The Four Types of People

Some of you may not believe this, but I have, in the past and maybe someday in the future, actually been responsible for other people, budget and schedule for product development. As a result of that Apocalyptic situation, I have become very wise in the ways of managing people and so I will pass some of this wisdom on to you. Casting pearls before swine, as it were.

And remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Think about it.

Today's lesson is "The Four Kinds of People."

There are four kinds of people in this world. Yes, there are. Just four. Everyone you knew, know and will possibly know in the future can be categorized into one of these four types. Normally I'd draw this as a matrix but since I can't really do that with this medium we call "the internets" ((c) 2004 George W Bush) I'll just 'splain it to you using "words."

The four kinds of people are:

1) Smart-Smart
b) Smart-Stupid
iii) Stupid-Stupid
4) Stupid-Smart

It breaks down like this: people who are smart and know they are smart are smart-smart, people who are smart but think they are stupid are smart-stupid, people who are stupid and know they are stupid are stupid stupid and people who think they are smart but are actually stupid are, you guessed it, stupid smart.

I claim that of the four types, the first three are desirable. You can get useful work out of all three of those. Smart-Smart types are a handful but they ARE smart after all and you want some smart guys around. Smart-Stupid are the types who you have to encourage and bring along but they always come through for you. Stupid stupid people can also be trusted to execute on their tasks.

It's the stupid-smart types that do all the damage in a group or, God forbid they move up the ladder, to a division or an entire company. As a manager you will spend 75% of your time trying to keep the stupid-smarts from causing anything more than the minimal damage. You want to lay off stupid-smarts even though your upper management thinks you should lay off the stupid-stupids. Good luck with that one. Hell, good luck with all of it.

To help you identify the four types, I'll give some examples. Steve Jobs is a Smart-Smart. So is Bill Gates. Carly Fiorina is stupid-smart. Paris Hilton I'm thinking is a stupid-stupid. Most celebrities, though, are stupid-smart.

I'd like you to look around your office, store, neighborhood and decide who fits into which category.