Topic 72 17 May 2019  Stupidity is really interesting

 

1. I'm pretty stupid at learning languages. What about you? What are you stupid at?

2. I've done some stupid things in the past. Have you done any stupid things that are not a secret?

3. When you go to another country, some things the people there do usually look a bit stupid. Can you think of some examples?

4. In jobs and professions a very few people are brilliant. Most people just survive from day to day. Then there are always a few people who are so stupid in their actions (even though they might be "intelligent" in school) that they are a risk to everyone, including themselves. Can you think of examples of people who stupidly create a risk for everyone?

5. From experiments, psychologists found something now called 'The Dunning-Kruger Effect'. The Dunning-Kruger Effect happens when the most stupid, or most ignorant people are actually the most confident! Why are they confident? They don't know what they don't know. People who do know are often modest, or full of doubts. [example: when I first graduated in Linguistics I thought I knew everything about it. Now I feel like a small child on the edge of a huge ocean]. When have you been too confident, then learned later that you really knew very little?

6. Are the biggest effects of what happens in the world every day a result of cleverness, or of stupidity? (Think carefully!)

7. The people who run countries (and the people who vote for them) quite often do stupid things. In your opinion, what is an example of a whole country acting stupidly?

8. Children and teenagers often do stupid things. They lack experience. What is the best way to guide a child or teenager who has acted stupidly?

9. Sometimes criminals are very clever. However, some criminals are so stupid that what they do is funny. Can you think of an example?

10. Can education cure stupidity? For example, in countries with a high level of education, are people less stupid? Or is stupidity just part of being human forever?

 


72. Stupidity is really interesting ©Thor May 2019