Idiot on a team of intelligent people. I get pissed off at people being stupid. My team might get pissed off at me but that's their problem. And generally I like being around people smarter than me because I learn a lot from them.
That depends, if one of the idiots is in charge, it's torture. However, if you don't have to answer to any of them, you can set them up with busy work to feel important and do all the actual work yourself. Then it's only bad if you don't like the work.
I’d argue that management is simply a different skill. And the reason so many managers are bad is because they were promoted from roles that didn’t previously require management experience.
Let’s say you hire someone to bolt things together on an assembly line, and then three years later they’re managing projects (without ever having gone to school in those interim years to learn any management skills). Yeah, they’ll probably be a fucking awful project manager. Unless they’re naturally gifted at management and really good at thinking on their feet, they’ll be flying by the seat of their pants. They’ll be using a ton of maladaptive tactics that were developed for surviving, not thriving. Because their original skill set and experience wasn’t based in project management, and they haven’t done anything to further their managerial skills.
It’s the old “if you judge a fish by its ability to fly” quote, except that fish keep getting hired because they’re good swimmers, and then they get promoted into positions where they’re expected to fly.
I don't think so. A smart person can still learn while being the smartest in the room. People don't get dumber, just because they are the smartest of all in the room. In fact you might be able to help others, or be the only one who can solve the problem. Then you are the right person in the room.
On the other hand, being dumb or an idiot does not mean you will learn... most likely you will not (that's why its called an idiot). Smart people can be an asshole or you cannot keep up with them and just be a burden.
Think that through. You are in a room with only people dumber than you. How are you learning anything? They don't have anything good to teach you. If you try to bring new knowledge into the room, they will likely not reward you for it, and quite possibly actively attack you for it. How long do you think you could maintain your intelligent view of anything when everyone around you is dragging you down with every interaction? You try to discuss science, they call you a nerd and tear up your textbooks to roll blunts. You try spending time ignoring them to study the construction of the walls of the room, but eventually you need some company. No one can survive in complete isolation. They tell you you're the idiot for trying so hard, for caring about these things that no one else in your world cares about. And you hate to admit it, but they're kind of right. You can study everything you want. You can write down findings for the rest of your life about the room, but when you're gone, they're just going to roll them into blunts. Even if you resist at first, they'll outlast you because you need people to maintain your sanity. They'll wear down your values as they, without even thinking about it, use operand conditioning to get you to use their slang, play their games, value what they value, disregard what they disregard. It happens all the time.
You come up with a contrived scenario and very specific situation just to justify being an idiot. No. Knowledge is not the same as being intelligent, idiot is not the same as dumb. Its incredible how you guys come up with stories just to justify being the dumbest or only idiot in the room. An idiot means its not able to learn anything. Also why is the focus on learning something so high in these replies here? And who says I'm trapped in this room forever?
An intelligent person can learn from the failures of idiots. That's why he is intelligent. An idiot can not learn. That's why he is an idiot.
I see you are among those who are incapable of reasoning by analog.
The hypothetical is all there is when discussing a hypothetical. The metaphorical room is eternal and all encompassing because once you leave the 'room' you are outside the hypothetical. So, yes, you are 'trapped in the room' if you are going to engage in the OP's hypothetical. If you want to deny the premise, you are trying to pretend you are playing the game but ignoring the rules of the game. In other words, you are lying, whether to us or to yourself. Don't get pissy when people call out your ignorance of how to play, willful or otherwise.
Your derived situation was made up AFTER the post and our discussion, just to justify your position wanting to be an idiot. It was a free form hypothetical situation without further rules. You yourself imposed the rules on you and others, just so you can be right. And now you start attacking people who do not agree with you. Maybe you are the idiot in the room right now, but you probably feel safe knowing nothing and trying to learn how to carve a stone. No my friend, I'm not an idiot who wants to be an idiot under any circumstances. Idiots don't learn. Intelligent person learns from mistakes of idiots.
