The funny thing is I cannot name drop, because I don't even remember the guy's name. I didn't find him that interesting. But because he was a friend of a family member of mine, I was on his yacht for an afternoon in the channel between Palm Beach and West Palm. We cruised around a few hours with 20 or so people - long enough to get briefly stuck on a sand bar before the captain managed to extract the boat - and then went home. I believe he was a retired CEO (or somewhere high up) in an insurance company, though I may be wrong even about that. Sadly, within a few years of my meeting him, I learned from my family member that this man had committed suicide.

I also went to one of the feeder colleges to the people who end up powerful on Wall Street, so I saw these people around me when I was doing my BA. I've had a variety of experiences, but as I said because I am not interested in power, I'm not friends with any of them, only acquaintances.

Your comment and mine differ only in how "smart" is defined. I will not deny these guys have amazing skill-sets to get them where they are. Yes, their minds are impressive if you decide to compete with them. On their turf, I wouldn't dare compete; they'd clean my clock. Sure.

But the example of this guy who "owned" the yacht I was on. When the boat got beached, was he of any use? None. Not in his area of expertise. In other words, these guys - like most "geniuses" - are brilliant within their specialty. Their specialty happens to be financial power. As such, unfortunately, their decisions affect all of us, and because the main trait of most of these people is an intense, sometimes pathological, desire to compete and defeat others, they will do so.

So they're winning. They are fulfilling their prime purpose. They are ending up on top.

Where are they not so smart? Their delusion is to believe that they can compete and win in the way that they do while maintaining a functioning society below them. Look around. They're winning, but what's left of the field over which they can rightly claim victory? They think that when they win all will be wine and roses, but in the process of winning, they are destroying that over which they desire to lead.

So no, name dropping is not particularly helpful here. I respect that they are "smart" in the sense you mean, but that form of intelligence is well on its way to creating a dystopian hellhole for us all to inhabit.

How come you never ended up in that circle? Or maybe you did? Was Silicon Valley different when you were there?