No Stupid Questions

Cause education is not equal to intelligence.

"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.

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.

Intelligence and Wisdom are two separate stats.

C's get degrees.

I heard that after the Vietnam war with most the protesters being college students they made an effort to remove lessons that teach critical thinking and problem solving to make people more compliant and less likely to do that again.

So current education is more about regurgitating information unless you go for your doctorate I would think. Dont know in that one, just a guess.

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.

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.

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

I am an expert in my field. Because I devote all my time and brain to being so. I am average to terrible at everything else. So many of us like to think otherwise. I don’t get why. I’m tired at the end of the day and I just wanna be bad at shit lol. Ego?

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.

College tutor here. Held a 4.0 GPA and graduated with honors on an academic scholarship. And I am very much the stoooopid type of person. I would be your worst nightmare as a co-worker. Well, maybe not "worst" but definately on the wrong end of that particular bell curve.

Now let's dive into the question!

There's a lot of different kinds of stupid. Some stupid people can be taught. Others just don't get certain concepts but other times, they pick up things very quickly. Some can learn, but if the knowledge sits dormant for too long, it disappears. Some people just don't care - if something isn't interesting to them, they don't pay attention.

I think what we're seeing is a HUGE rise in ADHD. All of the above can be signs of a hyperactive mind. We know, of course, that screen time - especially doom scrolling - increases ADHD. People who practice meditation and/or exercise and get the fuck off their screens aren't as susceptible.

I speak as someone who daily watches with horror as my social skills, wits and mental acuity slowly but surely move left on the x-axis of that bell curve we talked about earlier. My attention span wanes with a constant bombardment of information. I ingest a meme, but before it's thoroughly digested, I'm on to the next. I read a comment and jump to a conclusion, imagining my clever response but fast losing interest and deleting paragraphs of wordsmithy in a single stroke.

WE ARE NOT STUPID! WE ARE ADDICTED! AND IT'S KILLING US!

Also, this is a contagious condition, so get the fuck off Lemmy and hug a tree. Lemmy will still be here when you return. Thank you I love you good night!

College degrees are usually a way to differentiate the rich and poor not prove how smart someone is.

Some people are very intelligent in their area(s) of expertise, but are alarmingly senseless outside of a lab/classroom/office environment. The “clueless professor” trope wasn’t just made up for laughs; it’s real. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve talked to spouses who love the “brilliant moron” they’re married to. Some people with degrees acknowledge their limitations with good humor, others don’t.

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).

I had a manager once. Very talented electrical engineer. Completely and totally refused to believe that anything about space, rockets, etc. was real.

Staring at teacher's boring Powerpoint presentations and reading through a chapter an hour before a test only to forget it after doesn't magically make you a smart person. In fact, I felt more like it numbs the brain.

I don't think they're acting.

A four year degree, for the most part, proves you can hand in coursework and pass tests. It does not demonstrate the ability to apply any of that education in the real world, nor does it demonstrate any ability to acquire and apply new knowledge outside of a classroom setting.

When you look at careers where the application of knowledge and critical thinking are vital to the work, all of them tend to have some kind of post-graduate schooling or follow-on apprenticeship where one works under an experienced professional, and even people in those fields can be pretty fucking stupid when it comes to things outside of their specialty...

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.

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.

I went to school for business like a dumbass, so I didn't learn shit about shit. That and genetics made for one dumb bitch.

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.

can't be smart at everything 🤷‍♂️

It's even worse when you find out they're not acting.

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.

Certification is given to anyone with the money for it

There's no major correlation between IQ and wealth

To put it simply, there is a difference between "intelligent" and "smart".

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.

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.

Why would you expect them to be immune to stupidity?

You major in like 1 specific thing... it doesn't turn your brain into an Artificial General Intelligence