Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.

Conversation sharpens quickness. Being among people trains you to respond, to be amusing, to hold your own in a room, and those are real skills. Deep original work tends to need something else: stepping back to reflect on what you have seen, in long uninterrupted stretches where an idea can be followed further than any conversation allows. A life spent entirely among people can produce a brilliant talker with little underneath, while solitude alone can lack the testing that others provide.

Look at how your week divides between social time and genuinely undistracted thinking time. If the second is close to zero, protect a block of it, and use it for a single question you care about.