I’ve run into many midwits that assume because I am an electrician, I’m an uneducated moron, while they are stunning intellects because they graduated college from Maryland or something. Besides misunderstanding how much education I have to be an industrial electrician, they also believe I stumble stupidly through life and will fall for every trick in the book. Years ago, while I was an apprentice, I would take on side work, usually residential jobs. One such person was the quintessential liberal professor type. He wanted quite a bit of work done, and I gave him a quote that would make most people at least question it or haggle it. He accepted without a moment’s thought, which was my first tell. The second tell was he insisted that I purchase the materials and this cost would be reimbursed at the end of the job. I did the work, and when I was finished, he said “I’d like to pay you, but you’re unlicensed. I won’t report you, if you leave now.” Of course, he thought I was a dumbass he could sucker out of 5000 dollars by pulling the unlicensed trick. The problem the midwit hadn’t considered, and didn’t bother to research, is that my state doesn’t require a license. It requires an inspection, which was done and signed. The midwit then argued that he is from Maryland, and holds residency, and it does require licensing. Therefore, the job was really done in Maryland. Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania, bub. You could be from Timbuktu and it wouldn’t change a thing. I then suggested he produce a cashier’s check for the agreed upon amount plus the cost of the materials, or else I would need to seek a legal remedy to our very binding estimate, which he had so quickly signed. I then showed him the various pictures I had taken of the completed work, a copy of the inspection, and all the receipts of materials I had purchased. He did pay. He has so smug when he thought he had gotten one over on me.
People who act hard over being college educated are gay asf. Like its hard work for sure, but it dont mean your some sort of god amongst men. Half the time these people arent even that smart either. Their literally in some shit like Sociology. Its hilarious cus every single professor I see in courses like Math, Science, or anything that actually requires hard work, are always hella humble. Half the time they tell other kids what they did isn't worth the money, and are pretty humble abt the stuff they learn, and acknowledge at the end of the day, it dont mean much without application. They dont act like their some enlightened god over the shit they learn. What they learnt, was tools that they can use for whatever they want. BUT HOLY FUCK. Talking to anyone in the humanities is just cancerous. They act like their the second coming of the Buddha bruh. They act like their some sort of enlightened super genius, whos misunderstood and needs to correct the world of all its idiocy.
And if he really was a liberal prof. You have to love the irony. Claim to be for the workers, equity for everyone, capitalism bad bla bla bla. But then turn around and try to rip off the people they claim to fight for.
Are you really sure he was a midwit? Thinking that you're held to a state's laws even if you move to another just because you're originally from there requires a level of stupidity you don't often find in the wild.
The problem is unironically unrelated to IQ itself. It is not a problem of being slightly above average in IQ. It is the problem of narcissism, the belief that you are in some way special to cover up for your own insecurities. One of the biggest problems is a that public schooling is a breeding ground for insecurities and promotes narcissistic behaviour as a coping mechanism. I was one of those """gifted""" children who realized that I was nothing special. But that expectation to be something special has basically been forced upon me by the school system and my general upbringing. It's hellish because at a certain moment you realize "I'm not hot shit" but by this point you tied the entirety of your self-esteem to your intellect. It leads to psychological issues on the way there and made me a complete mental wreck as I saw myself as having no inherent value on my own. It is only recently that I started picking myself up off the floor. It's sad that the way that we raise slightly above average kids leads them to either become toxic narcissists with protagonist syndrome or complete and utter wrecks if they realize they are not special (which still somehow is a better outcom). Hell, we even have studies to prove that but by God, nothing is really done to mitigate this.
I'm in a state of flip-flop where I think I'm special and not special at the same time. Switching so fast, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. The real solution is to stop thinking about whether you're special or not, and just do things to the best of your ability. I'm going to aim to achieve bigish things, but I always tell myself that if it doesn't work out I can always just live a normal life.
6:48 This chart is absolutely painful if you're a narcissist. Not only does it perfectly illustrate _what you are now_ but it also shows _what you could have been._ 🤕
Ouch, relatable. I also sometimes thought high of myself before 18, but by 20 I was thinking I was absolute failure. 22 right now and I doubt I'm even average. Mother keeps trying to gaslight me into thinking I'm smart or smth, but I know better. I'm an idiot😅 Also I didn't actually get straight A's like Karl from video, but I did really well in English because I essentially _did_ the homework by watching lots of UA-cam in English.
Pretty much. Do you know how much knowledge of an airplane you need to actually be able to fix one? Yeah the grease monkeys may not know much else than how to fix a machine, but they can call a spade a spade far better than any college student I've seen since I graduated 2 years ago.
The more I learn about humanity, the more I realize our description of ourselves doesn’t match reality and think that if aliens were observing us, they would probably come more to the conclusion that we were somewhat of a hive with the upper levels of the organized system mindlessly orienting around some beliefs not based in reality because the belief isn’t really the point, being part of the unit is. The people who don’t get this end up being on the lower rungs and have to make do working within the insane organized system.
I will like to mention the importance of a growth mindset. If you find yourself saying "I'm just average", also say "so far" or "right now, but I can improve".
Yeah I agree. It is wild how much simply changing how you subconsciously think abt yourself can make u perform better. It helped me a lot in tests. Honestly I like deluding myself into thinking I'm really smart and stuff just cus it helps me get thru tests. I dont know for an absolute fact if I'm smart, but hell that belief system does its job so I cant complain lol
It seems like IQ is basically just how fast you can think or comprehend complex topics. Unless you are very low iq I think the average person is capable of great things assuming he is persistent enough. I remember when I started watching history videos and learning history. I felt really stupid at first because I couldn't keep up with all the facts reliably. But I persisted and now I can learn history way faster and I now have a better understanding of the world than I ever did before.
Don't you just love the "I found on exception, therefore concept invalid" argument? Like intersex conditions exist, therefore male/female can't be defined, therefore gender ideology. Yet, showing most capitalists are workers just means I've been deluded by the "real bourgeoisie". When the same "logic" should be stronger in this case, esp. by number of examples, its literally a social construct, and evolution/biology is far more removed.
Even "intersex" people have male or female chromosomes. If you have messed up chromosomes you'll come out of the womb dead or retarded. Instances of what are called intersex are just birth defects.
This is exactly the situation in my country. They, even the younger generations would tell that the general populace has been mislead by misinformation. Up until the election, they say this exact thing as the reason why the president was elected as they started a conspiracy that he started a misinformation campaign. Basically, they keep telling everyone else who voted for him as "uneducated" because it's taught in school that his dad was a brutal dictator (even though it's mostly an exaggerated version of the commie victors). The younger people keep uttering this to the older ones because they were a major demographic that voted for him even though the older people in question felt the term of the president's father... So this really looks like Education vs Wisdom/Experience in contrast.
The midwit trap really is pernicious. It’s especially bad for the ones who only go down paths that could be tread by an average person. They never wake up from the delusion. I thought I was a truly intelligent person until I pursued my engineering degree and realized that I’m only a mediocre engineer. Had I gone into business or communications, I’d probably still think I was a pretty smart guy.
I’m lucky to have realized I’m an idiot no matter how much everyone else fluffs me up relatively early on. There’s no shortcut to hard work. My sister once asked me if I thought I was smarter than everyone else and I said No i think im stupid and the idea that everyone else is possibly stupider than me is horrific to me.
I was on the same boat when I entered mechanical engineering. My parents swears I was smart when I was not that special. Yes, I was born with iliteracy and not able to speak well. I was born with hearing loss and now I have a condition and could not speak in both languages( English and Spanish). I could not read neither which I sort of regret since I missed so many information back then. I happened to be extra discipline and applied myself and did rise up to a more higher education like mechanical engineering. Do not ask me why. I do not know. But I thought I was on the high intelligence level when I met a single dude who was 17 yr old and managed to aced every single tests without studying much and graduated earlier than us and he went to NASA and did some advanced stuff. I was completely amazed and humbled . I am not a genius at all nor that inteligent and even I even if I was a highly inteligent it would not guarante success or happy life that I want. It has it perks and facilitate to the path one want to take but only if you know how to use your inteligence in good use. I believe that character, resilience, values, connections and wisdom matter more and people seem to overlooked them as I did and regret doing so.
@@Galilupottepeakeverywhere. The problems in the US have in many cases already seen their solution and btw there are protests in hundreds of countries right now that the news doesn't show you.
My big regret in life is not pursuing a lucrative trade and listening to my boomer parents and teacher who told me I was so smart just because I made good grades when I really just didn't have friends to distract me. I got a two year degree with high honor, but I didn't have the interest or aptitude to go further, so now I'm doing unskilled labor. Things could be worse; I could be in debt, but still.
Never too late to learn trades bro. Find someone to work for and learn on the job. In a couple years you'll be making good money. Electrical and plumbing pay the best around me. But pick something that interests you as well
Similar story here. Now 33, liberal arts degree, but working as a software engineer having taken some time out to re-train and up-skill myself. Own property, gf of 5 years with first baby on the way. There's hope for us all man.
Minus my parents not trying to force that stuff on me, same here but more so out of the lies modern society told me about public school and college. I'm just glad I have a job though rather than being a welfare parasite.
