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Smart people don't think others are stupid

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Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#81

Post by kitsune_ »

Jach wrote: post #77

Indeed, for only a smart person can come up with a twisted and convoluted rationalization that a person with an IQ of 75 is not stupid and a person with an IQ of 125 is not smart. You'll find some of the most passionate arguments about the problems of IQ testing from people with IQs over 115. If you really think it doesn't matter, well, I'm sure there are some interesting ways to knock down your IQ quite a bit that y…

I heard that learning to "game" IQ tests is a common exercise in psychology classes. According to my friend it's fairly easy to get very high scores with the appropriate preparation.

A very good old friend of mine is a professionally trained waiter and never had "advanced" math classes. His knowledge of math was limited to the rule of three.

One day I tried to teach him functions, quadratic equations, basic analysis and other stuff. He grocked it immediately. Much much faster than most of my class mates when we had to learn these topics back at school.

I think it is important to distinguish between "knowledge" and "intelligence".

A good life lesson was given to me by my English teacher in high school. He always told us that when you notice that you have more knowledge in area than the person you are talking to, then it is your job to adjust your way of communication. Not the other way round. It's of no good to be smug. In fact if you fail to communicate your ideas, you might not be as smart as you might think.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#82

Post by alan_cx »

Mz wrote: post #47
bryze wrote: post #46

Can we find better things to write about than this? It is getting really boring reading about how other people think we should all behave.

Um, what kinds of things do you want to read about? (Completely serious question. Honest.)

My fear would be that he wants to read things that validate what ever it is he feels criticised about.

For example, people who smoke get irritated by being constantly told not to. Non smokers, of course, take no notice.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#83

Post by StavrosK »

jacquesm wrote: post #73
Eliezer wrote: post #60

Sometimes people appear to me unskilled, sometimes they appear unknowledgeable, sometimes they're thinking in twisted ways that they picked up from their environment, sometimes they're falling prey to cognitive biases, sometimes they're making one of a hundred other mistakes I happen to recognize. And sometimes, so far as I can tell, they're stupid. Sorry. Original article's error: The fact that a conclusion sounds n…

As a rule people are a lot smarter than they may appear to be at first contact. And people that think they are very smart are typically smart along some fairly narrow field and then extrapolate their smartness in that one area to all areas. Thinking is interesting that way, if you're 'smart' it usually means that you know a lot about some subject but that isn't actually being smart. Being smart means that you can use…

My favorite thing to learn is to recognize a cognitive bias in myself. I might know one, theoretically, but if I recognize it consciously when I fall victim to it, I feel like I've grown a bit.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#84

Post by goblin89 »

bitops wrote: post #62
coffeemug wrote: post #14

There are no smart people or stupid people, just people being smart or being stupid. The same could be said about almost all behaviors, such as courage, promiscuity, or whathaveyou. However, over time people tend to display consistent patterns of behavior. As a consistent picture emerges, we tend to switch from thinking of people as acting a certain way, to thinking of people as being a certain way. Whether you want…

> As a consistent picture emerges I've found that the length of time most people take to form a "consistent picture" of someone else is very short. Generally, it is whatever is the shortest length of time required to determine "are they acting in accordance with my desires or not?". If the person is generally helping to make things happen which you want to have happen, you form a favorable impression of them quickly.…

> I've found that the length of time most people take to form a "consistent picture" of someone else is very short.

Indeed. I believe this is called the illusion of asymmetric insight: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:youaren... (cache since the site seems inaccessible).

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#85

Post by Inufu »

mgkimsal wrote: post #19

Perhaps OT because of the age involved, but... as a kid, I was 'gifted' (not sure if that label is still used today or not). I would get people (adults or other kids) saying "you're so smart", and I would naturally try to deflect/downplay that - was never really told how to react to statements like that as a 7 year old. "Thanks" just sounds so bland, but, I didn't even think that far ahead. Instead, I would usually p…

This, except I'm in college now and it works that way. At times, I still have to consciously remind myself that X is not completely obvious to everybody.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#86

Post by galfarragem »

coffeemug wrote: post #14

There are no smart people or stupid people, just people being smart or being stupid. The same could be said about almost all behaviors, such as courage, promiscuity, or whathaveyou. However, over time people tend to display consistent patterns of behavior. As a consistent picture emerges, we tend to switch from thinking of people as acting a certain way, to thinking of people as being a certain way. Whether you want…

Smart people accept that some people are smarter then them. Stupid people will never agree with this. I think this is the way to spot smart people.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#87

Post by andyjohnson0 »

The article should maybe have been titled "Smart people don't assume others are stupid". But even then the argument is wrong.

