Why Stupidity is Power | Priceless Benefits of Being Stupid
People generally fear being perceived as stupid. Often, stupid people are looked down upon and laughed at. Society perceives stupid people as useless, as a burden rather than an asset. Hence, most of us try to prevent ourselves from appearing stupid in front of co-workers, fellow students, family members, and friends. And sometimes, we try to appear much smarter than we are, just so people hold us in high esteem – just so people won’t think of us as stupid.
We attach much importance to what other people think about us, how they see us, and their opinions. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer put it like this at the start of his work The Wisdom of Life: “By a peculiar weakness of human nature, people generally think too much about the opinion which others form of them; although the slightest reflection will show that this opinion, whatever it may be, is not in itself essential to happiness.” Therefore, it is hard to understand why everybody feels so very pleased when he sees that other people have a good opinion of him or say anything flattering to his vanity. End quote.
Most of the time, we can’t help it. We want people to like us, like cats that want to be stroked. We don’t want them to think we’re dumb. But because we emphasize what other people think of us so much, we might forget what truly benefits us. And sometimes, it works to our advantage when people don’t hold us in high esteem. Sometimes, being stupid or perceived as stupid is better for our well-being than being seen as intelligent. But to enjoy the benefits of stupidity, we must set aside our desire to be liked. We must be willing to be seen as ‘the fool’ to get ahead.
Undoubtedly, there’s a difference between ‘acting’ stupid and actually ‘being’ stupid. Both have benefits, and the examples in this piece apply to both. This video explores the power of stupidity, the blessing of being a moron, the elegance of idiocy, and why being a fool pays. For those who love reading, Einzelgänger just released a new compilation book: Loose, Letting Stuff Go, which contains a selection of essays revised and edited for print, exploring ways to let go of the many attachments of daily life. Loose is available on Amazon as a paperback and ebook. Links below.
(1) People don’t expect much of you. “Appear weak when you are strong,” wrote ancient military strategist Sun Tzu in his work The Art of War. If someone appears weaker than he is, people will underestimate him, which could be a strategic advantage. But does this also apply to stupidity and intelligence? Is it wise to appear stupid when you are smart? Consider the character of Yoda, a powerful Jedi in the Star Wars movies who acts like an old, primitive, but curious fool, living in obscurity on the swamp-covered planet of Dagobah when he meets Luke Skywalker for the first time.
We later find out that his facade was a way of learning about Luke’s character and morals. Is he impatient? Is he kind? Is the dark side strong in him, as is the case with his father, Anakin, or does he lean more toward the light side? Acting stupid can reveal a lot about someone’s character, which is a strategic advantage, more so because we obtain information about them while leaving ourselves in the dark. When people perceive us as less than we are, they might let their guard down, overshare, and don’t see us as a threat, as they underestimate our capabilities. They will not perceive us as competition, either.
Of course, acting stupid is a form of manipulation and might conflict with one’s morality, especially if we use it to cause harm. When playing dumb, people might also underestimate your capacity for evil and be more forgiving of mistakes. For example, in Japan, a collectivist nation with strict social standards, its citizens are expected to conform to many rules and etiquette. Hence, Japanese people are generally concerned with other people’s opinions and anxious about falling by the wayside. During COVID, for example, even after the point masks weren’t mandatory anymore, the majority still wore them (and still do at the time this video is published), mainly to not stand out from the crowd and be frowned upon by other Japanese people.
However, when you’re a foreigner in Japan, the Japanese tend to be much more forgiving about not conforming to the standard, as the foreigner is most likely oblivious to the local conventions of a strange country. Hence, we could say by analogy that the fool gets a pass in many situations in which the smart person doesn’t: a fool most likely didn’t do it on purpose; he simply didn’t know any better.
(2) A different perspective. When we’re too set in our ways and thinking patterns, or when we’re highly skilled and experienced, we might suffer from a limited perspective. Because of this limited perspective, we tend to be blind to much-needed solutions that help us further. An article in Psychology Today, written by senior scientist Gary Klein, explains how being stupid can prevent mistakes from happening. He tells a story about an experienced employee in a petrochemical plant who couldn’t imagine the mistakes that novices would make, errors that would cause a shutdown, and even dangerous situations. He only looked at his work from his perspective after many years of experience.