Similar experience except I'm diagnosed with Asperger's and managed to be in the top four of my graduating class. Yet, my three years in college became disappointments because I failed college algebra twice, made me lose self-confidence in studying math further, couldn't get the right grades to go into my original major, and couldn't find an alternative career that fits my temperament and slow pace attitude, along with several aptitude tests showing I'm unsuitable for most trades. I graduated with an associate's degree with no skill. The Biden economy has made my career prospects even worse along with millions of other people and it further demoralized me.
yeah, but luckily not all of us are midwits (or at least don't stay that way). I, for one, realized that I'm the source of a lot of my problems, and have actually been finding some success with trying to make myself better in the long run. Hopefully I can keep it going and become the best version of myself possible, but if not then at least I will have tried.
Burnt out gifted kid here, I knew I was smart but got humbled pretty early on in life due to being weak and being cognizant of the fact that I struggled with math. I had poor study habits because I was gifted and resolved to tackle this when I got a scholarship into the local community College because I knew I wasn't ready for an Ivy Leage University. My parents assumed that because I was gifted I needed to spend time on vacation with them instead of sacrificing vacation time with family to focus on my studies. I once again found myself struggling to study as a result. Then my dad kicked me out the house to prove a point because I was listening to music and didn't hear my mom leave the house when I was supposed to get a ride with her to the college. I dropped out shortly after. I got a certificate in personal training and recently got a certificate in compliance and am trying to enter the compliance industry now while also working as a boxing coach and a reservist in the Regiment. I've met midwits with bachelor's and master's degrees and often realize the reason they succeeded when I didn't, is they had a mommy and daddy who didn't sabotage their studies. Hopefully in the next year or two I can go back to the local college and take a crack at getting myself a bachelor's.
Getting humbled is an important thing for everyone. Recognize your disadvantages. As a child I was diagnosed with ADHD. Along with this diagnosis came many meetings with many psychiatrists which led to being tested and given an iq score of 142. As it turns out, iq is just a number that determines your intellectual potential. Without work and realistic expectations you end up failing at everything you try because you don’t automatically get it on your first try. I had to fail a couple times before I got it myself.
As a former midwit, to finally get on a good track in my life I had to let myself be humbled by average chads. Most people think of creativity as only being writing or painting or music but once you learn to appreciate the mastery it takes to tie in the roof system of an addition without any plans, a whole other world opens up for you
This exactly. Midwit is Dunning-Kruger as a personality, with just enough intelligence above average to be over confident, they are always obtaining just enough information to be over confident on every subject.
Everyone, including myself, is overconfident in their abilities regardless of expertise or lack thereof, the dunning Kruger effect has flaws in how it interprets statistical data, it's not a great measure to use in terms of intelligence. I wouldn't know what would be the reason for this but the Dunning Kruger effect is still just a hypothesis at best. A Psychology Today article titled _Dunning-Kruger Isn't Real_ , by *Alexander Danvers* , posted December 30, 2020, goes more in-depth at what I'm talking about here if you want a read.
@@Im-BAD-at-satire I don't think the Dunning-Kruger effect isn't real; I believe the issue is most people grossly misinterpret what the effect actually is. People hear D-K and think "stupid people believe they are good at things", but this isn't the case at all. The D-K effect is simply a tendency to overestimate our abilities due to lack of knowledge and experience on a topic. Almost everyone is able to do some basic learning on a topic and reevaluate their performance with a *significantly* greater degree of accuracy. That doesn't make the D-K effect a farce; it's just that midwits love to sound smart by oversimplifying ideas that presume stupid people are inferior to them, and they latch on to those ideas.
@@bort6414 In the article I referenced, they showcase the statistical error within the peer-reviewed paperwork, as well in other scientific articles, they discuss how the results haven't been perfectly replicated. As far as the evidence is concerned, it's still just a hypothesis.
I agree with most of this video but I have one small critique. High iq - even genius level iq - does not exempt someone from being a midwit. The reason being is that iq while far from pseudoscientific isn’t a perfect measure of success. I would argue that there is a considerable amount of people who were ‘gifted’ but because of that never had to work hard so they just coasted through school playing video games, watching porn, etc. Then when they leave school they completely fail in the professional environment because they never developed a work ethic or an ounce of self awareness. In the end, they end up in the same position as the midwit with rationalizations like, “I took an iq test and got 130. I could’ve been the next Einstein but the system won’t let me.”
This "hobo genius" of yours isn't a midwit. His NEET social status shares an outcome with the midwit, but his mind still accurately dissects society's ills. He is like the hermit sages of old.
Love all your videos and this one really hits close to home because I was having an argument with someone yesterday about why I support the unschooling system and apprenticeship system and they were die hard public education and debter college fans. I told them that certification from these state backed colleges are monopolistic in nature and professors could just fail you for holding the wrong opinions and this person really said "SoUrCEEE". Yeah like I have the data on everyone who has been failed for holding an opinion that the institutions do not agree with
Their brains run on empiricism rather than rationality. So something that would be as simple as putting 2 and 2 together is impossible for them to figure out if it doesn't start with "study's show" or "experts say".
@@Aneko101Trusted Leading Experts (trademark) say that the ability to deduce self-evident information which often runs contrary to the SOYENTIFIC CONSENSUS (trademark) is a danger to our Democracy.
how do you recognize whether or not you are a midwit? it seems a defining trait of them is their need to lie to themselves about how smart they are, with a secondary trait being that they outsource pretty much all of their opinions because they aren't smart enough to think for themselves.
if i had to think of an answer for my own question, i might associate it with that one quote, "great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." i guess that makes sense of both your interpretations of minds that discuss authority figures, and mrh: legacy's interpretation of minds that discuss historical anecdotes. rational thought directly addresses the ideas behind a topic of discussion, and thus the true defining trait of a midwit might be their inability to have a rational thought, hence why they are often referred to as npcs. they lack an internal monologue. hopefully the fact that i can associate these two ideas with each other is proof that i am not a midwit.
@@davidlewis6728 Ion know abt that. Its boring to talk about people or events. Its always gonna be cooler to talk about ideas. You can go and on in autistic hyperfocused ramblings with yourself abt sumn you thought up, but it dont mean your some genius. I think if were only midwits if we act hard over being smart. Its perfectly fine being average. Average people end up being the least average at the end of the day, because they account for that regular g factor with plain old hard work and grit. Unrelated but I have a friend whos like that. He was a lil slower than us when it comes to learning stuff like math. But jesus he works so hard, and does it so consistently.
I am utterly stunned you have so few subscribers and views. There's entire think tanks that try to convey as much information, as well as you, and fall far short. Also it's cool hearing "Autodidact", I'm the only person I know that actually uses the word.
I think a better example of the negatives of being a midwit (i.e., someone who overestimates their intellectual ability) is that they could (and probably will) waste many years of their life chasing intellectual type things that they just aren’t cut out for. A good example would be trying to get into a phd program, or actually getting into one and then washing out. Or any variation on that.
I consistently test around 130 IQ, in my 30's, and the some of the most important things I learned in my life I learned by: washing dishes until I worked my way up to chef. and when I completely changed what I was doing to become an industrial electrician. There's times when i'm sitting on some cable-tray 10 metres up in the heat and dust when I just start smiling in joy at not being stuck in a goddamned office
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles" -Sun Tzu This quote really applies to all decisions, I don't think its a matter of intelligence but knowing your own abilities where the battles are the challenges that life can bring. Everyone has specific things they are knowledgeable of or particularly capable of and its important to acknowledge their own strengths and weaknesses before approaching any task.
You intellect, and especially your IQ, don't actually matter. What matters is whether you can see where you're needed in society and fill that need to the best of your ability. If you're a natural genius, you can become a PhD chemist, physicist, brain surgeon or something like that, but if you're just not born very smart, your finest task is to admit that to yourself and settle for a janitorial or garbage collecting job and then still take just as much pride in a job well done. It's very respectable to get a good education and a fancy job title, but it's just as admirable to fill the holes in society nobody else wants to.
It's not pure mental processing power that allows you to do most of those things, this is conjecture based on who is currently drawn to which profession and their self image. Just because the system (which is an expensive, consensus furthering, fund seeking business) supposedly places such people in those roles does not imply its actually a requirement or significant advantage, I see just as much evidence it's economic and social. Quite certain a lot of the blue collars you mention would be just as suited to surgery as your genius doctors, doubt IQ is even in the top 10 important factors (ask a surgeon what they think about this) this type of attitude usually says more about one's understanding or lack thereof of the job requirements of these high education positions; though it's obviously not true for all of them.
I feel like this midwit/average Joe dichotomy is quite significant to my life. In my early years I was convinced I was above average intelligence, sort of, due to my apparent success in academia. With time I hope I managed ro understand that I am, in fact, an average Joe, and I am trying to fix my life accordingly. I hope I am still in time to become Chad the Average Joe.
I'm kinda the opposite I have always thought that people overestimated my intelligence since I wasn't the greatest at math but I have learned early on that I was good at sounding smart and decided to be a writer
9:00 I've argued with midwits before on the internet. It can be quite the source of comedy at times. There was one time someone tried to go appeal to authority, "is your source reliable" on a paper published in Nature. They shut up that line of argument pretty quickly when I pointed out that Nature, (the most prestigious academic paper in the world) is probaly as authoritative as you can possibly get. Sometimes their usual lines of argument fall over due to their own lack of knowledge.
