No Stupid Questions

Education has no bearing on intellect. Or appropriate life experience.

Also, when people say someone is stupid, crazy, etc, it's because they don't understand that person's perspective.

I'm continually amazed at how fucking idiots have jobs, buy houses and cars and stuff.

College degrees mean you can read and write with a purpose. It doesn't mean you can think. There's a reasons you don't see a ton of conservatives in research science.

Because people have different standards and don't agree on what smart or stupid is.

I see people praising something as total genius, that I think is stupid as shit. And I see really smart things people say, downvoted into oblivion and called stupid.

People generally think stuff they agree with and makes them feel good is smart, and stuff they don't agree with and makes them feel bad is stupid.

All a degree gives you is skill in one particular thing.

It don't give you shit all else.

College degrees just ensure we're specialized.

Or becoming better just ensures you get more work done, and thus more work shoved onto your plate.

I know a guy who was smart enough to go to University, but went to a basic college instead (or rather, a Dutch equivalent). "I don't want to do all that" is his defence in not going to Uni.

I don't think they're acting.

Some people are really good at studying and terrible and doing anything else, specially thinking.

They are the perfect drones, they are smart enough to work the machines and produce for their boss, but dumb enough to ask why.

Education has no bearing on intelligence, or how "smart" you are. Sure, being more educated CAN make you smarter, but most people can skate by and get a degree while learning next to nothing. Plus I think a lot of higher educated yet ignorant people have the nose-above-ear holier then thou complex and can't be told anything they don't agree with or believe in already without throwing a fit. Plenty of educated people are very intelligent, but I think the stupid educated people make a lot of noise and appear as a larger group than they are as well. You know that whole loud minority thing.

There are only two options: Either they're stupid and can't comprehend things, or you're stupid and can't comptrhent what they can.

I found that if something seems stupid to me, most of the time I just don't understand their viewpoint. We are all living in our own world based on our limited experiences.

Formal education is just a means to an end, end being typically independence/jobs, not actually intellect (no matter how much it's marketed as such).

I know someone who earns six figures who can't spell, doesn't know that he's Caucasian, doesn't know the difference between Chinese and Japanese people, thinks it's a fine idea to sit in a swimming pool during a lightning storm, and once wrote a $1000 check to himself, thinking the bank would honor it and he'd suddenly have an extra $1000 in the bank.

As a person who has recruited technical engineering staff: a degree will prove only that someone has been able to write about a subject, not that they actually know anything about it or are able to practice.

The proof of the pudding is in the probationary period.

Education isn’t intelligence. Academic achievement is done through effort in studying.

When you say, "fucking stupid" is "stupidity" actually the problem? Like what, they can't do math?

Raw brainpower is only a fraction of what's involved in good judgement. Book knowledge is another fraction. But there's a whole host of other factors that can influence decisions. Poor impulse control, psychological hangups, bad habits, greed, privilege, etc. That's assuming that the education they received actually taught them how to think critically in the first place.

The vast majority of the time, when I have a problem with someone, it's not just a matter of lacking brainpower or education. Condensing those problems down to "stupid" is, aside from any other concerns, simply inaccurate.

Intelligence and Wisdom are two separate stats.

Intelligence and wisdom are separate things.

E.g. you are intelligent enough to know smoking is bad for you, but lack the wisdom to stop smoking.

can't be smart at everything 🤷‍♂️

If they pay tuition, do the bare minimum to get the bare minimum grades, they'll graduate with a degree, and you'll never know where they fell on the scale. Having a degree has nothing to do with how smart they are. I have met plenty of dumb people with degrees, and plenty of seriously intelligent people without one.

You know what they call the guy who graduated last in medical school? Doctor.

Cause education is not equal to intelligence.

My mom worked as a university professor, then advisor, and what she said about college was "it just shows a prospective employer that you can follow rules and commit to doing something for a few years and follow through on it. That's why they want the degree. Also cuts down on applicants, fewer to sort through."

