Stupidity is a specific cognitive failing • Hacker News Board

Re: Stupidity is a specific cognitive failing

#171

Post by Fnoord » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

samatman wrote: post #167

Fnoord wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've done the experiment indeed; see the historical example of the Spanish conquistadors. Other than that I'm not aware of it, so we don't know if such an attack could work. Its a hypothesis. The original SARS and MERS were too deadly to spread widely. In order for the attack to work, you don't need a disease which is lethal. All you need is a disease which makes your enemy ill enough to attack their infra, while yo…

You're just not getting it. For one thing, the initial wave of smallpox wasn't an attack, it was just an ordinary infection. Incredibly deadly but it wasn't deliberately introduced. For another, comparing smallpox with covid is so thick-headed that I'm not interested in discussing things with you anymore.

> For one thing, the initial wave of smallpox wasn't an attack, it was just an ordinary infection. Incredibly deadly but it wasn't deliberately introduced.

Irrelevant.

Re: Stupidity is a specific cognitive failing

#172

Post by tstrimple » Wed, Aug 11, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #168

tstrimple wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's facile. These are politicians who make up the government. They represent half of the two party system we have in this country. Is disingenuous at best to claim she isn't a representative of the government. Honestly it's pretty disgusting that you're going to pretend Republicans haven't been downplaying the virus and doing what they can to prevent localities from taking precautions against it for over a year no…

Representative Greene does not speak for the federal government. She does not set federal policy. She does not represent the government; she represents one district. She has less than 1/435th of the power of the House of Representatives. ("Less" because she chairs no committees.) I don't deny your claim about "celebrating low vaccination rates and pushing anti-vaccine misinformation". But you are simply wrong that Gr…

Representatives of the government don't represent the government. Got it. Makes complete sense. Thanks for your contribution.

Re: Stupidity is a specific cognitive failing

#173

Post by mbrodersen » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 2:21 AM UTC

fallingfrog wrote: post #107

We have a whole generation of people right now who grew up in an environment where the USA was number one in everything, and could push around any other country, had the best technology and the biggest economy and all the smartest people, and that’s an assumption so deeply embedded in the national consciousness that’s it’s impossible to jettison. That’s why we’re facing such a tidal wave of stupid right now. That his…

Which universe did you live in? In the universe I lived in the US was scared of being nuked by Russia or China (Google “Cold War”) and got its ass kicked in Vietnam and Korea, while getting its industry ass kicked by Japan, Germany and China, and destroying its middle class. Believing what you seem to believe is actually a perfect example of what the author is talking about: a mental model that is not matching reality and therefore makes you say things and take actions that are s*.

Re: Stupidity is a specific cognitive failing

#174

Post by mbrodersen » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 2:25 AM UTC

api wrote: post #70

> In at least some cases, intelligence actively abets stupidity by allowing pernicious rationalisation This is something I’ve believed very strongly for many years. I’ve met some amazingly stupid geniuses who believe things so absurd it actively hobbles their ability to function. I’ve met many others who advocate almost psychotically destructive (to others) beliefs that they have meticulously rationalized. Totalitari…

IQ tests measures your ability to think abstractly. It does not measure your ability to think for yourself, or your ability to find practical working solutions to problems.