Alrighty chat. Today we're going to talk

about stupidity. So I know everyone's

concerned about being intelligent, high

IQ. We're going to do cognitive

neurotropics, cognitive enhancement,

right? We always want to boost our

intelligence. And I know I am certainly

guilty of this. I don't know if you guys

know what I'm talking about, but there's

like smart intelligent people and

there's stupid intelligent people. And

if you're someone who's really

intelligent, it turns out that if you're

not careful, your intelligence will kind

of circle back around and become a

unique form of stupidity. Now, when I do

this work with people, it turns out

really well. We sort of help them like,

you know, figure out their blind spots,

which we're going to go over today. But

if you're someone who's who's super

smart, but can't seem to like leverage

that, I highly recommend you check out

our coaching program, which is designed

to help you sort of live up to your

potential. So what's the difference

between someone who's a stupid

intelligent person and a smart

intelligent person? The first thing that

we're going to talk about is the

misapplication of intelligence. So one

of my favorite examples of this is NASA.

So when NASA was sending astronauts to

the moon, they like developed a really

like they spent a bunch of money and

like did all this research on developing

like a pen that writes in space.

>> You know what the Russians did? Used a

pencil.

>> They used a pencil. So what's really

interesting is we think that

intelligence is the primary

problemsolving

faculty that we have. And if you're a

stupid intelligent person, I know this

sounds insane, but one of the mistakes

you're probably making is that you are

using your intelligence too much. Now,

what the hell do I mean by that? If you

look at people with empathy, right? So a

lot of people when they're facing social

situations, they'll perform a lot of

calculations. And there are these other

humans out there who are like sort of

ignorant, wandering through life and

just making judgments and they seem to

be happy and things seem to be working

out for them, right? There are a lot of

people who like struggle with social

situations because they're running a

bazillion calculations to try to figure

out what to say or what to do or

whatever. So, here's the key thing to

understand. Intelligence from an

evolutionary standpoint evolved for

certain things. And we have other parts

of our brain that have evolved for other

things. So especially when it comes to

things like social situations, we have

empathic circuits. We integrate a lot of

information about body language, tone,

facial expressions. Intelligence is not

designed to be the tool for social

interactions. It's kind of like trying

to milk a cow with a hammer.

intelligence from an evolutionary

perspective is actually designed to

solve novel problems. So a great example

of this is like redneck engineering,

right? Where you see this really

hilarious like you know redneck

engineering where someone builds this

contraption like someone builds some

like mechanized tricycle or something

like that because they don't have a car.

That's actually what intelligence is

for. Intelligence is designed when we

encounter a new problem. We have to be

able to pull in a lot of information and

come up with a novel solution. We run

into trouble when we start misapplying

intelligence is the primary tool for a

series of things especially social

situations. So when we start to use our

abstract reasoning capability, our sort

of data analysis capability for things

like human interactions, it actually

falls short, right? And there's a bunch

of like relationship experts who will

sort of cite all of this research and

like talk about all these theories,

they'll develop this really complex kind

of stuff where actually the reason that

you know this stuff doesn't really work

great and if you look at a lot of people

who have effortless social interactions,

they are using the right parts of their

brain. Now why does this happen? So this

is what's really interesting. I work

with a bunch of people. I'm sort of like

this. And the reason this happens is

because when you have a high IQ, it's so

good at solving so many different

things. So as you are growing up, you

are sort of like leveling up your IQ,

increasing your proficiency with your

IQ. And since you're using your IQ, you

underdevelop other things like EQ, like

your emotional quotient, right? So your

ability to be empathic, your ability to

feel what other people are feeling, your

ability to use your intuition. As you

become more intelligent, you start to

make more calculations and your

intuition starts to rust. Your social

faculties start to rust and that creates

problems because now you are running a

bunch of calculations when you actually

have a a circuit in your brain that'll

do it instantly. You're just not using

it. The second element of stupidity that

intelligent people are vulnerable to is

actually mindlessness. So if you look at

the research and you ask someone okay

like what is stupidity? There's

different kinds of stupidity and one of

them is being mindless, right? So like

I'm not paying attention or my mind is

not focused on the problem, therefore I

make a mistake. Now I've worked with a

ton of people who have a high IQ who

think they have ADHD because they are

mindless, right? My mind doesn't I'm

smart but my mind does not pay

attention. So this is not necessarily

ADHD. There's some coorbidity between IQ

and ADHD but it's not sort of huge. This

is actually where intelligence induces

mindlessness. Intelligence induces

causes you to stop paying attention. And

here's how this works. So I want you to

imagine a stupid person who is sitting

in a lecture. So when a stupid person is

sitting in a lecture, they don't

understand what the lecturer is talking

about. They haven't heard this before.

