Can You Outsmart Your Way Into A Trap?

By Les Mottosky

We love cleverness. Love it. We reward it in projects, quote it in headlines, and build entire industries around it. Clever branding. Clever hacks. Clever workarounds. The cleverer, the betterer.

But there’s a catch. A very costly catch.

Cleverness doesn’t ask if something should be done. Only if it can be. Prioritize the “can” over the “should,” and you’ve got a recipe for outsmarting yourself into a trap.

Traps form when short-term solutions create long-term problems. When workarounds work so well, they obscure the root issue. When that new system is optimized so tightly, it collapses under its own brilliance. And often, it’s the cleverest minds who build the most beautiful cages.

Take tech: we designed social media to serve us exactly what we like. Now we wonder why no one agrees on reality. We automated everything for convenience only to discover there’s no one to talk to when it breaks. These aren’t bugs. They’re the inevitable –predictable even– outcomes of clever design.

Cleverness is fast, while wisdom is slow. Cleverness dazzles. Wisdom disappears. Cleverness solves. Wisdom takes a step back and asks: "Are we even solving the right thing?"

Wisdom sees nuance and honours trade-offs because it relies on discernment. It doesn’t show off. It quietly asks, “What are we pretending not to know?”

The real trap? Cleverness often gets mistaken for intelligence. Or more dangerously, it's confused for leadership. But without the balance of wisdom, even the smartest solutions can lead us straight off a cliff.

Cleverness will definitely get you ahead. It will. But wisdom keeps you from flopping once you’re there.

It's not the fools who build traps. Smart people do. People who move too fast to reflect. They trust strategy over instinct and mistake a sharp mind for a steady compass.

Cleverness is a utensil. Wisdom is direction. Use one without the other, and you risk sprinting toward a future you never meant to build.

TAGS: #Audacious Strategies #Wisdom In Leadership #Adaptation As Innovation #Humility at Work , #Observing Beliefs, #Courage Is Our Nature

Les Mottosky

Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture, and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.

Ask about the Clarity Engine Process.

lesmottosky@mac.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/les-mottosky-9b94527/