Intelligence and Conformity
Intelligence and Conformity
Building Upon 'Why Smart People do Stupid Things'
Recently, on Postcards From Barsoom, my favorite Martian offered several explanations for the willingness of the smarter-than-average bears of his acquaintance do stupid things. In this post, I offer several additions to this list, some of which come from my experience of planets like his and some of which stem from my travels in different realms.
Most of what smart people do requires neither originality nor critical thinking. Indeed, when a smart person does do something that in genuinely fresh, he will take pains to pad his presentation of it with tribal truisms. (‘Yes, I thought for myself, but it wasn’t for long, and I am still one of you’.)
Smart people spend more time in school which, all other things being equal, makes them more dependent upon authority figures than they would otherwise be.
School has little to do with critical thinking. Indeed, too much critical thinking will get in the way of the primary task of the student, which I have come to call narrative logistics.
Smart people spend a lot of time manipulating symbols, often in ways that have little, if anything, to do with external reality. In other words, many smart people operate in ways that remind me of large language models.
When smart people get feedback, it is more likely to be affective (‘I liked that’) than practical (‘That worked’).
Smart people find it hard to relate to ordinary people. Thus, they fear the loneliness that would result if other smart people rejected them.
When smart people get out of line, other smart people say ‘you can’t say that’ or, what is even worse, ‘I thought that you were intelligent’.
The amour propre of smart people depends greatly upon the frequency with which other smart people tell them that they are smart. (I still remember the time, nearly four decades ago, that someone from Harvard told me that someone else from Harvard had told him, ‘You know, Bruce is not that intelligent. He just has a good memory’.)
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School has little to do with critical thinking. Indeed, too much critical thinking will get in the way of the primary task of the student, which might be described as “narrative logistics.”
My whole scholastic career was with me critically thinking, "Why do I have to be here? I know this subject better than the teacher."
followed by, "Why is this teacher doing it this way? It doesn't make sense. It would be easier to understand if she did it this way."
Someone, anyone who has to tell the world how smart they are, usually either has rather low IQ or some deep emotional problems that they can’t work out. Best to sail away from their gray water to your own blue water.