Intelligent individuals, by virtue of being smart, often think that they cannot behave stupidly, but that is precisely what leads them down the garden path to behaving in just such a manner. How many times have you said to yourself, "How could I be so stupid?" Chances are, you really meant it, at least at the time. Why do smart people act stupidly? What, if anything, can they do about it? If it is any consolation, some of the most powerful people in the world have lived to rue their own stupidity. In my lifetime, one president (Richard Nixon) had to resign to escape impeachment, while another (Bill Clinton) did face impeachment proceedings because he simply shrugged off the public disgrace of an affair with an intern. Andrew Fastow, former chief financial officer of Enron and a graduate of the university where I teach (Tufts), is in prison.
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