0:00

Today we're diving deep into the

0:02

fascinating world of stupidity. Not the

0:04

I'm bad at math kind, but

0:06

the kind of stupidity which would

0:08

lead to NASA losing a $125

0:11

million Mars orbiter because one team

0:13

used metric units whilst another used

0:15

Imperial. The first big reveal I

0:17

have for you is that the

0:20

way we think about stupidity is

0:22

itself stupid. We think of

0:24

stupidity as stupid. We think

0:26

of stupidity as just stupid. a

0:29

single thing. You're either stupid or you

0:31

aren't and we have one word for

0:33

it. But we all know that smart

0:35

people can do stupid things and this

0:38

is because there are seven different types

0:40

of stupidity that affect all of us

0:42

and they're not what you think. Some

0:45

forms of stupidity are actually made worse

0:47

when you are too clever. We find

0:49

our cultural obsession with IQ and

0:51

being a genius really blinds us to

0:53

the various ways that we can choose

0:56

to be stupid and yes. I do

0:58

mean the word choose because stupidity is

1:00

often a deliberate act. It's a way that

1:02

we can protect ourselves from

1:05

uncomfortable truths. But fear not, as

1:07

always, the inversion principle is here to

1:09

save us. We find that the way

1:11

to get smarter often isn't

1:14

about adding intellectual horsepower or

1:16

memorizing an encyclopedia. It's often about

1:18

how do we stop ourselves from

1:20

being stupid. So hello and welcome

1:22

to the Growth Mindset Psychology podcast

1:24

with me Sam Webster Harris. diving

1:27

into the science of self-improvement

1:29

as always. Over the next 35 minutes

1:31

I'll break down each type of stupidity

1:33

from things like being an

1:36

overconfident expert to ego-based stupidity.

1:38

Through the episode I'll be answering

1:41

the question how can we recognize

1:43

and avoid these mental traps before

1:45

they derail our decisions, careers and

1:47

relationships. Lots to learn and I'm

1:50

sure you'll think about things a

1:52

little bit differently afterwards so please

1:54

stay tuned. When you Yeah,

2:33

sure thing. Hey, you sold that car

2:36

yet? Yeah, sold it to Carvana. Oh,

2:38

I thought you were selling to that guy.

2:40

The guy who wanted to pay me in

2:42

foreign currency, no interest over 36

2:44

months? Yeah, no. Carvana gave me

2:47

an offer in minutes, picked it

2:49

up, and paid me on the

2:51

spot. It was so convenient. Just

2:53

like that. Yeah? No hassle. None.

2:55

That is super convenient. Sell your

2:58

car to Carvana and swap hassle

3:00

for convenience. Pick up these may

3:02

apply. So

3:05

we'll start with the start that is

3:07

the obvious what I've mentioned. Stupidity as

3:09

just pure stupidity, which is lack of

3:11

cognitive ability, lack of brain power, and

3:13

it is a form of stupidity. It

3:16

basically pertains to individuals who exhibit deficiencies

3:18

in cognitive abilities, specifically their capacity to

3:20

think and reason clearly. Typically, these individuals

3:22

possess a low IQ, although there are

3:25

plenty of forms of stupidity that not

3:27

just to do with IQ, and they

3:29

may struggle with tasks such as verbal

3:31

reasoning tests, puzzles, spotting patterns in data,

3:34

comprehending nuances of language, or struggle to

3:36

follow logical chains of reasoning. So when

3:38

they may be confronted by some complexity

3:40

in their choices or decisions, they may

3:42

perceive this as all meaningless chaos. and

3:45

not really understand what to do and

3:47

just go for the instant option that

3:49

they feel seems good. Even after receiving

3:51

clear, repeated explanations, they may struggle to

3:54

understand the rules of a game or

3:56

any intricate concept. So learning just poses

3:58

a significant challenge and they may learn

4:00

very, very slowly if at all. And

4:03

learning and intelligence are deeply intertwined, which

4:05

interestingly took AI scientists rather a long

4:07

time to grasp instead of striving to

4:09

create an intelligent machine from the outset.

4:11

It seemed better to building a dull

4:14

machine that was capable of rapid learning.

