The Strange Art of Underestimating Others

Underestimating someone rarely diminishes the potential of the person being underestimated, but it almost always limits the potential of the person who underestimates others.

Ever since I discovered the internet—even back in its early days (almost two and a half decades ago)—I’ve realized that the internet is an extension of life. It’s a mirror, a reflection of the outside world. Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are proof of this. First through email exchanges, and later—more revealingly—through interactions on the various social networks that Web 2.0 makes available.

I am a man of utopias; I am someone who believes in a better world. That is why I placed a different kind of hope in Web 3.0, where people would be recognized for their merit and not for the value of their wallet. To this day, I still hold onto the hope of that utopia.

Just as in “real life,” those with a free and entrepreneurial spirit are easily underestimated by others. These kinds of people, completely on the fringes of the matrix we know and live in, are even envied by those who are submissive to the system. The bootlickers and ass-kissers easily direct their envious rage toward all those who live in authentic freedom and creativity. And if these bootlickers have even a little power, they’ll use it to belittle free spirits.

I even feel compassion for anyone who underestimates others, because the main risk is that perceiving others as incapable often says more about one’s own blind spots than about the actual limitations of those who are underestimated. Furthermore, there are universal laws: you can’t expect to harvest tomatoes if you plant potatoes.

Feeling undervalued breeds resentment and drives people away. Trust and mutual respect are eroded when one treats another with condescension (in the pejorative sense).

No matter how stoic one may be, being underestimated is an unpleasant experience. But I tell you: it carries a silent strategic advantage—the element of surprise and the absence of expectation.

Those who are frequently underestimated work quietly and surprise others when it’s already too late for those who underestimated them to react. Others’ belittlement can serve as efficient fuel if channeled toward personal development, or as irrelevant noise if we ignore it.

While some give up (because they’re underestimated), others persist because they believe in utopia. Because they believe in a better world.