Sometimes people appear to me unskilled, sometimes they appear unknowledgeable, sometimes they're thinking in twisted ways that they picked up from their environment, sometimes they're falling prey to cognitive biases, sometimes they're making one of a hundred other mistakes I happen to recognize.
And sometimes, so far as I can tell, they're stupid. Sorry.
Original article's error: The fact that a conclusion sounds nice does not save it from being patently false.
As a rule people are a lot smarter than they may appear to be at first contact. And people that think they are very smart are typically smart along some fairly narrow field and then extrapolate their smartness in that one area to all areas.
Thinking is interesting that way, if you're 'smart' it usually means that you know a lot about some subject but that isn't actually being smart. Being smart means that you can use the knowledge you've got in creative ways when presented with unforeseen problems or situations.
And there are plenty of people that would not normally be called smart that excel at that.
Being smart or not has nothing to do with making mistakes or falling prey to cognitive biases. The first is typically evidence of people trying things a little bit outside their envelope of experience, in turn they'll acquire new knowledge because of this. Guilty as charged, I make mistakes all the time. Your environment has nothing to do with you being smart or not either. Otherwise, how would you ever be able to recognize someone from a society with different levels of development as smart.
The fact that someone does not appear smart in a way that you recognize does not mean they are not.
My favorite thing to learn is to recognize a cognitive bias in myself. I might know one, theoretically, but if I recognize it consciously when I fall victim to it, I feel like I've grown a bit.
Even people that are in general stupid may surprise you.
The problem with labeling someone as being stupid is that you're applying a stereotype to his behavior and by definition, you have preconceived ideas about stereotypes.
However, stereotypes are human-invented concepts and the world is much more complicated for that, as in fact everybody has a unique combination of knowledge and perspective that's dependent on his environment in which he grew up, his passions, his ideals, his education, his friends, his luck, his misfortunes and so on.
In my country we have a billionaire that started making money by herding and selling sheep. He's also a completely illiterate buffoon, a redneck that still has the same mentality as a sheep herder. Every time he talks, stupid things come out of his mouth. However, he's a billionaire that started from zero, while I have the income of a regular employee, he's also a politician with a seat in the EU parliament and he's also pretty involved in charity work, while I'm not. Judging by his words or actions that end up in the media, he's completely stupid, but judging by his accomplishments only, it's really hard to do that.
So be wary of calling people stupid, because stupidity is relative.
And sometimes, so far as I can tell, they're stupid. Sorry.
Original article's error: The fact that a conclusion sounds nice does not save it from being patently false.