As I wrote, previously, I don't think there's a lot of reason to believe humans are extremely intelligent. We're smarter than everything around us but that doesn't mean we're a lot smarter.
Maybe you're smarter than everyone around you. Maybe you can usually see the solution to someone else's problem. Maybe they don't listen to you or, worse, they listen but have the audacity to fail when attempting to take your advice.
If this is difficult for you, I've got a...ahem...piece of advice.
You are faced with a choice when this happens. One of your (many) options is to imagine the other person as a fool. They are either too stupid or too silly to take your good advice.
Another option is to imagine yourself as a fool.
Let's say you're helping someone with a design problem. To you, it's simple but they are struggling.
Try to imagine a problem so difficult that you couldn't comprehend it. Alternatively, consider a time in the past when design problems where harder for you than they are now.
This changes the problem; now it's your problem, too. You can imagine what would help you and then translate that back into helping the other person.
So, the next time you're having trouble suffering fools, try pretending you're one of them. Maybe it will help.
