I have a pet peeve: I can’t stand stupid people.
This is a fact I have known about myself for quite some time. Nothing irritates me more than dealing with stupid people. Okay, not true, I am more vexed by people acting shady and dishonest.
But stupid is RIGHT there.
I can barely keep myself from rolling my eyes when I am trying to explain something to someone who doesn’t “get it.” When I hear about someone doing something utterly thoughtless, my exasperation is real.
This likely seems tremendously unfair of me, since intellectual ability is largely regarded as a matter of genetics and education, one of which we have no control over, and the other is often only determined by our personal circumstances and socio-economic status.
For years, though, I didn’t think about it on that level. I would just label it “stupid” in my mind, get frustrated and then move on or deal with it.
So once I did really look at this little irritation of mine, I came to realize something.
Stupid doesn’t exist. Yup, it’s a figment of my imagination.
Okay, not really—there are definitely people who have unfortunately poorly developed brains, or who simply can’t quickly process a lot. But as a percentage of the population, these form just a minuscule sub-group. My understanding is that a properly functioning human being only requires somewhere around 100 IQ, and maybe even less than that, and most people are at least that smart.
So if stupid doesn’t exist, or at least not in a truly significant portion of the people I deal with, why do I see it often enough to recognize it as a trend in behavior?
Because it’s not stupidity I am seeing. It is laziness. Lazy thinking.
Most “stupid” actions are not taken by stupid people, but by people who either shrugged away the effort of thinking it through, decided that doing so would take too long, or worst, were so arrogant as to presume they had their correct solution and never bothered to consider alternatives.
I can forgive stupidity. Heck, I have to. If one is truly physiologically unintelligent, what can one day but recognize that they are not capable of whatever it is you wish for them to do. I can’t grow to become six feet tall, nor make myself younger. Would you judge me on my lack of ability to do so? Of course not. You well understand this is beyond my power.
But lazy thinking is another matter. I can’t stand lazy thinking. That is my actual pet peeve, because lazy thinking is not an unavoidable fated trait, but instead a fixable pattern of behavior.
People who appear to be stupid are actually lazy thinkers who choose to be so, and that is on them.
I believe that most people, if they allow themselves the time to consider their options, can find the best and most optimal solutions to nearly every problem they face. Their chosen course may not work, but it won’t be because they failed to think it through. Not everything is under our control, and we can’t anticipate and prepare for every possible obstacle.
However, too many people now decide to not even apply that much thought to, well, anything. The world is moving too fast now, or so everyone has convinced themselves. They can’t take the time to think it out. They have to move quick, or they will “miss it.” And our attention spans are shrinking. Social media is a big part of that, but this started even before Facebook was around. We no longer have the will to focus on a problem long enough to come to the correct conclusion.
And so I get cut off by someone who didn’t think out how his day would go, and now he is late. Or I have to explain to someone who didn’t read the small type on a coupon why they couldn’t use it on something that was already on special. Or someone gets arrested because they didn’t realize that there are cameras in the store they held up.
On the surface, these appear to be “stupid people problems.” But these people are not actually unintelligent. They’re just lazy.
So, when you’re making even the medium level daily planning decisions or you’re under pressure to perform regardless of the speed at which you must do so, take time to stop and think. The resulting time you “waste” in thought will almost certainly be saved and then some by the efficiency of your ultimate action.
Slow down. Think it through. Pace yourself. And in your brain, do the work.
You will thank me for it. And I will be a lot less irritated.