They haven't processed it before. Since

it is new to them, they are going to pay

attention. Now if you have a high IQ

that also means you have a strong

predictive capability right so if you

think about like high IQ and playing

chess you can read 10 moves ahead so

when your brain is listening to someone

speak when you are performing a task and

your brain automatically makes

calculations ahead when it reads 10

moves ahead oh you're like this guy's

talking about quantum mechanics oh I

know what he's going to say he's talking

about the double slit experiment so you

stop paying attention anytime your mind

can read things through to the end it no

longer pays attention. When you no

longer pay attention, now you're not

paying attention. And that opens you up

to making mistakes. And when this is

what's really scary about it, right? So

the simpler the thing is, the easier it

is to predict. The easier it is to

predict, the more you stop paying

attention. And the more you stop paying

attention, the more mistakes you make.

So this is what's really scary, right?

This is what makes a stupid intelligent

person. The thing that is really simple

is where you are making the mistakes,

which is really confusing because then

are you like really stupid or are you

really intelligent? Turns out that if

you go far enough down the scale of

intelligence, you wrap around to

stupidity. The third thing that we're

going to talk about, people who are

highly intelligent paint themselves into

a corner. So here's how this goes. In

the research, what people kind of

describe is that people who are highly

intelligent will commit to something

that is false. Okay? Now, why do they do

that? So, imagine once again that I'm an

idiot and then I have a belief that is

wrong. So, if I have a belief that's

wrong, that means that I can't defend

it, right? Like, if I'm wrong and I

can't come up with a good logical reason

for it, then I'm just wrong. and then I

have to admit my mistake and then like I

don't double down and then like okay I

made a mistake and then I correct it and

then I'm like in the right camp. But if

you're smart and you guys may notice

this, right? So if you've ever gotten

into an argument with someone with super

high IQ on the internet who is, you

know, found on the I am very smart

subreddit, what you will discover is

that oftenimes people who are really

intelligent are really arrogant about

it. And even when they are wrong, they

will argue with you until their last

breath. Now, why does this happen? So,

you will say, "Okay, this is because

they're arrogant assholes." But no, this

is actually a function of intelligence.

That's what the research suggests. Okay?

So, when you have a wrong belief, and if

you have the capacity for intelligence,

even when you have a wrong belief, you

can come up with logical reasons why

your wrong belief is correct. And there

are some people out there that are

famously very intelligent but are also

really stupid and stuck on wrong beliefs

that they will, you know, go down with

the sinking ship. They just will never

admit they are wrong. And part of it is

arrogance for sure, right? And we'll get

to how that arrogance is the solution to

all of this. We we'll kind of get to

that in a second. But I want you all to

understand that the better you are, the

better your brain is at producing

arguments, the more likely you are to

defend a wrong point of view. And as you

are defending a wrong point of view, it

opens you up to make big mistakes. Okay?

And this is where like I see this

literally all the time with the very

high functioning people that I work with

which is like since they are right most

of the time the one or two% of the time

that they are wrong they have a lot of

difficulty

understanding that they're wrong right

so as I I mean I don't really explain to

them I figured out how to do this but if

they talk to their co-founders or their

advisory board or things like that right

their seuite kind of group like they

have a lot of difficulty recognizing

they're wrong because their mind is

always able to come up with arguments

that support the incorrect belief.