It seems to me that what this comes down to is: is it justifiable and appropriate to categorise a person according to their behaviour (including the holding of opinions)? The author doesn't seem to deny that people can exhibit stupid behaviour, but argues that its wrong to categorise a person who exhibits such behaviour because you will (inevitably) never have enough information about the person or situation to make a judgement about the intrinsic qualities of the person. This might be true in some theoretical sense, but it doesn't really sit well with human nature or needs. We all have finite lives and stuff to be done in those lives. Making judgments about people is necessary to avoid a frustrating life spent (as in 'used up') dealing with people who behave stupidly.

And really, how long do you have to evaluate someone's behaviour before you are no longer 'jumping to conclusions' about them? Strangely, the author doesn't say. At some point you have use the history of a person's behaviour to decide[1]. A purist might say that such a decision should always be tentative, but in reality I think they soon become fixed. We are talking about people here.

For what its worth, my approach is that if I decide to think of someone as being stupid (or smart) then I try to be conscious and mindful of the decision, allow myself the opportunity to change my mind (while recognising that I probably won't), and always respect their dignity as a person.

[1] I suspect that how soon this happens will mainly depend on the social relationship between the people involved.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#88

Post by bostonvaulter2 »

Tloewald wrote: post #26
SatvikBeri wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people tend to fixate on their first impression of others. It's very common to see someone do something stupid once, and then assume they're stupid forever-or the opposite. It's definitely worth recognizing the first impression bias, and doing your best to fight it.

Fundamental attribution error from social psychology - you tend to attribute errors by others to their intrinsic flaws (stupidity, poor judgment, clumsiness) but your own errors to circumstances (I was tired, they tricked me, it was slippery).

That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: judge others by their intentions and yourself by your actions.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#89

Post by brc »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #87

The article should maybe have been titled "Smart people don't assume others are stupid". But even then the argument is wrong. It seems to me that what this comes down to is: is it justifiable and appropriate to categorise a person according to their behaviour (including the holding of opinions)? The author doesn't seem to deny that people can exhibit stupid behaviour , but argues that its wrong to categorise a person…

I would argue that personal effectiveness includes the life skill of being a character judge, and then having the courage to take action based on those judgements.

Ie, if you judge someone to be a dishonest time waster, then politely brush them off and don't have anything to do with them. This is true whether in a work situation or a social situation.

Taking it even further, it means leaving a job or an area if it dawns on you that you're surrounded by people who are either stupid or lazy and going nowhere.

As you say, life is short. Learning to sort the wheat from the chaff is a way of spending better time with more interesting people.

Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid

#90

Post by delinka »

scottw wrote: post #42
delinka wrote: post #10

He's right - smart people know others are stupid. Seriously though, people do Stupid Things. And I call them stupid when they do them. Change lanes without signaling, without looking - maybe you're not an idiot all the time, but at that moment you're acting like an idiot and endangering other people.

I think the point is that we vigilantly distinguish "that was stupid" from "that was a stupid person". Judging someone as stupid means we've stopped thinking about possibilities. Derek wisely says there's always more to the story (reminded me of this: http://garrysub.posterous.com/what-does-it-feel-like-to-be-s... ) Labeling people is nearly always a substitute for thinking and empathy (both hard things).

Lest I forget, there is also ignorance-- willful cluelessness; can't be bothered to learn something; won't have a reasoned discussion. I do label these individuals "stupid." Don't get me wrong, it's not immediate prejudice, but it doesn't take much time talking to some people to learn that they are willful in their efforts to remain uninformed.
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