The Difference Between Stupidity And Genius Is That Genius Has Its Limits

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits,

and stupidity has none" —ALBERT EINSTEIN

"which is why we call it genius.”—Ben Franklin

Idiocy is not simply a dumb moment in time, but a pattern of activity. To identify your own stupidity patterns, consider this guide.

How Stupid Am I

Probably your brain is only about the size of a walnut, and probably resides in your skull or inside your belly. On the surface, it appears to be only an organ that does its job well, such as mediating emotions, regulating sleep, and more. But like other organs, your brain can be fooled into doing other things when your emotional well-being is compromised, such as drugs or alcohol. In this context, stupid is not your actions, but your unconscious activity.

The first sign of your own stupidity pattern is to recognize the similarities between your stupidity and the stupidity of others. Do you repeat other people’s mistakes? Do you fail to recognize that you are repeating other people’s actions? Do you fail to appreciate the depth of your problem?

The next step is to pick out the places where you engage in stupidity that will affect your future. First, acknowledge that you are often stupid in the interests of your egos. You are often the kind of person who needs to be

As you can see, there are many cognitive biases and pitfalls in our way to improved decision making, especially those that weigh self-interest, greed, deception, competition, victimhood, authority, conformity, ego, vanity, and denial at the same time. For those times when our training makes us aware of our stupidity and recognizes it, think about your own mistakes or turn it around to make it as simple as possible.

Many of us have either not considered what goes into our decision making, or have failed to consider our own blindness, and continue to go with our first impulses and reactions. To avoid or minimize being “stupid”, it helps to reflect and question things at a deeper level. To do that, consider five basic aspects of your decision making:

1. First, how far does your first impulse take you? Then, ask, “Is that a good enough answer?”

2. Next, consider and be accountable for what’s going on in your head: Are you consistently biased, able to hear other views, aware of the biases, and not being blinded by them?

3. To maximize your intelligence, consider your lack of objectivity, bias, preconceptions, and biases. As Czeslaw Milosz famously said, “Nothing else is of interest to us but what we know to be true, what we know to be true.”

If you want to understand yourself, go look at yourself in a mirror. In general, you will quickly find that there are far too many mirrors present.

The solution is simple, and if you ask Einstein, at least the smartest person to ever live, it was simple all along. If we reduce the influence of the non-rational part of our mind (the monkey brain, as it was popularly called), it has no power over us.

There is a marvelous segment in the film Cesar Chavez, about his grandfather. His grandfather worked on a farm, and the rich landowner used every means possible to intimidate and degrade his grandfather.

One day, the landowner asked to speak to him alone. “A little something for the farm,” he said as they walked along the dirt road.

His grandfather looked at him with a look of hopelessness and desperation.

“But, grandfather,” he said, “I have none.”

The landowner had a wife and three children and had ample means to support his family. He knew that if he showed no love to his grandfather, that he would feel angry, and the anger would extend to his other family members and his other livelihoods.

The landowner had no love to give. He was, in effect, a sociopath. And that’s the point of the movie. You cannot do anything unless you have love to give.