A Thought About Intellectual Humility

I just read an article stating that intellectually humble people, statistically, know more information. This made me think of a social hacking trend in which people strive to be the "least smart person in the room." These hackers believe that their behavior signals to others that they are intellectually humble and therefore more intelligent.

“ [Intellectual humility] may free people from egotistical concerns about their intellectual correctness and thereby allow them to spend greater energy engaged in cognitive efforts, exploration, and learning without being mentally burdened with concerns about being wrong or not measuring up intellectually.”

— Krumrei Mancuso

This begs the question: if an intellectually cocky person dons the behavior of the intellectually humble, do they still experience some of the benefits? In other words, are there some behaviors that cannot be learned but must naturally arise from who you are?

While our perspective on this exact question is still being formed, I am certain that some skills cannot simply be performed, but are rather an expression of a genuine internal change process. We think great leadership is a state of being that grows from deep internal work rather than a skill you can simply adopt. This type of work can be long and arduous. This means you must learn it experientially and personally and not from a book or a 3-hour workshop.