the zurkie show - stop thinking you’re stupid

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

give yourself credit for being intelligent, even if it isn't conventional.sending you all lots of love and peaaaaaaace!https://linktr.ee/thezurkieshow

It seems like you're either born with intelligence or you are stupid enough to realize that you're not smart. Wow. I was led to believe that I just was not that intelligent. I knew that I could get through school. I knew that I could cheat on an exam. I knew that if I needed to, you know, find a way to get through a class that I really didn't want to do because I wanted to play FIFA or I wanted to hop on a Minecraft server, I could do it. but as I became an adult, I realized the importance of being smart and actually caring about the things that you're interested in and caring about learning. But it leads me back to this weird question, a self-belief that maybe I and a lot of us hold true, it's that we're just not smart. We're pretty dumb. and you know what I think you are smart I think you're more smart than you think

I think that you do not give yourself credit for how smart you are and I think that there is a difference between being smart and intelligence and ego let me explain I don't think that being smart

is actually a definable trait you know a lot of people talk about IQ tests. That was a huge thing. A lot of people that I remember going into like a Harvard or a Yale for my high school, they were obsessed with IQ tests. They were obsessed with metrics. And I understand metrics are important for keeping score. They're important for understanding the way that we interact with the world. But being smart can't be defined by just one metric. Being smart, I think is defined by your ability to a problem solve and be use whatever you have at your disposal to solve that problem.

That's, I think, the bar for being smart. I also think that being smart, it's a choice. It is. It is a ability to put your ego aside and put what deep down you think, oh, I'm so above this and learn. All the people that I know in my life that are genuinely smart and I look up to, they weren't the best students. They were, some of them didn't finish school, to put it nicely. Some of them could care less. But they're smart in the way that they treat people. they know what a good exchange looks like they know how to put themselves into a position that will bring them some kind of upside they know how to sell themselves i knew a lot of people that were so obsessed with metrics they were so obsessed with SAT scores ACT scores and i remember when i went to community college i kind of had this aura of man i'm just am i here because i'm not

smart enough. For me, it was a financial decision. You know, I, I didn't know what I wanted to study and it didn't really make sense to go out of my way and, like, purchase an education in something. If I didn't even know what I wanted, so I wanted to use it as like a little sampler, you know, triple dipper chilies, try a little bit of everything. That's community college in a nutshell for $60. But going to community college, I realize that there are a lot of really, really intelligent people, really, really smart people. Maybe they didn't get the best grades, but they understood how to acquire skills. They understood how to be a good person.

They understood how to live life in a way that was meaningful to them and educate the people around them if they needed help. There's something else here now. Something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scarious Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision comes up the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules.

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riding their ego to the moon. And I don't want to compare, you know, and contrast people, because I think everyone needs to figure this out on their own. But if you are insecure about the fact that you are not smart enough to go to a good college, you are not smart enough to start a certain job. You are not smart enough to figure out a certain career or job or business idea or relationship. It's not true. Because the people that did it before you were no smarter than you. You are smart. You just don't believe you're smart. You just don't believe you're intelligent. You just don't, do not believe that you have what it takes to solve a problem. And I get it, you know, I can't do Calc B-C math.

Okay. Like integrals, all that. I, I barely made it through Cal, like Calc. I, I, it was rough, dude. It was rough.

I think I got a C-minus and that was, that was very, that was a handout. That was charity to give me a C-minus. Because, wow, I was, I just, I didn't believe I could do it. And so I wasn't putting the time in to do it. And I think the difference with being smart is knowing your limitations and knowing where your skill set is capped out.

Because if you are super passionate about something and you are willing to put the time and the effort into learning it, you're going to continue to build your smarts in that category. But if you are just not about it, you're never going to outwork somebody who just is and they're willing to put in that work. You are smart. There's just a good chance that the metrics and the way in which society has defined your smartness is not what you have.

Somebody who is able to operate a certain kind of printing press that's super old. It's from the 1900s. You can look at that as like, well, that's not the same is somebody who can know how to do quantum mechanics, or they know how to program a new type of computer science coding. But they are smart. They have knowledge that is very limited

and that not a lot of people can do. It's true. And their passion for learning that thing has put them, has created them as an expert. and I think that the way in which our world works now, the idea of becoming an expert seems like you need to have years upon years of experience. And I agree with that. You do need to have some kind of skin in the game, that's for sure.

But if you have passion and you consistently go after something and you consistently put in time and effort into something, I would argue that you're smart. Because you are understanding the value of your time and you, instead of doing something that wouldn't be worthy of your time, you're going into something that feels good and feels like you can acquire knowledge in it very relatively quickly.

