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?'
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.
Reddit user saigalaxy asked:
"What’s the biggest example of from 'genius' to 'idiot' there has ever been?"
Gerald Ratner
"Gerald Ratner—made two ill-thought statements during a speech in 1991 in which he called his own products crap and lost half a billion GBP (1991 GBP at that!) off the value of his company overnight!"
"'Costs less than a prawn sandwich from marks and spencer, and probably lasts just as long'.”
“'People say, how can you sell it for such a low price, I say, because it’s total crap!'.”
"He said this to a room with a high number of journalists which took the story and ran with it. After this, anyone buying anything for a gift for a loved one from one of Ratner’s stores branded themselves as cheap, so sales plummeted.
"He was ousted as chairman within a year and they had to change their name!"
"Shooting your own company in the foot like this has since became known as 'the Ratner effect' or 'doing a Ratner'."
~ Taran345
Kary Mullis
"The guy that invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR)—which was ground breaking in early DNA research, got a Nobel Prize, though most probably remember it from the Covid days—went off the rails, denied that HIV caused AIDS even after it was scientific consensus and spent his time talking to a glowing racoon in the forest at night."
~ Lawsoffire
"The whole story behind him coming up with PCR was about him driving around San Diego while on an acid trip and while going through traffic he pictured DNA unwinding."
"Dude definitely took way too many drugs."
~ ChesterComics
"I've heard from people who worked with him that he was always pretty out there, did a lot of work drunk or high in lab even when a graduate student and post doctoral."
~ erehin
Linus Pauling
"Linus Pauling. He went from being a preeminent chemist and biochemist to a quack who wrote books claiming that megadoses of vitamin C cured all disease and was the key to an insanely long life."
~ battleofflowers
"He went on to promote crazy Vitamin C supplements that you just peed out."
"If you're taking Vitamin C for a cold, it's probably because of him and peer-reviewed research shows as long as you're not Vitamin C deficient, it's useless."
~ adenovir
John McAfee
"John McAfee. Not sure of the genuis part, but the downfall was legendary."
"He wrote and marketed the first commercial antivirus software after cutting teeth at NASA, Univac, and Xerox as a coder. Might have peaked around 100 million dollars."
"Then he sold his stake, told everyone to uninstall his company's product, retired, got into recreational drugs, lost tens of millions, possibly murdered a man in Belize...ran for President of the US, and then was arrested in Spain for US tax evasion."
~ Worried_Place_917
Elizabeth Holmes
"Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos."
~ Random-Username7272
"She went all in on 'fake it til you make it' until enough people asked tough questions and it became obvious she was just faking it."
~ MossyHarmless
"Simple, it was pure hubris. Elizabeth Holmes, who didn't have a degree in any sciences, let alone a PhD didn't believe the experts when they told her what she wanted was physically impossible to achieve."
"She thought that she was gonna prove all of them wrong by duping lots of people out of their money and throwing it into her company. Then throwing money at lawyers to intimidate whistleblowers into fearing for their lives."
~ sharraleigh
"This is one of the situations where anyone with a science background looked at what that company promised and realised it was all a mirage."
"'We can fit the operation of a whole lab, and tests that take atleast a day into a little box, and it can do it all in minutes!! Please invest'."
"Riiiiiiight."
~ Konnichiwagwann
Elon Musk
"Even now that it's become more accepted to say Musk is an idiot, people still get incredibly offended when I compare him to Elizabeth Holmes even though 'autopilot' is clearly the same sh*t as Holmes' Edison."
"His other promises are also bullshit, but FSD is very much so Edison where the realistic timescale is anywhere from a decade away to literally never, but that hasn't stopped him from saying it's coming this year every year for the past 6."
~ Mezmorizor
"This is pretty much how a lot of people look at Musk's claims but thousands of people will get offended when you say it."
~ dbag_darrell
"Elon Musk comes to mind immediately. Well, he was probably an idiot the whole time but he had the veneer of a genius for a while."
~ crispier_creme
"I'll give him credit for his personal branding when he first became a household name. He had most of us fooled. I remember telling my wife, 'This dude is a genius! He's going to get us to Mars!'."
"Then he started posting on Twitter."
"And then I found out who he really was."
~ keep_it_kayfabe
"I was fooled as well. I can remember the exact time the veil started to lift too."
"It was when he called that cave diver a pedo just because they didn't use Elon's dumb idea for rescuing those kids in Thailand. It was all downhill after that."
