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35 Times Intelligent Adults With Numerous Degrees Acted So Stupidly, It Resulted In Lots Of Embarrassment
Interview
Just because someone’s got a bunch of fancy diplomas (hi!) doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily smart. Oh, they might have a ton of technical knowledge in their narrow field of study, but they might lack common sense. Or even worse—they might be so arrogant that they think they’re experts in every field. Which, as you’re about to see, is definitely not the case.
Redditor u/SgtSkillcraft sparked a very interesting discussion after asking people for real-life examples where someone with a PhD acted like a total idiot. Scroll down for the very top stories. Amusement? Guaranteed. A good dose of humility? You bet! Don’t forget to upvote your fave posts.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the original thread, u/SgtSkillcraft, to hear their thoughts on education, intelligence, and learning to stay grounded no matter how many PhDs someone has. Read on to see what they told us!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I worked with a girl that graduated from Brown...she would never shut up about it. always Brown this and Brown that. I went to a state school and it was apparent that she looked down on anyone that didn't attend an Ivy League school, so one day she was doing that and I couldn't stop myself, I said something like " Oh, you went to Brown? and yet, here we are, together in the same place, doing the same job."
Max Fox 2 years ago
Somewhat less than half get into a place like Brown, based on what they did and their academics, and they are selected from four times as many people with similar academics and achievements. Another more than 1/4 are of the same academic range and range of other achievements, but are assured admissions because f this. The last 1/4 of the people at a place like Brown got in because of family connections and money, and would not have gotten in otherwise. The last category are the ones who like telling everybody "I went to Brown/Harvard/Princeton, etc". That's how people like the Trumplings got into their colleges.
Nightshade1972 2 years ago
I'm curious if she actually *graduated* from Brown. IME, many of the people who like to brag about, "Oh, I *went* to Brown," never actually managed more than a semester or two before they either flunked out or just couldn't handle the pressure of an Ivy League school.
The OP's thread made quite a splash on Reddit, and we were curious to get their opinion, as to why the topic might have gotten so much attention online.
"I think the post resonated with so many people because a lot of us have 'been there' when dealing with well-educated people that had zero common sense and just did some really stupid stuff," u/SgtSkillcraft told Bored Panda.
"I made the post because I made a similar comment about education vs. intelligence in the Air Force subreddit," the redditor told us about the inspiration behind the thread.
"Someone in that subreddit had made a post about an officer with a PhD who bought a $10k 80 Watt laser and was shining it in the night sky oblivious to the fact that it could be detrimental to any passing air traffic. The guy had been an officer in the Air Force for some time, had a PhD, and had no idea why that could be a bad idea." And though we might not personally know anyone with a powerful laser, that story brings back memories of folks behaving in a similar unperceptive way.
RELATED:
#2
My wife has two Masters and a PhD, is internationally recognized in her field, and is an absent minded doofus. My role in her life is to ensure that her car works, that she takes her meds, and that she eats things other than yogurt and eggs. She can be brilliant one minute, then walk into the side of a moving bus the next.
I love her dearly but she's a numpty.
Awesome At Being Autistic 2 years ago
Ooh, I feel seen. My ex-husband used to call me "The smartest dumb person I know, or the dumbest smart person I know." Yeah. I was going to cross the street one time, and apparently there was a big shiny metal tanker truck turning the corner. I honestly didn't see it because it was a hot sunny day, and it was shiny. My teenage daughter pulled me back just in time. Oops.
Out of chocolate 2 years ago
This is my husband 😂 a professor of biochemistry and the foremost expert in his field- but can’t find his way out of a cardboard box . He is still the smartest person I’ve ever met. I love my genius idiot.
Katy Cordeth 2 years ago (edited)
This sounds like a set up for... dun dun dun... MU*DER MOST FOUL. "No, officer, she walked into moving buses all the time. I've even posted about it online." I'd keep an eye on him.
Nikki Sevven 2 years ago
This describes my dad. Well-educated and a repository of historical, cultural, and linguistic knowledge. Couldn't bang a nail in straight.
MetaMaxNL 2 years ago
you highly underrate you're part in her life! ! she can let her brain do the brilliant stuff coz you're taking care of her, you are an fundamental necessity for her research
David Wambold 2 years ago
The guy who graduated valedictorian in my Law School class was like that. Brilliant in making an argument but would forget to put on socks the same color or take the hose out after filling up with gas.
#3
Not quite PhD. But I was at a party (in the uk) full of med students and stereotypically everyone was off their face drunk. Well some guy fell over and broke his collar bone and immediately got rushed by a dozen of them all fussing and asking him the same questions over and 'going through the checklist". Half an hour later and he's still on the couch in pain and I go in to ask if anybody knows why the ambulance is taking so long. Nobody had an answer because nobody had called one. A party full of medical students hadn't called an ambulance or made any transport arrangements for a guy in severe pain with a broken clavicle. Idiots.
Riley Quinn 2 years ago
My father worked in construction. He had a slew of engineer and architect jokes. They had so much intelligence there was no room for common sense.
Nayla Kanaan 2 years ago
I might butcher this story so if I do pls forgive me but once when my mom was in med school some guy choked on a pen cap and the teacher ended up running down the hallway screaming
Huddo's sister 2 years ago
This is why the S was added to DRSABCD, meaning send for help. Far too many people were forgetting to call an ambulance, which shows it wasn't a 'dumb' thing in this case, but more of a panic thing.
Curry on... 2 years ago
At least 50% of students (and professionals) graduate in the bottom half of their class.
Bored Panda was curious about why society seems to value education and IQ so much. "I think we value education too highly, and we prioritize it over experience. In a lot of cases, we only value the credential," u/SgtSkillcraft pointed out.
"In essence, if you have a degree, you’re 'qualified' for a lot of jobs vs. someone who has the relevant experience but has no degree. Hands-on experience is where you hone the necessary skills to be successful," they stressed the importance of genuine skills.
The OP also had some words of wisdom for anyone who might want to be more humble and have a more realistic perspective of their limits. "For anyone to be more self-aware and grounded, my advice would be to seek out feedback from those in your sphere, and then work on implementing that advice," they said. It always takes courage to ask for genuine advice.
#4
In a personal note: my wife was a PhD candidate when we moved in together. Early on we went to a party and when we got home I told her I felt inadequate because I was the least educated person in every room and felt kinda dumb listening to them all go on about things I had no idea about. She said to me “they each know the most about some little thing they just got their PhD about. Some gene mutation or how some molecule interacts in some rarefied environment, but apart from that, they’re all just regular people who can’t figure out how to match their socks or talk to a member of the opposite sex.”She said “ you’re one of the most curious people I know. Your library is bigger and more diverse than anyone else I know and you’ve actually read them. You ask questions and talk to everybody and have actual things to talk to them about because you know about things they’re interested in.” Now she’s an MD PhD and all our friends are doctors of one kind of another and I’m STILL the least educated person at the party but now I can see people are just people and yes, you can be super smart about one thing or another and still by a f**k-up in the real world. It’s waaaay more important to be a good kind person who does what you say you’ll do than the smartest kid in class — at least that’s how we raised our kids anyway.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
Amen to this, tho' I'd ease up on the medical profession a bit. Then again, If reely admit to being a fuckup. I focus so hard on my job that at times I really just have no energy left to figure out how to cope with a "smartphone".
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
No fault here. Much more today to learn in any discipline than in the past.
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Jodi Rinker 2 years ago
my father. knows everything there is to know about some computer programming languages and stuff, but ZERO clue who his own kid is. My nearly 97-year-old grandmother still buys at least 90% of his clothes. I'm amazed he's done as well as he has as a single guy since my parents got divorced nearly 30 years ago. Seems pretty inept yet somehow gets by
Doodles1983 2 years ago
Someone called my partner “just” a trucker. He spends all his drive time listening to the radio, or podcasts and his information retention and intelligence is insane. He drives because the same commute to an office box day in and out would “drive” him mad. Underestimate no one.
Max Fox 2 years ago
MDs are not the same as PhDs. Getting a PhD is FAR more than just "knowing everything about X". It's about being able to to figure out new things in your field that nobody even thought of pursuing, and yet are critical for the understanding of the field. Einstein's brilliance wasn't because he learned more about relativity than anybody else. It was because he saw what was missing and figured out how to fill that in. That being said, it didn't mean that he knew how to fry eggs. But then again, being the best cook in the world doesn't mean that you can change a tire. Finally, researchers are often still thinking about their research when they're at home, and it makes them a bit distracted.
Hugh Crawford 2 years ago
Hey, I've fixed a computer for a full fledged mechanical engineer by plugging it in
Stephanie Barr 2 years ago
smart and good/kind don't have to be mutually exclusive. Yay for we dabblers.