"Suspects that something is wrong with the world but realizes its not his calling." ... That hit nicely 🙂 Nothing wrong, and arguably plenty right, with being the community's plumber or electrician.
"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education." - Theodore Roosevelt Practical wisdom will almost always be preferable over standardized "intelligence".
The quickest way to test someone's intelligence is to make a generalized statement about a group. Make a statrment like "on average, Asian men are shorter". If they say any variation of "but not all Asian men are short" or "I know a tall Asian man" you are dealing with someone who is a genuine midwit. They have just proven in that short scenario that they aren't intelligent enough to understand abstract concepts like a statistical average or per capita. Why else would they think that bringing up an exception like it was some profound statement? They actually can't understand abstract concepts- no attempt at reasoning or rationalizing will increase their IQ.
I just had a thought after posting this- another reason they would raise this is to shit test your intelligence. Maybe they do understand generalizations, but think that you don't and just want to try and convince you otherwise to push whatever agenda they are. Anyway, I still reckon that 9/10 times you do this test on people, they genuinely don't understand abstracts. It's actually pretty wild to me how many people that I used to think of as being pretty intelligent don't understand this pretty basic concept.
A situation like that to me would propose that the person whom you’ve tried to test to confirm if they were in fact a midwit likely didn’t pay attention closely enough to the question and simply jumped the gun, focusing more upon the perceived question instead of the actual one which would in turn imply a strong impatience or lack of attention
My father was a very smart kid, growing up. Even living in a less than savory place without parents, he still managed to get a scholarship into one of the best school's in the country. Sadly, he flunked out of that school, and ended up right back where he started. But instead of whining and complaining that some system had "failed" him, he kept going. He found a wife at church, got a decent paying construction job, started a family, and even bought a house recently. I wouldn't be here right now to tell this story if it weren't for him. I'd never call him an "average joe", but I certainly do think that label might fit him best. In the end, he has helped and will probably continue to help more people than your average collage leftie ever will.
Public school is actually awful. I spent most of my days on the internet learning instead, or playing games. I never did any of my homework so I don't think people thought I was smart, even though I would often be on the top of my class and the first to be done on tests. I even asked to move ahead on mathematics and was told no because I wasn't the right grade level.
For a while in school I was in gifted, that’s due to early on schooling I tested for a high IQ and they put me in there, but once I got to junior year, nothing school taught me helped me with studying, because I could just wait till the day of and get it all done in 15 minutes. Now I’m in college and I have a fuckin issue with procrastination due to habit. Basic schooling kinda failed me cause instead of fostering my learning as advancing it kept me on the same track as everyone else except I got pulled out of classes and got to go on trips. So TLDR: Due to scoring high on an IQ thing, I got fucked in schooling because of never learning study habits
@@Kneejair Of course they bear some personal responsibility for failing to learn study habits, but I'm hesitant to blame a child for not being an autodidact. It is of course possible to learn these study habits at a later stage, but it is much more difficult than if they had been learned earlier. The public school system most definitely fails its brightest students by failing to challenge them. Why would a 12 year old put in the extra effort to learn more when they already get easy A's in their advanced placement classes? Most adolescents aren't thinking about their futures that hard.
@@Kneejair Half-true. This is why you shouldn't praise a child for being gifted or talented, because it implies that they're born with it and it's not something they worked on and earned. If you want to praise children, tell them that they've worked hard.
basically if you're not completely retarded like all these normies in the replies, you don't need to try as hard as they did in fkn basic schooling. aka, school teaches you nothing you couldnt have just learned on your own time in no time. i was the same. thing is these idiots would also have benefited from an education that actually taught discipline instead of shitting on them with endless menial busywork. so instead of saying something as fucking retarded as "wiseOwl" (more like birdbrain), or trying to act smart by making something so clearly black and white sound grey with "of course they bear *some* responsibility" or "half-true" (its not), im going to do the useful thing and give you the actual resources to learn how to study more efficiently from. This is a book called A Mind for Numbers. Dont be a perfectionist like me, just read the book and let your brain absorb the info with time. There's a couple sections on procrastination that you'll find especially useful, skim through it. archive.org/details/a-mind-for-numbers/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater There's also Ultralearning by Scott Young, the author learned the entire MIT computer science program in 1 year on his own (he blogged about it, ik it sounds like cap lol).
My IQ has been measured multiple times. The lowest score that I ever achieved was 110, and the highest was 125. That puts me firmly in the midwit territory, yet I have been fortunate enough to avoiding finding myself among their ranks. I'm not sure precisely why, but I think having a working class father who worked as a tradesman gave me some of that glorious cynicism that working class people have. My mom's family are all upper class, and whilst they are all perfectly good people, they are the most compliant people one could ever meet. A second thing that helped me was choosing a career that I'm really not very good at. I'm a software developer, and whilst I'm not utterly useless, I am very average. I make mistakes constantly, but I do always accept responsibility and take ownership. Failing is a very good way to realise how average you really are.
@@Laurentxoplex I do, but it serves as a metric to measure intelligence. I don't consider myself exceptionally intelligent. I have interests that give me a wealth of knowledge on topics such as history and politics that many would not have, but that's merely the result of years of study, and not intelligence.
@@malicant123That one hits especially hard. I come from what you could call a "lower IQ region"(the Caribbean) but I've always been praised for being intelligent, not overly praised but just enough to have a bit of an ego. However I've always had this fascination with this platform. Eventually I came across the autodidact corner of UA-cam and never really looked back. I started with simple philosophy, then very VERY basic economics, some other stuff I don't really remember, then a lot of STEM, and finally the last two being breadtube and right libertarian think tanks.(In that order by the way) Because of breadtube I was a leftist for about....2 months, but always hesitated with fully commiting to the ideology because of the sheet hypocrisy of these people. How can you claim to despise capitalism while having so many decoration and luxury in your home? How can you criticize society of being lazy and corrupt when your primary source of money are corporate sponsors and people donating money to you? I guess Google spied on me like always and recommend Mentis one day, and since then I completely destroyed any and all far left concepts I've had in my mind. But that also gave me a bit of a crisis since I realized I've never *actually* stuck to something, essentially hoping from one ideology to the next. One could argue that's a sign of better than average intelligence and an anti midwit trait, but at the same time I'd be disingenuous to assume I'm an intellectual because of it. I despise math in almost every sense even though I mostly understand all of it and am capable of handling abstract concepts very well. However I do horrifically wrong with anything based on shapes or "conjuring" an imaginary object into a 3 dimensional headspace. I sucked balls at geometry yes, like sucked BAD. To the point my teacher's were dumbfounded on how such a bright student struggles with something so seemingly basic? Ended up discovering this is most likely the cause of really really REALLY bad visual-spatial intelligence. Every time someone asked me to see anything and "eye ball it" I would be stumped at how others did such a great job at it yet I, the supposed "intellectual" couldn't even do the most basics(that's probably due to me being glued to a CRT since I was a baby, almost never really went outside so my early childhood were just video game's galore). Ever since then I've been seriously debating if I'm a genuine midwit or not, most of my interests(human psychology, neuroscience, general STEM, left leaning politics until recently, high fantasy, gushing about good writing) are generally not high IQ institutions or interests, and it's pretty easy to see that once you look at where these institutions lean politics wise. But hell there are high IQ individual who are cooks!! So who really knows. I've always been surrounded by humble people who I suspect actually fall on 1 standard deviation at the very least, yet none of them were midwits. That's probably why I myself am not a midwit even though I'm disproportionately destined to become one. All this to say, I wish I had more people with the same experience I did, it's frustrating to try and come to a conclusion without someone else's perspective, and that may just be a sign of midwitery itself!
I remember how much I suffered in public school because it favored midwits above intelligent folk, the fact I was trapped in that hell factory of shallow subject study crafted for the lowest common denominator in the human species for 8 hours a day and still had to study on my own in the library in order to actually learn anything(sometimes skipping class in order to study) is a burning memory in my mind to never forget the time that was stolen from me(the fact the food was so bad the students had to choose between hanger and food poisoning is merely an added bonus to the misery I felt there) and to never trust any public school system ever again(if I ever have kids I’m homeschooling).
Midwit: If I can beat you at chess I am smarter than you! Average: I don't play chess, it isn't fun Also, they can't figure out it's smarter to have money while dumb than be poor while intelligent
I kinda liked chess before learning about the whole _check_ system. Like WHAM just hit your King from across the entire board with a sneaky Bishop you didn't notice, lol Having the whole _check_ protection layer makes it less fun. I've read somewhere that earlier versions didn't do that, and it just kind of became a gentleman's agreement, like "oh, of course I wouldn't move this piece here if it exposes my King like that, sorry". It shouldn't even matter 99% of the time against experienced people anyway, unless you're trying to force a tie by deliberately putting yourself in a situation where you won't be able to make your next move.
Chess midwits are notorious for obsessing over openings and the endgame, but they get exposed badly in the midgame and there's nothing they can do about it.
