You Have to Be Kind of Ret*rded to Win

What you can learn from studying dummies

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You Have to Be Kind of Ret*rded To Win

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

— Charles Bukowski

You can learn a lot about the “good life” by studying dummies.

You know who I’m talking about.

People who stand up right when the airplane lands; people who knock and shake the handle on the bathroom door while you’re anxiously cowering over your phone on the toilet. People who could give a shit about what is happening in the Middle-East, enjoy their addiction to mindless television; who have about as much interest in the world outside their day-to-day routine as your average goldfish.

Some of the least intelligent and curious people I’ve ever met are the happiest. They have the same emotions and off-days as the rest of us, but while you’re overthinking what you said to that girl at the party, they’re the ones who are going to walk up and simply shoot their shot.

Dummies are great at taking action.

The curse of intelligence is an overactive mind.

The movie Idiocracy outlines this perfectly in the opening scene. While the intelligent, wealthy couple meticulously plans for their first child (waiting years and years for the right conditions until the woman is infertile), the dummies in their woodland hovel push out baby after baby because “why not”.

Dummies are turning $100 into $10,000 by placing bets on crypto meme-coin like $UNVAXXEDSPERM and $VIRUS, while you’re worried about your 401k and dividend portfolio that pays you out $500 a year.

Dummies are going to the movies and walking out with smiles on their face because of “explosions”, and you’re spilling your guts to your eye-rolling girlfriend in the car about post-modern messaging and the over-reliance of deus ex machina.

Who is enjoying life more?

Social media has created the perfect opportunity for smart people to perpetually spin their wheels.

Instead of practicing your craft, building your business, focusing on school; you’re trying to stay “plugged in” to the endless tide of information, news, and theories washing over you.

Dummies scroll too, but at least they enjoy it. The dumb ones that fall for the crypto, dropshipping, online business “scam” you wrote off last week, are infinitely more likely to find success in the long run. Simply because they pull the trigger first, and think later.

The dummy sees a world of opportunity within the spiraling and glittering colors of the screen. You see a dystopian hellscape that is swallowing your time and energy; keeping you from focusing on the degree you’re shelling out $30,000 for.

Some of the smartest men in history have lived in a perpetual state of hellish anxiety and depression. Nietzsche and Van Gogh went mad, breathing their last breaths in darkness and isolation. Philosophical and artistic immortality was the price for their genius, but it didn’t help them to live outside of their minds in the present.

If you consider yourself to be intelligent, the best thing you can do is learn when your inclination for the abstract is causing you unneeded suffering.

What can you control right now?

An overactive mind needs to be put in its place. It needs to be stimulated in other ways to thrive. It needs to be given room to breathe to make sense of its gift.

Dummies don’t calculate risk. They take action first and deal with the consequences later. Sometimes they roll their cal and get ejected into a light pole at 100 mph, other times they get the job, kiss the girl, or make $100k going live as an “NPC” on TikTok.

Right now, there are dumber people than you waking up, pumping with the zeal and excitement for life that you dream of.

If you find yourself on the high end of the bell curve, audit your mind and learn to find your retarded side. The side of you that knows where you need to put your foot in front of the other and go without conscious thought. Act with gut instinct and you’ll find it’s usually a step in front of where the thinking mind would already lean after hours of careful deliberation.

Don’t abandon your intellect, learn to control it. Use it to your advantage instead of allowing it to shoot you in the foot.

Are you putting your gift to good use, or are you slowly descending into madness?

As always, thanks for reading.

— Joe