#5
I went to 3 ERs when I felt something was wrong with my arm. It felt like a bug bite day 1 and by day 4 a bungee cord from my elbow to my wrist. 3 doctors said it was a skin irritation or dermatitis. I kept telling them something was wrong. I have no medical degree. I work in Property Management. Day 5 I walked into another ER and said “I don’t care if I have to pay out of pocket or sit here all night but something is wrong with my arm”. Finally, after many rude looks and comments I was given an ultrasound of my arm. Then rushed to a MRI. Then told I was being admitted. A 3” blood clot in my upper arm, 2 in my chest area, and one had passed my lung already. Diagnosed with Factor 2 Gene Mutation 22 days later (blood clotting disorder).
TonyTee 2 years ago (edited)
Yeah for real, that’s a sure win for a medical malpractice suit, most definitely.
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Sylvia Lock 2 years ago
Back in 2005 my dad (who previously had previously DVT) developed a swollen red and hot to touch calf (classic symptoms) went our GP and he said it was a trapped nerve. About a week later my dad gets chest pains gets taken to hospital (his leg his mentioned) they put him in a heart. Next day he dies from a pulmonary embolism (where a small part of the blood clot broke away and entered his lung).
Faith Donovan 2 years ago
I have to wonder if OP is a woman. Especially a woman who isn't white. This is extremely common in the US for women's symptoms to be ignored and overlooked.
smugdruggler 2 years ago
Not just in the US, unfortunately. Plenty of women in the UK don't get appropriate treatment, particularly for heart attacks because what would be assumed to be a heart problem in a man too often gets labelled as a panic disorder or similar when a woman presents with the same symptoms.
Load More Replies... ginny weasley 2 years ago
My dad was diagnosed with a clotting disorder while being treated for a brain tumor before I was born. Turns out they got it wrong and gave him an unnecessary blood transfusion which gave him Hep C. Mom always said it's lucky he didn't get AIDS but still
Sara Wilson 2 years ago
Had a friend that was told for over 2 years that she had ovarian cancer and was in the process of being approved for a hysterectomy at around 30 yo, only to be denied and found out it's because she didn't HAVE cancer. Don't remember exactly what it was, but she's a-ok now that she's been properly treated
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Nay Wilson 2 years ago
Let me guess, OP is a woman? Medical personnel are often very dismissive of complaints made by female patients
hitex 2 years ago (edited)
I have been diagnosed with cluster headaches after improperly 1st diagnosed with ear infection & sinus infection. 3rd time to see MD, fortunately she has a sister with cluster headaches and spots it right away. Said that it's more common for men & that unless MD is familiar with clusters they will likely dismiss same symptoms from a woman than a man. When I went for CT scan for verify no other life threatening possibility, that MD tried to deny I had clusters until CT came back clean and I had been administered O2 for 10 mins (best way to verify clusters) & admitted perhaps he was incorrect
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kansasmagic 2 years ago
I think this is less about "smart people who act dumb", and more about the problems with how medical services are provided and paid for.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
Yowch. A nd that's why you pitch a figt. Stand up. YELL if you must. We're medical doctors, and in the ER, they always (wrongly) assume it's a bid for meds. Nope, sometimes we have a problem. E.g., hubby has a broken vertebra!
Reviewer UK01 2 years ago
I was sent home from the ER (horrible upper back pain and lower abdominal swelling) without any investigations being done and told I was "probably a bit constipated". It was a 12" ovarian cyst which had started back pressure on my kidneys. Similar, very similar.
Riley Quinn 2 years ago
I know ERs are usually understaffed, overworked, and face actual dangers, but damn, this is too many facilities not to receive proper attention. If this is the US, I'm curious what's OP's race, because that would explain the horrendous lack of care.
#6
The entire pandemic response in the US. Everyone became a virologist, except the actual virologists who were called sell outs and liars.
Mary Rogers 2 years ago
That pretty much is the Republican response regarding any type of science. Climate change isn't real, but if it is real it's not a big deal. Maybe even a good thing. Unfortunately, the stage was set for the insanity of the US pandemic response a long time ago.
Haha Nope 2 years ago
This is not me claiming either party (because they both suck), but, unfortunately, stupidity crosses party lines.
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Lara Verne 2 years ago (edited)
Here in Czechia, we have actual molecular genetic, who apparently isn't right in the head. In spring 2020, she claimed that covid will disappear in the summer. Obviously it didn't happen. Autumn 2020 started and whole country was screwed, hospitals were full and we had thousand new cases every day. Well, she said that virus will disappear before Christmas. It didn't happen either. After that, she didn't come with any other prophecy until war in Ukraine started. Now she's big fan of Putin and claiming that Ukraine caused covid.
Geoffrey Scott 2 years ago
And, as I work in a middle school, I am seeing the effects of children exposed to "EVERYONE in authority is full of sh**" from the elders that are raising them. Sad, really.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
Degree: Medical. Specialty: Infectious disease (public health). Pandemic: I know nothing, I'm an idiot, I'm a political shill, and all that from people who were coughing up blood. Yeah. Pandmeic. UGH.
Mary Rogers 2 years ago
So sorry that happened to you, but I am glad to see someone on here who acknowledges what happened. I am literally talking to Republicans on here who are now re-writing history and telling me that the whole entire country went through lockdowns, everyone obediently wore masks, and that most blue states had a higher death toll per capita than red states. These people are nuts!
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David H 2 years ago
There were many top virologists who disagreed with the CDC, and the CDC had them flagged on social media for misinformation, this included 5 faculty members at Harvard Medical, the head of virology at Oxford, and even the head of South Africa's medical association Dr. Angelique Coetzee. Interesting those people were right more often than the CDC and NIH on what they disagreed on.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
"Top virologists" per whom? I know who they were. And they were an overwhelming minority in their opinion. CDC was alsdo, briefly, hijacked by then-VP Mike Pence. i saw their website change from one day to the next after he took over the "covid response". It was utter bs to us in the field, and in the field, and they were proven wrong. Others had their work re-edited to suit the political narrative. And I can go on, but why bother? You made up your mind that a few dissenters means the whole thing was wrong. Guess what? No. CDC's *science* was spot on. Trump's admin was not. And we're supposed to stop people who try to kill with misinformation. Signed, medical doctor, infectious disease/public health, stop downvoting Mary Rogers for stating what was true then and is true now. The early days were rough, b/c of many factors, and that's true in any novel disease outbreak, and tehre's never 100% consensus, b/c scientist know that if we don't hcallenge results, it isn't *actually science*.
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Anna Drever 2 years ago
We’ve had the same problem here in NZ. You would hope people would learn from this but they won’t. We have measles cases and schools and so on have been shut down and they’re contract tracing etc. The comments from the idiots just go on about ‘keeping up the fear factor’, as though our government has released measles just so we put the country back into lockdown.
Hidden Panda 1 year ago
That didn;t only happen in the US (dont flatter yourself). This happend all around the globe.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
We have no one but Trump to blame for that bullsh*t. Oh & Jenny McCarthy. A former Playboy Bunny who went national with her "proof" that her son's Autism was caused by vaccines. I get all of my medical information from former Playboy Bunny's, don't you?
The OP quoted well-known American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman in their r/AskReddit question, pointing out that people shouldn’t confuse education with intelligence. An individual with a PhD can still be—for all intents and purposes—an absolute idiot.
Someone who has various higher education diplomas is probably very good at following orders, memorizing facts, working with data, and adapting to the academic system’s demands, whatever they might be.
However, it doesn’t automatically mean that their research is very useful for society or that they’ve applied themselves in their studies to push the limits of their field. Of course, they might be fantastic academics and genuinely intelligent people! Then again, they might be oblivious in all fields but their own and only have so-called ‘book smarts’ without knowing how to best apply that knowledge in real-life situations.
A quote that we keep coming back to is one popularized by Bloomberg, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” This raises a very important idea, namely, that if we consider intelligence to be behavior that leads to (e.g. financial) success, raw IQ scores might not be what we should be focusing on. Instead, acting intelligently (in the broad sense) becomes akin to being social and working hard.
#7
>I don’t need to listen to you, I have “credential, credential, credential…” If you aren’t willing to consider novel information because of the messenger, sorry, you’re an idiot.
ginny weasley 2 years ago
Really depends on what is being said and in what context. There are a lot of Youtube/ wikipedia "experts" who think their opinions are as valid as people with actual degrees and years of study.
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
It's not about accepting it blindly though, it's about considering it. And as the original post states "novel information" ie: new and unusual not the same old anti-vax nonsense that's been trotted out for a decade or more.
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Scott Rackley 2 years ago
I had an engineer tell me something like that. I told him, 'if you cycle this stamping die you are going to damage... " "I'm an engineer and designer, I think I know what I'm doing." "Ok." Proceeds to cycle a 600 ton press doing $60k damage to a $500k tool. "Well, a*****e, I guess they didn't cover that in school, did they?" I have been a master tool and die maker since before he was born.
no Adhesivness2020 2 years ago
In the beginners mind, there are many possibilities. In the experts mind, there are few.
Sara Wilson 2 years ago
Too many times, by a partner usually, I'm told to stay out of a problem because I don't have the knowledge to have ANY idea what's going on. And yet, my "suggestions" always ended up solving the problem. Just because I don't have all the knowledge and ins and outs that u do, doesn't mean I can't see things u don't or think outside the box about it. Sometimes with all that knowledge comes blind spots
Samantha 2 years ago
If a partner is doing that, you should reconsider the relationship.
