Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
We are all flawed and incapable of perfection. Even the most intelligent people will have occasional “dumb” moments, and that’s okay.
However, some of these blunders recently became a topic of discussion on Reddit when someone asked, “What’s the dumbest thing you’ve seen an intelligent person do?”
One story involved a microwaved fork at a research institute. Another was about a doctor who placed his hand under a lawnmower while it was still running.
You may laugh at some of these responses and feel bad for a few others. But if there’s a key takeaway, no human is superior to another because each one’s skills and traits tend to balance out somehow.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Support Trump. I'm not saying this in a cheeky way, necessarily, but I have friends and family that will do mental gymnastics to justify supporting Trump despite a *vast* amount of evidence piled up against him. They will then turn around and believe anything they hear about Biden and family without a shred of evidence to support their position. It's baffling. I'm conservative, but the way Trump has hijacked my party with non-stop false claims is alarming. The way he is undermining trust in our electoral system just because his ego can't handle losing is scary. Smart people in my life falling for it really confuses me. Like *how*?! Maybe my assumption that they are able to critically think is vastly inaccurate.
RELATED:
#2
I’m an ocean lifeguard - I was driving a truck on a beach that has unstable cliff faces, so part of my job is telling people it’s unsafe to sit under them. I pulled up to a man that was comically sitting on a fallen rock, directly in front of a sign that said, “DANGER FALLING ROCKS.” Warned him it wasn’t a safe area, and he kinda smirked for a second before looking around, and seeing that I was right. He got very, very embarrassed - turned bright red, head in his hands, visibly upset and very apologetic. I told him it’s fine, and that a lot of people don’t think about things like that. He said, “No, you don’t get it. I should know better, out of anyone. It’s not fine. I’m a geologist.”.
#3
My psych once asked me what caused my PTSD
As I was telling him, I started crying and shaking.
"Damn I didn't think the question would make you cry" he responded.
THREE PHDS AND YOU DON'T THINK REMEMBERING THE CAUSE OF THEIR PTSD WILL MAKE SOMEONE CRY???
#4
Last week I couldn't find my phone, so I looked down to the phone in my hand and started to try the Find My Phone thing when... oh.
(I swear I'm at least reasonably intelligent.).
KnightOOwl 1 year ago
I was talking to my sister one day when I suddenly realised I couldn't find my phone. I spent the next 20+ minutes running around looking for it with my sister giving me advice and helping me, then I suddenly burst out laughing. I was talking to her on my phone! While I was laughing hysterically she was shouting 'what happened?' 'Are you OK?' 'Did you find it?' When I finally told her, we both felt unbelievably stupid.
#5
Just this week someone microwaved a fork in the office kitchen. I work at a research institute. Everyone in here has at least a master's in engineering.
#6
My Dad is super smart. Like... He's a member of MENSA smart, has several patents he wrote when he was in his early 20's, once asked a flight attendant a bunch of weird questions about the plane we were on so he could do some crazy math equations FOR FUN. You get the picture.
But his smarts were no match for little toddler me crying because my toy pony stopped making noise after I brought into the bathtub. Dad panicked, figured he could dry it out.... In the microwave. He did not seem to make the connection that in order to make those noises it had to have electronic (aka METAL) parta inside it. So pony goes in the microwave and a few seconds later it basically explodes into flames. We were both in shock for a few minutes. Surprisingly I stopped crying because it was so unexpected and then Dad taught me about how metal doesn't go in the microwave.
#7
Buy a billion dollar platform and tell the main revenue stream to f**k off.
#8
My cousin (21) got the highest marks in his A levels and GCSE’s in england, he’s now in scotland studying at one of the hardest university’s to get into, one day he decided to hoover the lounge this is how it went:
*me walks in*
“what are you doing?”
him- “hoovering the lounge?”
me- “you need to plug it in first?”
he was pushing the hoover around the room without plugging it in and turning it on.
Min 1 year ago
One of my friends in high school was taught by his father that if he gets a rake from the shed and rakes lines into the carpet, he can fool his mom into thinking he vacuumed and he won't have to actually do it. Seemed like a lot more work than just vacuuming, but it made them feel clever.
#9
There's a lot of guys who would never get laid if it wasn't for intelligent women who make bad choices.
#10
As a kid I saw my stepfather (a Doctor with several specialist qualifications who did two Masters in the same year on a whim) put his hand under the lawnmower to dislodge something....The lawnmower was still on. He didn't lose fingers permanently but had several months of recovery and skin grafting surgeries. He was academically brilliant but lacked a lot of practical life skills, clearly.
