

The Dumbest Generation Is Only The Second Dumbest Generation - mixmax
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/10/the_dumbest_generation_is_only.html

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unalone
It's interesting that the article mentions a void existing nowadays, and
reactions happening _to_ that void. I've felt at times that a lot of the
things I've learned were learned due to negativity: as in, I would be reading
a site like Reddit and a part of me would change not because of an insightful
comment but because there _was_ nothing insightful being said. The same thing
happened to me with writing, and it's happened in the last year with web
design. I wrote extensively before I got good; I've run several online
communities in the past. In both cases, I was helped along by critique, but
that wasn't the end of things. There was always some point where I found
myself learning by seeing people doing the _same_ things as me, and realizing
that that way was wrong.

I don't know if that's because of the Internet or if that's something that
happens in general. Has anybody else had a situation like this before?

~~~
jd
1.

Yes, absolutely. When somebody else makes the same mistakes I do I can see
exactly what's wrong. If that person were to explain the same thing I would
probably not understand. Or I would understand, but then it wouldn't have a
lasting impact. Being indirectly confronted with your own stupidity/flaws is
remarkably effective. It has that "damn, I can't believe I'm such an idiot"
feel to it, which overrules the normal reaction to any statement: quiet
skepticism "really, hmm, you could be right, but..." and you don't really
change. Even if you're convinced what you're doing is wrong, it doesn't shock
you, so it doesn't stick.

2.

People are horrendously bad at introspection. Every person believes he's more
introspective than most other people, and less likely to adopt opinions based
on feelings instead of facts. Logically impossible, as not everybody is
equally introspective there must be many people who incorrectly deem
themselves introspective. In essence, you are a poor judge of your own ability
to introspect. Because there are so many stupid opinions on the internet it's
easy to feel superior to others. Stupidity is much louder on the internet than
anywhere else. Partially because any statement sounds stupid when you don't
make an effort to understand which point the author is trying to make.
Suddenly it's about -your- interpretation of somebody's opinion, and no longer
about -understanding- the opinion and the merits thereof. So, reading stupid
opinions leads to feelings of superiority, which leads to narcissism, which
leads to easy dismissal of sensible opinions (less effort), which leads to
more narcissism.

3.

So forums like these are, I feel, part of the problem. Here I am, spending far
more time writing this reply than I spent on reading your original message. In
fact, I started writing this before I fully understood which point you were
trying to make. I had to rewrite the beginning of this all just to make what
I'm writing -remotely- relevant.

My point? There isn't any. I'm just writing this to feed my narcissism.

