Don't Be The Smartest, Or The Fastest

There's a saying in business that you never want to be the smartest person in the room. The spirit of the idea is that you should surround yourself with smarter people. 

On one hand, that makes sense. On the other, it's absurd business jargon best left to management blog posts (guilty). What happens if you're the smartest person in the room? Should you get up and leave? What if you're the dumbest person in the room? I'm now confused. 

There is a correlation here to the land of Misfits, and keeping in shape for fun, health, or for an upcoming race. You never want to be the fastest person on the trail... 

Hot Carl, after training for the OffRoad Assault on Mt. Mitchell (ORAMM), is now silly fast. I rode with him last week, and struggled to keep up. If I rode that fast every day, I'd be smoking people in races, and could suffer respiratory failure. When I run with Tall Joel, I'm out of breath from step 1. I get a better workout with training with these two. 

But it seems just as absurd to not be the smartest as it is to not be the fastest. Show up, have fun.