What is it like to be stupid?

[Doug_Bowe]

@Dead_Badger

Sure, I was just responding to Doug Bowe’s interpretation of his professor’s aphorism, which was indeed referring to the old common sense/book smarts dichotomy.

I partially agree. I’d say the ability to learn and the faculty of reason are what make one smart. Self-assessment is undoubtedly a crucial aspect of learning (or else the feedback mechanism of trial and error wouldn’t work), so in that respect knowing what you don’t know is a crucial element of smartness, but is far from the whole picture.

For good reason have I never heard anyone say, “you know that Dave? He’s really smart. Any problem I put in front of him, he can tell me in seconds that he doesn’t know the answer.”

Maybe I misspoke. While I believe there are elements in the common sense argument I believe one element is the ability to think things through.
I also asked for a clarification of the term stupidity. The OP asked what it would be like. Some folks thought it would be bliss. I opted that it might involve elements of frustration.

[Chimera]

@Dead_Badger

For good reason have I never heard anyone say, “you know that Dave? He’s really smart. Any problem I put in front of him, he can tell me in seconds that he doesn’t know the answer.”

You haven’t worked with some of the people I’ve worked with. In both IT and Security, there is a strong tendency for people in positions of Authority (or sales) to refuse to acknowledge that they don’t know something. Can’t tell you how often I’ve had one of these dolts lecture me on how I’m never supposed to admit to not knowing the answer. Or how they really knew the answer when I insubordinately explained the process to them! (Because they, at the time, admitted not knowing, but after the fact, they don’t want to be shown up in front of other management by having it pointed out that they DID NOT know!)

Whereas while I can’t remember who said it, I always think “The beginning of all wisdom is ‘I don’t know’”. If I say I know it, but can’t deliver, I’m both a dickhead and an idiot. If I admit not knowing, I’m likely to learn.

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

@Revtim

How remarkable that all those above-average people coincidentally signed up for that course!

I don’t get it. What’s remarkable about students who have qualified for college, presumably with IQ over 100, signing up for the same course ?

[Kolga]

@Revtim

In a college psychology course I took many years ago all the students filled out a questionnaire where we rated ourselves on our skills in different areas, then averaged out the ratings. Turns out, the vast majority of the class had a final rating of above average. How remarkable that all those above-average people coincidentally signed up for that course!

Over-Confidence Bias

@Doug_Bowe

You have just reminded me of something a college prof said years ago. A smart person is one who can solve the problem at hand. That definition seems to equate being smart with having common sense.

Practical Intelligence, part of Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory.

ETA: And I frequently feel stupid reading this board. The amount of knowledge, experience, and wisdom here is astounding.

[Lobohan]

Some towns are almost entirely stupid:

Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign

Well ignorant anyway.
I think stupid people are confused a lot, so eventually they just come to snap decisions to get rid of that unpleasant confusion feeling. And once they have a belief, everything else needs to be interpreted against it so they don’t have to re-create their flawed world view.

[Isamu]

It’s OK, mostly.

[Bites_When_Provoked]

@Lobohan

Some towns are almost entirely stupid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0

Well ignorant anyway.

Scary as that link was, I had to laugh at the woman who said that Obama thought her kind of folk were ‘trash’. I wonder what *she *thought she was?

Though I suppose ‘trash’ is kind of lazy when you could just as easily apply the labels ‘inbred’, ‘ignorant and aggressive’, ‘the case for contraception’, ‘oxygen thief’, and more. ‘Trash’ would kind of be taking the easy way out… although it’s hard to argue with it in terms of accuracy.

[Dead_Badger]

@Chimera

You haven’t worked with some of the people I’ve worked with. In both IT and Security, there is a strong tendency for people in positions of Authority (or sales) to refuse to acknowledge that they don’t know something.

Oh, I’m well aware of this sort of person; I’m just saying that you don’t really get respect for saying you don’t know, you only get annoyance for claiming to know something you don’t. The point being that knowing what you don’t know is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for being smart.