Still, this employee was responsible for training novices. How could he train them successfully when he couldn’t take their perspective? I quote: “And that’s when I began to think about the advantages of being stupid — being able to strip away experience and knowledge and see the world through the eyes of a beginner or of anyone making stupid mistakes. It takes special skill to dial back expertise and intelligence. Experts notoriously have trouble taking a novice’s perspective. Experts often assume everyone knows what they do, that everyone sees what they can see.” End quote.
Making ourselves stupid can lead to solutions. For example, by taking the perspective of someone lacking knowledge and experience, we can invent ways to help that person. Suppose we want to help elderly generations who don’t know how to operate smartphones. In that case, we must be able to look at such devices from their perspective, meaning that we must let go of our knowledge and expertise to some extent.
Being stupid can also lead to us making overly complicated ideas and situations simple. Often, we make things way more complex than they have to be. Furthermore, people tend to prefer the complicated over the simple, also known as the ‘complexity bias.’ In reality, the simple is often the best. And to keep things simple, one needs to remove the non-essential. Being stupid can help simplify complicated things, for example, by looking at the situation from the perspective of a curious child. But, as Gary Klein mentions, being stupid takes special skill.
(3) Being considered useless. Again, people who consider you stupid will not expect much of you. A great advantage of this is that the stupid will generally be overlooked, as people won’t trust them with a lot of responsibility and think their usefulness is lacking. For many, being overlooked is a terrible experience. Who wants to be perceived as useless? Who wants to be seen as a fool? But as Schopenhauer mentioned, other people's opinions are not essential for happiness.
Furthermore, people seeing us as fools may make us happier, as they don’t burden us with duties and obligations that may stress us out because they think we cannot carry them out. Again, if we’re concerned with how society perceives us, the position of the fool is a curse. But if we don’t care about whether or not our surroundings value us, or more specifically, what we can contribute, what ‘use’ we have for others, then being stupid is a blessing.
The Taoist story of the crooked tree, told by Zhuangzi, shows how being useless (or considered useless) can be beneficial. Once upon a time, a crooked tree stood amidst many straight trees. Woodcutters refused to chop down the crooked tree because it was totally useless for creating wooden planks. The straight trees, however, they considered useful, and so they chopped them down. The uselessness of the crooked tree led to its survival; it eventually became old and large. “The straight tree is the first to be cut down; the well of sweet water is the first to be exhausted,” said Zhuangzi.
Being considered stupid (and, therefore, of no use) may save us from many responsibilities. And thus, our lives will be less stressful, we’ll have less to worry about, and we’re less likely to be used by our surroundings because we don’t have much to give. We won’t be chopped down (figuratively speaking) to serve as fuel for the machine, as we’re not eligible for it. Yes, people may dislike us and think less of us, but as Schopenhauer argued, their opinions are not essential for our happiness.
(4) The foundation of civilization. Human beings can be so incredibly foolish that for us to survive, we’ve got no other option than to develop our intelligence. Only by getting smarter can we prevent human stupidity from destroying its own species. At least, this concluded Dutch historian Matthijs van Boxsel, whose life goal is to research human stupidity. According to van Boxsel, stupidity is key to human intelligence and the development of our civilization.
Paradoxically, human stupidity is a daily threat to civilization, but it’s also the foundation of our existence, as to not fall victim to its own stupidity, humanity has been forced to develop its intelligence. “Intelligence is nothing but the result of our vain efforts to understand our own stupidity,” stated van Boxsel in Metro. Human beings do absolutely irrational things, often motivated by ideologies and beliefs. Some people risk the existence of their kind because of ideals or national pride.
Hence, some world leaders are willing to use devastating nuclear weapons as a means of self-defense, which not just results in the destruction of their enemies but also of what they try to defend: themselves. Only by developing our intelligence, as in finding intelligent ways to deal with the nuclear threat of this age, might we overcome this human idiocy. For example, we might find ways to get along and finally ban weapons of mass destruction. And if nuclear war does take place, humanity will be forced to survive a post-apocalyptic world and, ideally, prevent such devastating stupidity from occurring in the future.
So, the benefit of being stupid, in this case, is that it obliges us to become more intelligent so we can better protect ourselves from human stupidity in the course of time. Van Boxsel claims that stupidity is the missing link between our ancestors and us, saying that stupidity once forced the ape to develop its brains. As human stupidity is everywhere and unlikely to disappear, we might want to embrace it and consider it a source of progress and a basis to advance as a species. Thank you for watching.