Why You Should Think of Everyone As Stupid, Lazy, and Possibly Insane (Including You)

Since then, philosophers, economists, and conspiracy theorists have developed many complex theories about the nature of society and the motives for human behavior. From the ideas of Adam Smith to Karl Marx , most of these models depend (at least in part) on the idea of ​​rational human actors working to achieve reasonable results for themselves, their community, or society. But they are wrong.

Likewise, volumes have been written on how you should relate successfully to other people, but most assume that the person you are talking to is a relatively smart, functional person, although they probably are not. You probably don’t either.

In practice, humans are stupid, lazy, and behaving like crazy, and all human effort is the result of this trio of almost universal traits. So we must look at the world accordingly.

All dumb

When I think of smart people – really smart people, not only the smartest guys on the bus, but also smart theoretical physicists – I can only conclude that I’m a fucking idiot. But when I read the comments section of the New York Times , I feel like I can be the smartest person in the world. The fact is that there are many more New York Times commentators than theoretical physicists. In other words, forty-six percent of Americans believe ghosts exist , which is why we rarely deal with the intellectual avant-garde in our daily lives.

Ultimately, however, it doesn’t matter where someone falls on the “smart spectrum,” because even the smartest person is stupid most of the time. This does not mean that humans cannot be smart, but what we define as “intelligence” is rarely the basis for decisions, opinions and interactions, even among people who may score high on IQ tests or exhibit other external attributes that we decided to designate it as “intelligence”.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economics and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his continuing study of the psychology of decision making. In his 2011 book Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman suggests using two modes of information processing to make decisions. The first is automatic. This is our first reaction, the instantaneous formation of associations in our mind without any effort. It’s intuitive and impressionistic, the result of the connections we’ve made despite countless experiences in the past.

The second is slower thinking – the part of our brain that we use when we solve an algebra problem, where we go through careful, logical steps to arrive at a conclusion. This kind of thinking takes a lot of work.

According to Kahneman, no matter how “smart” we are, our day-to-day thinking involves an interaction between these two ways of thinking, with Mode 2 slightly tracking the unformed Mode 1 input as we travel the world, which is rare. handset to suggest input. Think, for example, of how thoughtlessly you can drive a car.

This works fine in most cases. We take our assumptions, impressions and biases and base our decisions and opinions on them without any static. Even that which questions our underlying assumptions can usually be explained with some little effort in the mind of Mode 2.

Everybody is lazy

The amount of effort it would take to always think with a Mode 2 mind would be volatile and in most cases useless. In fact, it takes a lot of effort to study our assumptions and solutions as carefully as we give the algebra problem, and who has the time? Most of the solutions don’t really have a single “right” answer anyway, and there are a ton of great streaming shows out there right now.

This could be considered lazy. Although laziness is often referred to as a character flaw or one of the seven deadly sins , it actually offers great evolutionary benefits. Shellfish have been around for millions of years, and they don’t do shit.

Many followers of evolutionary psychology (an often lazy discipline in itself) argue that people conserving energy , doing just enough to meet immediate needs, were a preferred coping strategy than the effort required to engage in long-term planning for some abstract purpose – just go bear hunting and don’t worry about building a city. In the world of 2021, immediate gratification is also not an optimal strategy for success, but it’s hard for us to shake our ancient impulses, so it’s safe to assume that most of the people you meet think and act in the very short term.

To illustrate how “lazy” you are, ask yourself what percentage of your time is spent getting through the day, and how long it takes to actually pursue some kind of long-term abstract benefit.

Most of us act insane

According to the National Institute of Mental Health , one in five Americans have a mental illness, and according to the CDC , more than half of us will someday be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder. And this does not apply to all of us who are not diagnosed, but which are often unfounded.

It also leaves out the many people with personality disorders who are less likely to seek treatment but are more likely to succeed (in business and politics) than others, even if their reduced empathy may negatively influence their decisions. Researchers call them ” successful psychopaths ” and describe them like this: “Completely devoid of conscience and feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest feeling of guilt or regret.” Does this sound like someone you’ve heard of?

It is debatable whether the prevalence of mental illness is due to the fact that mental illness offers some evolutionary advantage , whether it is the result of a toxic society, or arises from a greater awareness of mental health problems, but it is safe to assume that many of us suffer in varying degrees, or at least behave insanely.

There are often no outward signs of dullness, laziness, or insanity.

It’s easy to think that people are dumb and lazy when you’re in line at Costco – you’re in Mind Mode 1, so your biases are showing – but the trick is knowing that everyone is just as imperfect. The external trappings that we are used to associating with sanity and intelligence are just as false as the assumption that the guy next to you in line is a drug.

Many of us tend to think that rich and powerful people have achieved this because they are smart, hardworking, and make smart decisions – rich people will tell you this – but the true “source” of wealth is unlikely to have anything to do with those things. On the contrary, it’s a complex mix of fate, culture, and sheer luck that add up to wealth, like a lottery so exclusive you can’t even buy a ticket to play it.

“This rich asshole is as wrong as me” is an important thing to keep in mind when dealing with people who have more power or money than you. Nobody, not even rich influential people, plays 3D chess. People hardly ever play 2D checkers.

You’re as flawed as everyone else

It would be nice to think that recognizing the flaws and potential pitfalls in other people’s inner world will help you to more easily recognize them in yourself – to become more “mindful”, purposeful and focused – but that will not work. Feel free to try, of course, but most likely you won’t succeed. You are almost certainly less aware of your own biases than you recognize them in others, and knowing this fact will not help you avoid the Chinese finger trap.

And it will not be “smart”. Researchers have long studied “blind spots of bias” (our tendency to see other people’s prejudices over our own), but recent research shows that “cognitive sophistication” is more likely to cause people to have a larger blind spot of bias – they are “smarter.” it is harder to understand your biases than it is to see them in others.

You might think that Daniel Kahneman, who literally wrote a book (actually several books) on the nature of erroneous decision making, could avoid the pitfalls, but no. “My intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and planning errors as it was before I started exploring these questions,” he writes in Thinking Fast and Slow .

How can you use this information to your advantage?

There is nothing you can do to change the thought processes of others. They can only be accepted. But this acceptance can help the world make more sense, be it personal interactions or world politics. The realization that political and social movements arise from the decisions of people working with incomplete information and a set of unknown biases, and not from a clique of powerful people secretly plotting world domination, may mean that you are less likely to succumb to conspiracy theories. … and suddenly the fact that hundreds of talented, intelligent people have dedicated their professional lives to creating the film version of Cats makes sense.

It is also a great relief in interpersonal relationships. Knowing that your fantasy football rival and your caged co-workers are just awkward, you can stop obsessing over their motives. After all, no one knows what they are doing and they are probably just trying to make their life easier in the short term.

However, you should not mention this to your loved ones. Just imagine it all makes sense. This is how we get along.