Load More Replies... Stephanie Barr 2 years ago
You have to prove it with facts and data, not credentials. "One test result is worth one thousand expert opinions." --Werner von Braun
Max Fox 2 years ago
Arrogance can make the smartest person into an idiot. WWII could have been stopped in its tracks, but the French and ENglish High COmmand refused to believe a reconnaissance pilot who told then that the Germans were bringing an entire army down one road through the Ardennes Forest. Had they listened, they could have wiped out about a third of the German forces, the Germans wouldn't have flanked their main forces and forced them to surrender or retreat, and the war would have ended. No PhDs, but a large number of generals.
#8
My wife's stepfather was a chemist who currently has diabetes. One night he went to the ER because his blood sugar was dangerously high. He claimed he was eating well (he normally doesnt) so there's no reason why his blood sugar was high.
In his car was a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale mixed in with grape juice. He said that the two canceled their sugars out and we didn't know what we were talking about because he was a chemist and he knows how to combine things.
Monday 2 years ago
Technically he was right.....he combined them successfully so he does know how to combine things.
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Printerman 2 years ago
I'm trying to figure out how sugar + more sugar = lower sugar and my brain is about to shut down from the pain.
#9
Peter Duesberg. Molecular biologist who works as a researcher at UC Berkeley and has an otherwise stellar career and well-known for his work. Became an AIDS denialist, claiming there's no link between HIV and AIDS. Led countless people down the rabbit hole, including many who were HIV positive. These individuals ended up infecting others and refusing antiretroviral therapies. This included an AIDS denialist activist named Christine Maggiore who infected her infant through breastfeeding thinking "Hey it's not a big deal it's just HIV it doesn't cause AIDS."
Becklass 2 years ago (edited)
He should rot a jail cell with Andrew Wakefield. The guy who profited financially from awful lies about vaccinations in the 90s and probably killed countless people in doing so.
Libstak 2 years ago
While we are at it, lets take a moment to rip to shreds all the sensationalist loving journalists and editors who never checked their facts to ensure they were not giving a bunch of quackadoodles air time misrepresented as news.
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Max Fox 2 years ago
The smarter a conspiracy theorist is, the more difficult it is to change their minds, no matter how irrational their belie is. It's called "belief persistence".
hitex 2 years ago
That's strange. I get called a conspiracy theorist by my husband, yet my beliefs continue to gradually change if evidence & time show I was incorrect. He has maintained the most generic straight opinion about things and won't change his despite clear evidence to contrary. I don't agree with your statement. Belief persistence occurs with mainstream as well as conspiracy beliefs
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Mike Morton 2 years ago
Because of Christine Maggiore infecting her daughter through breast feeding, her daughter died at the age of 3 from HIV related pneumonia
Jane Hower 2 years ago
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Even the "DR" who said he found the VIRUS took it back, but when he showed up in SF at the convention and it was his turn to speak and explain why he made a mistake, everyone left the auditorim. He NEVER found a live virus and that is what is NECESSARY to claim you have a virus!!! NO LIVE VIRUS, still not found. But it's a HUGE money making big pharma thing and will never 'die'!! Too much money being made. OMG, with commercials saying there's a med that 'makes you undetectable'??? WTF does that mean??
YTK 2 years ago
You lost me at “big pharma”. What’s next, vaccines cause autism?
Load More Replies...According to economist James Heckman, personality trumps IQ when it comes to financial prospects. Diligence, self-discipline, perseverance, and conscientiousness lead to good grades which, in turn, are a good predictor of success in adulthood. In short, it’s not just intelligence (in the narrow sense) that’s vital, it’s also non-cognitive skills like one’s ability to collaborate with others and to develop good habits.
During an earlier interview, Bored Panda had gotten in touch with Steven Wooding, a member of the Omni Calculator team, as well as a member of the Institute of Physics in the UK. He explained to us that quantifying intelligence objectively is a very hard task.
"The gold standard is the IQ test, but maybe a person that does very well on this measure would be ineffective in a real-world situation that does look like an IQ test question," he pointed out to us. "The other issue with the IQ test is that it gives you a score relative to the population, so it's not an absolute measure. Then there is emotional intelligence, which can make a person very effective in the world but is entirely missed by the conventional IQ test.”
#10
I have a PhD and I am an idiot in most respects.
All it takes to get a PhD is to be really good at or persistent in doing research in one narrow area of study.
Edit: So several commenters pointed out that I simplified things too much. A PhD also requires hard work, luck, and some basic competence in a topic. But that doesn't preclude one from being completely clueless in other aspects of life.
Downunderdude 2 years ago
Having worked for the public service (civil service, government) for 45 years, my experience is that most PhDs are useless outside their speciality. They are generally unable to see the 'bigger picture' or the 'strategic view'. My theory is that they spent so long 'down in the weeds' that they find it impossible to step back.
Glengoolie Blue 2 years ago
Weeds can be tangly and sometimes have wicked thorns.
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Max Fox 2 years ago
The center of a PhD is a thesis, not passing exams, and "doing research" does not mean "reading a lot of books". Your research has to be your own. You have to figure out what needs to be discovered, you need to formulate the methodology, you need to to analysis the results and understand what they mean. All of that has to result in something that is original and is a substantial contribution to the field. What this person seems to have done doesn't sound like any PhD I've heard of, and I've spent decades in and around acadeis, in different states, countries, and continents.
kansasmagic 2 years ago
There's also a lot of gamesmanship in some fields. I have known several academics who were able to churn out half a dozen (or more) papers, a few presentations, a few book chapters (etc.) from one small empirical study. Just using the same data over and over again. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it strikes me as kind of lazy and disingenuous. No, you don't have five publications. You just have one, in five different journals.
Sara Wilson 2 years ago
There is a HUGE difference between book smarts and street/people smarts
#11
My first call at my first IT job was in a medical laboratory. There was a doctor who had been in the job for years and she called saying her computer would not power on. I walked her through some troubleshooting and nothing worked. "Is the computer plugged in? Ok, is the monitor on? Ok, when did the problem start?" type of questions were asked and she answered them all. I go up to her office and indeed the computer is plugged in to a power strip which is plugged in to itself. Cleaning crew had deep cleaned her office and never plugged anything back in. Dr. plugged the power strip into itself thinking that as long as it was plugged in, that's all she needed.
Max Fox 2 years ago
Well, I can't argue with that. Of course, common sense isn't.
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Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
I'm a medical doctor with a PhD and this could have been me. In my defense, being chronically overtired doesn't help mattera
kansasmagic 2 years ago
I wonder how many of these "doctors are so dumb" comments could just as easily be "doctors are tired and overworked" comments.
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Printerman 2 years ago
I had this EXACT SAME exchange but with a senior partner at a well established law firm where I was an IT co-op (back in the 90's). He'd taken a computer set up to be able to work from home and plugged the power strip back into itself. Since I had tested everything in the office before sending him home with it, I'm the one who drove to his house to check it. He was one of the nicest people in the whole firm, so I made up some BS about a tripped breaker in the surge protector so as not to embarrass the guy.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
My husband is a restaurant equipment service tech. The company got called for a non-functioning stove/combi oven. They put my husband on the phone. First question "Are you sure it's plugged in?" Guy goes off on my husband, accusing him of calling him an idiot, etc. Okay. My husband has to fly to BUM F*CK Wyoming, rent a motel room & pick up a service truck for - guess what? An unplugged stove. This guy's ego/arrogance prevented him from even looking to make sure. The invoice was over $3500 (US) and the overtime gave my hubby & me a really nice 4 day weekend.
DarkViolet 2 years ago
It was the late Dr. Leo Buscaglia who declared, "Some of the stupidest people I know have PhD's!"
Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
It is the first thing my sons do when "repairing" my non-functional computer. (I am 80). Sure, one is a Ph.D. in genetics. Usually, it works.
#12
My college roommate, smartest person I've ever met, spent nearly an hour trying to shove a desk back into the corner of our room at an angle. She wouldn't listen to me because in her words she "got this."
After she finally gave up, I walked over. Pulled the desk out completely and straightened it with the wall, and pushed it back in. One movement, no struggle.
Many a time we had where I'd realize she might be the smart one but I've got more common sense.
Jihana 2 years ago
That's the agreement I have with a friend of mine. I am the smart one, she's the one capable of surviving.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
My Partner and I are like this too....... thank HP we got together or I would share some unpleasant developments with Nikola Tesla
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Faith Donovan 2 years ago
There are many different types of intelligence.... the world needs all of them.
According to physicist Steven, one way to stay grounded is to remember that everyone, absolutely everyone makes mistakes. No matter how intelligent you are (or think you might be), you will make a mistake sooner or later.
"It's good to remember this if you're feeling very confident or you've rushed an answer to a question. Take a moment to double-check yourself," he explained that it’s important to stay humble.