I think a term that perfectly sums up midwits, and that could probably get a whole video on its own, is "confident ignorance". The way I define it is stating things with absolute certainty that are either A) wrong, or B) debated, without either A) citing the source of their claim, or B) clearly stating that it's their opinion. It's a very lefty thing to do, because it's incredibly common for them to not acknowledge any legitimacy to opposing viewpoints, never putting any thought into those points, and thereby remaining firmly in their own stupidity, or to put it nicely, ignorance. Ultimately, this stems from the fact that if you say something confidently enough to someone lacking knowledge on the subject, you can make them believe anything. So much of the left relies on this and I don't really see people talking about this. The right does it too, of course, but righties do a much more consistent job of clearly stating that what they're stating is both just their opinion and that they aren't really "experts", even going so far as to tell you to make up your own mind. It just really boils my blood to see people like Hasan Abi or AOC or Bernie or Warren or Biden so confidently say something that I know to just be flat out wrong, or to simply state their opinion as truth, effectively trying to gaslight the audience. It's also worth mentioning that most of the right wingers who would do this are probably already discredited by most people. More often than not, in my experience, is that when the right makes a claim, it's started with some type of "I don't understand how..." or "I think...", immediately showing that what they're about to say may or may not be complete fact. And even more of the right has learned to back up almost every claim with a source, because the left will pick on that one thing until they can rip the whole thing apart, regardless of whether it's true. Seems like it would make a good video, but idk
I agree with you 100% bro. Iv been saying the same shit too. Whenever a right-winger talks, he first acknowledges if he's not some expert in the subject. Iv spoken to a lot of dudes about how universal healthcare is cheaper cus it cuts administrative costs. When I back it up with stuff, they seem to agree and change their opinion afterwards. But bruh, you cannot do the same thing with leftists. They literally have mental breakdowns whenever you try to bring up shit that opposes their views. They call you an uneducated retard half the time, and do their best to belittle you. Its only American leftists too lowkey. If you talk to anyone that's actually serious abt that shit, they make for good conversation. But if its your average woketoid retard, it just becomes a shitflinging contest.
Exactly. Also once you really think about it, you'll realise that knowledge literally doesn't exist (in theory at least, but i'm pretty sure that also concerns in practicality since stuff like this is inherently theoretical and any practical proof or even hint at the opposite will make it devolve into theory again, and in theory it doesn't exist, so I just go with that. Tl;dr: as soon as absolutely anything contradicts the idea of knowledge (as being convinced of something that's 100% exactly like that) practically, it doesn't exist)
@@maxiona714 Okay, two things: firstly, bruh, this comment is from months and months ago, why comment now? Secondly, knowledge does exist, it is just not tangible unless made so in written form, etc, if that's what you mean.
I had to learn the lesson that education did not serve any purpose despite being a straight A student. Once I got into the workforce, it quickly taught me to be realistic with my expectations.
I feel like my intelligence is intermittent. I don't like to call myself intelligent. I am averse to arrogance. I don't use fancy words when I do because I'm trying to show off. It's just because that's how the thought happens to come out. I know I'm not stupid, because I have a good grasp on language and many other topics, like game dev, politics, and fitness, and I'm a fast learner when I'm interested in a topic. However, I find it very hard to muster the slightest bit of care for most things. Like the meme at 12:00. I understand what the pink animé plushie is saying, but I also don't care to think that far about things, because I already know from experience, which forms intuition, that wikipedia, and the type of thing it is, is indeed cringe. I lose patience for long reasoning, but sometimes I'm guilty of it myself. I guess the honest answer would be that I am 'tarded, but also with enough intelligence in certain aspects to use my tardity to my benefit. I also like to type like an imbecile online cus it r funi n i am moky 🐒
Looking back, I thought of myself as much more of an intellectual than I really was in my college days and the years after. The realization I was likely never going to get into the field I studied for was very humbling, and while I don’t get much fulfillment from it, the job I have has given me a satisfying lifestyle; me and my wife are on track to pay off our student debt, and we’re planning to start trying for children soon. So I’m happy to call myself Average. I have a few ‘friends’ from high school I could classify as Midwits that I eventually had to block on social media because I just couldn’t put up with them anymore. One of them ironically was named Carl; his main thing was writing out massive paragraphs to address a single point and using his experience volunteering in a poor Black neighborhood as moral superiority.
Amusingly, this is one of those areas where "cultural upbringing" *actually* is a major factor. Different cultures value different aspects of intelligence: as a broad-strokes generalization, "Western" cultures (especially Germanic/French/Anglo cultures) have historically prized the ability to deduce, discover, learn, or create new knowledge; the same broad brush would say that Eastern cultures (most strongly China) have historically prized the ability to memorize known facts. Consider the difference between writing a (good) story, and winning a spelling bee: The former requires one to create new characters, a plot, wrap them together into something that people find interesting and believable; while the latter requires that one rigorously memorize a large number of words and spelling conventions. Both are tests of "language mastery," but each emphasizes a very different aspect of that field.
I can attest that I have had wonderful and engaging conversations with people who are of 'average intelligence', but when I encounter the midwits (of 110-120 IQ) it is infuriating. While not ever being formally measured myself, I can say from my educational background I have somewhere between 125 to 135 (probably 129 if I were forced to make a guess). Those with an IQ of about 115 are insufferably arrogant. Smart enough to be trained, but stupid enough to not be capable of real critical thinking and therefore easily programmed by the education systems aiming for indoctrination into state myths and its secular religion. You simply cannot reason with these types of people. Their first assumption is to assume you are stupid and be incredibly condescending. When they find they are not actually up against someone of lesser IQ, they immediately move onto emotional blackmail and threaten social and reputational harms in order to win an argument. Buoying their arguments of sophistry and motte and bailey arguments. The only thing to be done is to mock them and refuse to engage with them at any higher level.
I personally think I’m pretty dumb but I don’t do assumptions and other similarly ridiculous things like that socially, so I guess that’s better than nothing
Last time I took one it was around 125 but it was online so it could be fake but I think mine has dropped do to an accident last year I use to take quizzes to test my creativity but my best friend responded with how would you even measure that and I feel better
@@walleras i once tested mine and it came around 148. You WOULD believe how much these midwits have put me through hell. This is not an exageration. My life was destroyed by them. I always felt like i was the wrong in every situation, when they were probably (in one way or another) just jealous of me...
This is a really good take, but I think there's also more going on than just IQ differentials honestly. "Midwits" in my experience can be very smart - even two standard deviations or more. I know people who I'd consider a "midwit", but who would probably ace me in terms of pure brain power in most intelligence tests. The difference between me and them I think is more accurately described by my deep rooted scepticism of authority and the fact I'm just on the spectrum so have a high immunity to group think. I find smart person can reason themselves into a hole when they don't have a good grasp on the foundations their opinions are built on. For example, if you accept the idea that white people are privileged and black people are discriminated against it becomes very easy to reason that therefore we perhaps need the state to intervene to balance the scales. It's not so much that it takes someone who's highly intelligent to question whether the foundational assumption that privilege exists is true, but probably does take someone who naturally distrusts popular narratives and takes the extra step to look into whether they hold any weight. Another observation I've made is that while my girlfriend shares my scepticism of popular narratives and she's very creatively intelligent, she isn't very maths smart. I find I tend to believe nothing I hear and instead look at stats then reason myself to my own opinion from said stats. But because my girlfriend can't reason herself to opinions like I, and since she doesn't trust anyone, she instead has to observe the world through her own eyes then trust her gut on things. Prior to 2016 I used to mock her for this because she'd often say silly things like "it's snowed for 2 years in a row, how can global warming be real?". But I'm far less critical now because she's also been able to see straight through a lot of BS that gets pushed in society today.. I think people like her partly explain the bell curve meme where low IQ individuals often seem to come to the same conclusions as high IQ individuals, but for different reasons. Just some thoughts anyway. Great vid.
Yes, I defended libertarianism until I saw that it sold communist China rope to hang us. The international trade exports never happened, despite common economic theories.
I don't know what I watched to get the algo to start changing it's to me, but it's been recommending some badass channels lately that cover topics and give words to things I've been thinking and seeing for literal YEARS and never had anyone to talk to about it since no one seemed to understand or care. This is one such topic and it validates what I've thought about "midwits" since 2016. Amazing.
When I was around 17 or 18 I spent 2 years at a school that had a lot of middle class professional type people, one was a girl that got all A or A* grades, she was quite attractive and refined, probably wealthy, but I noticed that she couldn't really entertain questions about the subject matter that deviated from what was being taught, I sat next to her and her other 2 friends I think because they felt sorry for me as I was alone for a few reasons. So I was able to observe that she didn't think like me, she was also more socially competent in a stereotypical way. I should specify this was in science classes which was my favoured subject.
This is no secret but I for sure belive that the school model, at least in the US and so presumably in the UK also, it is easier for women to go through
@@notascientist709 It is. The school system is designed around the ways that women learn best while often disregarding men that would learn better from other ways.
I used to be one of those kids that everyone praised for being gifted. Had some humbling experiences when I was in middle and high school when I overestimated myself. Thankfully, I've come to terms with being only slightly above average. If someone is talking about something I don't know about, I keep my damn mouth shut, unlike my past self.
Same I went through that experience where I was constantly told that as a child. Yet, as I matured and went through HS, I had to learn that your intellect takes you nowhere unless you put in the effort to learn both hard and soft skills. I thank my parents for teaching me that sooner rather than later. One of the most important thing I ever learned was that intelligence is not a substitute for wisdom, skills, and experience.