~ Sabatorius
More on Musk
"Musk should be an example to never trust a hype man. Regardless of how sucessful they are, they are at the end of the day just a face to the actual work being done by hard working and intelligent people."
"People like Musk don't really do anything."
~ TacticalSanta
"He's only smart enough to hype someone else's vision and have other people complete it but then he takes all the credit, making it seem like he does all the work."
"For example, he keeps saying he founded Tesla when he didn't join until a year after it was up and running. And even then he joined as an investor not as an engineer or anything like that."
"He's constantly spouting his political opinions on Twitter as though they were facts and he's even getting involved in geopolitics by cutting crucial internet access to Ukraine when they need it the most."
"And speaking of Twitter, he had to eat his words when the SEC forced him to buy the platform after he kept trying to get out of it."
"Now 'the genius' is stuck with a 40 billion dollar company that's losing value because of his mismanagement and can't turn a profit, no matter what idiotic policy change he implements."
~ WHALE_BOY_777
"Why on earth would you remove the brand name off a brand you paid 40b for? The name Twitter, and Tweet, has value so you discard it for a name that will only ever have the suffix 'formerly Twitter'."
"It's like buying Coca Cola and changing it's name to X—it devalues the brand."
~ Monday0987
"Nah, he doesn't even have the vision. He just had money and says, 'let me get in on this'."
"Legit all his own ideas have been terrible. Hyperloop? A tunnel in which you can ride in your Tesla."
"Cybertruck? Looks terrible and he wants the metal panels to be at a smoothness that's physically impossible to achieve."
"Twitter? Well, just look at how big the dumpster fire became after he threw gasoline on it."
~ panatale1
William Shockley
"William Shockley led the team at Bell Labs that invented the transistor. That breakthrough yielded portable radios and hearing aids, and made computer microchips possible in the decades that followed."
"He essentially allowed computers to go from filling a room in a building to eventually fitting in a desktop and then in your pocket."
"He received a Nobel prize along with his team, and then spent the rest of his life spewing racism and eugenics garbage."
~ DoctorGarfanzo
"Oh, the BEST part is he wanted to set up sperm banks where people like him (the 'smart' ones) could donate and then women from the 'lesser' classes would be able to get some good smart boy juice."
"He was so full of himself he was overflowing."
~ The_Bred_Loaf
Rudy Giuliani
"Rudy Giuliani went from 'the man who saved NYC' to 9/11 'America's Mayor' to henchman sidekick—a la Renfield or Igor—overnight."
~ Yagsirevahs
"He was the media darling to win the 2008 Republican nomination. Turns out, people just didn't like him and he had to drop out of the race."
~ kevkos
Lech Walesa
"Lech Walesa—he posts the stupidest sh*t you could imagine on social media, always speaks about himself as a sole savior of the entire human race, everything, EVERYTHING is happening thanks to him."
"He is posting this on a Polish equivalent of Reddit, so people are just teasing him there to post even more of such stupidities and he always falls for that."
"On top of that he posts there his naked photos in a bathtub full of beer, posts poorly photoshopped posters of himself with other historical figures… basically the guy made a walking meme out of himself."
"And he is still giving lectures on European Universities as a special guest somehow."
"He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the face and one of the leaders of the Polish solidarity movement and a former president of Poland."
~ JustYeeHaa
Alexander Hamilton
"Alexander Hamilton"
"Genius by playing a deep role in developing robust mechanisms for the US government to operate from the ground up."
"Idiot by tarnishing his political career with openly admitting to cheating on his wife with a prostitute for months."
"Also stupid by agreeing to duel with someone who wanted to kill him, putting on glasses to show intent in winning, then pointing his gun away mid-duel and getting himself shot and killed."
~ RamblinGamblinWillie
Steve Jobs
"I think Steve Jobs was a marketing and sales genius."
"Then when it came to his treatable cancer ... well I wouldn't call him an idiot, but he placed his faith in the wrong person and his 'I always win' attitude cost him his life."
"He was unlucky to get cancer, but lucky that it was treatable at the stage it was discovered ... but he ignored his doctors and thought that changing his diet would heal him."
~ ClownfishSoup
Ben Carson
"In a previous job, some of our dumbest and most frustrating clients were doctors."
"I'm sure most of them were great at being doctors, but they couldn't seem to read or understand the fairly basic info we sent them and often asked the most stupid questions."
