A strange idea in Jacob's book

Night Runner · Post by **Night Runner** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:41 am

"There are few combinations more dangerous than an intelligent person without knowledge, experience, and wisdom." (page 66)
I understand that an undeveloped intellect is a waste, but what makes it dangerous?..

aussierogue · Post by **aussierogue** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:14 am

Intelligence without boundaries can = evil...
Think about it
An intelligent person who knows very little, has no real world experience and is reckless (not wise) could very well be a recipe for destruction...
Knowledge and experience can be overcome with time and effort....wisom is the kicker..
Im sure Hitler was Smart, Bernie Madhoff, Citizen Herman Cain, benito mussolini, idy amin, Dr Phil, Rowdy Ronny Piper...all smart and probably evil..

dragoncar · Post by **dragoncar** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:24 am

Cool, look what happens when you push these piles of uranium together!

Chad · Post by **Chad** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:50 pm

@aussierogue

I love that you included Dr. Phil and Rowdy Roddy Piper on the smart/evil list.

Ego · Post by **Ego** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:08 pm

Dumb people can be convinced of anything.
Intelligent people can convince THEMSELVES of anything.
In an epoch where a lack of self-control precipitates most failures, knowledge, experience and wisdom are the checks-and-balances.
Without them irrational exuberance reins.

JasonR · Post by **JasonR** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 3:40 pm

Chad · Post by **Chad** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:16 pm

Most of the "intelligent" people I have known don't have wisdom even if they have experience. I guarantee 95% of the banking executives that helped cause this mess are very intelligent, but obviously they are lacking any type of wisdom.

mikenotspam · Post by **mikenotspam** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:44 pm

JasonR, hilarious that you mention med students, it was the exact group I was thinking of. By and large, those who go directly from secondary schooling straight through to any doctorate without any time off between degrees exist in a bizarre little bubble, sealed off from the rest of the world, where their only concern in life has been their specialization for maybe 10 years or so. My interactions with those folks have never been smooth, since their language is so specialized, and they can only talk about what they know, which is a lot about nothing. They're typically very awkward in "real life".

HSpencer · Post by **HSpencer** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:55 pm

Good intentions and high morals will sweeten the knowledge and intelligence factors, as will life experiences. I personally have a friend from high school who became a heart surgeon. This is a guy had you known him, you would say he could not hum and wind his watch at the same time.

Now he is a cardiac surgeon at a large hospital in the midwest. So I supose this means people have a narrow focus on some things and nothing on the other. I ran into him at a high school reunion. He has had three wives, none now, and lives alone in a 9,000 square foot home. He has installed security cameras all over the outside of the house and the roads leading in and out. He is paranoid to the inth degree. For amusement, he shoots filled propane tanks with a 50 caliber rifle on his property and blows them up.

He works about 80 hours average a week at the hospital. I am sure he is a multizillionaire or somesuch. He still cannot carry on a normal standard conversation with anyone. He takes off on a tangent during the conversation and even forgets who he is talking to. He is ill groomed and dresses like a slob.

But I supose he knows the arteries and the valves of the heart pretty well. I can recommend him if you like.

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:55 pm

A few examples:
A really smart guy is hired out of grad school to calculate the risk of default on mortgages to seven decimal places and blend them into risk tranches, also to seven decimal places. He’s really smart and has impeccable math skills; nothing to worry about here. He uses Fourier transforms!!
Another really smart guy has been hired to run your mutual fund. He has developed a great trading model in his dorm room between playing video games and competitive drinking events. It can’t miss.
A really smart woman with the GPA to prove it is appointed as undersecretary of whatever field you have worked in for the past 20 years. She is in charge of regulating your business and has some really fascinating ideas on how to do it, even if she has to consult her class notes on occasion to figure out terminology. Don’t worry, be happy!
A really smart guy gets hired as a building inspector out of college. So smart he’s memorized the entire code, though he has never actually built anything. He enjoys issuing fines for placing the doorbell too high. Little people selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door might have to stand on tippy-toe, and we as a society are not going to accept that.
Almost any smart person hired out of school to appear on TV and tell everyone how to run the government, the economy, other countries and the lives of citizens. What they should eat, when they should get up in the morning, all the things they know so well. At least you can shut these people off.