4:16

was a much better approach, which is

4:18

how AI builders now build programs that

4:20

will absolutely smash people at games of

4:23

go, even though they didn't even teach

4:25

them the balls of go, they just

4:27

taught them how to learn and like

4:29

optimize stuff. So why might someone be

4:32

stupid? Well, genetic reasons, just inherited cognitive

4:34

abilities of how your brain works, environmental

4:36

influences, such as growing up with a

4:38

lack of like resources or food for

4:41

brain development or in a culture that

4:43

places minimal emphasis on actually learning anything

4:45

like writing in numbers or critical thinking

4:47

and learning how to question the bias

4:49

and work things out for yourself or

4:52

having like actual information given to you

4:54

that is just completely incorrect like being

4:56

told that the earth is flat or

4:58

that King John Hill is a god

5:01

etc. etc. Certainly lead poisoning makes people

5:03

crazy in mercury and stuff and they

5:05

resonate the amount of lead that was

5:07

in America after the war led to

5:10

a loss of over a billion IQ

5:12

points over the residents of America during

5:14

that time. Stupidity is basically an inability

5:16

to spot or identify patterns or follow

5:18

logical sequences and it is what we

5:21

normally think of when we hear the

5:23

word stupid and this helps us understand

5:25

the rest of this where I'll show

5:27

where we also have stupid behaviors. but

5:30

not just due to cognitive ability but

5:32

due to other things that cause us

5:34

to not look for or spot patterns

5:36

in front of us and make sense

5:39

of the world around us. So, number

5:41

two, stupidity through ignorance. This is also

5:43

commonly associated with stupidity. And this could

5:45

be defined as a lack of knowledge

5:47

or understanding about a given subject. Now,

5:50

ignorance doesn't directly cause stupidity, but it

5:52

gives you an inability to necessarily understand

5:54

directly. And if you don't understand that

5:56

you are ignorant of something, you're less

5:59

likely to have empathy or acknowledge that

6:01

you might even not know what we're

6:03

talking about. And this is why a

6:05

20-year-old might not make a very good

6:08

politician, because they've never actually been through

6:10

a financial crisis. or war in their

6:12

country, they might not understand the implications

6:14

of some of the things that they

6:16

think are good, might actually have down

6:19

the line, etc. But a try job

6:21

could still be quite humble and realize

6:23

that they don't know these experiences and

6:25

make some good decisions of what to

6:28

do and just ask held around the

6:30

things that they're ignorant about and actually

6:32

be a very good ruler, for example,

6:34

as has been demonstrated in history. So

6:37

basically an individual that lacks a reservoir

6:39

of experience, skills or knowledge... could struggle

6:41

to tackle new challenges or complex questions

6:43

effectively if they find those outside of

6:45

some positions where they should use it,

6:48

where they should know more stuff, if

6:50

they aren't willing to learn and they

6:52

think they already know everything. But you

6:54

may also be ignorant due to lack

6:57

of essential tools, frameworks to comprehend the

6:59

world, skills like verbal or mathematical aptitude,

7:01

or basic graphs of geography and maps

7:03

and understanding where the world is in

7:06

how different parts of it relate to

7:08

each other and political systems. And actually

7:10

understanding the economics of like the world,

7:12

why it works this way, how businesses

7:15

do business with each other, how countries

7:17

interact with each other, these are all

7:19

actually very fundamental important concepts to really

7:21

start to understand why your coffee is

7:23

this prize and why some closed shots

7:26

work and others don't, etc. It's quite

7:28

interesting, but it takes a reasonable amount

7:30

of time to actually know how a

7:32

lot of this stuff works. And now

7:35

it was noted by a research a

7:37

long time ago that Actually, just reading

7:39

something like a newspaper and having a

7:41

vague understanding of his content does demand

7:44

a lot of general knowledge that many

7:46

of us take for granted. If we

7:48

don't realize how many people don't understand

7:50

and they just read something and take

7:52

just the surface level of it. So

7:55

background knowledge in any domain really serves

7:57

like a platform. It's like water for

7:59

a fish to swim in. You don't

8:01

have background knowledge. You can't actually understand

8:04

the things around you. And so a

8:06

lot of us will behave stupidly around

8:08

some stuff because we used to maybe

8:10

knowing the right answers on some things.

8:13

And then we'll just read other stuff

8:15

and we've only given like a small

8:17

bit of information, we think we already

8:19

know everything, and actually we know nothing

8:21

about the situation in Iraq, for example,

8:24

but we've heard one headline and we're

8:26

like, yeah, we know everything about war

8:28

and why those people are like wasting

8:30

all their money with this and we

8:33

really don't know. And that's one way

8:35

you can often be stupid is just

8:37

making assumptions based on a small amount

8:39

of information when actually you need a

8:42

lot of information to be able to

8:44

be able to understand it. can really

8:46

mess up this form of stupidity and

8:48

make bad decisions or come to bad

8:50

conclusions and spot patterns incorrectly due to

8:53

thinking that they're no more than they

8:55

actually do and being rather blind to

8:57

them to acknowledge and that makes you

8:59

do stupid things. So now number three,

9:02

overconfident expert stupidity. So this relates a

9:04

bit the last one and might also

9:06

be defined as the fish out of

9:08

water. So as we've seen, the stupidity

9:11

can come from lack of cognitive ability

9:13

or lack of knowledge and ability to

9:15

think critically. That is of course incomplete

9:17

and there are many other ways. It

9:19

fails to account for things like the

9:22

fish out of water stupidity, which is

9:24

where an individual with a powerful intellect,

9:26

whose accumulated extensive knowledge in several specific

9:28

domains perhaps, and would be commonly perceived

9:31

as intelligent, especially in their particular areas.