~ MildlyUnusualMax
"Ben Carson is the perfect example of the idiot doctor."
"He is legit one of the world's best brain surgeons. If you need brain surgery you'd be very lucky to have him as your surgeon. He's probably top 25 surgeons on the planet."
"However, the man put every skill point he has into brain surgery, and into no other skills of any kind. He's a moron in every other field aside from brain surgery."
~ Hyndis
"I'm still pretty convinced Trump thought 'urban development' meant 'secretary in charge of Black people', and that's why he picked Carson for HUD."
~ suitcasedreaming
Sam Bankman-Fried
"Don’t understand how Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t on this list yet."
"Dude was in magazines being called a prophet and genius, turns out he was just a f**king idiot the whole time."
~ strapped_for_cash
"The entire Forbes Thirty Under Thirty list is pretty much a bunch of smooth-talking scamming idiots."
"Sam Bankman-Fraud was also on there in 2021."
~ bart416
"It pisses me off that media still refer to him as a former billionaire. In what way was he a billionaire? The money he spent was all other people’s; FTX and Alameda Research didn’t even keep financial records, even Bankman-Fried had no idea how much money he had access to."
"Like if I take a piece of paper and I write on it that it represents one billion fudge tokens, then I take another piece of paper and write on it that it represents one fudge token and I convince my friend to buy the second piece of paper for a dollar, does that mean I’m a billionaire?"
"That’s the only sense in which Bankman-Fried was ever a billionaire."
~ superfudge
"To me that is such an Emperor’s new clothes scenario. It seems like he was never really that bright, but a roomful of investors thought he was a genius for no apparent reason and pumped him up."
"The story of how he took a call with investors while he was playing video games and half paying attention comes to mind. Apparently they took it as a sign that he was a real silicone valley whiz kid and invested heavily."
~ Anonbrowser22
Thomas Midgley Jr.
"Thomas Midgley Jr.—All his inventions—leaded gasoline and CFCs—were thought to be great contributions to mankind until we found out they were dumping crazy amounts of toxins into the atmosphere and burning a hole in the ozone layer."
~ creepysink77
"He f*cked up so much sh*t. All that lead screwed up several generations to brain damage."
"And its STILL effecting people. Lead gets trapped in your bones and as you age and your bone density decreases that lead is re-released back into their system."
~ Grogosh
"This is probably the best answer there is. They guy really, really was considered a genius, and now he's probably on the top five list of people without military or political power who has done the most harm to the world."
~ Imsdal2
These are pretty well supported examples.
Who would you add to the list?
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?'
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.
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.
"What is the dumbest thing you've heard an adult say?"
Legend Has It, I Hope?
"She said mountains were created by men shoveling dirt."
"Really?"- Hail2ThaVee
One Or The Other Dear...
"It's just a fact in my opinion."- ShowMe_Your_Panties
“'Facts can be wrong'."
"'Only opinions can be always correct because it’s my truth'.”
'From a 28 year old woman."- dizzzzzzzzzzzzzz
We Can Learn A Lot From Our Children, But...
"Children don't need to be educated, they will tell you what they need to learn".
"Her 3 year son is running on the street, decides when he goes to bed and is very aggressive towards children and grownups.."- Placeboooooo
Quitting
"The more you drink, the less attached you'll get to it, thereby making it easier to quit'."
"Some dude on Discord in response to a post I made about quitting alcohol."- tuffguy1992
Drunk Cbs GIF by Paramount+GiphyWishful Thinking...
"'Things will get better for us when the baby is here'."- champsammy14
Someone Didn't Pay Attention In Anatomy
"After my dad got prostate cancer, an adult asked my wife how likely she would be to get prostate cancer and when women should get their prostates checked."
"It’s me."
"I’m the dumb adult."- WangHalen
At What Cost Though?
"Heard an engineering student say 'smoking is actually good for you because it makes you lose weight'."- UnluckyInflation4130
A Few Million Miles Off...
"Me and my grandma got to watch the sunrise on top of Mt. Haleakala in Hawaii."
"Off in the distant horizon we could see an airliner jet crossing the sun's path."
"She was horrified that the plane may have crashed into the sun."- darkshark9
Terrified To Know The Context
"'They don't need anesthesia; newborns don't feel pain'."- BitCritical1049
How Long Have You Got?...
"I work in retail."
"The limit of stupidity does not exist."- bbix246
Black Friday Thanksgiving GIF by NBCGiphyEasy To See Where He Got Confused...
