Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I'm gonna pull an idea out of my ass, and you tell me if you agree: People at the extremes of intelligence are more honest.
Dumb people are of course candid, but it's actually hard to think of a brilliant person who didn't generally speak their mind, or who paid much heed to the rules of social convention. And you see lots of bright people with pronounced moral standards they're unwilling to compromise on. Really, what drives me insane about the 'net nowadays is (among many things) people are no longer very honest. Because this used to be a land of extremes, whereas now all the normies! from real life have made it their nest and imported the superficiality of IRL socializing. So you can no longer trust that someone means what they say.
This seems heavily confounded about the fact that honest people will communicate their brilliance in honest ways and use it towards pro-social ends, ie publishing scientific papers or teaching people, or just explaining their thoughts and intentions openly when queried. Meanwhile, brilliant but dishonest people will hide their brilliance and use it to gain power and wealth in sneaky ways. There are lots of politicians and high-level bureaucrats that are really really good at political manipulations, which requires a certain type of intelligence, even if they appear stupid when talking about object-level policies. Leaders of cults or Backscratcher Clubs are going to be very intelligent and also dishonest. There are brilliant lawyers and CEOs and investment bankers who make tons of money and keep their secrets to themselves because the more people know what they know the less advantage their intelligence gives them. Literally anyone dealing with zero-sum interactions has an incentive to be smarter than the people around them, meaning to not broadcast their intelligence, and to deceive the people around them into doing the wrong thing so they can be exploited.
People at the extremes of rational/scientific/autistic intelligence are honest, because the thing that distinguishes this type of intelligence from the sneaker manipulative type of intelligence is the focus on truth and objectivity. The former is often the stereotype people think of when they think of intelligence, but if you define it this way then the connection between intelligence and honesty becomes tautological. If instead you define intelligence as the ability to perform cognitive labor and/or solve problems required to achieve one's goals then we notice this large class of anti-social and dishonest but very intelligent and successful people doing things that pay more than science does.
More options
Context Copy link
Could it be that brilliant liars are simply smart enough to lie convincingly and are never found out?
Brilliant people lie by telling truths.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
If you don’t set the high bar at prodigy level, we have counterexamples in Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
This whole theory rests on a no true Scotsman. Any time intelligence is categorized more than one step away from IQ it's just the author letting out their biases.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link