The Brillionaire Dilemma

Why Being Brilliant Is Often the Worst Strategy for Making Money

Matt | Financial Imagineer

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There’s a special kind of person roaming the modern world.

They’re smart — painfully smart.

They see second-order effects. They notice broken incentives. They understand systems, history, psychology, and nuance. They can explain why something won’t work long before it collapses.

And yet…

They are not rich. Not even close.

Welcome to the Brillionaire Dilemma.

This is the second time I attempt to answer the age old question:

So, what’s a “brillionaire”?

A brillionaire isn’t a billionaire who happens to be brilliant. It’s the inverse: Someone convinced of their brilliance — often rightly so — who somehow cannot convert that intelligence into money, status, or visible success. Not because they’re lazy. Not because they lack skill. But because the world does not reward what they’re best at.