OK then, read on. Let's say you are an intelligent person with lots of knowledge. Let's say a score of 150 of intelligent knowledge, a hypothetical metric. But you want to learn something new, so what you do? Off course you go to a fairy and wish you were an idiot / dumb. Now your score is 45. That means you lost all of that, just to try to learn something new and to get a position where everyone is. And because you are an idiot, its really really hard to learn anything, and it takes ages to get a score of 90. If you didn't wish that, you would be at 150 and maybe you learn a bit and get 160 and you are scratching highest score what is even possible.
Don't get pissy when people call out your ignorance how to play, willful or otherwise. Accept your defeat.
If the smart people are nice, I'd be ok being the idiot. Still might feel a little bad over not being able to help. Maybe I'll be the cheerleader. "Go team! Hell yeah! Crunch those numbers!"
In my early career I made a bit of a niche for myself being the idiot on a team of very smart people. My job was to ask the simple question that none of them considered before it was too late.
Of course people aren't completely predictable. But do you see how you phrased that? "Intelligent people doing idiotic stuff". You recognize the difference between intelligent people doing idiotic stuff vs an idiot doing idiotic stuff.
No, I meant Intelligent people can be idiots too. Idiot does not mean dumb. So what you are asking is not idiot vs intelligent, but dumb vs intelligent.
Didn't I just told you that? You "meant". What do you mean I don't believe that? I just told you that I realized you was talking about dumb instead idiot, because you used it interchangeably.
I've gone being the smartest person in the room in my previous couple roles (mostly because I was the only person with any IT or platform knowledge, not because I'm some prodigy) to the bottom of the totem pole and well behind the intelligence of my current team since I changed careers.
It's wonderful having people around that are smarter than me that I can learn from and ask questions to. It's hard being the idiot on a team when you're trying to improve and care about your work. Working with idiots that don't care or seemingly never improve is the worst. I've learned more over the past 8 months than I have since I started my professional career.
I like the phrase, "Never be the smartest person in the room". Sometimes it happens, but in most situations, there is someone else that is more knowledgeable about something than you, and that's an opportunity to learn.
Obviously the intelligent person on a team of idiots then. There is value in being the least intelligent person in a room, since you have the opportunity to learn from people smarter than you. But not if you're just forgetting things so that you can relearn them.
I'm going to have to choose to be the intelligent person. You might think the idiot has it easy...they may even not know they are an idiot. But they could be so stupid they also think all the intelligent people are idiots, so they might get all the frustration of thinking they are the intelligent person on a team of idiots while actually being the opposite.
If I'm the smart one, I have to do all the work I can't trust to idiots, run the team or be on a team run by an idiot, be the most responsible according to any outside observer, and my success will still be mostly reliant on idiots.
If I'm the idiot, at worst I'd be mocked, but maybe I'd be too stupid to notice. At least the work would be more likely to be successful.
Depends what the team is doing. If it’s a marathon running team for charity, or a team of people picking up garbage on a beach, it probably doesn’t matter much.
I've been both on different uni projects. Far better being the smart one in a group of idiots and just banging out the work without interference for a good grade. Being the idiot on the smart team was torture.
If I kept my level and get a team with >200 IQ, then I'll be the idiot any day.
I'm a middle aged industry engineer and having a team of morons at this point is so fucking tiresom.
They're not really morons. Companies obsessing about efficiency are just beating people in to lumps of apathy that don't want to use more than 2% their brain power on anything. If they also have a culture of punishment, it kills all initiative and you end up with mouth breathers with a thousand yard stare all day.
It really depends on how interesting the people are and how good they are at storytelling. I've met super annoying smart people and really entertaining dumb people so it's not like intelligence is the determining factor.
I'd probably rather be hanging out with either the more interesting or more autistic group because I think we'd get along the best. If that makes me the idiot of the group, I don't think that's too bad of a deal.
being an idiot is the wise choice here, sometimes it is
I suppose it matters at which capacity you enjoy teaching, if they were interested in learning and happy then I guess it wouldn't be terrible, but in general with people it'll never be an ideal situation and I just don't want that kinda pressure
I guess, the best would be to be the idiot, and then get kicked out. Dragging everyone down with you comes with so much guilt (or should), while a bit of rejection beats the frustration of being a Cassandra.
