

Stupid is better than smart - grumo
http://christianowens.com/post/3016971050/be-stupid

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granite_scones
If you (re)define a word to be sufficiently broad, it's particularly difficult
to find positive aspects to it.

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Tim1776
Glorification of the stupid is nihilistic. Nature, to be commanded, must be
obeyed. So reason is required to produce the values on which human life
depends.

In "The Roots of Nazi Psychology: Hitler's Utopian Barbarism", Jay Gonen
described the typical Nazi mentality as being a contradictory mix of brutality
and intellect. He analyzed these "brilliant morons" in Freudian terms, but
according to Leonard Peikoff, in his book "The Ominous Parallels", the roots
of Nazi stupidity glorification are actually to be found in the philosophy of
Kant who famously attacked reason.

~~~
gjm11
> Kant who famously attacked reason

[citation needed]

Yes, Kant wrote books called "Critique of pure reason" and "Critique of
practical reason", but they were not attacking reason.

You needn't take my word for it. Here is an excerpt from the article on Kant
in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (which is online but written by
experts and very good indeed):

"Kant's main goal is to show that a critique of reason by reason itself,
unaided and unrestrained by traditional authorities, establishes a secure and
consistent basis for both Newtonian science and traditional morality and
religion. In other words, free rational inquiry adequately supports all of
these essential human interests and shows them to be mutually consistent. So
reason deserves the sovereignty attributed to it by the Enlightenment."

"Famously attacked reason", forsooth!

~~~
Tim1776
If you study this a little deeper, you will discover that it is improper to
cast Kant in the role of being a champion of reason.

On the contrary, Kant made no secret of his motive for writing those books.
His aim was to make a metaphysical domain for religion.

His method was to drive a wedge between the natural world and the human mind.

In the Preface to the Second Edition of the "Critique of Pure Reason", he says
"I must, therefore, abolish knowledge, to make room for belief."

To understand Kant's main gimmick, see "Introduction to Objectivist
Epistemology" by Ayn Rand.

~~~
gjm11
Kant did indeed write the words you quote. But I wonder whether you've
actually read them in their context, because it seems very obvious to me that
he is applying this statement only to _metaphysics_. He is saying that we
cannot know for certain (for instance) whether God exists, or whether "free
will" is real. Now, this may be right or wrong, but it certainly isn't _anti-
rational_.

As for the "wedge between the natural world and the human mind": if by that
you mean that, e.g., he insisted that our minds aren't presented directly with
Things Themselves, and that perception is an indirect affair: yup, he did, and
he was right, and again I see nothing anti-rational in that. (Yes, I know
Objectivism teaches otherwise. So much the worse for Objectivism.)

~~~
Tim1776
It is anti-rational to try to establish a premise for reasoning by arbitrary
assertion. In other words, an evidence-free reason is no reason at all.

Simply stating a position in order to propel a line of thought is just empty
talk, to be dismissed without further consideration.

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pedrokost
I disagree. One doesn't have to be either smart or stupid. One has to be smart
and know when its best to act stupid.

And yes, one can outsmart stupid, by being smart and stupid as required.

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superchink
In case not everyone is aware, this is a campaign for Diesel. I first saw this
as a storefront display in Santa Monica saying "BE STUPID" in big bold
letters, which led me to a quick search and to: <http://www.diesel.com/be-
stupid/>

Clever campaign. I don't know of many clothing companies that have marketing
slogans that get discussed on HN.

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zazi
Doesn't make sense to me. This sounds like the opposite of what John Stuart
Mill said about Socrates and the fool.

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to
be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig,
are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the
question."

\- John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863)

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smoyer
So ... is that stupid for certain values of smart? Or is it smart for certain
values of stupid?

I agree with the basic premise: Think outside the box. Don't get stuck in a
mental rut. And most importantly, don't let others with no vision bring you
down. But I think the validity of your message was undermined by how you said
it.

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il
Actually it's smart to take risks. The expected value of foundig a startup is
sufficiently high to make it a rational decision in most cases. I recently
read an article which stated that most successful entrepreneurs are actually
highly risk averse- they only take carefully calculated risks.

------
ThomPete
I think the saying go.

It's better to be lucky than smart.

I would replace stupid with ignorant.

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icegreentea
"Stupid" is not brilliant. "Don't be stupid" is a heuristic used where an idea
does not conform to 'known' patterns. It's about someone else telling you that
whatever you came up with does not appear to mesh with their understanding of
reality. Those who ignore "don't be stupid" and succeed, not because they were
stupid and there's something inherently positive about being stupid. It's
because the heuristic was wrong this time. Someone applied it wrong, or maybe
their understanding of the world is false.

When the heuristic is correct... well... the -other- saying goes 'if I had a
nickle for every fool...".

For example, stupid has hangover. Smart has hangover too. The question is, is
the hangover worth it. If it's worth it, then you're not actually stupid. You
are in fact smart, and accepted the label 'stupid' that someone else gave you.
On the other hand, if I got a hangover, a 5 hour hole in my memory, lost my
wallet, and ended up in a hospital... probably actually stupid (happened last
year). Cause that really wasn't worth it.

------
sabat
_The world is full of smart people doing all kinds of smart things. Thats
smart._

That's.

~~~
JosefK
_Like baloons_...

 _stupid has the one hell of a hangover._

Either he's trying to make the style mirror the content intentionally, or he
just doesn't care much for standard English. I disagree either way.

