Our coworkers affect us in a variety of ways. Smart coworkers can increase our own success, most directly on joint projects on which everyone shares the credit. But there are other benefits too: learning from how they work, a more pleasant day-to-day experience, and the iron-sharpens-iron principle whereby smart people naturally cause each other to raise their game.

Here are some ways to spot a smart coworker, so that you can try to get and keep them on your team. Or, just so that you can observe their strengths and learn from them more.

1. They See Simple Ways to Test Assumptions

Your team is planning a customer appreciation event. It'll be for families. You've penciled in to book a face painter and balloon artist.

Neither of you has young children. Your coworker texts a friend who attends similar events regularly to ask how long the lines for these are when they're at an event with both. The friend tells them face paint lines can be 45 minutes or more, but balloon animals aren't popular. Your team decides to hire double the face painters, skip the........

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