"I was at work talking about how my rabbits had babies, a guy I worked with thought rabbits hatched from eggs."
"Because of Easter and Easter chicks and rabbits."- Cannibal_Cyborg·
Wrong On So Many Levels...
"Years ago I was able to visit the National Mall in D.C."
"As I was walking near the nurse's memorial, I heard a mother explain how the nurses were so brave in the Vietnam war."
"Then the child asked if we won the war.'
"She said yes."
"Then the child asked why we were fighting in Vietnam."
"Her response?'
"'Oil'."- pedantic_dullard
Maybe They Shouldn't...
"Planes don't fly in the rain."
"Work today proved that's false."- bpanio
GiphyWe've all had an embarrassing slip of the tongue every now and then that we deeply regret.
Do you have any examples you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments below.
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.
"People of Reddit, what was your “I’m dating a f*cking idiot” moment?"
Oh, Dear...
"Watched a doc that explained how sharks have electricity receptors which they use to hunt. he said 'that's not possible'."
"Sharks are supposedly millions of years old but we only invented electricity a hundred years ago'."- Key-Lie250
If You Have To Prove It...
"He thought the outlet plug covers (for childproofing) meant the outlet was out-of-order."
"He literally had nothing plugged into the walls of his entire living room."
"He also mentioned how smart he was any chance he got.... usually a prime indicator."- Airport_Fart
It's Certainly A Hustle. HOWEVER...
"He kept applying for jobs and getting denied instantly."
"At the time, I didn’t understand and was upset for him."
"Come to find out, this 26-year-old was applying for jobs driving armored trucks for banks."
"With a record for stealing money from cash registers."
"I didn’t know at the time that he had ever been arrested, but this man literally had robbery and theft on his record, and couldn’t understand why an armored truck company wouldn’t hire him."- cathherine
When It Rains, It Pours...
"My ex didn't think it rained over the ocean because there was enough water there already."
"She was shocked it rained when we were on a cruise."- 1_disasta
Let's Hope She Didn't Test This Theory...
"How alcohol content percentage works."
"We argued for months that 10% as alcohol content remains the same even if you halved the bottle."
"She said nope, if you halved the bottle then the alcohol content would be 5%."
"Engineer graduate that too."
"She works for a software firm."
"For 12 years."
"Sigh."- baboyadobo
Some People Just Don't Grasp The Concept Of Math...
"My ex thought he could play hockey and found what he thought were the holy grail of skates."
"He bought them for $200 (I don't know the price as it was a long time ago)."
"His friend, who lived in a city an hour and 20 minutes away, told him he got the same skates for $195."
"So my ex, in his old Camaro that cost $50 in gas round trip, returned the skates he got for $200 and drove 1 hour and 20 minutes to get the skates that were $5 cheaper."
"That should have been the biggest red flag."
"But sadly, it turned out I was the f*cking idiot who stayed with him for a few more years."- Flipgirlnarie
"I had to explain to a grown woman that 20% is not always $20 when converted to currency."- DahvRom
Double Whammy...
"Was just lounging about one Sunday and skiing came on the TV."
"At one point the commentator said that contestants reached 100 km/h at that point in the race."
"The ex literally shouted bullsh*t at the telly."
"I looked at her and asked why..she replied that there was no way that they could tell how far they'd go in an hour since the race was only two minutes long."
"Another time, 'I have an aunt who lives in London, is that near England'."- Allydarvel
One Step Behind
"I introduced him to my stepsister."
"He said, 'weird, you guys look nothing alike'."- Saminotsammy
Get Out Of My Kitchen!!!
"He was trying to make cookies and kept opening the oven for extended periods of time, letting out all the heat."
"When I told him he was letting all the heat out by opening the door wide open and staring at the cookies, he told me I didn't know how ovens work because the temp setter said 400 so it was 400."
"Took an hour to bake 1 sheet of cookies and said 'I don't know why it's taking so long'."
"Also insisted on doing this on Thanksgiving, tying up my oven and was pissed off when he found out the turkey would take 3hrs to cook."
"As I'm sure you can imagine... Did not work out."- pocket4129
Liking Them Doesn't Make You One Of Them...
"It was when vampire-related shows and movies were in the height of their popularity."
"He became obsessed with vampires."
"When we would go outside, he started to act like the sun was hurting him, and he would shield his face with his hands while groaning in pain."
