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Comment by maxklein | Hacker News Reader

I've been wanting to write about this, and this is as good a time as any: We have evolved this far, not in spite-of, but with the help of stupidity. You cannot have a successful company where everyone is exactly the same intellectual type.

What you call "stupidity" is often just a lack of curiousity - such people are the workers of society, the ones who don't get bored. Just because you belong to the "curious" caste does not mean you are better than the others, it just means you have a different role. If you had to do what the uncurious do you would have problems coping, because you would constantly get distracted.

Stupidity is not an insult. It's an attribute - and a large part of our evolutionary success is built on this specialisation of humans into the different intellectual roles.

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how did you get the idea of connecting caste system to this ad? Do you know caste system is an almost a prehistoric sociological invention that has long been abandoned and forgotten - and for a good reason too. And yes, other than the so called "Curious" people - there are another kind of people who can't do a repetitive, boring job, criminals.

I'm talking of castes like in ants : worker caste, soldier caste etc. Recently wrote a paper about this, so it seemed natural to me, I forgot it may be misunderstood.

I guess you are talking about this or something like this http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081021093944.ht...

But I think analogies are a nice way to come up with hypothesis at best, not conclusions.

In this context, it's not about curiosity but about following your feelings rather than your reason. Arguably you could say that it's 'stupid' to go off and found a risky internet start-up rather than be an employee at a large 'sensible' company or finishing that degree or whatever...but I think most risk-takers our outliers would prefer to think of themselves as passionate AND smart.

Like the OP, I really don't care for the subtle anti-intellectual vibe that equates stupidity with being more 'authentic' or 'real' or whatever. Then again, it is Diesel, who have always had weird advertising designed to seem edgy to the sort of people who buy $150 jeans at retail. I presume they're trying to tap into the disillusionment many feel about how the financial elite wrecked the economy despite all their 'smarts' (and here, I agree with the point you are making, Max).

Stupidity is not an insult. It's an attribute

Of course it's an attribute, just like ugliness. Yet calling someone stupid or ugly most often is an insult. It doesn't matter whether it's accurate or not, whether it's about an attribute or something else: a statement is an insult if it's perceived as such.

What you call "stupidity" is often just a lack of curiousity - such people are the workers of society, the ones who don't get bored.

I think that lack of curiosity has less to do with intelligence than with upbringing. However, it's just my personal opinion and I would be interested in finding out whether there are any theories or studies about that.

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