What Would Someone Smarter Than Me Do?

"What would Jesus do?" is a question some might ask themselves when faced with a moral dilemma. Jesus, to them, represents a moral expert or virtuoso, a standard to judge oneself by, a paradigm of virtue to aspire to. I like to ask the intelligence version of this question. I imagine someone brilliant, in every sense of the word: an Einstein, Rachmaninoff, Hegel, Joyce, Buffet, Brin and Page, etc. all rolled into one. And then I ask myself, "What would that very smart person do?" And I don't just ask myself this when I hit a dilemma. I ask myself all the time, "What would someone very smart be thinking right now?" While reading the paper, while reading a book, while listening to music, while talking with people, while waiting for the light to change, I wonder. In any situation, at any given moment, the inquisitive genius sees a much richer world than I do, of which I constantly strain to catch a glimpse.