I've been stuck in some sort of philosophical journey of thought over the last month+. I enjoy thought explorations like that, so it's fun for me ... but the latest realization stings a bit. It goes like this:

1 - Distribution/Reach is the MOST important thing you can have. Everything you produce, every idea you have, every skill you build, everything ... only really matters when others can benefit from it.

2 - Humans are most-likely to identify-with and follow/listen-to persons who are "like them". That includes being able to understand and empathize with those persons AND to not feel threatened-by or lesser-than those people. The lesser-than feeling is often (though not exclusively) why there are such large groups of haters around anyone who is super-wealthy and/or famous.

3 - By rule, since it is a 'relative scale' based on population, the average IQ of a human is 100 ... and fully 2/3rds of humans exist within a single standard deviation of that number (85-115).

4 - Most of us in coding sit at least 1 standard deviation above normal. It is not controversial to say that most coders are likely at 120+ (and a lot are higher than that).

5 - High intellect makes it naturally more difficult to 'click' with average intellect ... inherently isolating you from 67%+ of the human population and making it more difficult to gain reach/distribution.

Now, a truly intelligent person should be able to navigate this whole minefield. However, it's more difficult than it seems. I like to use the example of an expert in a field trying to speak with someone completely ignorant about the same field. There is a lack of common experience that is hard to overcome and the expert often forgets how much acquired knowledge they now simply take for granted and ends up confusing the novice.

Here's where it stings: the result of a world in which the barriers of communication and sharing ideas are basically zero, those with the most influence over the zeitgeist of the world are likely to be extremely "mid".