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How smart people think: why idiots believe in conspiracy theories
Comprehension is an essential life skill most of us learn as kids
Smart people understand that they know less than an expert
Not all opinions are equal! I just don’t know as much about the beryl content of the Wah Wah mountains in Utah. Not because I’m the village idiot, not because I couldn’t theoretically dedicate three decades to that, but because there are only ever so many hours in a day. Even if I spent the rest of the year googling it, a geologist would be far better positioned (and more likely to get an accurate assessment) than I was to understand, study, and review data on that topic. Stupid people have never applied themselves to the careful, impartial methodical study of a specific field over several years or decades, so they assume they can achieve the same results watching ‘Ancient Aliens’ and googling Utah rocks on the internet. Chances are you probably know less than your GP, barrister, dentist, banker or psychiatrist in their respective fields. And that’s absolutely fine, and how it should be. If a lot of experts are telling you something is debunked or nonsense, that is valuable. Even the greatest scientists will hire a barrister, and even the most intelligent dentists will go to a gynaecologist. You’re a fool…