Unless it's a team doing something evil, in which case you should make them idiots, and then quit.
When you say team of idiots, are these people that are just lazy, or don’t know how to do the work? I can work with people who want to do the right thing but lack experience and knowledge. But a team of people that are lazy and don’t care would be torture to work with so in that case ignorance is bliss.
I think I could do that, assuming they want to. As frustrating as it is to be the smart person on a team of people who don’t know anything, if they at least care some then it’s not a total loss.
64 replies
Idiot on a team of intelligent people. I get pissed off at people being stupid. My team might get pissed off at me but that's their problem. And generally I like being around people smarter than me because I learn a lot from them.
Ignorance truly is bliss in a lot of situations
And I might learn some new things. Being the least intelligent person in a group doesn’t mean being stupid.
It's amazing how many choose to be an idiot.
To be the inteligent person in a team of idiots is certainly one of the worst things that could happen to you.
That depends, if one of the idiots is in charge, it's torture. However, if you don't have to answer to any of them, you can set them up with busy work to feel important and do all the actual work yourself. Then it's only bad if you don't like the work.
Idiot on the team of intelligent people. I'd rather just be responsible for educating myself and not everybody else.
Get a job as a software engineer and you'll spend most days feeling like both simultaneously
I'm glad it's not just me. XD
Idiot on an intelligent team, I'll only get better
Intelligent in an idiot team, they will only make me dumber
Idiot on a team of intelligent people. Hopefully, they'll put up with me long enough to point where I learn enough to stop being an idiot.
Congratulations on your new position in management.
I’d argue that management is simply a different skill. And the reason so many managers are bad is because they were promoted from roles that didn’t previously require management experience.
Let’s say you hire someone to bolt things together on an assembly line, and then three years later they’re managing projects (without ever having gone to school in those interim years to learn any management skills). Yeah, they’ll probably be a fucking awful project manager. Unless they’re naturally gifted at management and really good at thinking on their feet, they’ll be flying by the seat of their pants. They’ll be using a ton of maladaptive tactics that were developed for surviving, not thriving. Because their original skill set and experience wasn’t based in project management, and they haven’t done anything to further their managerial skills.
It’s the old “if you judge a fish by its ability to fly” quote, except that fish keep getting hired because they’re good swimmers, and then they get promoted into positions where they’re expected to fly.
I fucking wish.
There is nothing worse than working for an idiot.
Working for an idiot with peers that are his fellow idiots. Definitely worse than just working for an idiot.
So long as the intelligent people are also kind. A group of intelligent people that are backbiting and cruel is the absolute worst.
If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
If you're the dumbest person in the room, are you in the right room?
Why is it wrong to be the smartest person?
Because I know how much of a dumbass I am. If I’m the smartest, the room is full of complete fucking idiots.
I would be rather smart than being an idiot.
Because you'll be unable to learn anything. You'll eventually get dumber.
I don't think so. A smart person can still learn while being the smartest in the room. People don't get dumber, just because they are the smartest of all in the room. In fact you might be able to help others, or be the only one who can solve the problem. Then you are the right person in the room.
On the other hand, being dumb or an idiot does not mean you will learn... most likely you will not (that's why its called an idiot). Smart people can be an asshole or you cannot keep up with them and just be a burden.
