Stupidity is not the opposite of smartness

Stupidity is not the opposite of smartness.

It is the opposite of freedom.

That is the thesis of the book "How Not To Be Stupid" that I bought in London. With a title like that, I could not resist.

Italian philosopher Igor Sibaldi says most people go through life living on borrowed ideas. 

We repeat phrases we didn't invent, adopt goals defined by culture, and lean on institutional authority to dictate our choices.

In other words, and it’s hard to argue with this: most people are lazy and let others do our thinking for us.

Passive compliance is the true root of stupidity, according to Sibaldi. 

That’s why we see the same phrases in the comms and legal professions over and over for decades.

It’s algorithms dictating our feeds instead of seeing things in the order we should see them.

In other words, don’t outsource all your thinking, including AI. 

Nobody can communicate for you, unless you let them.