[jazusamo]

*PING*
Thomas Sowell

Recent columns
Choosing The Right College
The Underdogs
Fables for Adults

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[Rocky]

There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.

One of the best lines of all time.

[Rembrandt]

“There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.”

Incredibly insightful writing!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Bummer knows how to charm, but he doesn’t project an impressively bright image. Without the teleprompter he hems and haws a lot. I haven’t seen a single idea of his which says “wow, though this is evil, this is genius too.”

[csense]

There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.

...LOL

[epow]

But do we want to become the world's largest banana republic?

Want it or not, that's where we're headed if the mind-numbed voters don't wake up and throw these commie-lite Congress critters out in the next election and throw Obozo out in 2012. If that doesn't happen we're probably stuck with Comrade Obozo for the next 20 years or more, and by then it will be all over except for historians writing the history of the once great nation formerly known as the USA.

[T Lady]

It is rather interesting that Sowell (in his brilliant analysis) penned and articulated what I wished I could have shared with a friend of mine from church who supported Obama for his education pedigree (Harvard and Princeton) and oratorical skills (which we all now know are courtesy of Dear Mr. Teleprompter) during the 2008 election. She claimed Palin "stuck her foot in her mouth every time she opened it", and that McCain (whom I'm not big fan of, holding my nose in the voting booth) was morally unfit due to his divorce from his first wife.

I should probably send her the link to Dr. Sowell's piece and say "SEE, I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!"

[trubolotta]

I think it was Dr. Laura who said we don’t need more smart people, we need more good people. I never forgot that. Sowell makes the case. Gotta love this guy.

[Christian4Bush]

bump

[haroldeveryman]

“Such people have been told all their lives how brilliant they are, until finally they feel forced to admit it, with all due modesty.”

Elitists who just “know” that they possess unique insight just can’t resist putting their abstract theories into practice, no matter what it takes. This is bound to end in disaster.

Successful leaders are those who base their decisions on empirical knowledge and practiced experience.

Abstract theories that seem to conflict with time honored experience occasionally succeed in the hard sciences, but almost always turn out to be wrong when applied to human affairs.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"But do we want to become the world's largest banana republic?"

We have a choice!

This was an exercise of our 1st amendment rights.

They don't want to see the exercise that comes after the 1st.

[RoadTest]

A good point well expounded, Tom. You get another A-plus.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.

Such people have been told all their lives how brilliant they are, until finally they feel forced to admit it, with all due modesty. But they not only tend to over-estimate their own brilliance, more fundamentally they tend to over-estimate how important brilliance itself is when dealing with real world problems.

This link is to my article summarizing

Why Don't Students Like School:

A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works
and What It Means for the Classroom
by Daniel T. Willingham

The salient point is that

Intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work.

This means that "intelligence" is not an intrinsic characteristic of a given person, but rather is significantly affected by how much that person has thought - and about what. The conclusion to be drawn from this is crucial:

Always talk about successes and failures in terms of effort, not ability.

Talking in terms of success due to effort leads to morale. Talking in terms of success due to effort leads to arrogance, reduced motivation to work, and, over time, an actual reduction in "IQ."

[Running On Empty]

Marking

[allmendream]

"There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs." Dr. Sowell "I am become death, the destroyer of cities" Dr. Oppenhiemer