are on-air. Kasey Hunt is another MSNBC news person who always seems to get right to the core of things, but she's a field reporter, and only appears from time to time.

I think that people should look around carefully, whatever room they're in, and try really hard to ascertain who the smartest person there actually is. That person may have been crowded or shouted out of an opportunity to add dramatically to the conversation. She may be ignored, but the smartest person in the room is still the smartest person in the room, nevertheless.

That's my opinion right now. Thank for reading it.