It's because you don't have obsession that's needed to do something great. Most great thinkers were not shut ins only because of bad social ability but because they only truly cultivated one skill/talent or field of study. They also tend to die young.
One characteristic of the midwit is also the obsession with finding a double standard of some sort, even if there is none, they will try as hard as they can to prove one because then they feel smart. Also a midwit doesnt want conversations of a high risk in failure or nonvalid arguments that happen because the subjet is very complex, he would rather point out those errors and close himself from anything beyond the norm, that is what he identifys with. But after all, these high risk subject conversations are those advancing society.
Many people who arent smart enough to be midwits still use appeals to authority and personal experience they just choose different leaders. This could mean their pastor or friend instead of a teacher or academic but they still outsource their thinking. Its an obvious strategy if you can recognize successful people but are bad at making decisions
I struggled in high school, and I never understood why, but I went to college to obtain an engineering degree and found out that I was best at math and reasoning, as well as actually applying myself to the subjects I enjoyed. I’ve gotten into research on materials and I have never been happier
I don't know what you thinking when you made these ones, but why do you even put unrelated gameplay if you still put images that are relevant? Why not remove gameplay and put focus on images that meant to illustrate your point?
dude the avarage human attension span is very low no joke goldfish have longer attension spans, he needs viewer retention so his videos get pushed by the site. It's sad that instant gratification in apps and social media caused this
I guess I was fortunate to learn the chad's lesson pretty early in my life. I've learned that often the best way to overcome a problem in life is often to submit to it, because once you're at the bottom of the pit, the way out becomes extremely obvious, and I think that's basically what chad here realized, so for him the way to a happy, successful life was very easy
A correct understanding of your place in the world is important. I am one of those 'high IQ individuals', with my IQ being higher than about 80% of the population. Unfortunately, that's not because I'm particularly smart, but more of the fact that all humans are kinda dumb. I'm just a little less dumb than most.
This thing on leftism being clearly the right thing. When I was first introduced to politics in school when I was 12 my first question was: "Clearly leftism is the correct opinion. So how come some people believe the opposite?"
"That's common sense" "intuitive truth" "papa always said" and "so many generations of people couldn't be completed wrong" are the most based arguments and any conversation with people disagreeing is meaningless
@@stalinjosefstalin480 It's an extremely useful tool, intuition and reasoning skills can be extremely useful but the fact is that even computers make false positives and false negatives all of the time, there are times when your intuition and reasoning are faulty. There's indeed traditions that should be kept but there's also traditions which should be abolished.
@Im-BAD-at-satire I agree, but what's the alternative? Generally speaking, traditions are traditions because they're good (or at least, better than the alternatives). I believe that we should hold to traditions unless we're 100% sure something else is better. And while coming to conclusions through reasoning can lead down a bad path, there isn't an alternative that is worth pursuing. You could claim that we could rely on religious texts or religious authorities, but that isn't necessarily mutually exclusive to using reasoning.
As well as against arguments created using praxeology. You can explain why an incentive would logically lead a person to act in a certain way and why that way is the most efficient method to achieve a desired end, and you will immediately know whether or not you are talking to a midwit if their go-to response to this is to ask for a source.
On the subject of right-wing midwits, I think most of them tend to congregate around various internet father figures like Jordan Peterson and regurgitate some of his basic life advice as being the most insightful information around. The kicker is seeing if they actually follow through with any of that advice in their lives rather than debating people online.
I think that's a straw man. It's not that the young men you're referring to necessarily hold him in such high esteem because what he's saying is so insightful, profound or abstract. I believe it's simply because Peterson's lessons and advice, which, when taken as a whole, create this formula for these young men to follow and implement that is generally a good guide to living their lives. Living their lives without the constant self loathing and bitterness a lot of other popular 'thinkers' preach. In short, I find that Peterson advises young men on how to harness and control their masculinity.
Peterson is patently very high in verbal reasoning and verbal intelligence and is de facto a leading intellectual. He does not pretend to knowledge that he does not have but is undoubtedly very well-versed in psychology and sociology, with a studied interest in philosophy, politics and macro-economics. More recently, biblical criticism and exegesis from a psychological and sociological perspective. His oft-quoted main influences are Jung, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Trying to demote or diminish Peterson is a sure hallmark of mid-wittery. His many avid adherents may oft fall short of their guru, but Peterson is worthy of their accolade.
@6:50 I would argue that both mid-wits and average joes occupy the space between 93-107 IQ. The basis of average joes trending 1 standard distribution below average and mid-wits trending 1 S.D. above does not correlate strongly with the distinctions between the two groups. Keep in mind that the space between 85 and 115 is ~67% of the population, the space between 93 and 107 should be just under 50% of the population. Also keep in mind that an IQ of about 93 is necessary to understand hypotheticals. I think the primary driving factors between the groups are things like the Big Five Personality Traits and social role fulfillment. That is why mid-wits are so confirmative compared to average joes.
Really, it's just a matter of where they offload their critical thinking. Do they offload it onto 'experts and academia' or do they offload it onto practicality of experience and 'common sense'. The latter has a track record of the entirety of recorded human history, if only because that's how it's been formed. Experts don't stand a chance against it. Even if they expert is correct in theory, it doesn't translate to efficacy in practice. The web of social, political, ethical, etc., dimensions ensure that relying on common sense, though it fails strict scrutiny, is nevertheless a much more well-rounded and effective strategy for navigating life. This is part of what Rightwing Authoritarians have absolutely correct. Though it's derided simply as 'tradition and culture' when it's much more than that. They discredit themselves when they refer to it as strictly 'American' or 'European'. 'Western' does it more justice but it's not well understood that what 'Western culture' refers to is everything we've developed since the written word. So midwits think 'Western' is racist when it's our record of human history, testing, and conclusions.
I guess I would be considered a midwit in my early 20's and even my teens. I've thumbed my nose at people who were "uneducated"...it wasn't until I got older and faced some hard real life lessons I realized...the "average joes of the world" were probably more observant and realistic than I was. I've since changed my tune and looked at the world in a different light. Nothing wrong with average. Thankfully I'm still relatively young and am trying to make very strong corrective decisions so my children can be setup for success whether they take those advantages or not.
I am a midwit,i always was,i wish i knew that earler,but i am adjusting my expectations, Although i did want a trade,my parents gaslight me into an education(where i am mybe 66% done,while my original class is graduating) but once i am done i will adjust my expectations and live a virtious live
It’s never too late to change mate. A midwit is only a midwit for as long as he fails to comprehend his own failings. If you understand your own abilities, nothing can stop you from succeeding at what you are suited to. Whatever that may be.
The chad is a good laborer, and successfully creates more laborers. the virgin is a poor laborer with dreams of something more than labor, and may or may not know those dreams are unachievable
This is 9 months old, but I think it sort of doesn't address a big part of the problem. Decades there were some studies done that showed that self validation helped people perform better, that a group of people who were told they were useless and worth nothing would never achieve anything due to that belief. Thus the educational system gradually shifted towards a paradigm of self-validation over education, shortly after my generation left school we had what we now called Millennials getting their participation trophies and so on. The idea was that if they told everyone they were special and incredible, they would become that way, and of course as activists infiltrated the system they doubled down with certain groups telling them they were even more special for being X. Then of course this was even further combined with political indoctrination. The problem is with what your calling "Midwits" is that everyone is conditioned now to think they are super smart, especially if they believe certain things politically. It's not so much popularity, but indoctrination making these points of view so omni-present. Every person who is told they are super intelligent never stops to think about what happened to all the average or dumb people, they are simply told no one is anything like that anymore. Understand also that as the focus moved away from education, the grades meant less and less, especially as various kinds of deeply curved systems were used to ensure nobody failed to prevent backlash against the schools and keep parents happen. It's not just poor schools where this is a problem, people from good schools also face this, especially as parents might get upset if they are spending tons of cash and their child isn't seen to be succeeding. The kid typically might think he's getting good grades, especially with rich parents, when really he's failing. Beyond garbage like liberal arts and gender studies degrees, at a college level there is also a push to have everyone being seen to succeed, especially certain "special" groups of people. This leads to a lot of degrees being pushed out when they might not actually be teaching the subject as intended. Hence a lot of the problems when people show up, with their fancy degree, thinking the paper itself is a magical talisman that means "smart and capable", when in reality it's just a piece of paper. If they were boosted through the system on identity politics, or just given it because they paid, it doesn't mean much. This is why for young people in particular they hit these walls and they want people with experience because in reality many of them have probably learned nothing of value despite their debt, this is why most companies want experience, and proof you can do the job, not a paper that says you can because in many cases someone might come up with a brain full of activist garbage, and no real skills at all. This started slowly with the Milennials, and has gotten progressively worse. It used to be that a degree could at least open doors, but now it does so less and less, even from a "good" school as all of the "good" schools have gone political and businesses might play along but at the end of the day they want people that can actually do the job. When forced to make do... well, you see what's increasingly happening to the economy. The point I'm getting at here is that performance is based on education and intelligence, and your typical "midwit" both overestimates their intelligence, and typically doesn't actually have the education or expertise they think they do because of the ways the system is broken. They simply assume those with the same political consensus they are a part of are right, but at the same time their own lack of success should tell them something, and yet it never actually does. What the story does reinforce for me at least is sort of the point that in fixing the educational system, especially with current testing ability (when properly deployed, without bias), we're going to have a pretty good idea of what people can do, and safeguards for rare talents and late bloomers already considered. We need an educational system to tell "Chad Average" that he is that, merely than just hoping for self revelation. The actually smart people can then be clearly identified and given the attention they need, the same with the people who are below average (which seem to have vanished for the last several decades) who might need special attention. See, it's a problem when every kid thinks they are suited for an exciting position that is creative, prestigious, or exciting. They spend too much time focusing on the dreams of the youth, and validation, rather than having schools provide actual guidance. Telling some kid nobody listens to that he should pursue management training to be a leader among men is doing no one a favor, especially him. Ditto for telling kids they can be sports and entertainment stars, the president, astronauts, and other things. Maybe when they are little that is fine, but when they do more testing, yeah they need to sit down and tell "Chad Average" or your typical Midwit "College would be wasted on you, consider trade school or vocational education" and helping them get a reasonable grasp of what they can do, and preparing them for being able to survive and succeed in adult life. I think half the "artsy, creative types" who will "die working a normal 9-5 job" on Tiktok (some have been parodied in UA-cam) are that hilariously messed up because nobody was willing to basically give them "the talk" wen it's obvious they aren't going to be able to do that and prepare for reality. Now yeah schools can't suggest only fans obviously, but they can say "You know, you have no real artistic talent... so maybe you should consider thinking about a culinary school or something. Your not likely to be Gordan ramsay, but cooks are always needed, and if nothing else a practiced short order cook can find work anywhere. While your young you can probably make some money waiting table, and then move into something like that when you get older". Now granted nobody wants to hear that (including parents) but obviously it would solve a lot of problems. You self validate by simply not knocking reasonable and realistic outcomes for the average person.
