Why assume people are smart? And why does that matter? It’s a starting point for just about everything else I do as a sociologist. I learned people are smart by spending over a decade of my life studying what they do and why they do it (and a lot longer than that interacting with them). What I mean is that people have reasons for doing what they’re doing that are as complicated and well thought out as the reasons you have for doing what you’re doing. Because I am a pragmatist, this wouldn’t matter if there wasn’t some benefit to assuming people are smart, so I offer three rules, things to gain from assuming that People are Smart, and not the opposite, based on all this.

Lately I’ve rekindled a love of jigsaw puzzles I first developed in childhood. My wife and I bought a David Bowie puzzle shortly after our beloved dog Chewie passed away last January. We also got a puzzle as a gift from some friends a bit before that. This year, being a mature, middle-aged man, my wife bought me a He-Man puzzle for an early birthday present. Just about everything I love to do has a “puzzle” element to it; there’s a way that putting together puzzles makes your brain work that really appeals to me and that reflects in my other goals.