I would argue that's a smart thing. Or is it? Or are we, do we have it all wrong? Like, is being smart actually only quantum, in, you know, mathematics and business and the things that make the most money. Because I think that we equate being smart with making the most money. And that is a very capitalistic way of thinking about it. Yeah, I mean, you can look at CEOs and be like, that's a smart person that was able to do that.

But I know people that make a lot of money, and even they will tell you, they're not that smart even in what they're selling. They're not that educated in the thing that they are doing. They just have mastered the ability of telling people how to do the things they need to run their business. And if you hear that and you're like, that's something that I could probably do. Like, that's not far off from what I'd be able to do. It's probably true. Like, if you really want to do it, you are smart enough to do it.

But I think there's a greater conversation that we need to. have around being smart and what that means. And I think there is a huge, a huge ego that is created within intelligence and within this idea that you have prestige, you get good grades, you are intelligent. And I have witnessed time and time again like people completely having a crisis of personality because their entire person, was rooted in the idea that their intelligence was... In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and information technology.

Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. And I'm very thankful that like I didn't really have that. I knew how to get a good grade, but I knew that that did not defy my smarts. Smarts comes from experience. Being smart comes from recognizing patterns and understanding that like making the same mistake twice sometimes is avoidable. And if you're able to really look into it and realize, oh, I don't, I don't want to do business with somebody that, I don't know, is not on time. I don't want to do business with somebody that is telling me one thing and doing another. You're smart. That's good. You're recognizing these things. I also think that being smart is somebody who

goes out of their way to learn. And I'm not talking about memorizing. I'm talking about learning. Two different things. We've equated the idea of getting a good test score and getting like a 1600 on your SAT as is it, is it a 1600 or 1400? I'llks been out of the game for a minute. We equate that to, oh, that's intelligent. But you spend, your family spends money to prepare you for these exams. And I knew a lot of people that got very high SAT scores. And they were not smart. Their parents were smart in preparing them to have a better chance of getting into a high university.

But I think smarts and being smart comes from spirit. It comes from the idea that you see the world and you learn from the way the world is. You have enough courage to dream outside of the confines of what the world has to offer you, and you're able to go towards something with faith that it might work out, and you learn from your mistakes. That in my book, Zerke's show, is what makes somebody smart. because there are a lot of people with high status, with degrees. There are a lot of people that have been working a job that is really adult daycare.

There's no merit to their job. But the title makes it seem like they do more than they do when really they outsource everything they do to a third world country. That is, it's insane how much of that happens. You're going to learn. I don't want you for a second to think that you are not capable. that you don't have what it takes that because you come from a small rural town, because you don't come from a lot of money,

because you do not have the same opportunities as somebody that has that, that you aren't smart enough. It's not the case. You are smart enough. I believe in you to be able to figure it out. I believe in you. If you have something that you want to go after,

you can do it. it. Oftentimes, what we do lack is the belief. And it's the preconceived notion that we need to know somebody, that we need to know how to do something from birth, that we need to be a certain way in order to achieve it when that is not true. If you want to do something great in your life, if you want to do something, even, you know, not on a huge scale, not like, oh, I want to start the next major social media page. It's simple. Like, you want to become a better sketchbook artist. Look at people that inspire you and scroll all the way to their first work. The people that you idolize were no smarter than you.

They just did it. They just did it. Don't get caught up in the intelligence game. In this idea that, you know, well, I got my degree. Well, I graduated. I don't need to learn anymore. Learning is a lifelong skill. It is a decision.

the idea of reading, the idea of consuming media, film, music, audiobooks, things that are able to give you a different perspective on your own life, on your own reality. That's being smart. That's challenging the way that you think. And that's not allowing yourself to just be complacent in what it is. We do not do this enough. and I think I am somebody who has been such a, I've been so bad with my media diet. I've been so bad with what I consume

and I haven't been smart about that. Doesn't mean I'm not a smart individual. Doesn't mean I can't figure it out. I absolutely can. But being smart also means being able to say when you are not being smart about something. That's a huge thing too. The amount of people I've met in my life who are not able to say, I don't know, is appalling.

You will gain respect. You will gain appreciation by just being honest and saying, I don't know. I wish I knew. If I knew I'd tell you, but I have no idea. I'm sorry. But we can figure it out. Why? Because you're smart.

because you're smart and you're capable and I know you can do it. RBC Training Ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and counting. Your story could be next. If you've got the drive, they'll help you find your path to the Olympics. Let's see what you've got.

