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  • LordCrom@lemmy.world
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    55 minutes ago

    Intelligence and wisdom are separate things.

    E.g. you are intelligent enough to know smoking is bad for you, but lack the wisdom to stop smoking.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    2 hours ago

    When you say, “fucking stupid” is “stupidity” actually the problem? Like what, they can’t do math?

    Raw brainpower is only a fraction of what’s involved in good judgement. Book knowledge is another fraction. But there’s a whole host of other factors that can influence decisions. Poor impulse control, psychological hangups, bad habits, greed, privilege, etc. That’s assuming that the education they received actually taught them how to think critically in the first place.

    The vast majority of the time, when I have a problem with someone, it’s not just a matter of lacking brainpower or education. Condensing those problems down to “stupid” is, aside from any other concerns, simply inaccurate.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    2 hours ago

    If they pay tuition, do the bare minimum to get the bare minimum grades, they’ll graduate with a degree, and you’ll never know where they fell on the scale. Having a degree has nothing to do with how smart they are. I have met plenty of dumb people with degrees, and plenty of seriously intelligent people without one.

    You know what they call the guy who graduated last in medical school? Doctor.

  • axx@slrpnk.net
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    3 hours ago

    (Academic) education is not intelligence, and certainly not wisdom.

    The worst part is this education doesn’t protect you from falling for certain loopy ideas. Critical reasoning is a skill and like all skills it needs to be learnt and maintained.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    My mom worked as a university professor, then advisor, and what she said about college was “it just shows a prospective employer that you can follow rules and commit to doing something for a few years and follow through on it. That’s why they want the degree. Also cuts down on applicants, fewer to sort through.”

    So, from someone on the inside, she didn’t think the main reason was education, in terms of specific jobs. I know in accounting I don’t use so much of what I learned and that’s a pretty specific degree. Anyone with a mind for numbers & systems could be trained on the job to do what I do.

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      I’ve used the advanced systems analysis math I learned in university as an actual calculation in my job precisely zero times.

      I roughly think about how those models apply to situations and how that will effect the various likely outcomes and behaviours etc on a literal daily basis.

      University isnt just about training you to do a job.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    In addition to the many other fine comments here, I will add that when you think someone is so stupid there is often something missing. You may not understand what information they are acting on or you might be interpreting the context according to different values than theirs. As an observer, not understanding someone else’s choice can feel exactly like “damn what a stupid choice.” I try as much as I can to take these as opportunities to dig further and use my imagination to figure out what they must be thinking. Occasionally I come up with something.

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    It’s worth noting that college degrees are often not hard to get, assuming you have ample finances. Colleges are businesses, and they care more about cashflow than education.

    I have a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. Of my graduating class, probably only about a quarter of us actually understood anything. And now working in the industry, it seems like that’s a pretty reasonable average for other institutions in my field (there are exceptions, a few colleges have higher standards).

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      I mean, to be fair, electrical engineering is one of the most notoriously difficult to grasp disciplines.

      People don’t generally have a great intuitive sense for how pulsed electromagnet waves propagate through 3d space and time.

      • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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        2 hours ago

        There are some aspects of the discipline that are hard to grasp–in my experience, it was differential equations and advanced control systems. But those are a pretty small part of the curriculum. The number of people who graduated without demonstrating even basic understanding of rudimentary concepts is alarming, but it explains a large amount of the shitty engineering that exists in the world.

      • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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        7 hours ago

        Depends on the place, I guess. In the US and Canada, it’s pretty common. I’ve attended four different institutions and taught at one, and they’ve all been pretty money-focused.

  • Twongo [she/her]@lemmy.ml
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    17 hours ago

    i’m a mechanical engineer. i know something about electricity and physics. i also have a degree in international trade.

    until 2 yrs ago i didn’t know how eggs get fertilized and yesterday my wife had to show me how to remove olive pits while preparing ouur cooking.

    by all accounts i’m a dumbass with 2 degrees in specific fields that i don’t encounter in day-to-day life. i have no idea how to survive in this world. i am sure others feel the same.

    • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      Marcin Jakubowski talks about this in his TED talk; theoretical physicist realizes he cannot DO anything, becomes farmer, founds open source ecology.

    • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      Marcin Jakubowski talks about this in his TED talk; theoretical physicist realizes he cannot DO anything, becomes farmer, founds open source ecology.