Who is truly an idiot & who is truly smart?
My shortest essay
How you answer this question after this essay will say a lot about how much of an idiot or a smart person you are.
Would you consider your house help an idiot because they don’t know some intellectual jargon that you know of?
Would you consider someone who doesn’t read, an idiot?
Would you consider your work peer an idiot because they don’t have the knowledge you have?
In that case, if this definition were true, then 99.99% of people in society would have to be classified as “idiots” in the dictionary because their upbringing, education, life circumstances, genetics, or what have you would make them an idiot by default.
The people who think this way and classify others as “idiots” because they fit that definition for them are actually the real idiots.
So, who the hell is an idiot in my opinion?
An idiot is someone who claims that they know about a topic but actually doesn’t.
An idiot is also someone who refuses to change their mind their mind when the facts change.
In my professional life, I have to interanlize this meaning to be able to do my job better.
Rather than delving deep into examples from my life and giving anecdotes, like I normally do, observe the people who fit this criteria.
Those who make bold predictions or pass judgments on topics they have absolutely no clue about, or are not willing to admit their wrongness or cluelessness.
It’s not the degrees, the books they read, or the knowledge they amass. Like I mentioned before, if that were the case, then most people in this world would be idiots, as they do not fit that bill and would continue to be idiots until their dying breath.
Now, after this rant about idiots, who are the genuinely smart people?
I’ll keep this even shorter and let Naval’s quote do the talking:
“The true test of intelligence is to get what you want out of your life.”
Because at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want?
Yes, this view may seem generalized for many people. I totally get that, and our life circumstances are highly subjective based on where we are born, who we are born to, genetics, or any other factor that is out of our control.
But the fact is that real intelligence will be that despite the odds, we manage to get what we want, and that also requires us to be realistic about what we want. That takes time.
Once we have inverted this view, ALL of us can become smart.
But the world is a zero-sum game when it comes to idiots and smart people, and most people are blinded by their ego or bias and will continue to remain idiots despite the vast amount of knowledge or experience they amass, leaving room for the smart people to understand what it means to be smart :)
It’s very uncanny of me to write an essay so short without my typical anecdotes and research links but that is the whole point.
Rather, let you, gentle reader, sleep over this thought, and as always, I am open to any opposing view to help me correct my understanding.
Maybe this essay can help you get a perspective on who an idiot and a smart person truly is.
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