Expert Analyzes Why Smart People Sometimes Make Stupid Decisions

It is often thought that intelligent people are safe from committing nonsense. They are supposed to have the intellectual capacity to always make the best decisions and rarely make mistakes. However, we all know very intelligent people who nevertheless make stupid mistakes on many occasions, without their extraordinary mental capacity sparing them from the possibility of doing silly things.

O awesome.club tells why, according to the author of a book exploring this topic, superior intelligence and foolish decisions often coexist more often than one might expect.

It is impossible to define in a few words what intelligence is and what aspects of our lives it governs. However, when we say that someone is intelligent, most agree with the same thing: intelligent is the one who has a greater ability to incorporate knowledge, a greater development of abstract thinking – which helps to solve calculations and think logically – and a greater ability to to see a conflict from a different point of view and to understand it and make the right decisions.

Taking into account the above, one can believe that an intelligent person has an easier life and that his chances of making foolish decisions are slim or nil. But things are not like that, and we also know that. Many of us know cases of intelligent people who make incredibly silly mistakes.

We could say, then, that we all know someone intelligent who has sunk into the deepest nonsense. Why does it happen?

Do you have to be an idiot to make a silly decision? Let’s think a little. What is a silly decision? Let’s put the following example: a person is offered the possibility to choose, in the middle of the desert, between 10 kilos of gold and a container of water. What would be the right decision and what would be foolish?

Without water, human beings cannot survive in the desert; no gold, yes. The decision seems easy. Even ridiculous. But gold allows us to buy thousands of liters of water. Of course, as long as someone sells us water in the desert. In this situation, it is very likely that a person with normal intelligence would only care about satisfying the most urgent need and would choose water.

On the other hand, the person with superior intelligence will not simply discard gold. Choosing water would be the same as giving up. So it is even possible that, in your calculations and in your ambition (so characteristic of intelligent minds), you dismiss the real importance of thirst and even stop seeing it as a real problem. You probably know someone like that. People who, foolishly, would rather die of thirst.

David Robson, a BBC science journalist, published the book The intelligence trap, in which he clarifies the value of intellectual capacity. Intelligence, according to him, is a kind of tool. But making smart decisions doesn’t depend on having the tool, but on making good use of it. Used incorrectly, it can become a trap. Intelligence and rationality can go different ways.

According to Robson, a person with a high IQ must learn to use their own ability and master it to play in their favor. After all, in a situation where a person locks himself in his own intelligence and disregards his own limits and the opinions of others, the chances of learning from mistakes are low. And intelligence ends up becoming a trap.

In his book, Robson mentions examples of personalities recognized for their intelligence who made foolish decisions at some point in their lives, which led to failure, ridicule, ruin, imprisonment and even death. But Robson doesn’t stop at describing the problem; he also proposes what to do so that intelligence does not end up playing against us.

The keys that emerge from reading Robson’s book are, among others, humility, curiosity and reflection. Humility allows us to recognize our limits, take into account the advice of others and not exhaust a certain subject in ourselves. It is what protects us against a totally dangerous kind of blindness.

Curiosity will help us ask questions before making decisions. There’s nothing wrong with stopping for a while before making a decision and understanding the scenario before us. On the contrary, there is exploration in the questions and this is always important when deciding, as we will know much better the terrain in which we are moving.

As for reflection, it is necessary to understand that acting hastily can harm us. Very smart people assimilate things more quickly, but that doesn’t mean their decisions should be quick. Sometimes speed leads us to disregard depth, and to make a decision you need to dig deep into a problem, weigh the pros and cons in detail, and also consider the possibility of failure.

If we do not take these points into account, intelligence, however great, will play a role. And instead of opening our eyes, we will put on a blindfold that will lead us to act blindly, exposing ourselves to foolishly tripping over the smallest of challenges.

Have you ever seen someone smart make a stupid decision? Has your intelligence ever led you to a robbery? Please tell us in the comments.