An afternoon spent reading neurology and psychology studies turned up this paper. Finally, someone has explained the problem with incompetent people: they are too stupid to even know how stupid they are.
The real problem with stupid people is not only that they don't know how stupid they are, because they can't concieve of anyone smarter than themselves they often fall under the comforting illusion that they are smart because hey, they're the smartest person they know and they can't concieve of anything they might want or need to know that they do not currently already know.
Meanwhile, some of the very smartest people I know are also the most curious, so it could be said that the smart people are the ones most concerned with what they don't know while the dumb ones are most concerned with what they already do know.
In short: I'm way more troubled by a lack of curiosity than a lack of knowledge.
I think that has been said, pretty famously, by someone we generally think of as smart; Socrates said, "I know that I do not know." A statement that in itself is interesting and demonstrates interest.
After I thought about it for a while I realize it makes perfect sense, too, for the smarter ones to misjudge themselves in the percentiles, but accurately guess how many they'll get wrong. They don't see themselves as being waaay above average, even when they can guess correctly that they'll only miss four on the test.
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Meanwhile, some of the very smartest people I know are also the most curious, so it could be said that the smart people are the ones most concerned with what they don't know while the dumb ones are most concerned with what they already do know.
In short: I'm way more troubled by a lack of curiosity than a lack of knowledge.
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I think that has been said, pretty famously, by someone we generally think of as smart; Socrates said, "I know that I do not know." A statement that in itself is interesting and demonstrates interest.
After I thought about it for a while I realize it makes perfect sense, too, for the smarter ones to misjudge themselves in the percentiles, but accurately guess how many they'll get wrong. They don't see themselves as being waaay above average, even when they can guess correctly that they'll only miss four on the test.
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