How to think about stupid people

I don’t think there exist stupid people.

There exist normal people.

When somebody seems to be stupid, what is really happening is they are normal. Being a human being comes with certain traits.

Traits of human beings

• They want to win
• They want to be liked
• They attach emotional meaning where none exists

The “wanting to win” comes from the evolutionary pressure of having to reproduce. As the default mode of an animal, you are desperate to eat and not die and hopefully produce offspring before you die. Nature does not give a shit about you being happy or doing meaningful things. It only cares about winning against other human beings.

And when somebody is unaware of this tendency, losing will bring immense pain and suffering. When in reality, winning and losing are man made concepts. They are not real. We all lose in the end — we all die — so your entire life will become a slow and grueling game of you heading towards ultimate loserdom — death.

Yeah it’s pretty stupid.

The “wanting to be liked” comes from the same place as “wanting to win”.

Except in my humble opinion this one comes from overestimating the value of human beings in the first place.

A human will like or dislike you.

A tree will not like or dislike you. A rock will not like or dislike you.

A dog may seem to, but they don’t judge you on your stance on sex. They don’t judge you on your political leanings. They don’t give a shit as long as you give them food and take them on a walk. They respond positively to good things like food, and negatively to bad things like physical pain. It’s not about like or dislike.

“Like” and “dislike” aren’t really real.

When someone dislikes you, it’s not really real. It is the accumulation of trauma and negative experiences making the person respond in a certain way. It is not really “them”.

Same as me getting mad as something.

Or me getting sad about something.

It happens, but inherently doesn’t have meaning. It happens. Water happens and air happens and numbers happen. But there is no meaning behind the happenings.

The attaching of emotional meaning onto things with no meaning causes the most suffering in the human experience, again in my humble opinion.

Let’s say you fail a test.

There is no meaning to this.

You did not answer an arbitrary number of questions about something, in that point in time, in that arbitrary setting. This is what happened. But there is no meaning.

Now, it’s possible to attach meaning to it.

You can start thinking this means you must be stupid. Or that you are inferior. Or that you are lazy.

But again, these things aren’t really real.

You are attaching meaning — and thus emotion — onto something that inherently has no meaning.

I’m not saying you should be stoic and force yourself to stop feeling emotions. That’s stupid.

If anything, you should feel your emotions. Because they are happening. If you deny there is water, that is insanity. Water happens. Emotions happen.

It’s just that some forms of emotional attachment are stupid.

Put frankly, it is stupid to think “oh I failed this test — this must mean I am worthless and I must work harder”.

Or “oh, I can’t get a girl friend. This means I’m unlovable and worthless”.

This is stupid because it’s wrong.

Logically wrong.

Failing a test literally means this person did not answer a set of questions in a certain point in space and time

There is nothing implicating that they “could not” do it. Literally, go examine the logic.

There is nothing implicating the test taker’s worth, or intelligence, or knowledge, or competence. Same as how there is nothing implicating the color of their hair or the length of their pinky finger.

You need to be hyper hyper rational.

And at the same time you want to be hyper hyper aware of your emotions. And of your human traits.

Because being a human is a source of suffering. And since you cannot stop being a human being, you are bound to suffer, yet the thing a lot of people don’t realize is that there is a huge variation in how much each person suffers.

And there is a way to suffer less.

That is to be less human.

Be less obsessed about winning and being liked.

Then, ironically, you will become the most thriving with less suffering.

(PS: If you’re smart and bored, just go do math. This is the secret. This is what people have been doing for thousands of years when they’re bored yet too smart for normal entertainment).