Meanwhile, the scientist added that it can be very hard not to get frustrated if someone else doesn’t have the same knowledge base as you do. Changing your perspective can help. “The best way is to assume the role of a teacher and help those around you learn what you know. Over time, the gap between you and them will narrow, reducing the cause of potential frustration,” he told Bored Panda.
#13
Dr. Ben Carson, one of the most skilled neurosurgeons alive, thinking that the Egyptian pyramids were used to store grain.
Mary Rogers 2 years ago (edited)
Also clueless when it comes to being a government employee. He couldn't even answer basic questions about his job in front of Congress.
Monday 2 years ago
and yet this clever moron has successfully separated conjoined twins. One of the most complicated surgeries to pull off.
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David H 2 years ago
Hey, he is a doctor, not a historian, I dont expect a history professor to know how to do bypass surgery. You pick a doctor based on their medical skills, not their history knowledge
Agamemnon O'Neill 2 years ago
I'm neither, but the pyramids as tombs are BASIC knowledge.
Load More Replies... Max Fox 2 years ago
Sigh. An MD not a PhD. Again, tow different things. Sheesh, you would think that the Redditers would know this by now.
Kitty 🥀 2 years ago
Sigh. The overall “theme” of the question still applies, so the information provided was still interesting.
Load More Replies... Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
Yeah, we just keep the dead bodies and gold for sh*ts and giggles.
Jane Hower 2 years ago
Well, they are much older than previous thought and certainly were NOT for burials. Too many leftist idiots making comments on this site.
hitex 2 years ago
This is a genuinely good man - I think people underestimate what it is like for everything you say to be publicized. It's not fair to judge someone for a silly comment when we've all done the same ourselves in some social situation in our lives bur were fortunate it was not reported by mass media
Shelby Moonheart 2 years ago
Ben Carson is an amazing man who is blessed with the ability to do intricate brain surgery.
#14
I worked IT for a hospital. I was speaking to a doctor who forgot his password. While he was spelling his name phonetically over the phone, he said, "Z as in Xylophone." Needless to say, my eyebrows raised.
Nicola Roberts 2 years ago
that's why the rest of us pick zebra or zulu (on a good day)
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David 2 years ago
I was hired for an IT job where I had to learn Xenix (basically an old, lighter version of Unix). I had never heard of it so went to the library to read up on it to at least have a basic understanding. I was having trouble finding any books on Zenix. Felt sort of dumb when I realized my mistake. And of course I thought of Xerox copy machines - which I had heard of.
Susan Bosse 2 years ago
A lady at my mom's office said this year ago. Someone found a xylophone in a coloring book and frame it for it. She had it on her desk until she retired. Haha
#15
I'm an attorney. I was taking a class at my local university for a graduate program and the professor, not knowing about my day job, proclaimed that having a PhD legally gets you out of jury duty, because the law is that you're too smart to be on a jury.
I spoke up, and said that was simply not true. There are no restrictions on being a juror in my state, other than being a US citizen.
She was pissed, like red-faced, vein-popping-from-the-foreheard angry. She said she'll prove me wrong next class.
And she never did.
smugdruggler 2 years ago
"If you can't blind them with science, baffle 'em with bullsh!t." seems to be how a lot of them work.
kansasmagic 2 years ago
Having lived in a college town where faculty were routinely called into jury duty only to be excused for one reason or another, there might be some basis for this misperception. Maybe trial lawyers and judges just don't want to deal with someone else who thinks they are the smartest person in the room!
Vanessa Richardson 2 years ago
Lawyers and judges don’t have to “deal” with jurors at all, really. It’s the other jurors that will have all the problems. Haha
Load More Replies... Mark Kelly 1 year ago
Actually it's opposite, I want a lawyer or someone really smart on a jury
Vanessa Richardson 2 years ago
When I served on a jury, one of our members was a Kansas Bureau of investigation officer. He didn’t Try to “school” us like he knew everything though, which was a relief!
Forrest McCanless 2 years ago
Yes, but. I've lived near a small college all my life. It's widely understood by the faculty that no one with a PhD ever gets through jury selection - too risky to predict; just choose someone else in the pool..
Max Fox 2 years ago
Fun fact: one does not need a PhD to be a professor in a law school. One definitely doesn't need a PhD to be an non-tenure track lecturer in Law school. Looking through the faculty of Harvard Law school, the tenured and tenure track faculty mostly do not have PhDs, and those who do mostly have them in economics, history, etc. Lawyers do not like experts on the jury, so they will often reject people with a PhD that is related to the trial. Similarly, they will reject MDs as jurors in medical malpractice trials. Police, firefighters, active duty soldiers, and elected officials cannot serve on federal juries.
#16
As an aside, look at how much nepotism factors into getting into an Ivy League school before being automatically impressed that someone has a degree from one
Kim Vaughan 2 years ago
Sorry, but that may have been true some time back but the reality now is that admission preference is given to people of color- excluding Asians.
Max Fox 2 years ago
Sigh. That will help you get into their undergraduate program, which is determined by Admission Officers. Legacy and child of faculty have a boost in admission chances to undergraduate programs. However, it will not help you get into their PhD programs, which is decided by the faculty and students.
#17
I had a professor for higher mathematics who had real difficulties figuring out how to extract a cup of coffee from the vending machine. Bless him.
Al Padilla 1 year ago
Then there's the story about the constipated mathematician, who worked it out with a pencil....
Danish Susanne 2 years ago
I don't know which machine you are talking about, but I recently tried to get a cup of tea from one. There were no instructions, so I put the cup in the middle and all the water ran at the extreme right of my cup.
LinkTheHylian 2 years ago
"I can work this out. I'll just divide the diameter of the cup from the circumference, and that will give me the... no that's no good. Maybe I could... no, that won't help, either..."
Marguerite Barnett 2 years ago
Went to Harvard where everyone is a genius. First day in cafeteria one of the MD/PhD candidates was trying to get orange juice from the dispenser. He was pulling on things, looking around the sides and back, totally ignoring the button which clearly stated "push." i spotted a janitor observing this while leaning on his mop. When he saw me looking at him, he shook his head and loudly said, "Yup, that's what i like about working at Harvard! They is so bright I am blinded by the light!"
#18
A doctor telling me my 6 month old couldn’t have strep because she was infant and taking her to the ER because she was getting worse and no urgent cares were open and finding out she had strep.
Miss Frankfurter 2 years ago
Strep throat is unbelievably painful. It’s like swallowing broken glass. There’s an office test that confirms, in just a few minutes, if you do have strep throat. That’s because antibiotics need to be started right away. Find another doctor? I’d also report them for being so incredibly and dangerously stupid.
Spongebob Sadpants 2 years ago
I had a severely painful throat as a kid. The doctors looked in my mouth and called me a faker and a liar. They said if I kept lying they'd cut out my tonsils. I had strep throat.
Fenchurch 2 years ago
Reminds me of the out of hours Doctor who prescribed me treatment for oral thrush, because my baby had thrush in his mouth and I demanded to be treated as we were just reinfecting each other....... Not sure how he thought breastfeeding worked! I went to my GP and got the correct treatment.
Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
We tend to forget that in every graduating medical class, at every medical school in the world, every single year, someone must be last in every graduating class. That makes A LOT of last place docs. Never forget that when you KNOW there's something wrong with you or your child and a doctor dismissed your concerns, ESPECIALLY if you're a woman.
#19
Dr. Oz. He really went to Harvard. He really is a University Professor. He really did pioneer several cardiac surgery techniques.
Also, he promoted hydroxychloroquinine to fight Covid after reading about it on the Internet.
I don't mention the obvious scams that he flogs on his TV show because I don't think he really believes in them; I think it's an act he puts on just to scam gullible people.
Julia 2 years ago
After seeing all the trump supporters who had BA/BS and law degrees from the Ivy League, I've realized those universities aren't as lofty as advertised.
Awesome At Being Autistic 2 years ago
Yeah, a lot of times a diploma is pretty much just a receipt. It doesn't mean that you have learned critical thinking.
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Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
He is an abomination in our profession. He wants $$$$ more than anything. And he is a grea tsurgeon, sure, but that's *all* he's good at, IMO
High Mamii Melo 2 years ago
I met Dr. Oz and he was a very, very nice man. Having said that, he definitely peddles stuff that can be more harmful than helpful.
The Original Bruno 2 years ago (edited)
HCQ has never been properly evaluated. I have to take CDC's word for it that the experiments that found CCQ ineffective had design flaws, but EVERY study that found it ineffective failed to use zinc. The studies which for years have established HCQ fought coronaviruses since 2009 made clear the mechanism: HCQ mediates zinc uptake. So any study that doesn't supply the zinc is designed to fail. So the question is: why were every study that tested HCQ designed to fail?
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I don't have knowledge of this, but if your research is correct, the concept has merit..... BUT anyone credible at/in Oz's position would/should have known what you posit......
Load More Replies... PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I wanted to say this guy is a slug, but I find slugs kinda cute and don't want to diss them
Tom Hutcherson 10 months ago
Take your pick. https://www.acsh.org/search?search_api_fulltext=Dr.+Oz
#20
I have been told that idiots are running the world, but if thats true I would have thought I would be a little higher up.
