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Old 09-May-2008, 05:46 PM
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tdvance tdvance is offline
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Location: Bowie, MD
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Humans are rationalizing beings as much as reasoning beings--and intelligent people rationalize too. One problem is, a more-intelligent-than-average person may think themselves immune to the fallacies of others and not realize they have been rationalizing. Hence, "yeah, I know the risks of doing drugs, but I'll just be careful and not take too much too fast and laws and advice against drugs are for people who aren't smart enough and shouldn't apply to me and...." oops.

Then, humans have built-in instincts from caveman days and before--and some of them are very powerful, some of them also not all that appropriate to certain modern-day situations. These drives can make it hard to think clearly.

With experience comes knowledge of one's own limitations--and that is probably more important for judgment than raw intelligence which, as I argued, could actually hurt.

Intelligence is a capability, but not a guarantee of success anymore than having a hammer means all your nails are pounded in--you gotta use it right! And the hammerless might use screws instead and not have a problem with nails popping out.
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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

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