Sounding arrogant

Almost no one knows what they’re doing or what works all the time. So when someone inevitably comes up with a better way—a process that works, or a theory that fits—they can appear, for some, blithely arrogant.

That’s because, for most people, doing anything other than the way it is, or the way it’s always been done, can appear so brash it’s wrong.

And so, a genius—or really, anyone with the courage to change things—can easily appear arrogant for as long as anyone believes that they’re wrong.

That doesn’t mean that they really are. It just means that there’s a very fine line between genius and arrogance.

Einstein is widely thought of as a genius. But he had to have sounded arrogant before that.