Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas - Essay #40 by Scott Berkun

[mouser]

Scott's Blog is quickly becoming a must-read daily site for me.  Here's an older essay alex3f just sent me:

#40 - Why smart people defend bad ideas
By Scott Berkun, April 2005
We all know someone that’s intelligent, but who occasionally defends obviously bad ideas. Why does this happen? How can smart people take up positions that defy any reasonable logic? Having spent many years working with smart people I’ve catalogued many of the ways this happens, and I have advice on what to do about it. I feel qualified to write this essay as I’m a recovering smart person myself and I’ve defended several very bad ideas.

http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay40.htm

[nudone]

Amen.

(reminds me of the sketch in 'Jam' about the stupid people that you can't win an argument against because they are too stupid to realise they've actually lost the argument.)

[Eóin]

That was a long read, but very insightful and very well written.

[Carol Haynes]

Actually I was watching Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" yesterday - seems to sum up for me most of the motivations for bright people to support stupidity - summed up in one pf two words generally - arrogance or greed!