#11
This week I had to explain gravity to a group of people and they didn't believe me.🙈.
#12
My grandmother infamously tried to make an ice cream cake back when those were a new thing in the early 80s. She put ice cream on the cake batter…and put it in the oven.
My grandfather said it was tasty though.
#13
Someone with a Harvard PhD in biochemistry told me that it never occurred to them that different colors of Nespresso pods in their office meant different types or blends of coffee. It was just all coffee and sometimes the coffee was good, sometimes it was off, and sometimes it felt like it did nothing. It wasn't until they mentioned the last point to a co-worker, that the co-worker pointed out that this person was in the process of loading a decaf pod into the machines.
#14
A cardiologist I worked with was contacted by "Apple" about his computer security. He gave them access to his laptop and was working with the guy to set something up on there when I got suspicious and googled for him. I ran to his office to show him the apple website, saying they would never contact you by phone, and if you do, it's a scam. He immediately ended the call and shut the computer down. He had to make many phone calls and change MANY passwords as it was his work laptop. Thankfully, no harm was done. Proof that even highly educated doctors can be scammed.
Tiger 1 year ago
Honestly this happened with the C-Suite execs weirdly often at my last work. They’d get an email from a strange address saying “Hey this is (CEO’s name), I need you to do me a favour and pick up a bunch of gift cards and send me the numbers” (classic scam) and they kept falling for it 😂 I have no idea why they were making 300x everyone else’s salary.
#15
Computer tech here, traveling for work, I checked into the hotel. My room is on the first floor. I get in the elevator and press 1. Nothing happened. I press it again a few times. The other guy in the elevator says "Hey buddy, you're already on the first floor."
"Oh... Yeah."
I was really burned out.
#16
Physician got a flat on his high end Mercedes.
Mr Fixit decided to take things into his own hands, dismounted the wheel and got a ride to the tire store.
“I need a tire for my Mercedes.”
“Where’s the flat one?” They asked, presuming they could either repair it or get the specs.
“I threw it away, it was flat.”
Dumb**s threw the entire wheel and tire into a dumpster and it was gone when he returned. Car had to be towed, new OEM wheel ordered.
What may have been a $10 flat repair put his car out of commission for over a week and cost more than $1,000. This was in the ‘80s.
#17
I once had the great pleasure of getting to ask our very experienced master electrician who had decades in powering giant events but one day couldn't get his computer to boot:.
"Uh, Mike? Are you sure it's plugged in?"(it was not).
#19
My eye doctor walked into the wall once during an exam. My EYE DOCTOR 👀.
Tiger 1 year ago (edited)
Lmao I once needed a special eye surgery and the only nearby guy who specializes in this adult surgery also happens to be a pediatric ophthalmologist. I love visiting him because I’m just sitting in a waiting room on miniature chairs surrounded by Winnie the Pooh pictures and tiny children with cute glasses. Most of the reading materials are kids books so I’m just sitting around reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Ramona and Beezus while I wait. When I get called in the office, he always apologizes that a lot of his eye tests involve SpongeBob or Pokemon 😂 I’m in my 30s and I love it.
#20
Go down the entire anti vax big pharma bad rabbit hole. Threw away the free bowl cancer screening kit our government sends out every two years once you turn 50.
Now, she is undergoing chemo for bowel cancer. (Fixed major typo).
#21
My brother lit a firecracker, got distracted and put it in his pocket.
#22
I knew a many of people completely ruin their future by storming the capitol. Totally smart people. I talked to one recently after avoiding contact with him and he told me about his life since then. He cannot get a job at all no matter what the job is he cannot get it. He recorded it all on his phone so of course the FBI found him pretty easily. Took his phone. But the weirdest thing: he no longer owns a phone. He has like this nokia looking government provided phone that does absolutely nothing but call and text. Of course all messages sent and received are monitored. I literally don’t know how he’s supposed to advance in life like I don’t know if he will ever find a job.
#23
My friend was dropping me off home after a day of hanging out, and he tried to argue with me on which street that I live on.
Dude is an engineer.
#24
Bought balloons for a house warming party, blew them up by mouth, and didn't understand why they didn't float.
Granted, she grew up a Jehovah's Witness and wasn't around balloons a lot.