"Think of Jim from The Office with his vampire prank... only he was more dramatic... and serious."- not-a-real_username
Some Like It Hot...
"When he left the window open in the middle of summer because the air conditioning made the house too cold."
"He didn’t turn off the air conditioner and argued that it wouldn’t have made a difference."- Lovable_Minion
Dogs Do Love Car Rides...
"I went on a couple dates with a woman who owned two large energetic dogs."
"When she bought them she was informed that she'd need to walk them every day to get them exercise and burn off energy."
"To save time, instead of walking them she'd take them for a drive and thought that accomplished the same thing."- diiejso
So Much For Going Green...
"We drove past a windmill on a windy day."
"She commented how it was too windy out and they should turn the windmill down."
"She was dead serious..."- ink4n3
Washington And Jefferson Do Look Sort Of Alike... Don't They?...
"She found a coin in the couch and exclaimed 'WOW this is a REALLY big nickel'
"To which I responded 'That's because its a quarter'."- 404-soul-not-found
As Forest Gump once said, "stupid is as stupid does," so intelligence doesn't always go hand in hand with kindness and generosity.
Nor can we be too sure that these instances are what ultimately led to these relationships coming to an end.
Though, one can't blame someone for dumping anyone who thought they'd turned into a vampire...
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.
"Have you ever pretended to be stupid or not as smart as you are? Why?"
Coming Off As Over Qualified
"It was quite common practice in my home country to hide the fact you have a masters degree to get certain jobs."
"Because either you were 'overqualified' and they couldn't afford you or they instantly knew you will only be temporary asset until you find something matching your education."- Reddit
season 1 sonograms and tube tops GIF by momGiphyConflict Resolution And Ego Massaging
"Has helped me out of sticky spots."
"And people seem to like it when they feel superior to me."- NecessaryImmediate93
Language Barriers
"I live in Germany and I speak C2-level fluent German, until one of those people on the street try to start handing me a bible or some charity pamphlet then i'm all like 'I no deutsch verstehe' lmao."- Zack1018
"I pretended to be less fluent in a language than I am before, if that counts."
"Anyone who’s lived in Japan is familiar with the NHK man, who comes to your door and pesters you to pay the NHK fee."
"NHK is the national public TV station, and everyone who owns a device capable of receiving it is supposed to pay a monthly fee to fund it, but there’s no penalty for not paying, and quite a lot of people just don’t."
"The representatives can be veeeeery pushy though."
"Well, I didn’t even own a TV, but when I first started living here I somehow got pressured into signing up to pay the fee."
"Though after that I just ignored the bills until eventually they sent an angry one saying you’d better pay or legal action blah blah."
"So I called them and used my best foreigner voice to explain I didn’t understand what I signed up for and the lady was very nice and said, 'Of course, you couldn’t have known, I’ll cancel that for you'.”
"Problem solved!"- lygerzero0zero
confused one more time GIF by Paramount NetworkGiphyOh, To Be The Ringmaster...
"When you realize your family is a Circus, you tend to be the clown."- B-Town-MusicMan
Know Your Audience...
"In all aspects of life I've found reading (and playing to) the room is the best way to get by."- gosog28052·
As Long As You Don't Mind Never Being Promoted...
"It comes with benefits at work."
"Meaning less work."- doofusdoomed
Bored Season 3 GIF by The OfficeGiphySaves A Lot Of Trouble
"All the time because I don’t feel like arguing."- goodfaceman
"Yes, because I don’t always feel like arguing. Many people are closed minded."
"They won’t even entertain a new to them idea."- Errol-Flynns-Ghost
"Yes, because i think its a waste of time to argue with people who are very narrow-minded."- Separate-Trash2375
Christian Bale Nodding GIFGiphyThe Element of Surprise
"Yes."
"People like to feel more clever than others."
"It can also come in handy to be underrated."- Aluanne
Keeps The Peace
"All the time, it makes people more comfortable."- khamelean
"Often."
"Especially when dealing with police, or other authority figures."
"Also in general life so as not to alienate people."- captain_jeremiah
good witch flirting GIF by Hallmark ChannelGiphyWanting People To Like You
"The line is just too thin between being smart and seeming a know-it-all."
"The others will feel belittled."- kapaj55687
It's understandable that people feel inclined to play dumb to avoid conflict, or perhaps make others feel better about themselves.
Though it's important to remember that everyone should be proud of who they are, and no one should play dumb in hopes of making someone else like them.
Such people probably aren't worth having as friends.