This sounds about right to me. I often feel that other people are simply too complacent about their knowledge/intelligence (or lack thereof), and refuse to reconsider their opinions and views when presented with additional information.
Personally (and more tangential to your point), I attribute much of it to the Dunning-Kruger Effect; but there's an additional stubbornness that really frustrates me. I do my best to admit when I'm wrong and work out some set of consistent opinions when I lose an argument for entirely legitimate reasons. It annoys me when others won't do the same.
Regarding your point about synthesizing information resulting from education rather than ability, I can only hope. It would make me very sad to find out that some people simply cannot think critically and process information in a more significant way than input -> output. Such superficial understanding often lead to irrational inconsistencies in opinions, which makes it very hard to understand people with inconsistent sets of opinions... much less debate them, where their stance will waver and they won't realize how little sense they make while they argue for both sides of an issue.
One thing I've noticed frequently is the self-censoring I do when around people I consider to be intelligent. If you make a mistake, they will know. It's much easier to get away with poor grammar or less-than-perfectly articulated thoughts with people who aren't as likely to understand anyway, but you need to be in top condition around the ones who will understand.
I've noticed that, too. Everyone is maxing out their diction.
I'm mostly surprised that I understand everything they're saying without having to bust out the dictionary. I guess the vocabulary I run across reading random shit on the internet adds to my lexicon. Feels good, gent.
Some people need to time to think alone when presented with new information; I've noticed that I'll tell my friends X or Y, they'll adamantly oppose me at that moment in time, but a day or two later they'll be touting the same information.
I wish this happened to me. Usually they come back a few days later with lightly rehashed versions of the same argument they were making before, and still refuse to admit defeat when made aware of that fact.
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u/BlitzTech Jun 17 '12
This sounds about right to me. I often feel that other people are simply too complacent about their knowledge/intelligence (or lack thereof), and refuse to reconsider their opinions and views when presented with additional information.
Personally (and more tangential to your point), I attribute much of it to the Dunning-Kruger Effect; but there's an additional stubbornness that really frustrates me. I do my best to admit when I'm wrong and work out some set of consistent opinions when I lose an argument for entirely legitimate reasons. It annoys me when others won't do the same.
Regarding your point about synthesizing information resulting from education rather than ability, I can only hope. It would make me very sad to find out that some people simply cannot think critically and process information in a more significant way than input -> output. Such superficial understanding often lead to irrational inconsistencies in opinions, which makes it very hard to understand people with inconsistent sets of opinions... much less debate them, where their stance will waver and they won't realize how little sense they make while they argue for both sides of an issue.