Sep 2, 2026 · 22 min · 10 segments
*"Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas."* The line is almost always used as a ranking of intelligence, a way of sorting who belongs in the room. This…
But today we're pulling from this really fascinating essay by RJ Starr called The Psychology of Attention.
And the primary mission of this deep dive is to completely dismantle that traditional reading.
The core argument in Starr's essay is that this famous quote is universally misunderstood, like completely.
Oh, wow.
In what way?
Well, it isn't a verdict on your intelligence at all, and it certainly isn't a measure of your permanent moral character.
A map of attention.
We need to start looking at these three tiers, so people, events, and ideas, as a spectrum of attentional orientation rather than this rigid hierarchy of human worth.
OK, so to really grasp this map, we clearly need to understand why the whole ladder of intelligence reading is just psychologically dead wrong.
If this quote isn't about how inherently smart you are, what's actually dictating whether you want to, I don't know, vent about your coworkers chaotic weekend versus debating the philosophy of free will?
But today we're pulling from this really fascinating essay by RJ Starr called The Psychology of Attention.
And the primary mission of this deep dive is to completely dismantle that traditional reading.
The core argument in Starr's essay is that this famous quote is universally misunderstood, like completely.
Oh, wow.
In what way?
Well, it isn't a verdict on your intelligence at all, and it certainly isn't a measure of your permanent moral character.
A map of attention.
We need to start looking at these three tiers, so people, events, and ideas, as a spectrum of attentional orientation rather than this rigid hierarchy of human worth.
OK, so to really grasp this map, we clearly need to understand why the whole ladder of intelligence reading is just psychologically dead wrong.
If this quote isn't about how inherently smart you are, what's actually dictating whether you want to, I don't know, vent about your coworkers chaotic weekend versus debating the philosophy of free will?
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