9:33

The problems that arise when they think

9:35

their intelligence translates into other areas because

9:37

they're used to being brilliant. and everything

9:40

that they know that they can do,

9:42

and they're suggesting that they can do

9:44

things that they can't do. They'll tend

9:46

to just take their existing expertise for

9:49

granted and believe it grants them proficiency

9:51

across all the main. And you'll see

9:53

this with several podcasts, for example, who

9:55

were good at one thing and then

9:57

they'll just talk about anything else in

10:00

the world, like they know everything they're

10:02

talking about. And you'll see Jude and

10:04

Peterson get like some expert on a

10:06

topic. on his show. If he's talking

10:09

about something that I know about more

10:11

than he does, he'll just say stuff

10:13

that doesn't make any sense if you're

10:15

actually an expert in the knowledge, but

10:18

because of he thinks he knows what

10:20

he's talking about, he just comes at

10:22

it with the same kind of language

10:24

that he came kind of like, oh

10:26

I know everything, like, oh I know

10:29

everything. And he just really makes him

10:31

kind of language, like, oh I know

10:33

everything. And he just kind of like,

10:35

like, kind of like, like, like, like,

10:38

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:40

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:42

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:44

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:47

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:49

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:51

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

10:53

like, like, like, like Anyway, back to

10:55

the overconfident experts. Now, they may well

10:58

be correct in assuming that their intelligence

11:00

could give themselves an advantage in learning

11:02

about the new domain, because there is

11:04

obviously the concept of general intelligence and

11:07

ability, but the issues really arise where

11:09

they overestimate their abilities in an unfamiliar

11:11

territory. And as a result, just makes

11:13

some very grave errors in judgment. If

11:16

you look at places like Twitter or

11:18

podcasting, you'll see scientists, historians, with really

11:20

well-respected academic brilliance, making fools of themselves

11:22

by coming out with stuff that just

11:24

makes no sense. And they may not

11:27

even be aware that they've crossed into

11:29

some movie that they don't know about,

11:31

and it really ends quite badly for

11:33

them. Also, you can look at the

11:36

example of like the bankers during the

11:38

2008 financial crisis. They were just like,

11:40

right, we run the banking industry, we

11:42

know how this works. we're not going

11:45

to call the problem because we're just

11:47

making money doing this we're never going

11:49

to have it all collapse in on

11:51

ourselves and then the crash happened and

11:53

they were like oh we thought they

11:56

wouldn't happen and you know just people

11:58

get out of their field quite easily

12:00

so that's the overconfident expert of stupidity.

12:02

And now we have, perhaps my favorite

12:05

one, which trips up lots

12:07

of companies, political systems,

12:09

and individuals, and this is

12:11

systemic stupidity, also known as

12:14

perhaps ball-based stupidity. When we

12:16

think about stupidity or

12:18

discuss it, we often think of

12:20

stupidity as an individual trade, and

12:23

we'll label people as smart or

12:25

stupid. But even among like... intellectuals,

12:27

this can really be quite

12:29

dangerous because even when you

12:31

have smart people together, they

12:34

still can behave quite stupidly.

12:36

And people have been categorizing

12:38

people as smart or stupid for

12:40

years and years and it's really

12:43

unhealthy because firstly I've seen plenty

12:45

of people with low IQ just

12:47

make really good life decisions and like

12:49

play within the realms of their powers

12:52

and actually just run a good solid

12:54

business and you can also see smart

12:56

people absolutely mess up a business just

12:58

constantly trying to do too many things

13:01

and screw their life over. But also when

13:03

it comes to systemic stupidity you can still

13:05

have a bunch of smart people in

13:07

an organization but it dies because they're

13:09

just forced to play in a game where

13:11

the rules aren't set up for them to

13:13

behave sensibly and you can see this in

13:15

politics as well where you just have two

13:18

large groups of people where one side has

13:20

extreme views you just have to have opposing

13:22

views. to back that and when you get to

13:24

the point where like one side believes that

13:26

the other side will actually prefer to throw

13:28

them in jail or kill them than to

13:30

rule in a sensible way that like keeps

13:32

both sides safe then the sensible side

13:35

supposedly will then feel perfectly

13:37

reasoned to their judgment to

13:39

lock the other side away because of

13:41

fast saving them and you end up

13:43

having like a dictatorship and you can

13:45

have smart people ending up creating

13:47

this stupid scenario. Hello America.

