Renowned physicist Richard Feynman wisely remarked, “Never confuse education with intelligence; you can possess a doctorate degree and still exhibit behaviors that might be deemed foolish.” This insightful observation highlights the intriguing distinction between academic qualifications and practical wisdom. In everyday life, numerous individuals with extensive formal education may exhibit a lack of common sense or fail to navigate simple, real-world challenges effectively. Let’s explore some tangible examples that illustrate this intriguing phenomenon.
Ketchup Knees
A user shared an amusing story: “My ex-boyfriend’s mother was a linguistics professor and knew over 10 languages. She was also one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. Some examples: she believed that in an emergency, stewardesses catapulted out of the plane; she was also convinced donating blood causes some blood disease and you can die. But my favorite one was when she said her son’s orthopedic problems were not a result of his serious injury. His knee hurts because he eats too much ketchup.”
Meanwhile, another user added humorously, “Man, that ketchup is going straight to my knees. I need to sit for a minute.”
Ammonia Sniffer
A user shared an amusing anecdote: “My professor, a brilliant neurosurgeon, once decided to smell a bottle of ammonia directly. He then told me, ‘Don’t smell that’. I did not plan to!” Another user chimed in, sharing their perspective, saying, “I think this is a common thing with people who have done some amount of chemistry. If they have a good idea of what’s in the bottle, they’ll just sniff it.”
Maths to Cybersecurity
A forum user shared a relatable situation, expressing, “Me. Masters in cybersecurity and can’t help my 5th grader with his math homework.” Another user shared a similar experience: “I worked in a kids program in a college and tried to help some 6th graders with their math, and I was never so lost. I have a Bachelors in TV & Radio Production.”
Basic Cooking Skills
A user shared their observations, remarking, “As someone who did two trades and then decided life is better with education – my experience currently going to Uni is how clueless so many people are in Uni… I wouldn’t say they’re an idiot, but tons of ignorance develops living in a student bubble your whole life. I rented a room to a guy who did his masters, and it would take him hours to cook dinner. I watched him one day, and he just couldn’t wrap his mind around cooking things that take different amounts of time to cook. Like, he’d start cooking potatoes and wait until they were done before moving on to the next thing he would eat them with.”
Doctor Vs Computer
A user shared a humorous tale: “My first call at my first IT job was in a medical laboratory. A doctor had been on the job for years, and she called, saying her computer would not power on. I walked her through some troubleshooting, and nothing worked. ‘Is the computer plugged in? OK, is the monitor on? OK, when did the problem start?’ type of questions were asked, and she answered them all. I go up to her office, and indeed, the computer is plugged into a power strip, which is plugged into itself. The cleaning crew had deep-cleaned her office and never plugged anything back in. Dr. plugged the power strip into itself, thinking that as long as it was plugged in, that’s all she needed.”
Engineer Breaks Pneumatic Drive
An online user shared a funny story, recalling, “I had a boss who was an engineer who put a couple hundred dollars in change in a bank’s pneumatic drive-through tube where it got stuck, and they had to use a jackhammer to get it out. He was upset that the bank was charging him because he didn’t know this would happen. They had large signs saying not to put change in the tubes, including on the tubes themselves.” Another user added with amusement, “He just filled the thing with random change, not in rolls or anything? Like, he thought it was a Coinstar? That’s hilarious unless you were in line behind him.” It’s quite an amusing mix-up, isn’t it?
ER Misjudgement
A user shared a harrowing experience: “I went to 3 ERs when I felt something was wrong with my arm. It felt like a bug bite on day 1, and by day 4, a bungee cord from my elbow to my wrist. 3 doctors said it was a skin irritation or dermatitis. I kept telling them something was wrong. I have no medical degree. I work in Property Management. Day 5, I walked into another ER and said, ‘I don’t care if I have to pay out of pocket or sit here all night, but something is wrong with my arm.’ Finally, after many rude looks and comments, I was given an ultrasound of my arm. Then, I rushed to an MRI. Then, I was told I was being admitted. A 3-inch blood clot in my upper arm, 2 in my chest area, and one had passed my lung already. Diagnosed with Factor 2 Gene Mutation 22 days later (blood clotting disorder).”
ER Misjudgement Part Two
Meanwhile, another user shared a chilling incident: “My parents’ neighbor complained of a bad headache, so they went to the ER. They told him he did have just a bad headache and sent him on his way. The stroke he was having left him paralyzed for the rest of his life. He lived for three more years, and it took two more years for them to settle the lawsuit against the ER.”
