As frequently happens, HK has said what I would say better than I would say it, but I have something to add:
My feeling is that we're all stupid. LOL.
It just manifests in different and idiosyncratic ways. Ergo, arrogance in anyone is pretty fundamentally misplaced to start with. EVERY person is better than me at something. If I figure out what that is, I can probably learn something from any other human being.
And the reason we can learn something from everyone is because the inverse of HK's rule is also true: we're
all smart.
I've never been formally tested, but I've self-administered IQ tests, and I took the SAT back when it was an acceptable proxy for intelligence, and both put me in the 130+ realm, which feels right, even though none of these are particularly reliable. My DD8 took the RIAS, which is also an imperfect measure, and she scored a few points ahead of me, but still within the same SD. I pointed this difference out to DD this week, during a discussion of what IQ really means. And then I asked her, "Do you think you're smarter than me?"
DD: "No." [good answer]
Me: "Right... because I'm older, so I've learned a lot more, but more importantly, I've learned
how to learn. That number [the IQ score] doesn't say anything about what you know; it only says something about how quickly you can learn. You still have to go out and actually learn things."
That pretty much sums up my perspective on the whole thing. The very best teacher is experience, and since everyone has different experiences, we all have something to learn from each other.
And so, as an MG poster, I'm not at all intimidated by the HG/PG crowd here, because:
1) There's a lot I can learn from them, and I enjoy the opportunity.
2) There's a lot they can learn from me, because I can bring a different perspective.