So, from someone on the inside, she didn't think the main reason was education, in terms of specific jobs. I know in accounting I don't use so much of what I learned and that's a pretty specific degree. Anyone with a mind for numbers & systems could be trained on the job to do what I do.

i'm a mechanical engineer. i know something about electricity and physics. i also have a degree in international trade.

until 2 yrs ago i didn't know how eggs get fertilized and yesterday my wife had to show me how to remove olive pits while preparing ouur cooking.

by all accounts i'm a dumbass with 2 degrees in specific fields that i don't encounter in day-to-day life. i have no idea how to survive in this world. i am sure others feel the same.

People say books and college are for to be to make you smarter, but they can also be for to be to get you dead

education doesn't fix stupidity Education can however help with ignorance.

In addition to the many other fine comments here, I will add that when you think someone is so stupid there is often something missing. You may not understand what information they are acting on or you might be interpreting the context according to different values than theirs. As an observer, not understanding someone else’s choice can feel exactly like “damn what a stupid choice.” I try as much as I can to take these as opportunities to dig further and use my imagination to figure out what they must be thinking. Occasionally I come up with something.

It's worth noting that college degrees are often not hard to get, assuming you have ample finances. Colleges are businesses, and they care more about cashflow than education.

I have a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. Of my graduating class, probably only about a quarter of us actually understood anything. And now working in the industry, it seems like that's a pretty reasonable average for other institutions in my field (there are exceptions, a few colleges have higher standards).

"book smarts" and "street smarts" are two completely different things. My sister is book smart. skipped a couple grades, went to university twice, once for her degree and again for her masters. She's by all means well educated.

She's dumb as a bag of rocks. She's really good at studying. she's a pro at it. but none of that knowledge is ever retained for extended periods of time. Once its "useful" i.e. for a test/exam/SAT/etc then it's tossed out of her head. I can't recall what she earned her masters in but if you challenge her to talk about it today she can't. that's the primary reason I can't remember is because she literally is unable to talk about it.

(Academic) education is not intelligence, and certainly not wisdom.

The worst part is this education doesn't protect you from falling for certain loopy ideas. Critical reasoning is a skill and like all skills it needs to be learnt and maintained.

Depends on what you mean by that.

Stupid as in not grasping some concepts quickly?

Education is just a narrow overview of a particular field. Once you're out the narrow scope of what you're taught - it's all about your general knowledge. I know a world-class physicist who does not comprehend basic things about society, economy, relationships etc. And, working in a scientific field, I see plenty of such examples.

Stupid as in unable to aggregate data and synthesize understanding?

The state of modern tech and media more broadly eats heavily into people's attention span. People have harder time concentrating, and it gets so much worse when they need to aggregate all the sources they have. They just don't have enough short-term memory to keep it all together.

Stupid as in making weird life decisions?

Everyone's life experience is drastically different than yours, and, seeing only the surface, people often downplay what others went through and how it shaped their thinking. Sometimes it introduces genuine logical errors into the behavior, and sometimes it just comes from a much different perspective than you can imagine. In their world, the decisions they make makes sense. In your world, you also normally make sense for yourself, even if you're actually irrational in one thing or another. This does, by the way, include all the typical political rants - high-ranking politicians and their numerous advisors are unlikely to all be stupid. More likely, these people pursue different interests from what you imagine.

Overall, the word "stupid" is heavily overused and applied to a lot of different things. So, it always makes sense to clarify, or else it looks more like a rant rather than a genuine question.

Complaining about people being stupid is as old as the world itself, yet it's not very productive or done in good faith. Before claiming anyone stupid, try to ask them for their perspective and the way they look at a problem. And if you're able, unpack what you think is wrong.

What makes you think it's an act?

As much as it might seem like it, education doesn't make a person intelligent.

Idk all the reasons, but I watched this yesterday and it blew my mind. Ppl are crippled now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ynCVmw5AWk

Knowledge is not intelligence.

The difference is the conclusions drawn from the knowledge obtained. Dumb people can survey knowledge and come to wrong conclusions, it happens all the time.