[mjburgess]

I hope one day to possess an explanation of why that behaviour is sometimes good. Since, like you, I am alarmed/concerned by it. But clearly, largely, its what makes "a lot of the world go round".

This emotion, "wonder", is profoundly suspicious to me; and I'm often hostile to it. I am sure I'm missing something...

[roenxi]

People are trying to copy the smartest person in the room, but don't themselves have a good way of evaluating how smart an idea is. When that strategy produces a miss, it produces a rather absurd one (like in this anecdote).

But the strategy itself is good, particularly if the group correctly identifies who has the best ideas. Copying smart people works if you can find them.

[marcosdumay]

> Copying smart people works if you can find them.

Well, works more often than not (I hope your downside risks are low). While understanding what they are doing works almost every time.

Besides, it works more often than not, in a simple setting where there is no antagonistic communicator. In a word with propaganda and politics, it fails almost every time.

[a1369209993]

> understanding what they are doing works almost every time.

To be fair, understanding what they are doing requires being smart yourself (usualy not as smart as coming up with it in the first place, but only usually), and while smartness isn't always or completely unlearnable, in practice it's usually hard and/or impractical, especially if you're not smart to begin with.

Of course, distinguishing (honest) smart people from (possibly smart) con artists also generally requires being smart, so that doesn't help much.

[ouid]

>The strategy itself is good.

You cannot factor the strategy from its implementation here. I think that was trying to be your point but then you contradicted yourself. I must encourage you to commit. A dumb person who tries to find smart people will find only con-artists. Its the law of lemons.

[roenxi]

A strategy doesn't have to work every time to be good. "Dumb people" can and do find people smarter than themselves and put in an effort to copy them. Usually that is a good idea - better than trying to go it alone, any way.

[ouid]

My brother in christ, most of the people who voted for donald trump did so because they think he's smart. Its a good goal. its a terrible strategy.

[roenxi]

That is a slightly different situation though, isn't it? The US presidential elections are a choice between 2 options, usually both bad. The results suggest all 3 candidates in the last 2 US elections are borderline unelectable and both parties are engaged in a bizarre war to find the worst candidate people will vote for.

Which is not at all the same as the fairly typical group dynamics.

[philipov]

Wonder is what drives people to be interested in and want to learn about how the world works. It's a very important emotion to let thrive. But, like all good things, too much of it can become harmful. Wonder is best when tempered with rigor. It is a starting point, but it must not also be the ending point.

[noSyncCloud]

If you can't experience wonder, that must make you history's most recent example of someone who's basically figured everything out. That must be very nice for you, but you are assuredly wrong about many things that you know you know.

[delusional]

It could also be depression or just cynicism.