# Do you ever just go stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2014, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998 "2014-05-22T10:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/1 "2014-05-22T10:56:55Z")
I dont know what it is but it seems like every day I do something incredibly dumb. I mean like from simple things like forgetting my phone number, forgetting how to drive, to some more complex tasks where I just cannot think straight thru. BUT, it seems after I do that dumb thing I have complete clarity. Part of it is I work nights and have a weird sleep schedule which is never consistent. Does that ever happen to you? Is there a name for it? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/2 "2014-05-22T11:06:26Z")
I work nights too and have the same problems. Working nights long term does really bad things to your brain unless you can master sleeping consistently, which few accomplish. ---
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/3 "2014-05-22T12:58:23Z")
Sometimes I just lose basic vocabulary. Words like shoes and dish soap. Then I hide until it comes back. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/4 "2014-05-22T13:19:45Z")
Last weekend I was at the auto parts store. I needed something to carry several quarts of motor oil, so I wandered back to the store entrance and found an unusually-shaped grocery cart: narrow (maybe a foot wide), maybe a couple of feet front to rear, and two-tiered. The push handle was sort of insubstantial, not like the big bar on a real grocery cart. I got halfway back to the motor oil when I realized this was actually a rack that held several hand baskets. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/5 "2014-05-22T13:22:43Z")
I don’t understand the question.😕 ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/6 "2014-05-22T13:26:01Z")
IANAD but you may want to speak to your doctor about [shift work sleep disorder](http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/night-shift-sleep) ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/7 "2014-05-22T13:31:06Z")
Every day I have my co worker drive my car from my relief point on the road back to the bus yard. He leaves my spare key on the wall with all the other keys (drivers bring each other’s cars back and forth from the bus yard). Every day I walk to my car and only remember I left the spare key behind when I get to my car. Every day I have to walk all the way back to go get it. :smack: I’ve been doing the exact same schedule, Monday to Friday, for two months now and I still seem to forget every day. I think the only thing I remember is to forget to grab my spare key from the key wall ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/8 "2014-05-22T13:43:46Z")
My office key still won’t fit in my car - I suppose there’s some part of my brain that thinks well, one day it might. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/9 "2014-05-22T13:45:28Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > forgetting how to drive Ever suddenly start thinking about how to drive while you’re driving? I’ve done that and actually had to pull over and think about something else. It’s like if you suddenly start thinking about how to walk and lose all co-ordination. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/10 "2014-05-22T13:57:22Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Last weekend I was at the auto parts store. I needed something to carry several quarts of motor oil, so I wandered back to the store entrance and found an unusually-shaped grocery cart: narrow (maybe a foot wide), maybe a couple of feet front to rear, and two-tiered. The push handle was sort of insubstantial, not like the big bar on a real grocery cart. I got halfway back to the motor oil when I realized this was actually a rack that held several hand baskets. Bwhaaahaaaa… oh man, I’d love to have seen that. Hilarious and I know exactly how you felt when it suddenly hit you what you’d done. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/11 "2014-05-22T14:28:49Z")
I think it has something to do with your brain firing up a procedure when it thinks it recognizes a certain situation, and you don’t actually want to think about what you’re doing. You’d rather let your learned response synapse take over. I was trying to find the Verizon store at a mall one time, and it wasn’t where I thought it was. I thought it might have changed location, so I looked for a map kiosk. I found one, but I absolutely could not tell how to get from where I was to the Verizon store. Eventually, a 6’ 10" Jamaican security guard asked me if I needed help, and told me how to find it. It turns out I had turned in to the wrong mall entrance and was basing my recollection of the store’s location from there. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/12 "2014-05-22T14:30:39Z")
Nobody’s posted a link to a thread started by one of the previous posters yet? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/13 "2014-05-22T15:26:10Z")
It;s coming, it’s coming.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Why\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Why\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_Child)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/14 "2014-05-22T17:39:15Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > My office key still won’t fit in my car - I suppose there’s some part of my brain that thinks well, one day it might. :smack: And by this reasoning, I will never put my car key in the house and take it for a spin? :o ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/15 "2014-05-22T17:46:53Z")
All the fucking time. ADHD + weird work hours. I have managed to get somewhat more stable hours than I used to have, although I still have early and late days (starting at 6:00 AM and 11:00 AM respectively). I function best when I get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, have two cups of coffee in the morning, and no caffeine for at least eight hours before bedtime. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/16 "2014-05-22T17:51:19Z")
My planning period is at the end of the day, and that’s when I meet with other teachers. From 7:55 until 1:45, I’m with students almost every minute (I get a few minutes for lunch by myself three days a week). We have meetings in the afternoon pretty often, and after wrangling kids all day long, kids who need every drop of verbal clarity I can muster, I often find that words have deserted me entirely. It happens to my co-workers, too, leading to meetings with a lot of dazed staring until one of us can figure out how to form a coherent, relevant sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/17 "2014-05-22T18:12:02Z")
> [@Why\_Child](#): > > And by this reasoning, I will never put my car key in the house and take it for a spin? :o Nor do the auto door lock buttons open my house no matter how many times I press them. Just this last weekend I was at this “make your own sundae” place where they hold the spoons behind the counter until you pay. So after paying the cashier she asked what color spoon I wanted. The choices were pink and green and I didn’t really care, but for some reason the question so flummoxed me that the only color I could spit out was “orange”. I eventually had to devolve into pointing and grunting to get what I needed. ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/18 "2014-05-22T18:29:47Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Nor do the auto door lock buttons open my house no matter how many times I press them. For some reason, I can’t change channels on the TV with a calculator. ---
**Author:** ![fuchsiagroan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@fuchsiagroan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuchsiagroan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/19 "2014-05-22T18:31:48Z")
I forget phone numbers and passwords. Sometimes I forget names. I considered it as absent mindedness. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998/20 "2014-05-22T18:32:02Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > My office key still won’t fit in my car - I suppose there’s some part of my brain that thinks well, one day it might. :smack: My car remote won’t open my office door. Stupid remote. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-just-go-stupid/688998.md?page=2)