Think that through. You are in a room with only people dumber than you. How are you learning anything? They don't have anything good to teach you. If you try to bring new knowledge into the room, they will likely not reward you for it, and quite possibly actively attack you for it. How long do you think you could maintain your intelligent view of anything when everyone around you is dragging you down with every interaction? You try to discuss science, they call you a nerd and tear up your textbooks to roll blunts. You try spending time ignoring them to study the construction of the walls of the room, but eventually you need some company. No one can survive in complete isolation. They tell you you're the idiot for trying so hard, for caring about these things that no one else in your world cares about. And you hate to admit it, but they're kind of right. You can study everything you want. You can write down findings for the rest of your life about the room, but when you're gone, they're just going to roll them into blunts. Even if you resist at first, they'll outlast you because you need people to maintain your sanity. They'll wear down your values as they, without even thinking about it, use operand conditioning to get you to use their slang, play their games, value what they value, disregard what they disregard. It happens all the time.
You come up with a contrived scenario and very specific situation just to justify being an idiot. No. Knowledge is not the same as being intelligent, idiot is not the same as dumb. Its incredible how you guys come up with stories just to justify being the dumbest or only idiot in the room. An idiot means its not able to learn anything. Also why is the focus on learning something so high in these replies here? And who says I'm trapped in this room forever?
An intelligent person can learn from the failures of idiots. That's why he is intelligent. An idiot can not learn. That's why he is an idiot.
I see you are among those who are incapable of reasoning by analog.
The hypothetical is all there is when discussing a hypothetical. The metaphorical room is eternal and all encompassing because once you leave the 'room' you are outside the hypothetical. So, yes, you are 'trapped in the room' if you are going to engage in the OP's hypothetical. If you want to deny the premise, you are trying to pretend you are playing the game but ignoring the rules of the game. In other words, you are lying, whether to us or to yourself. Don't get pissy when people call out your ignorance of how to play, willful or otherwise.
Your derived situation was made up AFTER the post and our discussion, just to justify your position wanting to be an idiot. It was a free form hypothetical situation without further rules. You yourself imposed the rules on you and others, just so you can be right. And now you start attacking people who do not agree with you. Maybe you are the idiot in the room right now, but you probably feel safe knowing nothing and trying to learn how to carve a stone. No my friend, I'm not an idiot who wants to be an idiot under any circumstances. Idiots don't learn. Intelligent person learns from mistakes of idiots.
OK then, read on. Let's say you are an intelligent person with lots of knowledge. Let's say a score of 150 of intelligent knowledge, a hypothetical metric. But you want to learn something new, so what you do? Off course you go to a fairy and wish you were an idiot / dumb. Now your score is 45. That means you lost all of that, just to try to learn something new and to get a position where everyone is. And because you are an idiot, its really really hard to learn anything, and it takes ages to get a score of 90. If you didn't wish that, you would be at 150 and maybe you learn a bit and get 160 and you are scratching highest score what is even possible.
Don't get pissy when people call out your ignorance how to play, willful or otherwise. Accept your defeat.
Teaching others is one of the best ways to learn. There are levels of hell though. E.g. try teaching MAGA anything about the scientific method.
If the smart people are nice, I'd be ok being the idiot. Still might feel a little bad over not being able to help. Maybe I'll be the cheerleader. "Go team! Hell yeah! Crunch those numbers!"
I'll bring snacks?
Idiot in a team of smart people, so I can learn from them.
In my early career I made a bit of a niche for myself being the idiot on a team of very smart people. My job was to ask the simple question that none of them considered before it was too late.
"idiot" and "intelligent" are not mutually exclusive. One can be both at the same time. There are intelligent people doing idiotic stuff.
Of course people aren't completely predictable. But do you see how you phrased that? "Intelligent people doing idiotic stuff". You recognize the difference between intelligent people doing idiotic stuff vs an idiot doing idiotic stuff.
No, I meant Intelligent people can be idiots too. Idiot does not mean dumb. So what you are asking is not idiot vs intelligent, but dumb vs intelligent.
You don't believe people use the terms idiot and dumb interchangeably?
Didn't I just told you that? You "meant". What do you mean I don't believe that? I just told you that I realized you was talking about dumb instead idiot, because you used it interchangeably.
I've gone being the smartest person in the room in my previous couple roles (mostly because I was the only person with any IT or platform knowledge, not because I'm some prodigy) to the bottom of the totem pole and well behind the intelligence of my current team since I changed careers.
