#1440 - Kindness
I just watched a short extract from a video of a man I don't know delivering a commencement speech.
In his speech, this man - whom I later discovered to be Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker - explains to the students the easiest way to spot an idiot. He says that whoever does something cruel must be such. He then explains why that is, but you can find everything about his speech here.
What stuck with me is the sentence with which he ends his speech.
"Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true—the kindest person in the room is often the smartest."
And I agree. In my experience, being kind and being clever usually go hand in hand. And it's not only my experience. I'm reading Humankind by Rutger Bregman these days, and it looks like kindness and friendliness are the main pillars of human evolution.
We should teach kids to be kind first if we want them to be clever.