“You’re making a point while throwing a negative filter over it — it’s a bit like writing on a mirror with rotated handwriting.”

I’m an award-winning writer and editor living in New York City, where I currently work at BuzzFeed as the Senior Lifestyle Editor.

"Along these lines: they listen more than they talk."

"I've dealt with so many people who get upset over looking something up, and I have no idea why.

I'll say [X], the person says no, it's actually [Y]. So I go 'Oh, okay.' and then look up the correct answer. This is usually followed by some 'Oh, you just had to make sure you were right, didn't you?'

No? It's not about who is right, it's about what is right. If we both say conflicting things, then one of us is wrong. If I look it up and I'm right, cool. But if I'm wrong then I want to know so that I learn something and next time I have the right answer."

"I'd like to add to that that intelligent people never argue against emotional arguments. The answer 'Because I don't like it' is a full dead end for example."

"To add to that, sometimes a clever person in class asks questions they know the answer to because they realize other people aren't getting it and because the teacher isn't explaining it as well as they could."

"The amount of super smart people I know that have unfounded anxiety about their own competence is way higher than it has any reason to be."