#25
I have a close friend, super smart, always had the highest average at uni, won multiple awards and stuff, and in conversations generally just either knows a lot about any subject at hand, or knows enough from other subjects to draw a probable theory about it. She's also kicking it in every other aspect in life- great girl, kind, humble, caring towards everyone, works out, eats healthy, is always learning a new language or skill, all in all an amazing girl. But I swear on my life, I have never seen anyone with a worste taste in men. Most of the guys she was attracted to/dated were losers, cocky bastards who think too highly of themselves, or just utter scum. I can't even explain it, to me the guys were walking red flags, a waste of a bag for bones.
Luckily, she finally found a decent, smart, caring, well-spoken man. I damn near cried tears of joy when she told me about him. They've been together for a few years now.
Space Invader 1 year ago
Sometimes I wonder if those are cases of what Terry Pratchett described as "jerk syndrome", where a woman is so grandiose that most people would not dare approach her because they think her out of their league, leaving only idiots to ask her out and her being grateful for it because she thinks others avoid her because she's not good enough...
#26
He coded a full on website in his notepad, then when he tried to copy it, he deleted everything by accident. guess he was shocked so he immediately closed notepad. then he realized he just ruined his last chance of undoing it.
#27
My mom, who was multilingual, said to me, “Watch out for that ice. It might be frozen.”.
#28
Believed she could cure her ALS by having her fillings removed because they contained toxic metals that caused the disease. Spoiler: it didn't work.
#29
Try to sand the underside of a fan belt while the engine was running. His index and pinkie finger are the same length now.
Korrie Broos 1 year ago
I had a friend with a Volkswagen Beetle Old model. The car would not start and she asked a male friend to help. He opened the FRONT of the Beetle and said to her that someone stole the engine. (for those who do not know the old Beetle the engine was in the rear of the car) She was so shocked and went to the police to open a case of a stolen Beetle engine. The police just laughed at her
#30
I had the most amazing friend he was super smart talented and rich. But was he a soft touch 3 times he married the same women each time with no pre nup because this is true love this time.
#31
My roommate’s best friend was an engineering major. He helped us move our furniture to our upstairs apartment in an old house. Obviously no elevator. VERY narrow staircase. This intelligent person got our couch stuck to the ceiling of the staircase. I was like “I don’t know what you study as an engineering major, but I don’t think this is right.”.
#32
My brother is one of the smartest people I know, but he habitually eats the onion. Every now and then he comes at me with crazy storys, and then when he goes to show me his source, I can see him notice in real time that his source is the onion, and then he scrambles to find the real article the onion "spoofed" off it. Then he says "I can't find it now, but this one was based on a real event that was slightly less weird!".
#33
In college, I saw a kid who, a year later was among the top recruits into PhD programs in his field, jump off the roof of our dorm building and break both of his legs. He celebrated getting his casts off by jumping off that same roof again.
#34
NFTs and Cryptocurrency.
NFTs are 2/3 of a trading card: the silly picture and the monetary value. The missing part is the important bit of how they fit into their system, which is what gives the picture meaning and value.
Cryptourrency doesn't have an important part of currency, which is someone legally guaranteeing its value by providing services for it. Faith is great but needs to be backed by reality in some way to be justified.
Tiger 1 year ago (edited)
The smartest people I know/follow online didn’t even bother with NFTs because they saw right through it. I don’t think I know anyone who uses cryptocurrency. My last job (a retailer who sold products worth $50,000-$150,000) spent time and money configuring themselves to accept crypto, but after two years and 0 crypto payments, they shut it down. It all just seems pointless for ordinary everyday average people. Meaning 99% of us on earth.
#35
I saw a doctor walk right into a window at Panera Bread one time. I guess he thought it was an open door.
Philly Bob 1 year ago
I'm not a doctor but I do that with my own sliding glass doors to my back deck.
#36
My mother is a college professor and has a PhD but still believes in various kinds of pseudoscience.
Robert Beveridge 1 year ago
Don't feel bad. Jill Stein graduates magna cum laude from Harvard, also graduated from Harvard Medical School, practiced medicine for a quarter century, and now refuses to state that vaccines are safe and efficaxious. [sigh]
#39
A senior physicist trying to go his lab on the edge of an area with chemical hazard warning lights flashing. It turns out that it was a false alarm, but the readouts were a gaseous chemical leak of the "melt your face off" variety. The people he wanted to talk to had definitely already evacuated.
#40
Before banks were all electronic, my mom would write a check, knowing it wouldn't clear before the welfare check rolled in. Always one day away from check fraud.