13:49

Anyway, the point is that

13:52

stupidity can extend far beyond

13:54

an individual's traits and manifest

13:56

as a systemic issue. For

13:59

example, the... Romans, although very

14:01

very intelligent and the most forethinking

14:03

and successful nation of that period,

14:05

did fail to make any significant

14:07

abuses in mathematics, which is really

14:09

surprising when you think about how

14:11

good they were engineering and so

14:13

many other things, but ultimately their

14:15

numeral system really hindered complex calculations.

14:17

And if you contrast to like

14:19

the Arabic system and their numbers

14:21

which eventually came to Europe in

14:23

the Middle Ages, that facilitated much

14:25

easier manipulation which collectively just elevated

14:27

the entire civilization's level of intelligence

14:29

around mass in their ability to

14:31

do things. And so just the

14:33

tools and platforms that we use

14:35

can just keep us enslaved in

14:37

stupidity, even if you are a

14:39

person who possesses intelligence. Now we

14:41

know that Romans had many intelligent

14:44

people and really like gave himself

14:46

a platform. for those intelligent people

14:48

to do their best work better

14:50

to the rest of the world

14:52

at the time, even though they

14:54

were of course intelligent people in

14:56

any other nation that may have

14:58

been coming up against the Romans,

15:00

but they of course didn't get

15:02

to do very good work either

15:04

because they were helped back by

15:06

the rest of their nation and

15:08

the way that their society worked,

15:10

etc. So if you live into

15:12

complexity or knowledge... It also arises

15:14

from just consistently using the incorrect

15:16

kind of algorithms or rules with

15:18

which the intelligence can be applied.

15:20

So imagine that you hand someone

15:22

a Rubik's Cube, you have three

15:24

possibilities. They already know how to

15:26

solve a Rubik's Cube and the

15:28

algorithms to get through it quickly,

15:30

and they will appear very intelligent.

15:32

Or they may have learned the

15:34

wrong algorithms, which would make it

15:37

really hard for them to solve

15:39

it, and it will take them

15:41

like days to work out what

15:43

they're doing. Well they may just

15:45

have no idea how to solve

15:47

a cube, attempt at a random

15:49

and probably fail. And so you

15:51

can have a... stupid person actually

15:53

able to solve a Rubits Cube

15:55

because they just know how to

15:57

do it. An intelligent person who

15:59

doesn't know how to solve a

16:01

Rubits Cube and it could take

16:03

them like many days to get

16:05

there. In just that difference in

16:07

knowledge and application of some algorithms

16:09

can really advance how far something

16:11

can get done. And if you're

16:13

in society or organization where things

16:15

aren't known or the incorrect tools

16:17

are used then you're not going

16:19

to get there. Whereas if you

16:21

think you've got algorithms to solve

16:23

it but they're the wrong algorithms,

16:25

you're never going to solve it

16:27

because you're going to keep on

16:29

applying things and it's going to

16:32

keep on failing. And yet in

16:34

normal life people will really run

16:36

through their whole lives with the

16:38

wrong kind of algorithms running where

16:40

they just think that what they're

16:42

doing is going to build happiness

16:44

and it keeps on failing to

16:46

build happiness but yet they keep

16:48

on trying it because society tells

16:50

you that those actions are the

16:52

things that you should do to

16:54

become happy to be happy for

16:56

yourself. because of society keep on

16:58

telling you that those are the

17:00

things that you should do. And

17:02

the same with organisation, people saying

17:04

you just have to climb the

17:06

ladder to get to these things,

17:08

but then you actually aren't necessarily

17:10

helping the organisation if all you're

17:12

optimising for is having a ladder

17:14

rather than how to do your

17:16

best work, rather than have to

17:18

do your best work or to

17:20

do the job in that company

17:22

that makes you really happy. So

17:25

you just keep on doing it

17:27

for fun, rather than getting to

17:29

the point where you manage too

17:31

many people. clever people to run

17:33

faulty ideas through their life that

17:35

make things worse for themselves. There

17:37

are just lots of examples of

17:39

this in ideology and politics that

17:41

just need cognitive inflexibility, irrespective of

17:43

which side someone may support, they'll

17:45

still end up making bad decisions.

17:47

And this can also lead us

17:49

to just be attracted to individuals

17:51

who will tell us some clear

17:53

stories that sound like they have

17:55

good chains of reasoning. but actually

17:57

have some faulty algorithms in what

17:59

they're selling us and just leads

18:01

to things constantly not as. working

18:03

out how we expect. So in

18:05

many cases stupidity doesn't actually arise

18:07

from the lack of mental material

18:09

capacity but often from like an

18:11

excess of mental capacity. But applying

18:13

that extra mental capacity down change

18:15

of logic that don't quite work.