Haha Nope 2 years ago
I would not say that we are run by idiots, usually those in power are incredibly smart, but they are also incredibly greedy, cruel, and self-centered. They will say or do anything as long as it will benefit them.
Midnightoil 2 years ago
Today I would definitely say America is being run by idiots...three in particular.
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Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
The fact that you recognize idiots run the world is usually proof you aren't one. Idiots are simply a*s-kissers full of hot air willing to say whatever the majority wants to hear, thus rising to the top.
Danish Susanne 2 years ago
If you know, that you are not a genius you are smarter than a lot of people who think they are.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Doesn't apply. The REAL idiots are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN they know stuff and don't reflect on concepts like this
#21
I was at a keg party at college and the (gravity keg) was set up. Someone complained that the beer was not flowing, so I check that the keg was still almost full. Turns out someone closed the air intake on top. I opened the intake and poured myself a beer. Problem solved. A few minutes later someone else complains the beer is out. I told them the keg was full a few minutes ago and it was a tap problem that I fixed. They told me they just came from the keg. I go back to the keg and find the intake was closed again. Opened it and poured the young lady who said it was empty a beer. As she is leaving my suitemate comes in and goes to the intake can closes it. Now my suitemate is a straight A student who gets all As mostly due to his photographic memory. Back to the keg. So I tell him that he needs to leave the intake open to let air in to displace the beer coming out of the lower tap. He then proceeds to tell me that since the beer is carbonated air is not needed to replace the liquid volumn lost when the beer is dispensed. So I asked him two questions; If it is not needed, why is there the upper tap, and does he really think the amount of gas the carbonation gives off in a glass of beer is equal to the volumn of the liquid beer? He thought for a few seconds and his only response was, "I have a 4.0, what is your GPA?" Then he walked away.
Ace 2 years ago
I recall my ex-B I L who believed that squeezing some of the air out of plastic fizzy pop bottles would keep it from going flat.
Gubas 2 years ago
Well, that depends on what you mean. Squeezing the bottle slightly and closing the top will actually keep the soda from going flat because as pressure rises, gas remains dissolved in liquids for longer.
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SheamusFanFrom1987 2 years ago (edited)
My GPA allows me to get a beer out of the keg without it, does your 4.0 do that? Smh...
Donna Peluda 2 years ago
I won a bet with a high school chemistry teacher who stated in a bar drinking that ice couldn't go below 0º Celsius (32º F) I have a digital thermometer so it wasn't hard to prove.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Love it. Did you add salt or something else?
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XenoMurph 2 years ago
Well, I brew beer. The keg is pressurised. Like an aerosol can, there is no upper tap in an aerosol can. You have to top up the CO2 to keep the keg pressure up. Otherwise it goes flat, and this happens. The flatmate was correct, it shouldn't need an air vent to empty, the beer should not be that flat, but it does need a CO2 refill to keep the pressure and carbonation.
Tushar Roy Mukherjee 2 years ago
Um, why would you need to tip up the CO2 content? If there is no hole in the keg, the CO2 content which is put into it should remain constant and maintain a constant pressure on the liquid. Or does the liquid dissolve the CO2?
Load More Replies... Stephanie Barr 2 years ago
If you use your "credential" instead of an argument with data, my experience argues you probably are wrong and, more than likely, even know it.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I hate asssholes like this. I wound up being 12th in my class in hs because I got bored of just focusing on academics and renounced this shìt to get better acquainted with my world.....
Tushar Roy Mukherjee 2 years ago
I have very little idea of what is actually going on here, but I'm guessing that the Carbon Dioxide was also escaping when the outlet was opened, and that for a reason I cannot understand is not allowing the actual liquid to pour out?
#22
Not a PhD but I know someone who has a masters in finance and thinks everyone should just own a house, I was like how are they gonna pay for it? He was like they should work hard . I couldn't stop laughing
Phoenix Haessal 2 years ago
Yup, since we're all a bunch of lazy losers who aren't doing anything at our offices & thus not getting paid enough to buy a house "asap" for no reason..
S Mi 2 years ago
Everyone who thinks that should have to look after two small children, taking the bus to daycare, then work at a just above minimum wage job, get back on the bus, get children, take bus home. For, what, maybe a week? It's not about hard work. People in that situation work extremely hard.
Danish Susanne 2 years ago (edited)
I once read a theory about why we laugh. It is because otherwise we would cry, if that theory is correct, but you example seems to prove it.
Cougar Allen 2 years ago
When I was in high school a teacher told me rich people are rich because they work harder than other people. I said, "Show me. Earn yourself a million dollars in the next year -- by working harder than the other teachers."
kansasmagic 2 years ago
Well, yes, everyone should *just* own a house. Paying for it? That's a different issue entirely.
#23
My ex-boyfriends mother was a linguistics professor and knew over 10 languages. She was also one of the dumbest people I've ever met. Some examples: she believed that in case of emergency stewardesses catapult out of the plane; she was also convinced donating blood causes some blood disease and you can die because of it. But my favourite one was when she said her son's orthopaedic problems are not a result of a serious injury he had. His knee hurts because he eats too much ketchup.
Rabbit Of ill Portent 2 years ago
So my back hurts so much because I eat too much mustard? Finally, it all makes sense now! /s
fair_weather_rose (she/they) 2 years ago
What condiment causes wrist pain and how can i avoid it?
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Nayla Kanaan 2 years ago
Blood donation can *TECHNICALLY* cause a disease that can kill you said disease is known as anemia mind you it is very preventable and only happens if your iron gets far too low but it can happen in fact I donated blood like 4 months ago and I’m still sometimes getting super lightheaded and semi passing out so I should probably remind my mom that I want my iron tested
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
Don't put your head so close they can sit on them? ;)
Load More Replies... Sally Jenkins 2 years ago
My knees hurt and I hate Ketchup! But to do eat a lot of soy sauce! Hey, she might be on to something here! #nomorecondiments /s
Reinaldo Fuentes 2 years ago
I too am a linguist. I currently work as an interpreter, which is a different but related field. Just because someone can explain to you how, why, and when the case endings for most inflected languages went from being completely separate words to inflectional suffixes through a process known as juncture loss, which is a form of rebracketing, and if we’re talking about Indo-European languages, is part of the greater trend toward analysis and away from synthesis (deep breath), this, in no way, means they can tie their shoes and speak at the same time.
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
Nevermind the sauce one, I want to know more about the catapulting stewardesses. lol
#24
As someone who works security in a hospital I can say a good 90% of the doctors there are smart but lack any type of common sense and sometimes I wonder how they function on a day to day basis
EDIT: I also forgot to mention I’m almost 2 years in a relationship with a pediatric cardiologist and it’s as shocking at home as it is with the ones I work with lmao but I can’t say it’s boring
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
I'm one of them... I'm just so scatterbrained things slip my mind. Sometimes I'm amazed at how I even made it to that point in life where I'm now. We're all just bumbling through I guess
Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
Book smart does not always equal common sense. My mom is the bookworm; brainy, but ditzy as they come. Luckily (well, that's a matter of opinion, but for us kids), she married my dad, who never read a book in his life (though consumes magazines and newspapers voraciously) and was blessed with a boatload of common sense (before becoming a grumpy old man). I think they passed on a pretty good balance of both intelligence and common sense to my sister and myself (along with some ditziness and grumpiness lol).
kansasmagic 2 years ago
Or....they are physically and mentally exhausted from working four 12 hour shifts back to back.
Sally Jenkins 2 years ago
I know a man that can rebuild a car engine, solve complex equations in his head, and knows absolutely everything about Abraham Lincoln but will sit next to his phone while it rings and ask, "What is that noise?". It's a phone Phillip. It's ringing!!! (Seriously, like an old rotary style phone ring! Has he never heard one in HIS LIFE??) 🤣
Doodles1983 2 years ago
I work with GPs daily. Most are Jack of all, Master of none, supremely intelligent people. With zero common sense.
#25
A physics professor got catfished by someone claiming to be a supermodel who asked him to bring her suitcase from Brussels to Milan. Of course, the suitcase had drugs.
An idiot would have seen through that in two seconds, but a super smart guy convinced himself it was real.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/physics-professor-catfished-by-super-model-imposter-lands-in-jail-for-drug-smuggling/
Rabbit Of ill Portent 2 years ago
The gods gave men a penis and a brain and only enough blood to run one at a time.
Dave van Es 2 years ago
They also gave men brains larger than a dog's so they wouldn't hump womens legs at cocktail parties
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#26
I used to work at a university, and tons of academics are incredibly educated in their chosen field, but have the common sense of your average dachshund.
My favourite was probably an entire group of geology professors and PhD candidates who got "stuck" for a good few minutes in an entryway because they didn't think to check if the door required a pull rather than a push. Bearing in mind that they'd just entered with that same door not an hour before.
