The Midwit Trap
It absolutely baffles me how so many perfectly smart and capable people are absolutely stuck. They’re probably always talking about it too. Maybe it’s you. It definitely was me. But if they’re so smart, why are they so stuck? When reflecting about it, I realised my answer came where I didn’t expect it. A meme. If you spend much time on the interwebs, there’s a chance you’ve come across it- the midwit meme. In this post, I characterise midwits, go on to specify two very specific types of them, and explain why smart people are so likely to fall into this trap. Urban Dictionary defines a midwit as someone who is around average intelligence but is so opinionated and full of themselves that they think they’re some kind of genius. The memes will usually show them as people who’ve overcomplicated something, while the truly enlightened have reached a level of simplicity that dimwits immediately gravitate to. Everyone knows a midwit. They’re pretty smart, but don’t seem to get what they really
It absolutely baffles me how so many perfectly smart and capable people are absolutely stuck. They’re probably always talking about it too. Maybe it’s you. It definitely was me. But if they’re so smart, why are they so stuck? When reflecting about it, I realised my answer came where I didn’t expect it. A meme. If you spend much time on the interwebs, there’s a chance you’ve come across it- the midwit meme. In this post, I characterise midwits, go on to specify two very specific types of them, and explain why smart people are so likely to fall into this trap. Urban Dictionary defines a midwit a
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