Ph.D. Syndrome
A commenter shared an amusing story, saying, “I have a PhD, and I work with many PhDs. Basically, a lot of them think that because they succeeded in one area, they are an expert in every other area of life. And they always have strong opinions about everything. I think it’s also called a PhD syndrome.”
Another user added with a sense of bewilderment, “One of the main benefits of my education was to teach me how much I don’t know. It’s baffling to me that people get the confidence to speak on things they don’t know anything about just because they’re ‘educated.'”
Yeah, but my GPA
A user shared a funny incident: “I was at a keg party at college, and the (gravity keg) was set up. Someone complained that the beer was not flowing, so I checked that the keg was still almost full. Turns out someone closed the air intake on top. I opened the intake and poured myself a beer. Problem solved. A few minutes later, someone else complains the beer is out. I told them the keg was full a few minutes ago, and it was a tap problem that I fixed. They told me they just came from the keg.”
“I go back to the keg and find the intake was closed again. Opened it and poured the young lady who said it was empty a beer. As she is leaving, my suitemate comes in and goes to the intake and closes it. Now, my suitemate is a straight-A student who gets all As, mostly due to his photographic memory. Back to the keg. So I tell him that he needs to leave the intake open to let air in to displace the beer coming out of the lower tap. He then proceeds to tell me that since the beer is carbonated, air is not needed to replace the liquid volume lost when the beer is dispensed.”
“So I asked him two questions: If it is not needed, why is there the upper tap, and does he really think the amount of gas the carbonation gives off in a glass of beer is equal to the volume of the liquid beer? He thought for a few seconds, and his only response was, ‘I have a 4.0; what is your GPA?’ Then he walked away.”
The Chemist’s Miscalculation
A user shared a story, narrating, “My wife’s stepfather was a chemist who currently has diabetes. One night, he went to the ER because his blood sugar was dangerously high. He claimed he was eating well (he normally doesn’t), so there’s no reason why his blood sugar was high.”
“In his car was a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale mixed in with grape juice. He said that the two canceled their sugars out, and we didn’t know what we were talking about because he was a chemist and he knows how to combine things.”
ABCs
A user shared a brief but amusing anecdote, saying, “I worked IT for a hospital. I was speaking to a doctor who forgot his password. While he was spelling his name phonetically over the phone, he said, ‘Z as in Xylophone.’ Needless to say, my eyebrows raised.”
Same Place, Same Job
An online user shared a relatable story, saying, “I worked with a girl that graduated from Brown… she would never shut up about it, always Brown this and Brown that. I went to a state school, and it was apparent that she looked down on anyone who didn’t attend an Ivy League school, so one day, she was doing that, and I couldn’t stop myself; I said something like, ‘Oh, you went to Brown? And yet, here we are, together in the same place, doing the same job.'”
Peter Duesberg
Someone shared a story, recounting, “Peter Duesberg. He is a molecular biologist who works as a researcher at UC Berkeley has an otherwise stellar career, and is well-known for his work. Became an AIDS denialist, claiming there’s no link between HIV and AIDS. Led countless people down the rabbit hole, including many who were HIV positive. These individuals ended up infecting others and refusing antiretroviral therapies. This included an AIDS denialist activist named Christine Maggiore who infected her infant through breastfeeding, thinking, ‘Hey, it’s not a big deal, it’s just HIV, it doesn’t cause AIDS.'”
Roommate Tetris
A user shared a memorable tale, reminiscing, “My college roommate, the smartest person I’ve ever met, spent nearly an hour trying to shove a desk back into the corner of our room at an angle. She wouldn’t listen to me because, in her words, she ‘got this.'”
“After she finally gave up, I walked over. Pulled the desk out completely, straightened it with the wall, and pushed it back in. One movement, no struggle.”
“Many a time we had where I’d realize she might be the smart one, but I’ve got more common sense.” It goes to show that intelligence and common sense don’t always align, right?
PhD Expertise vs. Common Sense
A forum user shared an interesting story, recalling, “I worked with a climate scientist who could analyze climate data like nobody’s business, but if you wanted him to do literally anything else, you had to hold his hand the entire time. Zero common sense, too. The senior staff at that office idolized him because of the ‘Ph.D.’ after his name, but one time he was in a car accident in a work vehicle (also his fault), and I asked for a copy of the police report for insurance purposes, and he said he didn’t get one because ‘I thought you handled that.'”
“Why would I, who was not present at the time of the accident, have the police report that was written at the time of the accident? The other guy that you ran into has one!”
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