18:18

And so in fact the ability

18:20

to carry like the abundance of

18:22

information allows us to carry concepts

18:24

in our minds that we can

18:26

absorb from others that actually are

18:28

helpful will inherit these powerful algorithms

18:30

of how to be successful. that

18:32

are based on flawed theories and

18:34

misleading facts and just captivating stories

18:36

or faulty metaphors just from misplaced

18:38

intuition somewhere that has kept from

18:40

being carried along and just doesn't

18:42

get fixed and will accumulate this

18:44

knowledge feeling like we're building solid

18:46

knowledge within ourselves, feeling like society

18:48

knows best and yet actually the

18:50

systemic knowledge is stupid and it

18:52

really is unhelpful for us and

18:54

it stops. us from actually being

18:56

able to solve our own problems

18:58

or spot the real patterns in

19:00

front of us, even though they're

19:02

there. So as the saying goes,

19:04

it's not what you don't know

19:06

that gets you into trouble, but

19:08

what you think you know that

19:11

isn't. So that one's systemic stupidity,

19:13

which always makes me happy to

19:15

think about how to just be

19:17

more of an individual, just question

19:19

things from the root, rather than

19:21

just asking why as much as

19:23

possible, which is why it's so

19:25

good to study the philosophers of

19:27

the world. And now let's go

19:29

into overthinking stupidity, which is perhaps

19:31

the opposite of being philosophical about

19:33

everything. Happiness is

19:35

a huge topic and we know that

19:37

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with money is that it can make

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by Sheven as many campuses including

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at 2121 15th Street North in

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Arlington Virginia. individuals

24:07

often perceive themselves as intelligent and they'll

24:09

tend to dislike a strategy that accounts

24:12

for inevitability of errors. So the idea

24:14

of having a strategy of just always

24:16

going left, where 40% of the time

24:18

you're going to be wrong, just doesn't

24:20

really sit right. You just... have to

24:22

think that there must be a way

24:24

to predict that like there is a

24:26

way that you can get left or

24:28

right each time even though actually it's

24:30

just lying on a physical random number

24:32

generator that just goes left slightly more.

24:34

So even when faced with apparent randomness

24:36

or refused to surrender to the possibility

24:38

that something is random in our intellectual

24:41

ambition as a human that's kind of

24:43

smart will drive us to just try

24:45

and impose some form of smartness and

24:47

intelligence on the world. But often there

24:49

is no such thing as pure right

24:51

answer. It is just random. So our

24:53

ambitions for intelligence can lead to

24:55

insights and innovations, but it can

24:58

also lead to stupidity and errors,

25:00

which we will just skillfully defend as

25:02

the right answers and lie to ourselves.

25:04

Actually, there is no such thing as

25:06

like a right answer. There is just

25:08

some random statistics going on. Once a

25:11

clever person or a stupid person adopts

25:13

a mistaken belief, trying to persuade them

25:15

that they're doing something wrong is a

25:17

very very hard task because if you have

25:20

some cognitive sophistication in your abilities

25:22

you will be able to explain

25:24

your flaws thinking better and like

25:27

in out smart people in your

25:29

explanation even though your explanation is

25:31

absolutely bull crap but you'll believe

25:33

it anyway because you just have this

25:35

inherent idea that you're probably

25:37

right and there's something sophisticated

25:40

going on. Now this isn't

25:42

just like... mathematical IQ or

25:44

pattern recognition but also verbal

25:46

fluency when people are very good

25:48

at just speaking they can just

25:50

explain things really quickly in light

25:52

of themselves and others around them and

25:54

that's makes their whole life much worse even

25:56

though it's like a useful skill for many

25:59

other things. For anyone who can eloquently

26:01

speak off the cuff can usually

26:03

find immediate explanations to justify their

26:05

thoughts or their beliefs and think

26:08

that like just by speaking these words

26:10

that it'll sort of magically materialize

26:12

into truth even though they can't manipulate

26:14

the laws and physics in the world

26:16

around them but they just think that

26:19

by speaking they can do these things.