#41
One of my schools mates dad was a professor at a top university in economics. He did a lot of traveling giving speeches. Anyway, he decides to go walking on his own around a township in Johannesburg at some hour of night.
He was luckily picked up by a passing police car, and the officers were apparently having a meltdown at how stupid it was to be around that part of town and at that hour.
quentariel 1 year ago
To he honest, not everyone grasps that some areas are just too dangerous to go alone at night if they are from areas where it's safer. I walk freely at nights alone as a woman here in Finland every other night or so (returning from evening shifts), so I might make some mistakes according to safety. (But probably don't because I read the news.)
#42
One of the programmers at my work was trying to connect his computer to the projector in our conference room. He was trying to plug the HDMI cable into his Ethernet port and asked everybody in the room why he can't connect to the projector.
#44
Knew a guy who was a robotics enthusiast who was honestly on his way to working for a place like Boston Dynamics. However, he never seemed to realize that his GF was a manipulative psycho and stayed with her for years.
#45
I knew an orthopedic surgeon who fell for a pyramid scheme.
Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
My best friend from college is now a doctor. She also sells Arbonne.... Although she doesn't have a down line or push the products obnoxiously.
#47
Smoke.
Lyone Fein 1 year ago
Again, this has nothing to do with rational thinking, and everything to do with emotional needs. As with all d***s, tobacco use is due to factors like stress, emotional turmoil, and having to live in difficult conditions that are beyond one's control.
#49
Push on a pull door.
Philly Bob 1 year ago
I pull on push doors, push on pull doors and when I finally get it right, the damned thing is locked.
#50
Vote conservative.
Tiger 1 year ago
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being conservative (I say this as a pretty liberal person). I think there’s definitely something wrong with taking away women’s healthcare so they die in hospital parking lots, attacking LGBTQ people and removing the spaces and services they need, villainizing POC and immigrants and calling adults who disagree with your policies childish petty names. I’m 100% cool with mature, rational conservatives. I’m not okay with the hateful racist ones.
What do you think ?
Ali H M Salehuddin 1 year ago
Academic intelligence is different from emotional intelligence. And having one or both does not mean you are street-smart too.
Liz The Biz 1 year ago
Very true. My brother in law, academically, was a genius. He had degrees in maths, science, electronics, you name it, yet when it came to running a household he was clueless. I had to demonstrate and explain on more than one occasion how to perform the most basic of household tasks.
Load More Replies...
Keith Lancaster 1 year ago
My ex decided that he wanted to buy a washing machine and a drier. I was out at work when they were delivered. You have to understand that this guy was well educated by the way. When I arrived home he told me that he had rung the company he bought it from to arrange to have it collected as it was faulty. Turns out that he had tried to use the washer before having it plumbed in to the water supply.
Daniel 1 year ago
Knowing that absent-mindedness is a sign of high intelligence is a huge comfort when I remember the time I unthinkingly pulled onto a street and hit a car going by, destroying the whole side of the car. It was being driven home from the dealership by it's new owner. I think, if memory serves, it had 27 miles on the odometer.
Ali H M Salehuddin 1 year ago
Academic intelligence is different from emotional intelligence. And having one or both does not mean you are street-smart too.
Liz The Biz 1 year ago
Very true. My brother in law, academically, was a genius. He had degrees in maths, science, electronics, you name it, yet when it came to running a household he was clueless. I had to demonstrate and explain on more than one occasion how to perform the most basic of household tasks.
Load More Replies... Keith Lancaster 1 year ago
My ex decided that he wanted to buy a washing machine and a drier. I was out at work when they were delivered. You have to understand that this guy was well educated by the way. When I arrived home he told me that he had rung the company he bought it from to arrange to have it collected as it was faulty. Turns out that he had tried to use the washer before having it plumbed in to the water supply.
Daniel 1 year ago
Knowing that absent-mindedness is a sign of high intelligence is a huge comfort when I remember the time I unthinkingly pulled onto a street and hit a car going by, destroying the whole side of the car. It was being driven home from the dealership by it's new owner. I think, if memory serves, it had 27 miles on the odometer.
You May Like “Gave An OSHA Inspector A Stroke”: 50 Times People Fixed Their Problems In The Most “Genius” Ways (New Pics) 43 Foreigners Share Traits That Instantly Reveal Someone Is American 30 Times People Were Not Ready To Be Served Instant Karma
Justinas Keturka
Dominyka Proškėnaitė
Mantas Kačerauskas
Related on Bored Panda