Another kind of stupidity that people

with high IQ are predisposed to is

something called a misapplied heristic

or a discrepancy between someone's

confidence and their abilities. So like

a good example of this that doesn't have

to do with IQ is, you know, back couple

maybe about a year ago, two years ago,

there was like all these things going

around on social media where there were

like dudes who were like, "Yeah, I can

wrestle a bear, bro." Like if I took a

bear in in a fight like unarmed, like I

would own that bear. Like I'm stronger

than a bear, right? You have like people

on social media who are making these

bizarre claims of confidence. So there's

a gap between what you believe you're

capable of and what you are actually

capable of. So Dunning and Krueger uh

wrote a seminal paper on this back in

like 1999 which is called the Dunning

Krueger effect which is that people who

don't know much misestimate their

abilities. Is this just a case of like

people being arrogant? Because that's

certainly the case on social media. But

it turns out that there's some really

interesting science behind this. And

this is something that Kant originally

sort of discovered and he said that

judgment is I think the application of a

rule like appropriately. So in a lot of

situations if you apply the correct

rules then you will behave intelligently

or smartly or wisely. And if you apply

the wrong set of rules to a situation,

then that will result in stupidity. In

scientific terms, this is something

called the problem of misapplied

heristics. So a heristic is kind of

like, you know, a set of rules that we

follow. And when we don't correctly read

the situation, when we have sort of like

an answer key and we misapply this

answer key to a set of problems, that

results in stupidity. So a good example

of this I've worked with a bunch of

people who are once again CEOs,

founders, leaders, right? And they have

a set of rules of when interacting with

people. These are the set of rules that

lead to success. And when these leaders

go home and they have their spouse or

partner, when they have their kids, they

assume, right, this is why they end up

in my office because they're in the

midst their their partner is threatening

divorce. They're alienated from their

children. They're narcissistic and

they're like, "I don't understand what's

wrong. Like, why do people hate me?

Like, I'm focused on efficiency. They

want these things. I tell them to do it

this way. If everyone listened to me,

everyone would get what they want. I'm

smart. I know how to do this. I built a

hundred million dollar company. I don't

know why these people are [ __ ]

arguing with me. My son is 15 years old

and he [ __ ] argues with me. This is a

case of a misapplied uristic. This

person is incredibly successful,

somewhat narcissistic, fine. But that's

not actually what their mistake is.

Their mistake is that they are taking

the rule set from being a founder or

leader and they are applying it to a

family situation. They're applying it to

a 15-year-old son who is in the process

of transitioning from a child to an

adult. So even that heruristic used to

work when your son was like six because

when your son is six and you're like 40,

they listen to you. They're supposed to

listen to you. But as they start to

develop independence, right? When your

employees are developing independence,

you're like, "Nah, bro. You got to

listen to what I'm saying." But that

doesn't work with your kid. It doesn't

work with your spouse. So, as we

misapply heristics, we result in

stupidity despite the fact that we're

intelligent. Why are people with

intelligence more vulnerable to this?

It's because their ability to shape a

heristic to a situation is actually

greater. If I were to ask like a super

smart person, make me a list of the

similarities between a family and a

company like they could connect those

dots more easily. As they connect those

dots more easily, they are more likely

to apply heristics, adapt heristics,

which on some level may work, but is not

nearly as good as developing an

independent heristic. So now the

question becomes, how do we fix this?

Right? So how do we move from being a

stupid intelligent person to a smart

intelligent person? It turns out that

there's another element here. There's

another like cognitive principle which

often times if you're intelligent you

don't really figure out. Some people

sort of do it naturally which is how

they become smart intelligent people.

But if you don't do it naturally you can

absolutely learn it. Okay. And this is

called thinking disposition. So this is

thinking disposition is not your IQ. It

is the way that you relate to your

thinking. The attitude that you have

towards your thinking. So let me give

you an example. Okay, I am an

influencer. So many influencers are

like, hey, I'm successful on YouTube.

Therefore, let me become an

entrepreneur, right? So there are like

these entrepreneur influencers. Many of

them will start companies. They'll

develop products. Like myself, I

developed a coaching program. And since,

by the way, since I'm successful on

YouTube, that must mean anything that I

develop will work, right? So here I am

trained at Harvard Medical School, was

faculty there, was there for like seven

or eight years and like now I'm

successful on the internet and these two

data points mean that whatever product I

develop will be successful because I'm

such a genius. That's not actually the

attitude that I take though. We did

actually the exact opposite at H because

you know we understand based on medical

training and stuff like that that genius

doesn't translate directly over to

successful products. That's why we do

studies on our coaching program. We have

research baked into it to measure

whether it actually works with people,

right? So we see reductions in

depression, reductions in anxiety,

improvements in a sense of life purpose.