26:21

Going a bit far down that. Another

26:23

manifestation of overthinking can be observed in

26:25

things like products and apps or movies

26:27

crammed with like... so many different things

26:29

in them like genius features which actually

26:32

loses the substance and gets away from

26:34

the usefulness of it so like an

26:36

app that's got so many features is

26:38

that it's just bloated and unusable and

26:40

moved with so many different plot lines

26:42

and characters it just confusing and unwatchable

26:45

yet as a creator you often think

26:47

that like more is better and we can

26:49

just really overthink what someone needs and just

26:51

add more and more things where it takes

26:54

a genius like Steve Jobs to really

26:56

concentrate on simplicity. and just be

26:58

like, okay, what can we hide from everyone

27:00

and just like create an app or

27:02

a product that just had like just

27:04

the elements they absolutely needed nothing else

27:06

in the same like his work in

27:08

Pixar is really oiled out to always

27:10

just like what are the things that

27:12

will give you a magical experience and

27:14

that's with everything that is excessive from

27:16

this story. In general, this has

27:18

been something that has been

27:20

discussed since Socrates around the

27:23

concept. but there is an

27:25

intricate relationship between human intelligence

27:27

and its amazing potential to

27:29

then generate stupidity through its

27:32

intelligence when it is just one

27:34

we have to watch out for.

27:36

And now on to number six,

27:38

a merchant for organizational stupidity. Now

27:40

this may does relate into systemic

27:42

stupidity but it has a few

27:44

quirks that are worth talking about.

27:46

A merchant stupidity is a

27:49

phenomenon often observed in

27:51

organizations. that make questionable decisions

27:53

and it becomes challenging to

27:56

attribute those choices to anyone

27:58

specific individual, even like... in hindsight

28:00

afterwards. And surprisingly there might

28:02

not be any inherently unintelligent

28:05

people involved in the decision

28:07

and often they might all be very

28:09

intelligent. And if you look at a company

28:12

like Enron, brilliant people involved and

28:14

yet they completely screwed up a

28:16

business. And stupidity in the context of

28:19

some businesses can just emerge in

28:21

the same way that intelligents

28:23

manifest in the behavior in like a

28:25

flock of geese or an ant colony.

28:27

or interactions between cells and synapses in

28:29

the human brain, very small, simple processes

28:32

that create some very clever, in the

28:34

same way you can have some very

28:36

small processes that just creates something very

28:38

stupid, out of very clever people. They're

28:40

when individuals within a group follow a

28:43

few simple walls and cooperate. They collect

28:45

the behavior can exhibit intelligence and that's

28:47

why Schumani is so great, because any

28:50

one person could not have built any

28:52

of the amazing things in the world

28:54

alone. It takes... combinations of groups and

28:57

teams to actually build anything more brilliance

28:59

and the human machine as it is

29:01

exhibits vastly more intelligence than some

29:04

of its parts. However, the opposite

29:06

can also happen and can lead

29:08

to outcomes significantly worse. So for

29:10

a leader in an organization it's

29:12

essential to reflect on the simple walls

29:14

that your people adhere to and the

29:17

culture that you are creating. Even when

29:19

people are not consciously thinking about

29:21

it and you really want to

29:23

focus on questioning. Why these walls are in

29:25

place and whether they're going to

29:28

foster intelligent overall decisions or

29:30

stupidity? If you just look at

29:32

human evolution, the drive to avoid

29:34

stupidity isn't necessarily that high in

29:36

the list of things that we've

29:38

evolved. Our primary focus has just

29:41

been on survival and reproduction,

29:43

which does involve getting along with

29:45

others. However, it's important to

29:47

know that being really clever

29:49

and fostering harmonious relationships are

29:51

not necessarily interrelated. these can

29:53

often conflict with each other

29:56

because we'll want to avoid

29:58

disagreeing with the group. that

30:00

can lead to collective intelligence in general

30:02

that is better. And this is why

30:04

we learn from our elders and why

30:06

we make decisions based on other people

30:08

and often democratic thinking is usually the

30:10

best. But sometimes contributing to

30:13

a pool of people's individuals can just

30:15

lead to decisions that aren't the best

30:17

for anyone. And when we agree with

30:19

the consensus or agree with the leader,

30:21

can really miss out on the full

30:23

intelligence of the individuals involved and

30:25

make the process worse for ourselves. The human

30:27

desire to not stand out stand out.

30:30

sometimes or disagree with others can really

30:32

just lead us to kind of agreeing

30:34

with things that we shouldn't be agreeing

30:36

with. And this is something that you really

30:38

want to look at if you are any

30:40

in an organization that you think maybe isn't

30:42

doing things correctly or if you run

30:44

an organization. A lot of this does

30:47

relate to the systemic stupidity so I'm not

30:49

going to go on too much more about this.

