Consider that the issue here may not what you're trying to measure (intelligence), but the metric you're using to measure it (IQ). Frirst, IQ does not measure

Consider that the issue here may not what you're trying to measure (intelligence), but the metric you're using to measure it (IQ). Frirst, IQ does not measure gross intelligence the way most people think it does. It measures the ability to succeed on an IQ test, which seems to correspond to several abilities possessed by generally intelligent people. Being high or low-IQ does not guarantee intellectual performance on a given task or in a given setting. Second, intellect is an amplifier of but not a replacement for skills and hard work. You can't understand the physics of or rocket science required to perform a moon landing unless you've got the knowledge and skill to apply those principals. General knowledge doesn't imply specific knowledge almost ever. Even learning to reason logically is a skill you have to pick up before you can apply it. If Mozart had never seen a piano or any other instrument, he would never have become a musical prodigy on those instruments. "Complex-dumb," in my opinion, is just a result of people with some degree of general intellect (or who believe they have that intellect and can convince others of it) assuming that their smarts give them the ability to understand things without putting in the work required to actually understand them. (If we accept this concept, there are also some interesting implications when we start asking 'what leads a person to make that assumption?', but that's another discussion.)