The Wisdom Paradox Chris Sweden - WirSindDu

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Why are intelligent people not confident?

The more you know, the less sure you are of things.

Voltaire

Perhaps the best example for it I can think of,

comes from my own freshman years in Canada. I had just bought a cheap, old car the day before, and a buddy convinced me to drive to a party in a town six hours north of Edmonton, on a Saturday.

I was nervous. My buddy was not.

The whole time, he asked me to put the foot down and relax. 

“We’re in a big car, on one of Canada’s best highways, and you’re doing 70 km/h.

Floor it, man!”

When he said it for the umpteenth time, I finally snapped and told him why I was nervous:

  • it’s an ancient car;
  • it’s been sitting unsold in a ratty car lot for two years – perhaps for a reason;
  • that means the radiator fluid is probably similar to spinach soup in consistency by now;
  • I haven’t stepped on the brakes yet, so don’t know if they do anything;
  • the tyres look like something from a Pharaonic tomb;
  • they feel like it, too;
  • the fuel consumption of these things is enormous, and it’s light years between gas stations;
  • we have no motor club membership;
  • we have no cell phone;
  • it’s a weekend;
  • in the middle of nowhere;
  • we haven’t got proof of insurance with us because it’s still in the mail to me;
  • it’s 70 mph, not km/h. The speedo is in miles, you dummy.
  • you smell of marijuana so strongly, oncoming traffic is being sedated by it.

He laughed it off.

And the weekend ended as I feared it would:

  • we had a flat tyre, 
  • ran out of fuel, 
  • got done for speeding when it was his turn to drive (never mind that he also had no driving licence with him, and they ripped the car apart looking for weed), 
  • I got a warning for not having proof of insurance, 
  • we cooked the radiator, and killed the brake discs for lack of pads.

Here the hero shot from that fateful day

taken by the man himself! 

Didn’t even know how to include an entire automobile in a picture.

I’ve been pretty insistent on my knowledge being heeded ever since. Perhaps all it takes is a ruined weekend for those in the know to become a bit more assertive.

Chris Ebbert

Innovation Advisor and Industrial Design Lecturer
Relatively funny guy in Sweden..
My one big passion in life is to uphold the flag of high civilisation.
Smaller passions include cats of all sizes, American vintage cars,
obtuse movies, photography, and musing randomly on social media.

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The Wisdom Paradox Chri... Chris Ebbert
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