“Asked how many members of the House of Reps there were, Stein guessed 600-some before hosts corrected her.”

  • prole
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    2 months ago

    Ben Carson was a (by all accounts excellent) brain surgeon.

    I’m sorry, but that man is stupid.

    Brains are weird, man. I work in a STEM field, but I had 3 or 4 semesters of University before declaring my major, and therefore I was able to get a much more well-rounded education than my colleagues, and I will tell you: It shows. Big time.

    Lots of people who are great at what they do, and when it comes to their one very specific, silo’d, expertise, they’re brilliant.

    But in terms of general intelligence, rationality, ability to think critically in a novel situation, etc? Not bright.

    Then there’s the old (true) joke: What do you call someone who graduated at the bottom of their class in medical school? Doctor.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I have worked for a university for over 25 years so I have seen in all. My first wife, who also worked for the same university, worked in a computer lab in the psych dept and they would have the most domain specific intelligent people with no common sense whatsoever. Her and a colleague used to joke about the PhD students “I bet she runs with scissors”.

      • prole
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        2 months ago

        It’s honestly a real shame. STEM careers are obviously extremely important, but we are doing students a major disservice by limiting the scope of their education so much. Maybe these degrees should be five year programs…

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Did Ben Carson attempt to do surgery on himself? Otherwise I can’t explain at all how dumb he was. Wow! Thanks for the example.

      • prole
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        2 months ago

        Probably after he got shot by his best friend and the bullet ricocheted off his belt buckle and hit his friend killing him (wasn’t that the story? Lol I’m not going to bother looking it up. If I got any details wrong, the reality was at least just as stupid).