Sometimes, I want to say I'm smart, that I must have a high IQ. Strictly because of the sheer volume and intensity of outright stupid people I've met. But every single time, I can't help but wonder, what if I'm still a midwit? What if the reason I feel so superior is because I'm one of the few people of my level who hasn't sought out a community of equal or greater intelligence? Or am I one of the few who has not made a sufficient effort to improve? Thus leaving me as the slightly larger crab in a barrel meant for the runts. And who am I to say that I would even qualify to join said community? I learn slow, my only strength is memorization and consistency, I'm hard of hearing, easily distractable, and diminutive in confidence and charisma. Yet if I can still out perform my peers, where do I belong? I look down upon their metrics for success in life, but I am the outlier. Would that not make me the failure? I've missed so much that others seek, and I have the tools to achieve it, yet I would find it worthless even if I did. So why should I labor to achieve the common goals of others? Should I not endevor to be unique? Yet they own the civilization from which I've procured all that I have. So would that not make their methods superior? But would it not be favorable to improve upon their system to pursue my own goals and provide for others like myself? Yet who am I to enforce my whims and selfishly pursue my goals if they might destroy the path I leave behind. Who am I to subvert or undermine any social norm when there are others around me that strictly adhere to and rely upon it? Where do I go? What do I do? Do I even have the capacity to find my path, let alone understand it? What if everything I worry about is by all accounts nothing more than pseudo-intellectual drivel concocted by a midwit that stuggles to even realize his own intellectual failure? I don't know, and that scares me...
Hallo, dumbass liberatarian here who read the entirety of your comment since I found the first part fascinating... And I suppose I kind of feel the same 😅 Even if the burden of proof is on the reader since you blast a bunch of questions, it does make me feel like I relate to you considering how I over-question everything...
People around me think I’m smart, but I’m not too sure about that. I just keep trying to learn new things, and I keep my ego in check when I stand corrected. Hell, anyone worth their weight in salt should find being incorrect to be more exciting than being correct. I’m married to my wife, not opinions or ideas.
I've spent mych of my school career being told I am significantly above average. I can only hope to escape the pitfalls of this, whether I am or not notwithstanding.
I'm one of the "midwit" (IQ ~115) who became an ardent "Socialist" during my college days. But the real life experience I get from working as govt supplier/contractor makes me realize that Socialism is just not feasible as the foundation of any large society (of more than several hundred individuals), such as nation. Politicians and bureaucrats are just as greedy and corrupt as any corporate CEOs, giving them power over the whole economy and the state (justice system, military, etc) is downright stupid. Socialists might argue that's the exact opposite of what they want, because they actually want to give more power to "the people". However, collectivization (in the form of wealth redistribution, nationalization, or abolition of private property, which is the hallmark of Socialism) means they took power from our hands and give it to "the collective". "The collective" is *NOT* "the people", but a group of influential political elites (in this case usually ideologues and agitators, like Lenin, Mao, etc) who will rule in the name of "the people". Sadly, most of my fellow midwit who never actually work with govt/state institution might never experience this, and thus continue to have misplaced trust on authority figures, just because they are supposedly "elected and therefore are accountable" to them/"the people".
This reminds me of a study on UA-cam where there were 5 or 6 individuals of various backgrounds and levels of education. They were told to converse with each other for a while and then rank who had the highest IQ in descending order. One of the very liberal women in the group (who was also the most outspoken) thought she was the smartest person of them all, especially when comparing herself to a former military member. Almost everyone thought they we're surely smarter than the prior enlisted member, but he actually ranked highest on the IQ test after the poll results. The outspoken woman, to no surprise, was the lowest scoring person.
I can't remember who said this, but they were exploring a reason why leftism is seems so prevalent in academia. I think the reason he said is similar to why "midwits" seem to be so attracted to it. It's a social survival mechanism.
Its strange I went the total opposite way of most people in the middle of the bell curve. I guess due to the way I was raised (or the lack of being raised...) I actually spent most of my life thinking I was debilitatingly stupid. I actually sit somewhere around 120 IQ. I realized once I got to college I actually wasn't as stupid as I thought, but I also realized the program I took was filled with a lot of people who were way smarter than me and the further into the program I got the more I realized I really wasn't cut out for it. I ended up really hating it but I scraped by and managed to graduate... barely. My biggest regret was not getting into the trades instead. I would be in a so much better position in almost every facet of my life right now I'm sure.
Theres also the fact that people dont use the academic definition, or the academic definition is maliciously falsified against reality just because "its the best source" or something like that
You can be a genius in one facet of your life and a midwit on certain subjects. For example I was highly advanced academically, 150 IQ, 1600 SAT, 3.8 at a top 5 world university in EECS/Math double where avg GPA was below 3.0. Have been beyond successful in career But I was off loading my political beliefs to consensus/status quo like a midwit… until I woke up to the impact some of these consensus ideas were having on my life, and since then I have become an extreme skeptic, staunch anti-woke anti-establishmentarian, borderline anarcho-capitalist. I’m embarrassed by my laziness in the past when I was a political midwit.
I got pretty good grades in my school days, but I never considered myself a genius. I was just really psyched that I managed to do a good job after getting all nervous before exams.
You're essentially the product of your environment. There's, of course, some RNG factors but let's not distract ourselves from getting busy putting people into neat little boxes with definitions on them.
Your genetics create your environment outside of some exceptions. Your ancestors who had your genetics created the situation you were born into and beyond that the wider kinship groups you are a part of ethnic/nation group also are genetically similar. Environment and genetics are inextricably linked together.
You think IQ is determined by environment? It's luck. Just like your height, your place of origin, your eye colour and basically every other conceivable biological factor that constitute who you are as a person.
I’ve run into many midwits that assume because I am an electrician, I’m an uneducated moron, while they are stunning intellects because they graduated college from Maryland or something. Besides misunderstanding how much education I have to be an industrial electrician, they also believe I stumble stupidly through life and will fall for every trick in the book.
Years ago, while I was an apprentice, I would take on side work, usually residential jobs. One such person was the quintessential liberal professor type. He wanted quite a bit of work done, and I gave him a quote that would make most people at least question it or haggle it. He accepted without a moment’s thought, which was my first tell. The second tell was he insisted that I purchase the materials and this cost would be reimbursed at the end of the job.
I did the work, and when I was finished, he said “I’d like to pay you, but you’re unlicensed. I won’t report you, if you leave now.” Of course, he thought I was a dumbass he could sucker out of 5000 dollars by pulling the unlicensed trick. The problem the midwit hadn’t considered, and didn’t bother to research, is that my state doesn’t require a license. It requires an inspection, which was done and signed. The midwit then argued that he is from Maryland, and holds residency, and it does require licensing. Therefore, the job was really done in Maryland. Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania, bub. You could be from Timbuktu and it wouldn’t change a thing.
I then suggested he produce a cashier’s check for the agreed upon amount plus the cost of the materials, or else I would need to seek a legal remedy to our very binding estimate, which he had so quickly signed. I then showed him the various pictures I had taken of the completed work, a copy of the inspection, and all the receipts of materials I had purchased. He did pay.
He has so smug when he thought he had gotten one over on me.
People who act hard over being college educated are gay asf.
Like its hard work for sure, but it dont mean your some sort of god amongst men.
Half the time these people arent even that smart either. Their literally in some shit like Sociology.
Its hilarious cus every single professor I see in courses like Math, Science, or anything that actually requires hard work, are always hella humble.