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You shouldn't demonize these things as this is all bad. Oh my gosh, this is rigged. You have to kind of play the game a little bit. But after that is done, I'm just letting you know that it does not stop. You're craving for knowledge. You're craving of learning new things does not stop. This idea that like after you're 24, it's just whatever you try to learn, you won't. It's just not true. if you want to keep your brain active you need to keep learning and that is something that people just kind of nerf themselves on they they settle into the mundane hum of life and they decide i can't i can't learn anything new i right now i'm learning how to cook for myself i know i cook with these videos woo i know that but i i've never like baked bread for myself And last week I made, I was feeling a little bit homesick.

So I found a recipe on how to make Chicago hot dogs. Oh my gosh. Chicago hot dog. Hot dog. Get your hot dog. I learned how to make one. And I made my own hot dog buns for it. Because if you're from Chicago, you know that a Chicago dog, it has a poppy seed bun, right?

It's like a bun that's just like salt bade with a bunch of little. little poppy seeds. It's incredible. I found a recipe. I got all the ingredients. And my my buns, they came out as bread. They were not buns. They were, they were an entity of flour and yeast. And it was, I was like, what is that thing? I learned very quickly where I messed up. I learned very quickly, you know, that I needed to change some things about the way that I mixed the ingredients. When you're making bread, it's very important that your, like, butter is not super cold so we can mix into the ingredients. Well, your boy got a little bit too excited and just mixed them prematurely. And that's why I had my ratios off because I kept adding flour.

I kept adding egg. When really I should have just kept it nonchalant. I should have been like, it's good, it's good. I got to trust the process. That bun experiment for my Chicago dog, it was a learning experience. I felt like I failed, but in retrospect, I'm smart enough to realize that that is a part of the process,

that making that mistake, it taught me something. I'm like, okay, now I know kind of the basics of how to make some bread. You know, I know I need flour, I need a little bit of water, a little bit of salt. I know what ingredients go together. And if I use a specific amount of ingredients that don't complement each other, I know what kind of product I'm going to get. And I don't want that kind of product.

So I need to change the way I approach things. Again, that's a mindset. That's an eagerness to learn and be like, if I mess up, it's cool. And it was cool. I ended up eating, I think, five hot dogs. I made like eight hot dog buns and I downed five hot dogs back to back. Because when I'm back in Chicago, I feel it. Dang, I miss it, bro.

Unx got to go back, man. One of the best cities in the world. If you're ever in an opportunity and a chance where you can go to the shy, do it. It's, it's, melts my heart. I don't think I'll ever be able to be able to. live there again because I did my time but I have a lot of love for Chicago and I always will. You are smart Zerky Show. You just don't believe it. And how do you believe that you have the intelligence to do good things, to do great things and to actually keep learning? Well,

sometimes you need to find a mirror. You need to find people that are kind of on the same level as you. if not smarter than you. There is this incredible scene in the bear. Great TV show, by the way. Also, Chicago mentioned where one of the chefs flies out to Denmark to work with a close friend of Karmie, the main chef. I think it's Marcus who flies out to Denmark. Correct me if I'm wrong. And as he's talking to the eyebrow actor guy who always looks like this,

and some people say I look like him, maybe, as he's talking to him and kind of learning about his relationship with Carmi, the main character of the bear, one of the main characters, that chef explains to Marcus that the reason he became so good. at what he does. And the reason he built the work ethic to be able to run his own restaurant, to make dishes, to have the knowledge that he has, to be smart with what he does, was because he found somebody who was better than him,

and he made it his goal to just be up at that level, get as close as he could. even though he knew he was never going to beat him that he just had this kind of natural knack to what he was doing he knew his limitations but he also understood

the idea that if he just tried to keep up he would learn more than just being like it's cooked I'm not smart enough I can't do this being smart is a belief system and that chef I think he represents this idea that sometimes you will feel like you're not at the place that you want to be at. And you'll feel like the only way to get there sometimes is quitting.

When you're honest with yourself and you understand that there is not a possibility for you to quit and you understand that you want this more than anybody else, finding somebody who is doing what you want to do, finding somebody who's operating at the level that you would want to operate at, that's smart. It keeps you accountable. It keeps you motivated and it keeps you running.

You're always able to do more when you're competing. I've learned this recently. Like when you have good, healthy competition, when you are playing a pickup game, And you feel that urge to win. You feel that urge to just keep going and test the limits of what you can do. That's where you become a learner. That's where you become the person that you want to be.