30:51

Lastly we get to eco-based stupidity

30:53

which actually maybe is about on

30:55

par with my love of the systemic

30:57

stupidity. Ego-based stupidity is a

30:59

fundamental part of the human

31:02

existence again, and intertwines deeply

31:04

with emotions and one sense

31:06

of self. Within this category

31:08

there are many subtypes as

31:10

well, but the core principle is

31:12

that when individuals feel insecure they're

31:14

more likely to engage in self-imposed

31:17

ignorance. And there's no other way

31:19

to describe us other than self-protection. And

31:21

so, when these moments come up for

31:23

us to be vulnerable and we kind

31:26

of avoid them, we'll just... jump into

31:28

ego-based stupidity. That's like, shaping it a

31:30

partner when you've made a mistake. That's

31:32

not telling your organization that you work

31:34

for that they're being really stupid and

31:36

just agreeing with everyone else. That's lying

31:38

to yourself about an investment you made

31:40

that's losing money and being like, oh,

31:42

I made a good decision. And always

31:44

lifting it ways to protect yourself rather

31:46

than just flag that you've been a

31:48

complete idiot and that you need to

31:51

do something about it. So some fun

31:53

facts is there is a clear correlation

31:55

between. susceptibility to conspiracy theories and feelings

31:57

of anxiety. So when we have more

31:59

anxiety... in the population in general and

32:01

just in the world we're more

32:04

likely to believe conspiracy theories and

32:06

really stupid based stuff because if

32:08

we just the real sense of control

32:10

and don't like to hear things like

32:12

we need to do something matter or

32:14

it was our fault and we just

32:16

want to hear a conspiracy theory we

32:19

can blame others and just be stupid.

32:21

You can see this based around like

32:23

2016 when both like the US and

32:25

the UK became like just engulfed in

32:28

conspiracy theories. around Brexit and Trump because

32:30

and many intelligent individuals just succumbed to

32:32

feeling of like helplessness and fear around

32:34

the whole things that were going on

32:37

and just led them to adopt foolish

32:39

beliefs of these conspiracy theories were going

32:41

on just because of they didn't really

32:43

want to deal with like the facts

32:46

and political extremists and conspiracy

32:48

theorists really crave the security

32:50

of certainty rather than having

32:52

to deal with uncertain difficult

32:54

situations. It's not solely like the

32:56

ideology or conspiracy theory that draws people

32:58

in, but it's the community that forms

33:01

around it in the certainty and safety

33:03

in numbers around believing something that means

33:05

that you are the problem. And these

33:07

things become like a community where like

33:10

your beliefs actually aren't so important

33:12

that a factual is just serving

33:14

as a wristband to be accepted

33:16

and around others that also have

33:18

the same belief. And often to

33:20

safeguard. their place within a group

33:22

of individuals will go to great

33:24

lengths to demonstrate a wavering

33:26

loyalty to these beliefs and disregard

33:28

opinions of outsiders and just

33:31

embrace and properly really foolish

33:33

ideas to just make themselves

33:35

even stupider. And it's amazing

33:37

how much this happens. It's insane, but

33:39

it does. Again, when I mentioned Twitter

33:41

around experts going out of their

33:44

area of expertise to talk about

33:46

stuff, there's also an undercurrent of

33:48

like... insecurity and status

33:50

anxiety that people have and they'll

33:52

often go beyond their own beliefs.

33:54

They just say stuff to fit

33:56

in and to try and make

33:58

themselves look cooler. on Twitter there was

34:01

quite a lot of intelligent people talking about

34:03

book sapiens as being bad book just because

34:05

they wanted to look cool and because of

34:07

other intelligent people had said that it's a

34:10

bad book and they were like well I'm

34:12

so intelligent this but people like it must

34:14

be terrible even though it was just a

34:16

well-written history book that just made a lot

34:19

of fundamentally difficult concepts to understand easier like

34:21

because I think wrong with the book people

34:23

just wanted to look cool and had anxiety

34:25

and like their ego made them make a

34:28

stupid decision decision anyway That was

34:30

like an example, but we just become like

34:32

ego status monkeys where we just want

34:34

to look cooler and we can't deal

34:36

with the idea that we aren't as

34:38

good as we say we are. And

34:40

places like Twitter just really provides a

34:42

platform to foster ideological communities and subcultures

34:44

that frequently just class with each

34:46

other and make them clash even harder by

34:48

wanting to just make the others look

34:50

even stupider to make themselves look better

34:52

and feel better, but actually both sides

34:55

end up saying things that don't really

34:57

make that much sense and they're just...

