<em><a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1006" title="800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room."</em>

<em>"No. It's awful."</em>

This exchange from "Broadcast News" had two intelligent people either making or hearing a comment in two diametrically opposite ways. Peter Hackes' television executive is being extremely sarcastic in making the remark to Holly Hunter's line producer, while Hunter -- who has pretty much always <em>been</em> the smartest person in whatever room she occupies -- answers with heartfelt sincerity.

I have been fortunate in my life to know quite a few brilliant people, people who are legitimately the smartest person in most of the rooms they occupy.

My wife Nicole is definitely one of them.

She has doctorates in two different scientific disciplines, and there are things she knows in her area of specialization that no more than one or two other people in the world understand or even know.

The thing that is incredibly impressive about my wife is that while she may be one of the smartest people in the world, she doesn't lord it over me.

My parents were also brilliant. When my dad was still alive, he was probably the smartest man I had ever know, and my mother (who is still alive) is at worst the second-smartest woman I know. I've got some pretty smart siblings too, but that shouldn't come as any surprise.

I have some intelligent friends too, but most of them suffer from the same syndrome that I do. We're not as smart as we think we are. In fact, I could describe one particular friend -- who I won't mention by name -- by saying that he's probably twice as smart as I think he is and half as smart as he thinks he is. I would have a lot more respect for his intellect if I had ever found one subject about which he admitted he didn't know much about it.

Because if there's one thing I have learned over the years, it's that sometimes the three most intelligent words you can say are there:

<em>"I don't know."</em>