And it's not comfortable because what that takes in you being smart is you realizing that you're not the smartest person. You realizing that, oh, I'm not as good as I thought I was. and that's a smart thing to do. It humbles you, but it also just keeps you working hard, Zerky Show. It keeps you striving for more. What a lot of people do, I think, is they ride the high of whatever achievements they get in high school, like whatever kind of glaze they receive, right? Like, oh, yeah, I had like a, you know, 32 ACT, I did this, you know, like all of that.

What school they get into, they wear it on their sleeve. you step into the real world and it's just it's everyone's really doing everyone's at ground zero bro everyone is at ground zero we all go through the same things i mean look at how many people go through the same things that you do a lot this video is a testament of that i want you to know that you figuring out your problems you're able to do that you can do that i know you can't do that it's now a matter of putting any kind of self-limiting beliefs, putting any kind of self-doubt aside, and looking at what you can do. Finding somebody that kind of intimidates you because they do more than you. Finding a person that knows how to study is on top of their game in terms of

learning, working around them, working with them, being around people that you want to be like. You will learn more than trying to do everything by yourself. You are smart, but sometimes you learn the best in a team setting. Sometimes you learn the best when you really, really humble yourself and realize maybe the way in which I was able to get past my assignments last semester where I could, you know, they were due at 1159 and I could start them at 1130 and still turn them in and get like an A plus. maybe I actually need to take more time and dedicate it into my learning. Maybe you're past college right now and you're realizing I feel like my brain,

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View. And enjoy. Via Rail. Love the way. And I don't know what to do. You've got to take your learning into your own hands. You got to take any kind of experience that feels uncomfortable. Like, for example, I mean, all I eat every day is chicken and rice.

And you know that you want to switch it up. You know that you want to try something else in the air fryer that isn't chicken and rice. But you're afraid of doing that because you've never done that. Okay. but you having that inclination to make that change, you having that desire to try something, that's smart, that's good, follow it, follow it. I mentioned this on today's episode

because I have struggled a lot of my life with thinking that I was stupid, with thinking that like, I'll never be like a Harvard level scholar, I'll never be able to understand quantum computing. I'll never be able to understand, you know, certain explanations of like how, I don't know, stars explode and the intricacies of like hydrogen, like this kind of stuff, right? But then I realized that my smarts don't have to lie in that.

maybe there are people that should be focusing in that because they are just talented and they have the same desire and the same passion that I have for communication and for making and for creating they have with understanding the way that our world works and it wasn't until I was called smart by people that I admired I was called smart by people that I would have never even assumed looked at my yapping, looked at the way in which I create, the way in which I have an artistic eye for things. And they complimented me. And they said, dude, you're smart. You understand this. You got a knack for this. That I realized it's all relative. It's all relative. What might be smart for you will not be smart for another person. What might be smart for

another person might be stupid to somebody else. You have to decide what is going to be the thing that you learn. You have to decide what is going to be the thing that you care about. What are the metrics, what are the interests that you are going to define as something worth learning, something worth mastering, and something worth being consistent at. And Zerke's show at the end of the day, I just want you to know. You are smart. You can figure it out. You can do it. It will take time, but do not let other people's definition of being smart and intelligence

persuade you at all because what matters is how you feel. It does. Today's episode of The Zirky Show was filmed in beautiful Austin, Texas. I recommend everyone to come check out Austin, although one of the main attractions here are the bats, and I've never seen them. I have not seen them yet, so I'm going to try to do that as soon as, possible. I don't even know if they are still out yet, but check out the bats when you're in Austin. Did you know that the Zirky Show is everywhere you go? That is correct. You can watch it.

You can scroll. You can stream it. The choice is yours. If you want to tap in, these are the best ways to tap in. Do the things that bring you joy. Don't worry so much. Sometimes it's so easy to get yourself in a ballful worry. And that's all you do. Take a break. Go for a walk. It's something I've had to learn to do a lot as an adult is just getting out of your immediate environment and changing it. And seeing if you feel the same. If you feel the same, all right, you got to address it. But oftentimes we like to get antsy. Maybe we see something on our feed and we think, oh my gosh, I'm not good enough.

I'm not good enough. It happens. This is the world that you live in. I live in it too. I experience it too. Things are going to be all right. Change your environment. See how you feel.

If you're trying something new, just know that I believe in you, Zerki Show. I really do. You are smart. You can do it. Give it a chance. And as always, I am sending you lots of love and... Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes.

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