34:59

speaking their own egos and getting lost

35:01

in the world of stupidity. Now there's

35:03

certainly plenty of ways I

35:05

can go into ego-based stupidity of

35:07

how this interacts are like investment

35:09

decisions, our relationships, our

35:12

relationships, our ego just really doesn't like

35:14

the idea that we are making bad

35:16

decisions and we just come up with

35:18

ways to reason why we're slightly special

35:20

and individual in things that we might

35:23

advise for other people, we just have

35:25

some kind of... intellectual way of

35:27

describing to ourselves is okay for us. And

35:29

ultimately, learning to quiet our own

35:31

ego and just look at the bird's eye

35:33

view and just look down at yourself and

35:35

be like, this is a crap decision, this

35:38

is a good decision. Is one of the

35:40

most powerful things you can do for yourself

35:42

and very very hard. So I'm trying at

35:44

that and maybe this has given you some

35:46

examples of different forms of stupidity that occur

35:48

and how you can deal with them rather

35:50

than jumping to your ego and being like,

35:52

well, I don't do any of these. and

35:54

I'm great and perfect and nothing for me

35:56

to change here but isn't it funny how

35:58

many people screw up hell? doing these things

36:01

that I've heard about on this

36:03

podcast. So in conclusion, the

36:05

reality is that stupidity is

36:07

often a deliberate choice. Individuals

36:10

can make themselves stupid where

36:12

it serves their purposes. And

36:14

curiously, the ability for humans

36:16

to do this is just

36:19

remarkable amongst all

36:21

species. And sometimes this can

36:23

be beneficial and sometimes it

36:25

can be terrible. influential figure

36:27

was the English psychoanalysts

36:29

or woefully, Bion, or Bion, whose

36:32

experiences during the First World

36:34

War profoundly influenced his ideas. He

36:37

observed that the way people suppress

36:39

their capacity for thinking and reasoning

36:41

during types of conflicts, both

36:44

figuratively and literally, as they enter

36:46

into math, was really remarkable.

36:48

And Bion's theory of learning, part came

36:50

from his recognition that we don't always

36:53

wish to acquire knowledge, we just want

36:55

to believe. perhaps that the other people

36:57

are awful, etc. and it's

36:59

not merely missing out on information,

37:02

but instead unconsciously resisting or

37:04

rejecting knowledge that doesn't fit our

37:06

worldview. And this is amplified at most

37:08

during conflict, which is why it's also

37:10

really bad in politics when you get

37:13

to the point of distrusting your opponents

37:15

where you actually think they're going to

37:17

do bad things to you because then

37:19

you think it's okay to do bad

37:21

things to them and life just ascends

37:23

into awfulness. as opposed to looking for

37:25

what in their policies might actually make

37:28

lots of sense and a fine in perhaps

37:30

the things that you could do yourself

37:32

in just working out how you

37:34

can find common ground as opposed to

37:37

how you can just conflict more and

37:39

more. Ultimately, failing to learn from the

37:41

patterns and experiences around us can create

37:44

a fear confronting what we don't know,

37:46

leading individuals to claiming to familiar and

37:48

comforting heuristics and habits. According to

37:50

Bion, genuine learning from experience demands

37:53

the challenging and uncomfortable task of

37:55

reflecting on your own emotions and

37:58

just really questioning yourself, which

38:00

He isn't natural and is why the

38:02

ego will screw you over in

38:04

so many different situations. Your understanding

38:06

of that perspective, I think, just clarifies

38:08

the difficulty of understanding your own

38:10

stupidity and why it's so hard

38:12

to get. And I started with

38:15

explaining this claim as stupidity is

38:17

a thing that isn't just down

38:19

to intellectual power and explaining how

38:21

stupidity appears from just lack of

38:24

brain power and intelligence, but how

38:26

so many different ways of being

38:28

an intelligent can appear. and then summed

38:30

it up with the fact that like

38:32

the ego will always light you about

38:34

ways that you are being unintelligent and

38:36

this is the one that you solve. So

38:38

understanding of that perspective does

38:41

clarify why so many of us

38:43

frequently just opt for being stupidity

38:45

as a coping mechanism as opposed

38:47

to just really digging into the

38:49

difficult side of addressing our own

38:52

problems ourselves and that bit kind

38:54

of sucks, but it is the best thing

38:56

you can possibly do when you start doing

38:58

it. And on that, thank you for listening

39:01

to these seven different types of stupidity.

39:03

I hope you learned a profound amount

39:05

of things and have learned the question

39:07

why you are so bloody dumb, because

39:09

you probably are jokes, you're a very intelligent

39:12

person for this podcast. Thank you very

39:14

much. Please leave me a positive rating

39:16

and tell the world how intelligent you

39:18

are for listening to this podcast and

39:21

how great the host is. That would

39:23

be swell. And have a bloody fantastic

39:25

week. Look after yourself. Life is to

39:27

be enjoyed. That starts with enjoying today.

39:29

That's not a future thing, that's today.

39:32

And whilst you're enjoying today, be nice

39:34

to someone else too. So many

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And on my number one podcast,

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