This will be the first and last attempt in human history!

Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Antonio Damasio, Howard Gardner…
29 Scholars from Around the World Explore All Things Nonsense and Idiocy

Even today, there are idiots around us who harass us and make us angry.
They make our lives miserable in many ways, such as acting inconsiderately, talking nonsense, or making foolish decisions.
My patience is limited when I meet arrogant, selfish fools or fools who just don't make sense to me.


Idiots exist everywhere, but every encounter is new and painful.
They are foolish and have unfounded confidence, are good at arguing, and are indifferent to the opinions or feelings of others.
Idiots suffer from an incurable disease called stupidity, yet they refuse to treat it.
Without thinking, without being persuaded, without worrying.
They are just convinced that their thoughts are right.
In the end, we beat our chests in frustration and begin to question whether justice truly exists in this chaotic world.


As the saying goes, to defeat an enemy, you must know your enemy.
So, 29 experts from various fields, including psychologists, neurologists, scientists, philosophers, and economists, came forward to explore stupidity in their own ways.
How to define stupidity, where and how stupidity is born, what types of stupidity exist, who is the most annoying stupid person, and how to deal with an stupid person when you meet one…
Can scholars really teach me how to defeat the idiots around me?

Even though we can easily overlook the mild stupidity we encounter in everyday life, the stupid people who raise their voices as if competing to see who is more stupid are the real enemies.
Especially, you can't ignore the stupid people you encounter at work or at home.
They are so obsessed with foolish things and baseless confidence that I find them both fascinating and troubling.
Stupid people are experts at arguing and trying to destroy your opinions, feelings, and self-esteem in an instant.
Idiots not only demoralize you, they make you question whether justice exists in this chaotic world.
---From "Warning Letter"

A foolish person is like an untamed beast! No matter how much we cherish them and want to befriend them, a foolish person betrays our hearts.
A stupid person suffers from an incurable disease.
But he doesn't try to cure himself.
In a world where blind people live, he is convinced that he is the only one with at least one eye open.
It's a funny and sad situation.
Zombies appear to be alive on the outside, but their minds are empty and they cannot think, they can only move.
Zombies try to make all living people, protagonists, and kind people like themselves.
Likewise, stupid people want to paralyze your thinking.
A stupid person will try to make you a loser like him.

---From "Warning Letter"

You shouldn't think, 'I can defend myself justifiably even if there's such an idiot.'
That is the way to fall into a trap.
It's bitter, but it's reality.
You think you can convince a stupid person to change their mind? You're sorely mistaken! If you think you can teach a stupid person how to think and act, you're delusional.
Moreover, it is naive to believe that you can change him.
Remember, the more you try to change a stupid person, the stronger the stupid person becomes.
The more this happens, the more he will think that his thoughts and actions are correct, but that he is suffering because he challenged the world.

---From "Warning Letter"

The world view of a stupid human is very simple.
We are not familiar with large numbers, square roots, and complex things, and we often only see the ends of Gaussian curves (error curves).
Stalin once said:
“The death of a thousand soldiers is a statistic, but the death of one soldier is a tragedy.” Ordinary people are more moved by personal stories than by objective reports based on statistics, but foolish people are only interested in specific cases.
A stupid person is making a fuss about how a person can survive a fall from the 40th floor, as seen on some channel of some broadcasting station.

---From "On Foolish Humans"

“You guys are all idiots!” A guy with his arm resting on the bar often shouts this.
So who is this "all together" person speaking of here? Politicians, voters, civil servants, and even those without ability.
If you keep expanding your scope like this, there will be no one who is not stupid except yourself.

Descartes wrote:
“It is wrong not to admit your mistakes.” The same goes for stupidity.
The more stupid a person is, the more arrogantly they tend to judge those around them as stupid, rather than admitting their own stupidity.
If you ever see someone belittling you by saying, “They’re all idiots!”, you can assume that person is an idiot.

---From "What Kinds of Idiots Are There?"

Being ignorant doesn't mean you're stupid.
Rather, ignorance is a powerful driving force for absorbing knowledge.
However, we must recognize and admit that we are ignorant.
We are mostly unaware of information processing errors or thinking errors.
Even if these errors are discovered, they will continue to work.
But the person who is convinced that he knows enough is truly stupid.
(…)

To combat stupidity, you must condemn stupidity and call stupid things stupid.
You should not hesitate to use the word stupid even about yourself.
Only by confessing that you are ashamed of your own inability to think properly can you control your words and actions.
If someone says or does something stupid, you should call them stupid.


But when you call someone stupid, you should always do so in a joking manner! That way, it serves as a warning, helping us recognize our flaws and be more careful about our actions.

---From "Idiocy and Cognitive Errors"