Ms.GB 2 years ago
I have a dachshund and he hasn't figured out that if the bedroom door is open but not wide enough for him to walk through that his body will push it open the rest of the way.
Load More Replies... PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I was in NYC and watched people show up to an elevator, wait, and leave because no one pushed the button......
Abner_Mality 2 years ago
Professor and dachshund owner here. I disagree, my two doxies each have better reasoning skills than a few of my coworkers!!
Mary Kelly 2 years ago
to be fair, all people w/ or w/o ph.d.s fall for scams, forget to check whether the cord is plugged in, struggle with doors some times, and beleive all manner of wacky things...everybody lacks common sense or stumbles depending on the day...this trope that ph.d.s are brilliant in their field and lack the common sense of "every man" every where else is just ridiculous...
Ms.GB 2 years ago
Eh..I love my dachshund but he definitely lacks common sense...however I will give him a pass because he's only a year old and he's adorable!
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M Waite 2 years ago
My doxie is a sweet and helpless except when it comes to 2 things. The first when she corrects my larger dog. Out for a walk and ready to go home? If my other does wants to meander she gets right up in her face and started her down. If she doesn't responds so goes back to her and gives her the " I told to move bark". I joke that she has telescoping arms. If there is food somewhere she'll get it. She weight 11 pounds and her legs a 3 inches long. Her chest is only about an inch from the ground. Yet somehow she climbed up on my desk and stole my lunch. I'm still not sure exactly how she did it.
#27
All of Trump's lawyers have passed the bar exam, otherwise they wouldn't be lawyers- and yet time and time again they keep proving that they have either no understanding of how the law works, or disregard any understanding they may have had.
Mary Rogers 2 years ago
It helps to remember that Trump seeks out the unscrupulous ones that will do his bidding. Also, good lawyers don't want to anything to do with him anymore. But yes, they are either idiots or just don't care about the law at all. My favorite legal "argument" is this one when Trump was trying to overturn the election results: "The lack of evidence (for election fraud) IS the evidence!"
Geoffrey Scott 2 years ago
Ahhh yes..."America's Mayor".. goes to prove you should not believe the hype. Further proof some will do anything for money/noteriety.
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S Mi 2 years ago
They have an understanding of how the law works for the uber wealthy that doesn't match ours. Doesn't mean they are wrong, unfortunately.
Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
Legally wrong. It's unfortunate that morals don't factor into it, but clearly we're not all playing with a matching set. I will give the lawyers who've been working on the Mar-a-Lago documents a couple points, if only because they have clearly looked uncomfortable at times either trying to keep Trump quiet or trying to dance around the questions they have been asked under oath while trying to best represent their s**t of a client. Don't get me wrong; they sold their souls to the devil when they agreed to work for him, but at least (imo) it shows they have some conscience seeing that they're having a difficult time struggling w/ the case. His other lawyers seem to revel in the chaos and the sheer mockery of the law they're creating.
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Karen Rutland 2 years ago
Sometime back in the seventies a politician said that 90% of all lawyers were incompetent. The head of the American Bar Association spoke up and said that this was definitely not true because the number was only 50%.
Cindy Brick 2 years ago
Yep, and Hunter Biden's attorneys are brilliant... arguing that they don't know if THE laptop is "authentic," but protesting the photos and text on it, just the same. Brilliant.
Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
Trump's lawyers know exactly how the law works, and that's part of the problem. The other part is that they have no issue setting their ethics or reputation aside to work for him b/c they know 1) he's incredibly litigious and will keep them in business forever as long as they do his bidding, so they can scrap their reputation b/c they'll never have to worry about finding other clients (besides, there are plenty of Trumpers that would LOVE to hire his leftover lawyers unfortunately) and 2) he's got enough $$ to keep suing anyone he wants and keep the whole cycle going. As long as they don't overstep and make outrageous claims like Rudy and Sydney did (his current ones seem to be smarter), everything they're doing is completely legal. Morally degrading, but legal.
#28
I have a PhD, and I work with a bunch of PhDs. Basically, a lot of them think that because they succeeded in one area, they are an expert in every other area of life. And they always have strong opinions about everything. I think it's also called a PhD syndrome.
troufaki13 2 years ago
It's not exclusive to PhDs. Most people think they're experts at everything and that they're never wrong!
Riche White 2 years ago
I knew a Doctor of Pharmacy tell me the degrees went up as follows: B S ( Bull s**t ) M S ( More of the Same) and P H D (Piled Higher and Deeper )
Nikki Sevven 2 years ago
So, you met my dad (above). Now meet my mom. Never wrong about anything.
#29
My ex had a real lack of knowledge and common sense when it came to children.
She's currently completing her PHD in biochemistry and molecular biology. She was confused though when I said I couldn't go out after putting my toddler to bed as I had no one to babysit. In her mind, once my daughter was asleep she no longer needed anyone here to take care of her.
I chalked it up to cultural differences and never being around children. Eventually though our opinions on raising kids differed too much and I had to end things for my daughter's sake.
Glengoolie Blue 2 years ago
She has a much better understanding of children on the microscopic/submicroscopic level.
#30
My great uncle is a brilliant engineer but has zero social awareness. If I tell him a joke about, say, dogs he won't laugh but he'll tell you about how dogs evolution mirrors humanity's and how our species are symbiotic or some s**t. Then we explain to him that it was a joke, he'll replay it in his mind, and *then* laugh. Edit: I appreciate all the online diagnoses, but he's absolutely not autistic
les 2 years ago
my neighbour is very similar. he can set up and operate some emergency electrical generators while hanging from a helicopter but he cant figure out the value of anything. He sold his last car for £100 because it was 3 years old so he thought that was a deal to him, yet he doesn't fit in the electric car he bought to replace it and drilled new holes to mount the seat further back which destroyed many of the batteries costing him thousands of pounds. The guy is one of the top emergency electric workers in the country but he's not life smart.
Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
Some people just aren't blessed with a sense of humor. Honestly, I had a close childhood friend who was raised by very serious parents, and I come from a very sarcastic family. She still credits my family 35 years later with teaching her sarcasm. Not all people have the same kind of sense of humor, and some don't have any.
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Glengoolie Blue 2 years ago
He sounds like a lot of the people on BP. You make a joke and they'll write a wall of text explaining how what you said is not accurate.
#31
My uncle is smart as f**k. Multiple masters degrees in education and science, constantly wins awards for his teaching and high averages from his students.
Tell me why this idiot needed me to remind him how to make ramen several times over?
Monday 2 years ago
I have this with my dad too. Really clever dude, understands difficult concepts pretty easily....but I've caught him several times practically shouting at his google home for not listening/turning on when the power is out. He always facepalms and laughs about it....then proceeds to do it again in a few weeks.
Nikki Sevven 2 years ago
There are instructions on the packet, and I presume he is literate, so...
#32
If you work IT you feel this. Every lawyer, doctor, celebrity and CEO I've ever worked with is computer illiterate. They can email, they can Twitter and that's it. They confuse the mouse, they openly call themselves Luddites, they kick the power plug out and claim the 'box broke'. Mega-millionaires, too. Smart in other regards, but computers are kryptonite.
Julia 2 years ago
Right! I had to coach so many people above me in the work food chain through Microsoft Office and pdfs.
Tom Hutcherson 10 months ago
I worked a help desk at IBM in Boulder for a while. I actually had a client that put his drink in the CD/DVD holder. I told him that's not what it was for. (He was a geophysicist).
Load More Replies... David 2 years ago
My personal favorite was a tractor dealership owner - invoice printer would not print. Tells me (repeatedly) the printer cable is connected to (a workstation computer). Gets angry when I ask him to manually follow the cable because things were not adding up. Tells me other end of cable is laying on the desk. "I thought you said it was plugged into (computer)?" "Well, yeah, but we sent that computer out for repair". This was before wifi printers were common and the guy knew the data cable had to be plugged into a PC. SMH. We disconnected the printer and created our own problem and we are mad at your company it no longer works. LOL. It was an easy thing to temporarily assign the printer to another work station but they have to actually tell us they removed hardware.
JK 2 years ago
I worked with a group of fully qualified and experienced accountants. None of them know how to mark email as junk. They genuinely believe the email storage is limitless and believe the junk folder magically emptied itself (no, i did that, all 3000+ of them). They can't even understand how Dropbox works and would rather email sensitive documents to clients (even from their phones) rather than drag it into Dropbox and share a link because "our clients won't know how to use it" I said you just tell them to click on the link. That was too confusing, the same people who navigate the government gateway in seconds and file all sorts of things through it, cannot understand Dropbox. They're a great bunch, really good at what they do, but they make my brain hurt whenever it involves anything electronic or technological!
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
Sadly even IT people also have blindspots when it comes to IT. I worked in IT and was visiting with my father overseas. We went to visit one of his friends who was a teacher and the local IT company was setting up their new network. Couldn't get the computers to connect. Much back and forth, rebooting, reinstalling drivers, etc while I'm just kinda watching in the background. Eventually I asked if anyone had checked whether the server was actually plugged into the router. Surprise, surprise it wasn't.
