A math prodigy entered Harvard at sixteen and spent seventeen years sending bombs. The usual story blames one experiment. I see something else: a mind that slowly ran out of people who could tell it "you're wrong."

Being smart does not make decisions easier. Often it makes them harder. Why brilliant minds loop on choices, what the research says, and a few small experiments that help you finally decide.

Smart, capable people often feel stuck not because they lack clarity, but because they carry every decision alone. Why thinking alone stops working, and what actually gets you moving again.