We see people like living up to their

potential. They tend to be pretty happy

with it. 10 to 20,000 people have gone

through the program since we started it.

It is the way that you relate to your

thinking. So just because Dr. K has an

idea, even if I'm Dr. K, that doesn't

make it good. And there are a couple of

critical components to thinking

disposition. The first is collecting

information before you make a judgment.

So this is what's really like tricky.

Okay, so the smarter you are, the more

quickly you will arrive at a judgment,

right? Because you can make all of these

natural calculations, they happen pretty

quick. And so often times what we don't

do even when we know the answer, we

don't go looking for information. So the

whole point of medical training is that

when a doctor jumps to a conclusion,

like jumps to a diagnosis. Oh yeah, I've

seen the flu a thousand times. Flu is

going around. Your kid comes in, he's

got the flu, right? So, he's got sweats,

right? And they don't ask the question,

okay, does he have sweats only at night

or does he have them all day long? Do

they respond to Tylenol? Do they not

respond to Tylenol? Has someone else

been sick in the house? This is how you

separate out something like lymphoma or

leukemia from the flu. The training that

we go through for doctors is even when

you make a judgment or ideally before

you make a final judgment, you can have

an initial diagnostic idea, you should

still collect information. So be a

little bit hesitant to make judgments.

Make judgments after you go through a

process. The second thing for thinking

disposition is when you have a

particular idea to try to engage with

contrary opinions. This is something

that we see very little of on the

internet where you have a lot of

intelligent people who become parts of

echo chambers and they stop engaging

with contrary opinions. So, I know it

sounds insane, but like when you have an

idea of what is OP in a video game

because you're so smart and you're

someone who is like high rank and

therefore you know everything. When you

think of something as OP, you kind of

double down. You argue with people. You

don't actually go around collecting

opinions that are the exact opposite of

yours. Maybe you do, and if you do,

chances are you're a smart, intelligent

person, right? So, if we're intelligent,

we actually want to bring in contrary

opinions for our intelligence to factor

into the calculation. We don't have to

believe them, but we really want to

collect that data. The third thing, and

this is so counterintuitive because we

all think we do it, and that is thinking

before you make a decision. Just because

our mind produces

a calculation, right? It usually happens

very fast. It usually happens

unintentionally. Your mind just comes up

with an idea. Oh, this is bad. We often

times the more intelligent you are, the

less you learn because you don't need

to, right? So, if you're very

intelligent, you make a calculation, the

chances are the calculation is right.

So, then you sort of fly by the seat of

your pants. A lot of people go through

life with like this automatic

intelligence. That's what predisposes

you to make mistakes because that's not

always going to be right. And then we

see this weird synergistic effect

because if you make a snap judgment, if

you don't collect information and then

you have a very very robust intellectual

capability, you will argue yourself into

being correct even when you're wrong. So

you need to pause and really think about

making decisions. So often times when

I'm working with someone, you know what

I'll do is I'll ask them, you guys may

have seen this in our interviews, right?

I'll ask them lots of open-ended

questions. I'll really get them to think

about their problems. I don't give them

answers and I don't need to. What And if

you struggle with this because it's kind

of hard to do on your own, this is where

working with someone who asks you

questions to encourage your thinking

about the problem to engage your

critical thinking instead of jumping to

a conclusion, which is technically what

your mind does. That's what leads to

smart intelligence. And the last thing

is to think critically about your

thinking. Okay, this is sort of related.

This is why we sort of encourage people

to think, but oftentimes the smarter you

are, the less critical you are about

your own thinking. Right? So, we may

think we're critical. And some of y'all

may be critical about your thinking. I

think that's totally fine. But when I

encounter people who are like high IQ

and super blackpilled, this is a good

example of not being critical about your

thinking. They may have read a bunch of

research, but they never stop to think

like, okay, there's a bunch of studies

on why black pill is correct, but do

they spend an equal amount of time

studying lots of things that show that

black pill isn't correct? No. It turns

out that there's a selection bias. So,

if you are someone who is a stupid

intelligent person, it's not about

leveling up your IQ or leveling down

Well, I guess it is about leveling down

your stupidity. And the way that we do

that is by changing our thinking

disposition.