Half the time they tell other kids what they did isn't worth the money, and are pretty humble abt the stuff they learn, and acknowledge at the end of the day, it dont mean much without application.
They dont act like their some enlightened god over the shit they learn. What they learnt, was tools that they can use for whatever they want.
BUT HOLY FUCK. Talking to anyone in the humanities is just cancerous.
They act like their the second coming of the Buddha bruh.
They act like their some sort of enlightened super genius, whos misunderstood and needs to correct the world of all its idiocy.
That's full on evil behaviour.
And if he really was a liberal prof. You have to love the irony. Claim to be for the workers, equity for everyone, capitalism bad bla bla bla. But then turn around and try to rip off the people they claim to fight for.
Are you really sure he was a midwit? Thinking that you're held to a state's laws even if you move to another just because you're originally from there requires a level of stupidity you don't often find in the wild.
Meanwhile, electricians get more money than most in academia.
The problem is unironically unrelated to IQ itself. It is not a problem of being slightly above average in IQ. It is the problem of narcissism, the belief that you are in some way special to cover up for your own insecurities. One of the biggest problems is a that public schooling is a breeding ground for insecurities and promotes narcissistic behaviour as a coping mechanism.
I was one of those """gifted""" children who realized that I was nothing special. But that expectation to be something special has basically been forced upon me by the school system and my general upbringing. It's hellish because at a certain moment you realize "I'm not hot shit" but by this point you tied the entirety of your self-esteem to your intellect. It leads to psychological issues on the way there and made me a complete mental wreck as I saw myself as having no inherent value on my own. It is only recently that I started picking myself up off the floor.
It's sad that the way that we raise slightly above average kids leads them to either become toxic narcissists with protagonist syndrome or complete and utter wrecks if they realize they are not special (which still somehow is a better outcom). Hell, we even have studies to prove that but by God, nothing is really done to mitigate this.
I'm in a state of flip-flop where I think I'm special and not special at the same time. Switching so fast, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. The real solution is to stop thinking about whether you're special or not, and just do things to the best of your ability. I'm going to aim to achieve bigish things, but I always tell myself that if it doesn't work out I can always just live a normal life.
6:48 This chart is absolutely painful if you're a narcissist. Not only does it perfectly illustrate _what you are now_ but it also shows _what you could have been._ 🤕
Ouch, relatable. I also sometimes thought high of myself before 18, but by 20 I was thinking I was absolute failure. 22 right now and I doubt I'm even average. Mother keeps trying to gaslight me into thinking I'm smart or smth, but I know better. I'm an idiot😅
Also I didn't actually get straight A's like Karl from video, but I did really well in English because I essentially _did_ the homework by watching lots of UA-cam in English.
Midwit: thinks they're smart but deny reality
Average Joe: Indifferent how smart he may or may not be, but capable using his 2 human eyes.
@@thomsonhomsonJimmy Neutron? Very much so, yes.
@@dantepizza6310Bro, Jimmy Neutron isn't a midwit, he's just naive and bad at decision making.
Pretty much.
Do you know how much knowledge of an airplane you need to actually be able to fix one? Yeah the grease monkeys may not know much else than how to fix a machine, but they can call a spade a spade far better than any college student I've seen since I graduated 2 years ago.
Once you understand the midwit psychology, you once again understand more about the reality of human civilization.
The more I learn about humanity, the more I realize our description of ourselves doesn’t match reality and think that if aliens were observing us, they would probably come more to the conclusion that we were somewhat of a hive with the upper levels of the organized system mindlessly orienting around some beliefs not based in reality because the belief isn’t really the point, being part of the unit is. The people who don’t get this end up being on the lower rungs and have to make do working within the insane organized system.
Knowledge is knowing the answer to a trivia question.
Wisdom is knowing how to apply that knowledge to something that actually matters.
I will like to mention the importance of a growth mindset. If you find yourself saying "I'm just average", also say "so far" or "right now, but I can improve".
Yeah I agree. It is wild how much simply changing how you subconsciously think abt yourself can make u perform better.
It helped me a lot in tests.
Honestly I like deluding myself into thinking I'm really smart and stuff just cus it helps me get thru tests. I dont know for an absolute fact if I'm smart, but hell that belief system does its job so I cant complain lol
Exactly. For example, I like to think "I'm not the pinnacle of masculinity, but I will be."
It seems like IQ is basically just how fast you can think or comprehend complex topics. Unless you are very low iq I think the average person is capable of great things assuming he is persistent enough. I remember when I started watching history videos and learning history. I felt really stupid at first because I couldn't keep up with all the facts reliably. But I persisted and now I can learn history way faster and I now have a better understanding of the world than I ever did before.
@@ltb1345that seems silly.
@@Kneejair
Do you even lift, bro?
Don't you just love the "I found on exception, therefore concept invalid" argument?
Like intersex conditions exist, therefore male/female can't be defined, therefore gender ideology.
Yet, showing most capitalists are workers just means I've been deluded by the "real bourgeoisie".
When the same "logic" should be stronger in this case, esp. by number of examples, its literally a social construct, and evolution/biology is far more removed.
midwits think exceptionalism is just the best argument.
Continuum fallacy, if there ever was one.
Even "intersex" people have male or female chromosomes. If you have messed up chromosomes you'll come out of the womb dead or retarded. Instances of what are called intersex are just birth defects.
All intersex people are still born male or female
Leftoids use this shit constantly, usually in the form of completely fabricated anectodes just to try and shut people up.
Intelligence doesn't equal to wisdom, if you aren't wise then your intelligence means nothing.
oooo you got sauteed
Yep. What's good is your intelligence if you don't have the wisdom to know how to put it to good use. You can be book smart but street dumb as heck.
D&D teaching everybody
This is exactly the situation in my country. They, even the younger generations would tell that the general populace has been mislead by misinformation. Up until the election, they say this exact thing as the reason why the president was elected as they started a conspiracy that he started a misinformation campaign.
Basically, they keep telling everyone else who voted for him as "uneducated" because it's taught in school that his dad was a brutal dictator (even though it's mostly an exaggerated version of the commie victors). The younger people keep uttering this to the older ones because they were a major demographic that voted for him even though the older people in question felt the term of the president's father... So this really looks like Education vs Wisdom/Experience in contrast.
and the midwit doesn't have enough wisdom to realise that they don't even have above average intelligence or education.
The midwit trap really is pernicious. It’s especially bad for the ones who only go down paths that could be tread by an average person. They never wake up from the delusion.
I thought I was a truly intelligent person until I pursued my engineering degree and realized that I’m only a mediocre engineer. Had I gone into business or communications, I’d probably still think I was a pretty smart guy.
As someone with a finance degree, trust me my dude, its hard
I’m lucky to have realized I’m an idiot no matter how much everyone else fluffs me up relatively early on.
There’s no shortcut to hard work.
My sister once asked me if I thought I was smarter than everyone else and I said
No i think im stupid and the idea that everyone else is possibly stupider than me is horrific to me.
And engineering is for dummies if you compare it to PHD level physics or biology. Source: muh engineering degree
I was on the same boat when I entered mechanical engineering. My parents swears I was smart when I was not that special. Yes, I was born with iliteracy and not able to speak well. I was born with hearing loss and now I have a condition and could not speak in both languages( English and Spanish). I could not read neither which I sort of regret since I missed so many information back then. I happened to be extra discipline and applied myself and did rise up to a more higher education like mechanical engineering. Do not ask me why. I do not know. But I thought I was on the high intelligence level when I met a single dude who was 17 yr old and managed to aced every single tests without studying much and graduated earlier than us and he went to NASA and did some advanced stuff. I was completely amazed and humbled . I am not a genius at all nor that inteligent and even I even if I was a highly inteligent it would not guarante success or happy life that I want. It has it perks and facilitate to the path one want to take but only if you know how to use your inteligence in good use. I believe that character, resilience, values, connections and wisdom matter more and people seem to overlooked them as I did and regret doing so.
@@Erastoneus45 well said.
public schooling and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race
If Ted was chad
Maybe in the US
@@Galilupottepeakeverywhere. The problems in the US have in many cases already seen their solution and btw there are protests in hundreds of countries right now that the news doesn't show you.
Rationalist materialist government funded standardized schooling was a mistakw
How dare you, to diss my man Ted like that.
My big regret in life is not pursuing a lucrative trade and listening to my boomer parents and teacher who told me I was so smart just because I made good grades when I really just didn't have friends to distract me. I got a two year degree with high honor, but I didn't have the interest or aptitude to go further, so now I'm doing unskilled labor. Things could be worse; I could be in debt, but still.
Never too late to learn trades bro. Find someone to work for and learn on the job. In a couple years you'll be making good money. Electrical and plumbing pay the best around me. But pick something that interests you as well
Similar story here. Now 33, liberal arts degree, but working as a software engineer having taken some time out to re-train and up-skill myself. Own property, gf of 5 years with first baby on the way. There's hope for us all man.
Minus my parents not trying to force that stuff on me, same here but more so out of the lies modern society told me about public school and college. I'm just glad I have a job though rather than being a welfare parasite.
Similar experience except I'm diagnosed with Asperger's and managed to be in the top four of my graduating class. Yet, my three years in college became disappointments because I failed college algebra twice, made me lose self-confidence in studying math further, couldn't get the right grades to go into my original major, and couldn't find an alternative career that fits my temperament and slow pace attitude, along with several aptitude tests showing I'm unsuitable for most trades. I graduated with an associate's degree with no skill.
