intelligence

Top Stories

The Best Examples Of Someone Going From 'Genius' To 'Idiot'

Reddit user saigalaxy asked: 'What’s the biggest example of from “genius” to “idiot” there has ever been?'

confused man in blue t-shirt

Sander Sammy on Unsplash

My Father was considered a genius.

At 16 he graduated high school as Valedictorian, joined the United States Navy as soon as he turned 17 then was promptly recruited by Admiral Hyman Rickover's team converting the Navy from diesel to nuclear power.

He served as a nuclear and electrical engineer on naval vessels after the conversion project ended, then as a reactor inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after retiring from the Navy.

He also needed a full time babysitter in order to survive. Things like paying bills, buying groceries, feeding himself all escaped him. He lacked any semblance of common sense.

Really smart people doing very unsmart things isn't uncommon.

And sometimes a person is labeled a genius who's really an idiot with good brand marketing.

Keep reading...Show less

People Share Their Best 'Stupidity Has No Limits' Experiences

Reddit user Joker101001 asked: 'Albert Einstein once said "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." What are some examples of this that you have experienced?'

Man dressed a court jester or a joker
Austin Lowman/Unsplash

The human race is supposedly touted as a superior species compared to other lifeforms on Earth.

Sadly, the generalization does not apply to everyone.

And while the notion that "nobody is perfect" is perpetually expressed to console those who've made regretful mistakes, that is not entirely true.

We see them in the news all the time.

Dimwits–which may include those with no social graces or lack of basic life skills in order to survive adulting through life–are among us.

Curious to those who've face-palmed in response to an individual's intelligence level, Redditor Joker101001 asked:

"Albert Einstein once said 'The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.' What are some examples of this that you have experienced?"

People shared their observations about our intellect..or lack thereof.

Touché

"You shouldn’t believe every quote you read on the internet. — Abraham Lincoln."

– _PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

"I think he was re-quoting Julius Caesar who made this comment the morning he was warned not to go out that day."

– Emergency-Ad-7002

Humbling Realization

"I think the more educated we become, the more we know how little we actually know, and it’s humbling, but ignorant people really have no idea what they don’t know, leading them to be confident about their ignorant stances."

– PuzzleHeadedNinny

Reaching Limitations

"Physics has kind of reached a point where we realized we don't know how anything works at a fundamental level. Every theory breaks down at tiny or gigantic scales. There is a crisis in cosmology, spinning glaxies have either disproven gravity or proven undetected dark matter, and the vast majority of matter and energy is undetectably dark. We don't know why matter exists (as opposed to antimatter, given their symmetries). We don't know how time and space work inside black holes, how many dimensions there really are, or whether space and time are quantized. We've kinda figured out ordinary matter at human scales, but that's it."

– turbotong

The Thing About Doubt

"There are limitations to human knowledge and our understanding of things. Rather than acknowledging these limitations, people fill them in with supernatural explanations. When you express uncertainty or doubt, you are mocked or they ascribe to a lack of self confidence."

"Doubt is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it."

– RecalcitrantMonk

Knowledge Vs. Intelligence

"Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit."

"Intelligence is combining the tomato with other ingredients to make something better."

"Knowledge is what we learn, intelligence is what we do with what we have learned."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7183572/

"Charisma is the exact opposite of what I just did - citing an academic paper on reddit."

– egregori3

People shared their most dullest interactions.

Dumbfounding Stupidity

"Oh boy. I once met a guy who was so stupid that he thought the ocean was alive and waves was it breathing. I remember one time in school he was doing homework for another class and asked the teacher “Where were the Canaanites from?” She jokingly said Nova Scotia. He asked how to spell it. This guy thought Beauty and the Beast was based on a true story about a girl and a bear. He would constantly make bets that he lost and never learned his lesson. He didn’t know that chicken the food came from chicken the animal. I have met a lot of stupid people in my life but I have never met anyone quite so bafflingly stupid that I had to wonder if they, in high school, could even read."

– Not-sure-wtf-I-am

"A friend of mine once met a young woman who thought that fluttering leaves caused the wind to blow."

– Ancguy

"A former classmate of mine (in college, mind you) once said the sky was blue because it reflected the ocean."

"She thought the sky was blue everywhere, even hundreds or thousands of miles inland, because of the ocean."

– CrypticBalcony

Scam Fail

"I worked at an embassy. One day a guy came to me, completely explained a scam he did. It had failed and he wanted to know how I could help him "as we are countrymen".

"Called my colleagues at home and set them on his a** too."

– Dependent-Cress-948

Expected Expectations

"As a high school math teacher, I cringe when students hand in a test and say 'I think I aced it.' It’s almost always an F."

– kasgar77

"One time I left a stats exam in college and texted my friend, “if I knew a test was going to kill me and I went anyway, is that suicide?” She said “I think it’s more like when you walk through a bad part of town alone at night and get shot. It’s not really your fault.”

– FlockofDramaLamas

Kiwi Get A Clarification?

"When I was in middle school I convinced a girl that the kiwi birds laid the kiwi fruit as food for their babies. It wasn’t that hard to convince her."

– ChaoticCauldron

Conspiracy Theorists

"Flat eathers. It is difficult to find more dumb."

– DrowningInMyFandoms

"These days, there's quite a bit of overlap there. Flat earthers tend to be very anti-establishment, but because they also tend to be very religious and Trump is supported by many fundies, there's a definite connection there. Plus, his support of conspiracies makes him seem like 'one of them'; some flat earthers thought Trump would be the one to expose NASA and the fake ISS, but that never happened."

– SyntheticGod8

I think COVID pulled back the curtain on the lack of intelligence on display.

Irrational mob mentality prevented US citizens from critical thinking and drawing irrational and false conclusions from sheer panic.

Remember the toilet paper shortage and the anti-vaxxer movement?

I was more terrified of our lack of humanity and compassion than the virus that was being allowed to spread thanks to ignorance.

Man with a confused expression on his face.
Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

There are levels of intelligence.

If not everyone can remember facts and figures quite as well as others, they might be more perceptive of human nature and how things work.

This is why it's important to avoid judging someone who might make a mistake, or has trouble figuring out how certain things work.

That being said, every now and then we've all found ourselves in a situation where we honestly can't believe something we just heard coming out of the mouth of an adult.

Something so inaccurate and/or illogical that we can't even find words to describe how we feel.

Dumbfounded would be an understatement.

Keep reading...Show less

Sometimes, in order to find the love of our lives, we have to explore what's out there.

Often encountering people who we know fairly early on are just not a good fit.

In some cases, they're perfectly nice people but don't ignite the spark in us and lack any kind of chemistry.

Then there are those who truly astound us, and not in a good way.

The sort of people where describing them as "not the sharpest knife in the shed" would be an understatement.

Sometimes, this is clear from the minute we meet them. Other times, the realization comes a bit later.

Keep reading...Show less
People Who've Pretended To Be Dumber Than They Really Are Explain Why They Did It
Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash

Just about everyone has made a sizable effort to make themselves appear smart.

Be it to impress a potential boss, a prospective client, a first date, or the parents of your significant other, people often will use big words, make bizarre references that only a select few would understand, or simply nod along and laugh even though they haven't the foggiest idea what's going on.

Surprisingly, people also pretend to be less intelligent than they are almost just as frequently.

What's more, people usually tend to "play dumb" for the same reasons they try to appear smarter than they actually are, as a way to impress or climb up a social ladder.

Of course, people also play dumb for many other, sometimes bizarre reasons.

Keep reading...Show less