One of the dumbest things a smart person can do is to start thinking they’re smarter than everyone else.
@willoremus first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is there is no… nope, wait, they’ve never heard of Dunning-Kruger.
@willoremus @mbloomstein are they the sister of Diane?
@TheRealEricE @willoremus nope, Barbara. All caps, all the time.
@willoremus @mbloomstein i realize now I can no longer see the name Barbara without thinking of Barbara Manatee
@mbloomstein @willoremus ive watched a video that Dunning-Kruger is real, its just graphed in a way that is misleading
@mbloomstein @willoremus being aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect I tend to second guess everything and overthink. It's like a paradox being aware of it.
@mbloomstein @willoremus Kind of opposite of D-K, I’ve said for years that one must be aware (as possible) of the limits of one’s knowledge and expertise. Know when you are entering dangerous territory. Know when you are shooting your mouth off—about something of which you know little or nothing. With D-K, you’ve already walked into the minefield.

@Yorgus @willoremus I feel like you’re making The Gambler argument, and I APPROVE.

You got to know when to hold 'em,
Know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away,
And know when to run.

Beats Dunning-Kruger EVERY time.

@willoremus As witness every person who puts Mensa in their social media bio.
@willoremus Smart people can be really stupid sometimes.
@kittell @willoremus I think the key is to know that no matter how "smart" or "dumb" all people have areas where they are "smarter" or "dumber". I am smart about generations. I am dumb about servers.

@Young_Gen_X That sounds exactly like one of the two scenarios I had in mind: thinking your smartness in one domain necessarily means smartness in other domains.

The other scenario I was thinking of: assuming that smartness in theoretical domains necessarily means smartness in practical applications. I love working with R&D folks b/c they have more brainpower than I could ever hope to have. But sometimes they resist the changes that have to occur to produce 1000x of their beautiful idea.

@willoremus The more I know, the more I know I don't know.
@willoremus ESPECIALLY when they think they’re smarter than people in different professions!
@willoremus That’s the sign that you aren’t actually smart. More like a malignant narcissist who manipulates others to get what you want. 🤷‍♀️ #IsaidwhatIsaid

Paging Mr. Musk, paging Mr. Musk...

@willoremus

@willoremus @el_edu Elon Musk is a dumb person who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else

@willoremus you should remove the first ‘smart’ from this post and then it’s accurate.

People like Musk are only smart in certain domains and they are often incapable or incompetent in others. Further, their extreme wealth surrounds them with sychophants which just serve to reinforce their weaknesses and biases.

@willoremus

There is a distinction to be made between intelligence and wisdom.

@willoremus one can be smart but not wise
@willoremus Lol that's everyone in IT
@willoremus are you kidding? Loads of people who work for me say I'm super smart and right again as usual.
@willoremus That sounds very... wise.
@willoremus Lots of humility abound 🤣
@willoremus I’ve never been as dumb as when I was young and thought I was the smartest person in the room.
@willoremus just because they have the money

@willoremus i mean one thing I’ve learned about being smart is that someone else will always be smarter than you in general, but when it comes to niche specialties it’s not easy to find someone smarter than those people who are actual delibrately researching that subject.

Also, how “smart” you are can change based on which lens/criterion the “smartness” is being evaluated against. There are many types of intelligence, not just logical and linguistic.

@willoremus yeah no that didn't work the first time

@willoremus

Even worse when an idiot does that.

Musk was never smart. He got where he is because he could preach & stupid men who can fake it often get into a position of leadership.

... eventually they ruin everything they touch. Some people get smarter while others still idolise them.

@willoremus an occupational hazard for anyone who is in charge of things, particularly when they are surrounded by sycophants
@willoremus I learned LONG ago that I'm smarter than some (although it seems like many, these days, in the US 😞), and dumber than others. However, in the scheme of all things, I realized in high school that I know nothing at all. I've spent 50 years learning, 4 degrees, a wide variety of experiences, and yet I don't feel as though I've even scratched at the surface of knowledge.
@willoremus 💯 My motto is “The further I go, the less I know.”
@willoremus
Anyone who always thinks they're the smartest person in the room is wrong. At least some of the time. I find the most dangerous people are always those who think they're smarter than everyone else, mainly because of the lengths they go to prove it. The smartest people I've met don't really seem to think about it at all.
@willoremus The last thing a smart person should want is to be the smartest person in the room
@willoremus My issue is assuming everyone else is smarter than I. When they prove that assumption is incorrect I'm left with confusion.
@willoremus that's what you think 😎
@willoremus I guess they’re not that dumb if they know they’re not that smart.
@willoremus Another dumb thing smart people can do is thinking that common sense is common. 😆

@willoremus Years ago, I read that humans have difficulty communicating with people who are not within 30 IQ points of their own. A very smart person will have have trouble communicating with or understanding more than 90% of the rest of the population. This is not an advantage.

One of the biggest problems of the very smart is that they truly don't understand how other people will think about things or react to what they are doing. So they do things that are completely inexplicable to other people at the same time expecting that their reasoning is obvious.

While it's true that some of them get an ego high off of being smarter, more of them are simply assuming that other people think they same way they do. Effectively, the results are the same in both cases. Although the second group can, if they work at it, learn to understand people better.

Another mistake that people make is assuming that because someone became extremely wealthy, they must be highly intelligent. That's a laughable assumption at best. Most of these people are not the ones responsible for the actual inventions or idea creations of their businesses.

https://99science.org/2019/06/16/intelligence-a-barrier-to-communication/#:~:text=Individuals%20with%20IQ%20of%20100,approximately%2085%25%20of%20the%20population.

Intelligence- A Barrier to Communication – 99Science

The average global IQ is 100. People whose IQ points are wider than 20-30 points will have communication problems. Intelligence-a barrier to comunication.

99Science
@willoremus while that's true, the actions and words of most people make it seem like it's true
@willoremus but then, smart people know that the more they know, the more they learn that there is still so much to know. Oh wait... or is that for intelligent people? 🤔

@willoremus A very smart boss once told me "We're all stupid, just about different things."

Of course you could phrase it in reverse, that we're all smart about different things. But her point was that we need to remember that no matter how smart we are (or think we are) there will be people who know more than us about other things. We need to respect that in others and remember it to keep us humble... and to keep us from looking stupid by overestimating our own intelligence.

@willoremus

Idiocy is inevitable. Motorola, Blockbuster, Nokia, RIM, Kodak ... Twitter...

“Every smart company eventually does a stupid thing! It’s not too late to avoid your fate!”

@willoremus This is the first thing I'm replying to on Mastodon, and I'm glad about that.
@willoremus ha ha…you’ve definitely defined the demented leftists accurately…
@willoremus Reminds me of that guy who bought Twitter…