#33
I know many people in the science field that conduct Double Blind Randomized controlled experiments in the lab and then go home and check their horoscopes...
Con O Cuinn 2 years ago
I read my horoscope most mornings. The anger I feel at these con artists really wakes me up.
David 2 years ago
We used to play a game where one person read the horoscope and the other person tried to guess if it was theirs. The obvious gag being most of them are written so they can apply to just about anyone. "You are smart person. You should avoid falling off cliffs" Oh yeah, that totally sounds like me! lol
Load More Replies... Edward Treen 2 years ago
I don't believe in horoscopes: we Capricorns are naturally sceptical.
Darth_JarJar 2 years ago (edited)
This reminds me of a joke from Phineas and Ferb. In an episode Stacy says “I’m a woman of science, at least that’s what my horoscope says.”
Faith Donovan 2 years ago
I work in clinical research, was shocked earlier in my career to find out that a high level person in the company believed in creationism
Mary Kelly 2 years ago
as an atheist, i see this as no different tha going home to ask god what to do...
#34
British historian David Starkey, he is only a historian in regards to Tudor England (1485-1603). Other than that, he is a complete idiot, especially when it comes to politics.
Rabbit Of ill Portent 2 years ago
I've made a personal study about Tudor England myself actually (no degree to back it up, I've just read a buttload of books about it) and I'm a total ditz when it comes to politics lol
Edward Treen 2 years ago
You mean he holds political views that differ from yours, so he is therefore an idiot? Wow! Such modesty.
#35
That biologist lady who works for creation ministries (ken ham). She denies evolution and insists that we are descended from a mud man created by magic.
Glass Ghost 2 years ago
Boy, we can't talk about science without clapping on religion. Kind of expected something like this. You can easily not believe and still be respectful about it.
Deeelite 2 years ago
Thank you for saying this. Believing in religion doesnt automatically make you stupid.
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Bill Hankel 2 years ago
Because many scientists realized that God is a plausible idea through their work. To simply dismiss it out of hand without examining the evidence with an open mind makes you intellectually lazy.
Fairytails From Other Worlds 2 years ago
Päivi Räsänen is a Finnish Christian Democrat politician, doctor and writer. She also doesn’t believe in the theory of evolution but insists that people came from the imagination of an imaginary man (not entity, man). She also wants schools to teach this in BIOLOGY classes. Cheez 😶
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Oh I've read that fairy tale! It's not even a very good one tho
Haha Nope 2 years ago
I don't see how religion and science can coexist, as lest not how we know it. If you are just looking at consciousness, it is a form of energy even though we do not fully understand it. And in science, energy is neither created nor destroyed, so how could people continue to to be born with consciousness while other lives die and their consciousness continues to live on another plane? Then you can starting thinking about reincarnation and consider that maybe there is a finite number of lives that can be created with consciousness, but how were those lives created? Where did that energy come from? I do firmly believe in the scientific evidence that we have, but there is so much that we do not know and will never know.
#36
Being intelligent and being an idiot are not mutually exclusive. Some of the smartest people are idiots, just like some of the dumbest are. Come to think of it, some of the most average people are idiots too. To sum: Idiocy is not positively or negatively correlated with intelligence.
Dave van Es 2 years ago
And yet, we're headed for idocracy. I still say that film is a documentary
Kim Steffen 2 years ago
The ratio between intelligence and happiness is inversely proportional.
XenoMurph 2 years ago
Only the followers are the idiots, the politicians and media are very clever, very strategic.
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#37
I had a boss who was an engineer who put a couple hundred dollars in change in a bank’s pneumatic drive through tube where it got stuck and they had to use a jack hammer to get it out. He was upset that the bank was charging him for this because he didn’t know this would happen. They had large signs saying not to put change in the tubes, including on the tubes themselves.
#38
My ex wife with a PhD in neuroscience driving my car around with the handbrake on calling me to ask about the noise and smell.
#39
I work with medical doctors all the time for work. Doctors are some of the dumbest smart people I have ever met.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
This shìt doesn't apply to you because you somehow absorbed/were gifted a useful dose of humility. Please continue to be introspective and honest.
Load More Replies... #40
Worked at a tech company, was made team lead. One of our team members was a PhD in astrophysics. He would ping me constantly for how to do things that we had well documented. How to install certain programs, how to gain access to servers or code repositories. Literally we would sit in zoom calls together and I would just read the instructions out loud and watch him do them. I was utterly confused as to how he could breathe by himself.
Shark Lady 2 years ago
My sister is ridiculously intelligent, I am not. At one point I bought the same cookery books as her because she would call me so I could explain a recipe to her. Admittedly I love to cook and that is my thing, but she is a scientist who does various experiments which aren't that different to following a recipe.
#41
My professor, a brilliant neurosurgeon, once decided to directly smell a bottle of ammonia. He then told me “don’t smell that”. I did not plan to!
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Um, no. Whole bottle vs. tiny amount. Source: did it once thinking this same bullshìt.
Load More Replies... #42
As someone who did two trades and then decided life is better with education - my experience currently going to Uni is how clueless so many people are in Uni .. I wouldn’t say they’re an idiot, but tons of ignorance develops living in a student bubble your whole life. I rented a room to a guy who did his masters and it would take him hourssss to cook dinner. I watched him one day and he just couldn’t wrap his mind around cooking things that take different amounts of time to cook. Like, he’d start cooking potato’s and wait til they were done before moving onto the next thing he was going to eat them with.
Con O Cuinn 2 years ago
Went the trade route too before doing a degree. The snobbishness was what I found to be the source of a lot of their ignorance. They just presumed that a degree gets them a better paying job than a trade. Had to explain that I would be taking a paycut with my degree, was only doing it because my knees are f****d.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Wish I was a fly on the wall for these encounters <3
Load More Replies... #43
A long time good friend, absolutely brilliant. Can literally beat you at chess blindfolded. Engineering in college and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. But he’s a big picture guy, sees how things develop and great long term vision. Incredibly successful. But little things? Guy couldn’t pack a suitcase, wouldn’t know how to book a flight. Was making boxed Mac-n-cheese and couldn’t figure out why it was so watery. Ya, he didn’t drain the water after the pasta was cooked.
#44
MBA’s are probably the most overhyped group of people on the planet. I’m like 99% certain that nepotism was getting too obvious so they had to invent an incredibly expensive degree that friends of rich people could get so that they could also get great jobs and become rich. Most MBA’s I know are actually so dumb it hurts.
Edward Treen 2 years ago
Master of Business Administration. Often proves the old saw:- Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach teachers to teach. Those who can’t teach teachers to teach, administrate.
#45
I worked for a statistician who had a PhD in statistics and was dumb as a post.
OTOH, I worked with this *really* smart guy who happened to have a PhD, and as he said it "all that means is I did the work [for a PhD]."
#46
This is basically what The Best And The Brightest by David Halberstam is about. It tells the story of how the Kennedy and Johnson administrations got the United States into the Vietnam war, and it particularly zeroed in on Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He kept escalating the conflict at every turn, and if you questioned him he could bury you in data showing that the US was winning the war and the Defense Department just needed more troops and more money to put us over the top. I'm grossly oversimplifying a great book, but that's the gist of it. A great companion piece to the book is a documentary called The Fog Of War by Errol Morris. It's a one on one interview with Robert McNamara filmed near the end of his life where he ruminates on the lessons he's learned. After watching it 90% of people come away from the experience thinking that McNamara is a particularly intelligent and sagacious man, even though there's a mountain of evidence showing that that's not the case
#47
To get a doctorate, you need to know absolutely nothing about a wide range of subjects.
kansasmagic 2 years ago
Never thought of it that way, but yes, it's true! In order to get a PhD you have to commit to complete ignorance of many other fields. This never sat well with me, as a big part of the fun in college came from exploring a wide range of subjects. Grad school was in most respects less fun. I drank a whole lot more in grad school, though!
#48
My old psychiatrist was morally against prescribing certain effective medications and instead recommended i continue to consume almost twice the daily limit of caffeine instead. Had decades of experience and my therapist thinks quite highly of him, but I do not share her enthusiasm.
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
People like that shouldn't become medical doctors. Really, denying people probably life-saving medication because it alters the brains neurochemicals... Yeah, that's the whole idea behind it, dumbass 🙄
kansasmagic 2 years ago
Hmm. I will have to try this double caffeine protocol. But how much alcohol should I also consume every night to depress my nervous system?
#49
Me. Masters in cybersecurity and can’t help my 5th grader with his math homework.
kansasmagic 2 years ago
This isn't about being dumb. I assume the OP can *do* the math, they just can't *explain* it according to some specific curriculum standard. It's a common belief that being able to teach something is a sign that you really understand it, but I think that is false. Teaching is a separate skill. Go to any major research university and you'll find a lot of people who are knowledgeable and highly skilled at research, but are terrible at teaching.
Sally Jenkins 2 years ago
Common core is way beyond my patience. I have dyscalculia and have my own ways of doing simple math. Ask me to help with common core? I'll poke my own eyes out first!
