Great minds don’t talk. They just listen to the rest of us blabbering away.
Hey, don’t leave us hanging like that.
<splosh>
I disagree quite strongly, though I’m not all that interested in celebrity gossip.
Everyone is good at something, I for instance am not good at writing/spelling but I am a relatively high genius IQ176… so, it is easy to say I am both stupid and smart, like an idiot savant if you will.
People with small minds are not necessarily stupid, but they do not use their minds to their full potential. People who spend most of their time talking about other people, what they are wearing, what they are driving, what they said at the water cooler, how they reacted to the new project, how stupid they are, how much you love this guy… are focusing their mind and capabilities on something quite inconsequential.
People who talk about sports for instance obviously are using a larger amount of brain power, trying to analyze tactics or memorize scores and stats. These people don’t only think of a team or two, but a whole genre such as baseball or basketball etc etc. It obviously takes more brain power to discuss an event like sports than what Suzy looked like at the dance for example.
when people try to solve problems, discuss economics or politics, calculate how to navigate a spacecraft to Mars… these acts take a lot more brain power to conduct and whilst thinking in this manner , you are in fact employing a larger mind compared to what Suzy looked like, or discussing how your favorite sports team won the game.
That isn’t to say those who calculate the trajectory of the Mars rover can’t stoop down to discuss what Suzy looked like at the dance, but those who engage in high level thought for longer periods than others do in fact have a “larger mind” as they use their brain power for bigger issues.
The saying was not created to make fun of those who watch soap operas, or like to talk at the water cooler at work - it was created to help those who wish to engage in “larger mind” type of activities to stay on topic, work harder, or to cease talking about idiotic non consequential issues and get back on topic or back to work.
While there may be geniuses out there who do nothing but talk about people or sports, they are obviously wasting their minds potential, and not putting it to good use. And it isn’t impossible for a layman to create a theory that changes the entire field of physics - but those who spend all their time talking about people will not have invested as much thought into a concept as a guy who talks about concepts and ideas all the time.
like it or not, there is a lot of truth to the saying, just as much as I can’t write or spell very well… and it doesn’t help that I am not going to proofread what I wrote - but its late at night and I’m just too damn tired. LOL.
CalMeacham, I love your sig.
That is all. 
Great minds usually sit in a lab by themselves and are too awkward to converse.
I like this quote. I don’t agree with the concept that there have only been a few thousand, but by and large it is 1-5% of society who really makes things work. The rest of us are just technicians at best.
Yes. Great minds wish everyone would shut up and let them think.
This is one of those quotes that, no matter how many times people say it, I seriously question how many believe it when they examine what they’re saying. Consider, for a moment, the stereotypical philosophy major in your run of the mill university. Philosophy is often considered a “throwaway major.” Philosophy students talk about ideas all the time. There are smart ones, yes, but many, many of them are simply not bright, they take the major because it’s a major that’s easy to graduate in – precisely because the “ideas” aren’t grounded in reality and are often so fuzzy that you can write anything and have it accepted as valid. There is a big part the quote is missing, the quality of discourse. I’m in a philosophy course right now – partially for fun, partially for upper division credits (it’s crosslisted among like 5 departments, Philosophy of AI, I’m taking it as Comp Sci). I’ve heard some smart things, don’t get me wrong, but there are people who say lots of words that are ultimately meaningless. Maybe they have some really deep ideas in there that they can’t express, but they seem to equal parts miss the point completely and couch their ideas in language that’s impenetrable to the point that I’m not sure they even understand the words (“Well yes, that’s the abstraction on an abstraction of a paradox”, actual quote. There was nothing remotely paradoxical about what I said). Now, he may be smart in other ways, I can’t say for sure, but I really don’t think “talking about ideas makes you smart” is something I can get behind.
Also consider the general consensus of people who say they “don’t watch the news”, or “don’t keep up with current events.” I’ve seen threads here, most of those people are considered morons. Ideas flow naturally from events, and vice versa. Think about that guy who talks about his personal political philosophy every time you bring up a newsworthy event. You know that guy. “All of this could have been avoided if we adopted my post-Anarcho-Capitalist Vegan-Communazi political system.” Most would consider him more obnoxious than brilliant, and I’d wager most people would consider that person’s (typically) blindingly simplistic political philosophy rather stupid, because it doesn’t take into account certain things. Certain things that require a good understanding of people and events to comprehend.
On the topic of people, again, quality of discourse as well as prudence. Politics exists, and I don’t mean “politics” in the governmental sense. I mean politics within an institution. Being able to play “the game” with other people is as much a mark of intelligence as discussing the newest algorithm or quantum theory. Now, they’re not smarter than a socially inept genius in their field, they’re different types of intelligence, but being able to work with and around people is every bit a skill that requires critical thinking and intelligence as talking about “ideas”.
Do you know what other kind of people tend to talk about ideas all the damn time? The very religious. The very religious are the kinds of people who find a way to reduce everything to some kind of causal philosophy relating to their beliefs. They talk about love, and hate, and some nebulous “God’s plan” and argue about philosophical minutiae about how to live a Christian life along with the claptrap about exactly what “The Holy Ghost” means in your heart. The religious are very idea oriented, and, well, I don’t think I need to point out the general opinion about Born Agains, Evangelicals, etc on this board.
Hell, what we term “woo” is almost entirely ideas. Bad ideas, but ideas. Talking about crystals and psychics and ghosts and healing magic? All ideas. Terrible, uneducated, unscientific, sometimes damaging ideas, but ideas nonetheless. Anti-vaxxers frequently talk about the idea that vaccines cause autism.
So no, I don’t think the quote holds, there are far to many examples of people who talk about “ideas” that are often dumb, and often at best people whose ideas are useless due to lack of grounding in reality. You can be the most idea-oriented person in the world, but your ideas don’t mean anything if they don’t have the connection to the real world that talking about events and other people provide.
And no, I don’t think I’m exceptionally bright or anything, I just don’t think the quote really holds up.
It’s funny when my old threads get bumped. Me and SDMBers having civil conversations.
I guess everyone went crazy within the last year. 
Gerald Ford dying after being eaten by wolves. He was delicious.
Agree for sure. I love to talk about people and events though. Not in a gossipy way. But if you went to the mall
and saw something really interesting happen, I’m all ears. I adore being told stories.
Hey, I thought of you and some of your more “entrepreneurial” ideas when I saw this article today. The headline reads “‘Cleaning Fairy’ pleads guilty to charges of attempted burglary in Cuyahoga County” and the lede reads “The so-called ‘Cleaning Fairy’ pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted burglary in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Susan Warren of Elyria had originally been charged with burglary for breaking into a Westlake home on May 22, cleaning it and leaving a $75 bill.” The article goes on to mention, “She has said that she owns a cleaning business and she sometimes enters homes, cleans them and leaves a bill.”
Drink…and forget not to post. :rolleyes:
Nope. Just a catchy quote. Not even that catchy.
A refuge for the maladjusted nerds, who want meaning in their lives, believing that their own desolation is relevant. One must be familiar with people to talk about them. “Nobody is my friend, so I can’t talk about them, so-I must have a great mind!”
Something like that.