Quote of the day by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: “When people call you intelligent it is almost always because...."

“When people call you intelligent it is almost always because they agree with you. Otherwise they just call you arrogant.”

Explanation: The quote implies that ‘intelligence’ is a subjective label and people often don’t distribute it on others with a sense of objectivity.

The quote suggests that people consider another person intelligent when the other person's perspective confirms their bias or stereotypes. 

In other words, if a person’s beliefs get refuted by another person, they will have an innate tendency to protect their view on the subject. They might do it so by dismissing a logical point as unintelligent or coming from a place of arrogance.

The saying also implies that often intelligence is disruptive, non-traditional and might not come in compliance with others. Hence, others might dismiss it as unconventional or egocentric.

About the author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese American mathematician, professor and a philosophical essayist who explored themes of risk, probability, randomness and uncertainty in his works.

His most famous work Incerto ( a five-volume work) offers a philosophical discourse on the concept of uncertainty. 

The quote has been borrowed from his work The Bed of Procrustes (2010).