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It’s super common for people to be excellent at certain things that require reason but also hold views that are significantly less rational in other domains. I

by api 3y ago

It’s super common for people to be excellent at certain things that require reason but also hold views that are significantly less rational in other domains. I know incredibly smart people (engineers and other fields) who are e.g. creationists, believe we did not land on the Moon, antivaxxers, believers in alien/UFO conspiracies, and believers in what I consider very crank and awful politics of both “left” authoritarian Marxist/“tankie” and “right” fascist or NRx varieties, etc. (The latter includes one person who horseshoed from Communism to Bannonite fascism.) Then there are loads of famous names with the same domain specific rationality I could list. Shockley, Pauling, Musk, Jack Parsons, Henry Ford, … People are often inconsistent in their rationality or make exceptions for things they (whether they realize it or not) believe for emotional reasons. People get triggered, get into beliefs for social belonging reasons, or even get recruited into cults. Being great at something doesn’t make one immune to being “got.” Consistent application of reason may be the rare thing. It’s hard and requires examining emotions as well as thoughts. Also requires the ability to say “I don’t know” rather than be a know it all or hallucinate as we say in AI now. Nobody is an expert in every field, but the ego sure wants to be. People want these comic book superheroes that are always rational, always compassionate, and never fall down crazy rabbit holes or get emotionally triggered into adopting ridiculous viewpoints. Hence the saying "never meet your heroes."

dghughes 3y ago
> I know incredibly smart people (engineers and other fields) who are It's the stereotypical professor super smart in one specific area but everything else is a mess. Doctors can be like that too just ask an hospital IT person what doctors are like. I wish modern education inspired more polymaths aka "Renaissance man". People are forced to focus so tightly one one thing it becomes ridiculous. It's difficult but I think if we are raised that way and raise children that way it may become more normal. For myself I was into art as a child; drawing, painting, sculpture, crafts, photography. I also loved music and instruments. I found languages interesting my early to mid teens I invented my own writing system. Plus I have always made experiments as a child building things, or combing chemical compounds. But school pretty much forces you to pick one subject and that's that.
- deleted 3y ago
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- nxobject 3y ago
  I never thought of it like that – a broad education is a good way to learn to respect how and why people in other fields think they way they are. The secret is trying to figure out how to make society pay into that... but we seem to have a hard time as a society making education more than a investment in future income.

by api 3y ago

dghughes 3y ago

> I know incredibly smart people (engineers and other fields) who are It's the stereotypical professor super smart in one specific area but everything else is a mess. Doctors can be like that too just ask an hospital IT person what doctors are like. I wish modern education inspired more polymaths aka "Renaissance man". People are forced to focus so tightly one one thing it becomes ridiculous. It's difficult but I think if we are raised that way and raise children that way it may become more normal. For myself I was into art as a child; drawing, painting, sculpture, crafts, photography. I also loved music and instruments. I found languages interesting my early to mid teens I invented my own writing system. Plus I have always made experiments as a child building things, or combing chemical compounds. But school pretty much forces you to pick one subject and that's that.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nxobject 3y ago
I never thought of it like that – a broad education is a good way to learn to respect how and why people in other fields think they way they are. The secret is trying to figure out how to make society pay into that... but we seem to have a hard time as a society making education more than a investment in future income.