Why have I met so many stupid people? A POV at 43.

Why have I met so many stupid people? A POV at 43.

Review of institutional relations :

From 1983 to 2001, I dealt mostly with my parents. The data was not so good, but it is what it is, one does not get to choose about this. I was happy to exit this environment. ASAP. We are generally congenial and have no ill-will towards each other, though I would think they have had more attachment to me, while I have deprioritised it aggressively since 2000.

From 2001 to 2005, I dealt mostly with my college. It only took me until 2003 to figure out that academia as a sector was poorly structured, and that my teachers here were mostly cogs in a sector they had no interest in drastically reforming. I was paid well, and made the most of my time here.

From 2005 to 2010, I dealt mostly with my employers. It took me a few months to eyeball the status quo and eject from government think tanks, then a year and a bit more to do the same for consulting and banking by 2007. Then until 2010 I worked with small business owners, before intermittently dabbling in running my own businesses from 2011 to 2020.

Perhaps it was just my luck of trying to find a place among ordinary people : the result was, I spent much of all this time with people who are naturally stupid, and comfortable in their stupor. A poorly paid serf, does not have much opportunity to offer their own servants.

So if I want to meet smarter people, I may have to switch strategies to avoid ordinary life. I will think about this some more over the years to come.

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Discussion :

Who do I consider stupid, she asked me. I thought it was clear enough in my previous comments. For the avoidance of doubt :

- people who trust counterparties without contingency plans

- people who want to publish for personal gain, instead of avoiding publication which does not serve public interest

- people who want to repeat known business models, instead of aiming to destroy them

- people who want to do their favourite things repeatedly instead of learning new things

- people who prefer to stability of a population over development of the survivors

Talking points of course. This is very abstract. 

mode switch

I tend to think, it's not possible to know who a person is, if they have chronic substance dependencies - until you've washed'em out for three months, then started structural reconstruction of motivational architecture, and seen predictable, sustainable growth, in executive function.

But I'm an asshole, and I think of people as processes. Most empaths just want to empathise with whatever blubbering mess is staring them in the face.

Off they go

Managed to dodge out of another family food group meeting today. Cousin once removed is going to college, I hear. Best of luck to them.

Their parent asked if I had any advice for the young'un and I said we had not gotten to know each other very well - so I had no context for giving advice; also I am generally available for meetings and we live in the same city, about 20 minutes away; it's not the days of steamships, now, the world is very small. I sent a Googled poster of Bezos' six meeting rules as advice which I thought might be useful.

I wondered what other advice I might have cooked up, had I attended. Don't repeat your parents' mistakes - see example above. We probably had different family experiences - I think theirs is a small, dinner-oriented family, and the only child seems to have had things prepared for them throughout life. Perhaps a word of warning that hungrier colleagues would not ask before taking from pools of limited opportunity. Do not wait to be asked.

I didn't have much affection for my mother, and would happily hang-up on her babbling mid-sentence from my college room. Hm.

What else could I possibly say? Hm.