Most people are rational and stupid. This may seem absurd. It is. The world is absurd. It makes sense though, because their stupidities make sense within their own systems of thought. That is if the stupid can be said to have a system.
Of course everyone does have some sort of map within their minds through which they interpret the world. But these maps often have big problems – they’re like a satellite navigation system full of roads leading nowhere. Or football stadiums listed as churches. Actually, that would be pretty right.
I have always been amazed that so many people cope. They don't just survive, they thrive. Even with their shoddy thinking. It’s a mystery to the intelligent that others can be so stupid about so much and yet function so effectively. Gallingly, oftentimes the most conceptually stupid are the most successful. Whereas people who think a lot are often worse off than those who simply get on with the job. This is not a co-incidence. Most of what we do, we do on auto pilot. A lot of the time we are instinctually driven animals and thinking only gets in the way of what we already know how to do.
This is no excuse for stupidity though. Just because you can have a ridiculously complex and unintuitive mobile phone (take any Samsung as an example) does not mean we should throw all phones away (with the exception of Samsungs). The simplicity of a Nokia is still worth striving for. And this is the same with thinking. We should aim to think accurately, to have a good map of the world. But you do not build a map in a study, poring over books. You have to survey the land – in short get out and explore.
And this is why the conceptually poor are so often the worldly rich. Have you ever wondered why so many professional sportsmen are so dumb? How smart would you be if you spent most of your life running around kicking balls? Yeah, that's right - not very. But you would have a pretty fit body and if you got lucky you might even be an elite sportsman. The people who spend too much time thinking about the world can't compete with the people who regularly act in it. And this is why the dim often outshine the bright.
The problem is that these 'action' elites, in whatever field, are the best example of expert blindness. They spend so much of their time on one thing that they do not develop the ability to do others. Or even worse, their attachment to their expertise blinds them to other ways of seeing. Better ways. But this is a problem for another post.
People who spend their lives doing, tend to have something to show off at the end of their work. People who spend their lives thinking sometimes write a book or two – if they’re not very successful maybe some silly essay like this one. The secret to success is not winning – any idiot can win. The secret to success is losing. A lot. You show me a man who has lost a lot and I will show you a man who has had a full life. A winner in the big picture. Because the more you try, the more you do, and the more likely you are to have success.
I am not advocating that people should randomly throw darts at a wall in the hope that there is a dartboard there. That would just be more stupidity. We do not need more stupidity. What I am saying is that if you are sensible and make an effort to do things, then some of your efforts will bear fruit. But the thing is, you can never be sure what will and what won’t. You can be rather sure that certain actions will lead to certain results – putting on your pants in the morning usually means you don’t come to work naked. But coming to work does not guarantee success – big complex wins depend on far more variables than any one of us can control – and so there’s always the influence of luck. But if you don’t put on your pants before going to work, you can be pretty sure you won’t be successful. And the same goes for lying in bed all day.
I repeat: most people are rational and stupid. This makes sense. It is the world which does not make sense. But it makes enough sense that a smart person using a good map gets things done. This map is called accurate thinking. And once you have your map, to get anywhere you have to go outside for a walk. Or catch a bus. The means of transport is not really important. But many people live their lives waiting for the bus to stop by at their bedroom door. Some get lucky and it passes by their way. Most do not. They are stupid.
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