It's wonderful having people around that are smarter than me that I can learn from and ask questions to. It's hard being the idiot on a team when you're trying to improve and care about your work. Working with idiots that don't care or seemingly never improve is the worst. I've learned more over the past 8 months than I have since I started my professional career.
I like the phrase, "Never be the smartest person in the room". Sometimes it happens, but in most situations, there is someone else that is more knowledgeable about something than you, and that's an opportunity to learn.
Do you continue being an idiot outside the context of the team?
I’d rather be surrounded by people more capable than me (at least if I care about the success of the task), but not at that cost.
U r idjut 4eva end errybody nose it
Sign me up. Being an idiot all the time for everything seems like such a good time.
Do I get dumber to become the idiot or is everyone else just smarter than me?
You become that kid in class that eats crayons and glue
Obviously the intelligent person on a team of idiots then. There is value in being the least intelligent person in a room, since you have the opportunity to learn from people smarter than you. But not if you're just forgetting things so that you can relearn them.
I'm going to have to choose to be the intelligent person. You might think the idiot has it easy...they may even not know they are an idiot. But they could be so stupid they also think all the intelligent people are idiots, so they might get all the frustration of thinking they are the intelligent person on a team of idiots while actually being the opposite.
If I'm the smart one, I have to do all the work I can't trust to idiots, run the team or be on a team run by an idiot, be the most responsible according to any outside observer, and my success will still be mostly reliant on idiots.
If I'm the idiot, at worst I'd be mocked, but maybe I'd be too stupid to notice. At least the work would be more likely to be successful.
Tough one.
The nice thing about beeing smart is you can pretend to be dumb. Otherway around is way harder. All im saying
Ignorance is bliss. Besides, it's usually the idiots who get promoted.
Depends what the team is doing. If it’s a marathon running team for charity, or a team of people picking up garbage on a beach, it probably doesn’t matter much.
I've been both on different uni projects. Far better being the smart one in a group of idiots and just banging out the work without interference for a good grade. Being the idiot on the smart team was torture.
If I kept my level and get a team with >200 IQ, then I'll be the idiot any day.
I'm a middle aged industry engineer and having a team of morons at this point is so fucking tiresom.
They're not really morons. Companies obsessing about efficiency are just beating people in to lumps of apathy that don't want to use more than 2% their brain power on anything. If they also have a culture of punishment, it kills all initiative and you end up with mouth breathers with a thousand yard stare all day.
Just kill me now.
It really depends on how interesting the people are and how good they are at storytelling. I've met super annoying smart people and really entertaining dumb people so it's not like intelligence is the determining factor.
I'd probably rather be hanging out with either the more interesting or more autistic group because I think we'd get along the best. If that makes me the idiot of the group, I don't think that's too bad of a deal.
being an idiot is the wise choice here, sometimes it is
I suppose it matters at which capacity you enjoy teaching, if they were interested in learning and happy then I guess it wouldn't be terrible, but in general with people it'll never be an ideal situation and I just don't want that kinda pressure
They both feel so terrible.
I guess, the best would be to be the idiot, and then get kicked out. Dragging everyone down with you comes with so much guilt (or should), while a bit of rejection beats the frustration of being a Cassandra.
Unless it's a team doing something evil, in which case you should make them idiots, and then quit.
Um, yes.
I am not a team player
When you say team of idiots, are these people that are just lazy, or don’t know how to do the work? I can work with people who want to do the right thing but lack experience and knowledge. But a team of people that are lazy and don’t care would be torture to work with so in that case ignorance is bliss.
Like they aren't capable of following instructions even if they wanted to
I think I could do that, assuming they want to. As frustrating as it is to be the smart person on a team of people who don’t know anything, if they at least care some then it’s not a total loss.
I rather be a idiot on a team of smarty pants. I can kiss ass and make a good cup of coffee. 😇
I'd rather be me
For me I am a work in progress falling behind always. 😴 I'm So Tired