#50
Those french idiots who put non-medical-grade silicone pads into people and caused death and cancer in 2010.
#51
Engineers. I'm a machinist.
TonyTee 2 years ago (edited)
My mother’s older sister was married to this guy who was a big shot on Wall Street. He was a financial accountant. So you know the guy was quite smart. At least, you’d think anyway. He, and my aunt, lived out in Long Island, owned a big beautiful house with a decent sized front lawn; this stupid f**k, he was mowing the grass one day and it clogged up. Instead of turning the damn motor off FIRST, he just went and stuck his hand right up underneath there, in an effort to pull out all the grass that was caught in the blades. WHILE it was still running. Man lost 4 of his fingers, and no, none of them could be saved. They were scattered all throughout the lawn, my aunt almost had a heart attack when she witnessed this (his blood curdling screams alerted her while she was in the house). So till the day he died his right hand was basically just a stump with a thumb attached. What he had in intelligence he lacked in common sense. 🙄
Con O Cuinn 2 years ago
Engineers at least have some knowhow. Architects are the worst. I've yet to meet one that wasn't a moron. From asking to fix a 90kg louvre with silicone because he didn't want to see screw heads, all the way to asking me to weld copper to stainless steel. Honestly do not know what they're being taught but it's nothing relevant.
#52
A different version. Elon Musk. Just because you were rich and got richer doesn't mean you're successful or innovative. See Twitter and Tesla and Space X's admission they have people who's only job is to distract him from the actual workings of the company.
#53
Jordan Peterson is the poster child for this.
Con O Cuinn 2 years ago
Never has a man reacted worse to fame. How someone can study authoritarian regimes and how they formed, yet still court the far-right like he does is beyond me.
nachtinachtischachti 2 years ago
Why is he far right? And pro totalitarian regime?
Load More Replies... #54
Ben Carson. Neurosurgeon who also believes the pyramids were made to store grain.
Adam L 2 years ago
No, they are landing spots for a race of parasitic aliens that call themselves gods in order to control the people that serve them......
Load More Replies...
What do you think ?
kansasmagic 2 years ago
A good number of these could be restated as "this person wasn't trained to do *my* job." That doesn't make them dumb. A doctor may be computer illiterate, but when's the last time anyone went to an IT specialist for medical care? Those are just different jobs.
Lara Verne 2 years ago (edited)
I know one surgeon. He's brilliant, but useless in pretty much everything else. I am cashier, he went to supermarket where i work, forgot his card and did not have enough money to pay. He couldn't understand why I cannot sell him everything. It was like talking to toddler.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
PhD from Princeton: Constant bragger. Also unemployed. PhD in astrophysics: Can't follow IKEA instructions. We all have our weak points. And some are somewhat more annoying than others, I suppose.
Mabelbabel 2 years ago
I'm a medical doctor with an MA and PhD. I know an awful lot about a very, very tiny area of medicine, but in real life my IQ plummets if I have to do anything involving numbers. Add a list of 3 double digit numbers and I get a different result each time. I can't memorise a telephone number long enough to dial it without writing it down. I have loads of medical friends, and many of them are as dumb as stumps outside their specialist areas. I'm pretty good with random facts and the sort of useless knowledge that's good for trivia quizzes, but something like Sudoko or magic squares, or 'what's the next number in this sequence?' challenge, I'm fairly useless.
Wondering Alice 2 years ago
Sitting one evening with my sister in law, she said something quite daft about the moon - I can't remember, except it was daft. I spent close to an hour explaining how planets move to about the understanding of an average 10 year old. Later guy on next balcony gave me a conspirital 'dumb blonds, right'. Well no. She is a medical doctor, anaesthetist and I have no idea how many qualifications she has but I've been to a pile of her graduations. It's not at all wierd she has gaps in things she is not interested in.
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Enlee Jones 2 years ago
I once worked at university as a secretary. Everyone in the department had a Ph.D. None of them knew how to use the copier.
jiajun xiao 2 years ago
I'm very late, but apparently many people in China hate Jews for oppressing the Europeans (it wasn't 100% false but offensive) and most important thing is that they hate Schindler's List for spreading Jewish propaganda. WTF?!
Graham Berry 2 years ago
I think it may be more accurate to say that there's a big difference between being knowledgeable and being smart. Smart is problem solving and knowledgeable is just knowing things. Allot of these people sound like they have good memories and have used them to collect allot of knowledge but may not have the smarts to use it to think there way out of a paper bag. In our society we have far to often mistaken knowledgeable for smart. In the end of course it's best to be both.
Clover 2 years ago
I have found that many of those who have some sort of degree are smart about their field, but pretty stupid about life in general. They want kudos for their degree. I never went to college, but am pretty smart about things in general, but get no credit for it, because I have no degree. This is one of my pet peeves, that's for sure.
Mr. Toast 2 years ago
I am one of those Jack of all trades Master of none. Probably have some learning difficulty as failed socially and academically through life though have had close friends and have scored top marks in subjects that interest me. Have a room full of books mainly factual. Have known academics like this article highly qualified cannot even do basic numerical maths. Often so channelled they have never experienced anything outside their chosen field. Been in a few relationships with people like this. It is not Sapiosexual, you just want to be a relationship were conversation is on the same level. Can lead to frustration arguments as you question with so many letters after their name they cannot do simple, practical things and they get annoyed by the supposed idiot with no letters after your name knowing very intelligent stuff they don't know.
Kevin J. Henning 2 years ago
There is a difference between intelligence and common sense. Having said that, college can give a person the tools but has no control how the person uses them later on.
kansasmagic 2 years ago
A good number of these could be restated as "this person wasn't trained to do *my* job." That doesn't make them dumb. A doctor may be computer illiterate, but when's the last time anyone went to an IT specialist for medical care? Those are just different jobs.
Lara Verne 2 years ago (edited)
I know one surgeon. He's brilliant, but useless in pretty much everything else. I am cashier, he went to supermarket where i work, forgot his card and did not have enough money to pay. He couldn't understand why I cannot sell him everything. It was like talking to toddler.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
PhD from Princeton: Constant bragger. Also unemployed. PhD in astrophysics: Can't follow IKEA instructions. We all have our weak points. And some are somewhat more annoying than others, I suppose.
Mabelbabel 2 years ago
I'm a medical doctor with an MA and PhD. I know an awful lot about a very, very tiny area of medicine, but in real life my IQ plummets if I have to do anything involving numbers. Add a list of 3 double digit numbers and I get a different result each time. I can't memorise a telephone number long enough to dial it without writing it down. I have loads of medical friends, and many of them are as dumb as stumps outside their specialist areas. I'm pretty good with random facts and the sort of useless knowledge that's good for trivia quizzes, but something like Sudoko or magic squares, or 'what's the next number in this sequence?' challenge, I'm fairly useless.
Wondering Alice 2 years ago
Sitting one evening with my sister in law, she said something quite daft about the moon - I can't remember, except it was daft. I spent close to an hour explaining how planets move to about the understanding of an average 10 year old. Later guy on next balcony gave me a conspirital 'dumb blonds, right'. Well no. She is a medical doctor, anaesthetist and I have no idea how many qualifications she has but I've been to a pile of her graduations. It's not at all wierd she has gaps in things she is not interested in.
Load More Replies... Enlee Jones 2 years ago
I once worked at university as a secretary. Everyone in the department had a Ph.D. None of them knew how to use the copier.
jiajun xiao 2 years ago
I'm very late, but apparently many people in China hate Jews for oppressing the Europeans (it wasn't 100% false but offensive) and most important thing is that they hate Schindler's List for spreading Jewish propaganda. WTF?!
Graham Berry 2 years ago
I think it may be more accurate to say that there's a big difference between being knowledgeable and being smart. Smart is problem solving and knowledgeable is just knowing things. Allot of these people sound like they have good memories and have used them to collect allot of knowledge but may not have the smarts to use it to think there way out of a paper bag. In our society we have far to often mistaken knowledgeable for smart. In the end of course it's best to be both.
Clover 2 years ago
I have found that many of those who have some sort of degree are smart about their field, but pretty stupid about life in general. They want kudos for their degree. I never went to college, but am pretty smart about things in general, but get no credit for it, because I have no degree. This is one of my pet peeves, that's for sure.
Mr. Toast 2 years ago
I am one of those Jack of all trades Master of none. Probably have some learning difficulty as failed socially and academically through life though have had close friends and have scored top marks in subjects that interest me. Have a room full of books mainly factual. Have known academics like this article highly qualified cannot even do basic numerical maths. Often so channelled they have never experienced anything outside their chosen field. Been in a few relationships with people like this. It is not Sapiosexual, you just want to be a relationship were conversation is on the same level. Can lead to frustration arguments as you question with so many letters after their name they cannot do simple, practical things and they get annoyed by the supposed idiot with no letters after your name knowing very intelligent stuff they don't know.
Kevin J. Henning 2 years ago
There is a difference between intelligence and common sense. Having said that, college can give a person the tools but has no control how the person uses them later on.
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