THE CASE FOR PROFESSORS OF STUPIDITY

Professor Ambrose Penwose, Kiwi

THE CASE FOR PROFESSORS OF STUPIDITY

This is more than a Hinkly Dinkly news item, so I will take it myself even though the title makes it seem as though it is about him.

I was reading an article entitled…
New Evidence for the Strange Geometry of Thought.
It sounded interesting and I am always eager to think about thoughts, but the thoughts it conveyed were ruined by intellectual gibberish and quite boring in nature.

To the right was a list of similar articles, and as I thought appropriate, one on stupidity, another commodity I always indulge. The title is the same as the one above and unable to be written here due to Rules of Redundancy, which may not be spoken more than once.

The article stated that, on some past International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the author reread a bit of Bertrand Russell.
In 1933, dismayed at the Nazification of Germany, the philosopher wrote “The Triumph of Stupidity,” attributing the rise of Adolf Hitler to the organized fervor of stupid and brutal people—two qualities, he noted, that “usually go together.” He went on to make one of his most famous observations, that the “fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
I will need some time before I can comment on that one.

Further suggestions suggested that “Some people’s own incompetence somehow gives them a stupid sense that anything they do is first rate.”
This phenomenon has been demonstrated even for everyday tasks.
Humans have shown a tendency to be a bit thick about even the most mundane things, like how well they drive.”

Stupidity is not simply the opposite of intelligence. You have to be smart to be stupid.
A fellow who deems himself “Unstupid” stated…
“Stupidity is using a rule where adding more data doesn’t improve your chances of getting [a problem] right, in fact, it makes it more likely you’ll get it wrong.”
“YOU’LL get it wrong?” Why does he refer to ME when speaking of stupid?
“Intelligence, on the other hand, is using a rule that allows you to solve complex problems with simple, elegant solutions.”
That’s better. I solved that problem simply.
The fellow followed with, “If you were to ask yourself, what’s the greatest problem facing the world today, I would say it would be stupidity.”
You did not say to ask you. You said to ask myself. I am still thinking.

“So we should have professors of stupidity—it would just be embarrassing to be called the stupid professor.”

I don’t mind…I’ll do it!

I look forward to tenure in that department.

Penwose Out,
By George
NoPo8