Last week I had my induction training for my new job. Healthcare related, loads of responsibility, not for the faint-hearted, yet one of my colleagues there (a person who had supposedly submitted a decent application and passed the interview) couldn't even spell "hygiene" and was moaning that copying information (i.e. the process of alternating reading and writing) was very difficult and "made her brain hurt".
In the same way breathing and talking at the same time is excruciatingly tiring. I would advise those people to stop doing one of them - one thing at a time, y'know. It would make life much easier for everyone. Multitasking isn't always ideal.
By that point I was feeling increasingly worried by my employer's code of practice in recruiting staff. Everyone at that table was either of average intelligence or not very intelligent, but practical... except for this particular specimen who couldn't even write in her own language, yet was signing up for a huge amount of responsibility by dealing with, ehm, !!!LIVING PEOPLE!!!, including assisting with medication and filling in charts (surely the names of the medicines would make her tiny brain pop, as they are more complicated to spell than the word "hygiene", just saying).
Should I worry about that? No, I haven't hired her and would have never done so if it had been up to me. But I am. I am worried and disappointed. Every day, every minute, every second, unless I find a good enough distraction such as:
- Making everyone who wants to be my friend pass a spelling test
- Being in cuteness heaven with fifteen fluffy cats
- Reading books that make me loathe humanity even more than I already do
- Moaning about it on the internet... oh wait, that makes it even worse
- Contemplating my future achievements - very inspiration, successful as fuck
- Mentally killing everyone on my blacklist
- Creating new characters for my epic soon-to-be-written novel that I'm always too lazy to actually write. I also make them have sex. Very often. Maybe I should crack on writing those chapters first...
- Jennifer Lawrence's tits (just leave the woman be, will you?)
On the other hand, seeing all of these stupid people succeed keeps me motivated and less likely to underestimate myself - if they can do it, why couldn't I do it too?
What makes the stupid successful?
The more intelligent you are, the harsher and more critical you are of yourself (doesn't work the other way around, I'm afraid). This makes the majority of intelligent people very insecure; therefore, the less gifted usually end up in leading positions in the workplace and boss the former around.
The idiot thinks highly of himself as he is too ignorant to acknowledge his own faults, let alone be humble about them or turn them into real insecurities. The idiot is ambitious and (most importantly) very persistent (oh my word, you would be amazed). The idiot doesn't care about other people's opinions of himself and the world, and will not accept that he is an idiot even when bluntly made aware of it.
If you're stupid, you don't know you're stupid. Easy as that. This makes the stupid successful.
How do I protect myself from stupidity?
Read. Never take anything for granted and always doubt every piece of information you come across until you've had the knowledge to validate it yourself. It's like wearing an intellectual condom :)
Whatever is you want to do, think it through. Think what you could have done better, ideally without beating yourself up over mistakes or turning mistakes into insecurities. Otherwise, the stupid might win. And last, but not least:
Random wise notebook from Asda
I'm mainly happy with the person I've become. I've changed so much during the past couple of years I can't even recognise myself looking back at the adult wannabe I used to act like in the old days. It's for the better. I may have the life experience of an older person, but fear not, as I'm still a child to everyone who gets to know me.
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