The 5 Unique Ways Intelligent People Screw Up Their Lives

Pajamas Media ^ | 10/07/2012 | John Hawkins

[BobL]

“5) They may try to show how “uncommon” they are.”

I like this one...smart people need to show off just how smart they are. Every wonder why they’re called:

a) Smart Cars
b) Insight
c) Prius (as in pious)

[VRWCRick]

“Now I know how much I do NOT know.”

Amen to that! When I got out of college, I went in the Air Force to learn how the real world works. I am out of the Air Force now and still learning.

[VRWCRick]

Every time I see one of these “Smart” cars, I want to ask the owner, “Why don’t you leave your riding lawn mower at home?”

[Joe 6-pack]

The quote at #1 shot me right back to my college days. I double majored in History and Art History with a minor in Studio Art. In our Art Department, there was a rigid faculty divide between the History and Studio profs and that filtered down to their students; it was both parochial and political.

I personally could not understand how an Art History major could truly appreciate what they were looking at without having ever tried to paint in oils, chisel marble, carve wood, etc. Similarly, I couldn't understand how the studio folks could ever hope to achieve anything significant without having a decent understanding of precedent and the foundation on which they were trying to build.

[driftless2]

One of things that makes me wonder is how often small plane crashes have doctors, lawyers, and other non-professional people as the pilot. There seems to be quite a few small plane crashes, and many of them were piloted by non-professional pilots. I can’t help thinking that many of these non-professional pilots thought that because they were so successful as a doctor, lawyer, or whatever professional, that automatically extended to flying a plane. Obviously, there’s no reason why a professional can’t be a good pilot. But I see so many reports of non-professional pilots with crashed planes, I can’t help but conjecture.

[sportutegrl]

As an engineer, I often saw myself as the smartest person in the room. When I got pregnant, I felt that I could just get a few pregnancy and childcare books and learn what I needed to know. I didn't need any advice from my stupid mother, who didn't graduate from high school and gave birth to me at age 18. Just because she raised 5 productive citizens and stayed married to my father until his death a few years ago, meant nothing.

Let me just say, I had a change of heart. I soon learned to consult the 'expert' when I had a problem. Even my husband would ask, "what does your mother think we should do?" whenever we had a problem like colic or whatever. It was a humbling experience. (In case you haven't figured it out, it wasn't my mother who was stupid.)

[elcid1970]

I learned to fly a Piper Cherokee before I went to Army flight school. The instructors regarded me the dumbest student pilot they had ever seen. As a result, I flew like I knew I really was the stupidest pilot - my survival depended upon following every last one of the rules & maintaining all the safety crosschecks and knowing all my emergency procedures, because I wasn’t clever or bold enough to attempt any risky maneuvers in the aircraft.

Hmmm.....and now I’m still here.

[Sherman Logan]

(These) brilliant people ... are the sort of people Talleyrand once described as having “learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”

Sorry, Tom. Talleyrand was describing the returning members of the House of Bourbon after Napoleon's defeat.

Absolutely nobody ever described these princes as brilliant.

[Sherman Logan]

There are old pilots (divers, climbers, etc.) and bold pilots.

But no old, bold pilots

[nobamanomore]

Sounds a lot like a guy I know. Obammy, are you listening?

[B4Ranch]

When doctors, lawyers, and other professional people pilot their own plane they often start thinking about the reason for the flight, someone needs an operation, a difficult court case, etc. instead of flying the plane. That is what gets them in trouble.

[bravo whiskey]

or entrust the government to the soldiers in a mech infantry platoon.

[bravo whiskey]

I once walked through Cologne Cathedral and looked at the stained glass windows and thought, “it’s people who built this cathedral who make me realize how little I’ve accomplished.”

they were places little people could go to escape their poor lives for a bit of time by becoming enthralled in the beauty and believing in an afterlife that was as beautiful as the cathedral.
not to diminish the majesty of the cathedral don’t forget the future generations of the people that built the cathedral brought us WW1, WW2,and the holocaust.

[Holly_P]

JFK Jr. comes to mind. When he flunked the bar exam umpteen times, it could have indicated that he might not be a very good lawyer or maybe even not a good pilot either.

But he was JFK Jr.

It’s the same with actors, they achieve some measure of success pretending on screen to be what they are not, so that qualifies them as political experts.

[fini]

My dad was a doctor. When he had parties, most of the guests were doctors and very intelligent spouses. When I was a Lt in the Marine Corps, I went to one of the parties. Most of the guests knew I was in the Marine Corps. It was fascinating. The older people were very enjoyable to talk to; while most of the younger doctors and their spouses came off as "know it all" jerks (both the doctors and their spouses). It was amazing how many were "military experts." When I commented about this to my father, he laughed and said, "they have not yet been humbled by their "intelligent decisions and the effects thereof."

[central_va]

The first law of aviation: The indicated AGL altitude must always be greater than the MSL altitude of the terrain over which the aircraft is flying. Everything else is style.