The Biden economy has made my career prospects even worse along with millions of other people and it further demoralized me.
Bro, you can learn trades on UA-cam for free.
This sounds like what happened to a lot of burnt out gifted kids who did great in school but fell flat in college.
yeah, but luckily not all of us are midwits (or at least don't stay that way). I, for one, realized that I'm the source of a lot of my problems, and have actually been finding some success with trying to make myself better in the long run. Hopefully I can keep it going and become the best version of myself possible, but if not then at least I will have tried.
Burnt out gifted kid here, I knew I was smart but got humbled pretty early on in life due to being weak and being cognizant of the fact that I struggled with math. I had poor study habits because I was gifted and resolved to tackle this when I got a scholarship into the local community College because I knew I wasn't ready for an Ivy Leage University. My parents assumed that because I was gifted I needed to spend time on vacation with them instead of sacrificing vacation time with family to focus on my studies. I once again found myself struggling to study as a result. Then my dad kicked me out the house to prove a point because I was listening to music and didn't hear my mom leave the house when I was supposed to get a ride with her to the college. I dropped out shortly after.
I got a certificate in personal training and recently got a certificate in compliance and am trying to enter the compliance industry now while also working as a boxing coach and a reservist in the Regiment. I've met midwits with bachelor's and master's degrees and often realize the reason they succeeded when I didn't, is they had a mommy and daddy who didn't sabotage their studies. Hopefully in the next year or two I can go back to the local college and take a crack at getting myself a bachelor's.
it was the opposite for me. terrible in school, thriving in college
Did shit in both I am now a helicopter pilot.
@@based_dragon_0110 I've heard a lot of people had that experience!
Getting humbled is an important thing for everyone. Recognize your disadvantages. As a child I was diagnosed with ADHD. Along with this diagnosis came many meetings with many psychiatrists which led to being tested and given an iq score of 142. As it turns out, iq is just a number that determines your intellectual potential. Without work and realistic expectations you end up failing at everything you try because you don’t automatically get it on your first try. I had to fail a couple times before I got it myself.
I know this is an old comment but dude what the fuck are you literally me
I literally got 141 while getting tested for ADHD
As a former midwit, to finally get on a good track in my life I had to let myself be humbled by average chads. Most people think of creativity as only being writing or painting or music but once you learn to appreciate the mastery it takes to tie in the roof system of an addition without any plans, a whole other world opens up for you
To me, the easiest way to distinguish a midwit from someone else, would be the Dunning-Kruger effect. For some reason this is like crack to them.
This exactly. Midwit is Dunning-Kruger as a personality, with just enough intelligence above average to be over confident, they are always obtaining just enough information to be over confident on every subject.
Everyone, including myself, is overconfident in their abilities regardless of expertise or lack thereof, the dunning Kruger effect has flaws in how it interprets statistical data, it's not a great measure to use in terms of intelligence. I wouldn't know what would be the reason for this but the Dunning Kruger effect is still just a hypothesis at best.
A Psychology Today article titled _Dunning-Kruger Isn't Real_ , by *Alexander Danvers* , posted December 30, 2020, goes more in-depth at what I'm talking about here if you want a read.
@@Im-BAD-at-satire So you're saying we are only bought in on Dunning Kruger because of our lay understanding of the field of psychology?
@@Im-BAD-at-satire I don't think the Dunning-Kruger effect isn't real; I believe the issue is most people grossly misinterpret what the effect actually is. People hear D-K and think "stupid people believe they are good at things", but this isn't the case at all. The D-K effect is simply a tendency to overestimate our abilities due to lack of knowledge and experience on a topic. Almost everyone is able to do some basic learning on a topic and reevaluate their performance with a *significantly* greater degree of accuracy.
That doesn't make the D-K effect a farce; it's just that midwits love to sound smart by oversimplifying ideas that presume stupid people are inferior to them, and they latch on to those ideas.
@@bort6414 In the article I referenced, they showcase the statistical error within the peer-reviewed paperwork, as well in other scientific articles, they discuss how the results haven't been perfectly replicated. As far as the evidence is concerned, it's still just a hypothesis.
I agree with most of this video but I have one small critique. High iq - even genius level iq - does not exempt someone from being a midwit. The reason being is that iq while far from pseudoscientific isn’t a perfect measure of success. I would argue that there is a considerable amount of people who were ‘gifted’ but because of that never had to work hard so they just coasted through school playing video games, watching porn, etc. Then when they leave school they completely fail in the professional environment because they never developed a work ethic or an ounce of self awareness. In the end, they end up in the same position as the midwit with rationalizations like, “I took an iq test and got 130. I could’ve been the next Einstein but the system won’t let me.”
True intelligence dosnt always mean hard working sometimes someone's intelligence makes them lazy
Sounds like you've described me. Lol Smarts a'nt shit if your work ethic is horrible.
This "hobo genius" of yours isn't a midwit. His NEET social status shares an outcome with the midwit, but his mind still accurately dissects society's ills. He is like the hermit sages of old.
Im lower than average and im proud of my autistic ability to notice patterns...
Unironically, there are people who will pay you a shitton of money for that
i thought pattern recognition was just a thing humans did
@@613-shadow9there is levels to these things
@@613-shadow9you would be surprised
@@613-shadow9 a shitload of people are unable to do this, suprisingly.
Love all your videos and this one really hits close to home because I was having an argument with someone yesterday about why I support the unschooling system and apprenticeship system and they were die hard public education and debter college fans. I told them that certification from these state backed colleges are monopolistic in nature and professors could just fail you for holding the wrong opinions and this person really said "SoUrCEEE". Yeah like I have the data on everyone who has been failed for holding an opinion that the institutions do not agree with
Um do you have a source for this story????
They speak dishonesty so they assume you do the same.
Their brains run on empiricism rather than rationality. So something that would be as simple as putting 2 and 2 together is impossible for them to figure out if it doesn't start with "study's show" or "experts say".
@@Aneko101Trusted Leading Experts (trademark) say that the ability to deduce self-evident information which often runs contrary to the SOYENTIFIC CONSENSUS (trademark) is a danger to our Democracy.
how do you recognize whether or not you are a midwit? it seems a defining trait of them is their need to lie to themselves about how smart they are, with a secondary trait being that they outsource pretty much all of their opinions because they aren't smart enough to think for themselves.
if i had to think of an answer for my own question, i might associate it with that one quote, "great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." i guess that makes sense of both your interpretations of minds that discuss authority figures, and mrh: legacy's interpretation of minds that discuss historical anecdotes. rational thought directly addresses the ideas behind a topic of discussion, and thus the true defining trait of a midwit might be their inability to have a rational thought, hence why they are often referred to as npcs. they lack an internal monologue. hopefully the fact that i can associate these two ideas with each other is proof that i am not a midwit.
People who think they are smart because they play chess
@@momar678 you mean people who play chess because they think it makes them smart.
@@davidlewis6728 Ion know abt that.
Its boring to talk about people or events. Its always gonna be cooler to talk about ideas.
You can go and on in autistic hyperfocused ramblings with yourself abt sumn you thought up, but it dont mean your some genius.
I think if were only midwits if we act hard over being smart.
Its perfectly fine being average. Average people end up being the least average at the end of the day, because they account for that regular g factor with plain old hard work and grit.
Unrelated but I have a friend whos like that. He was a lil slower than us when it comes to learning stuff like math. But jesus he works so hard, and does it so consistently.
@@honkhonk8009 i agree, but it's always worth making sure you aren't overestimating yourself by assuming you are immune to that sort of mistake.
I am utterly stunned you have so few subscribers and views. There's entire think tanks that try to convey as much information, as well as you, and fall far short.
Also it's cool hearing "Autodidact", I'm the only person I know that actually uses the word.
I think a better example of the negatives of being a midwit (i.e., someone who overestimates their intellectual ability) is that they could (and probably will) waste many years of their life chasing intellectual type things that they just aren’t cut out for. A good example would be trying to get into a phd program, or actually getting into one and then washing out. Or any variation on that.
I consistently test around 130 IQ, in my 30's, and the some of the most important things I learned in my life I learned by: washing dishes until I worked my way up to chef. and when I completely changed what I was doing to become an industrial electrician. There's times when i'm sitting on some cable-tray 10 metres up in the heat and dust when I just start smiling in joy at not being stuck in a goddamned office
Laughs in excel junky
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles" -Sun Tzu
This quote really applies to all decisions, I don't think its a matter of intelligence but knowing your own abilities where the battles are the challenges that life can bring. Everyone has specific things they are knowledgeable of or particularly capable of and its important to acknowledge their own strengths and weaknesses before approaching any task.
You intellect, and especially your IQ, don't actually matter. What matters is whether you can see where you're needed in society and fill that need to the best of your ability. If you're a natural genius, you can become a PhD chemist, physicist, brain surgeon or something like that, but if you're just not born very smart, your finest task is to admit that to yourself and settle for a janitorial or garbage collecting job and then still take just as much pride in a job well done. It's very respectable to get a good education and a fancy job title, but it's just as admirable to fill the holes in society nobody else wants to.
It's not pure mental processing power that allows you to do most of those things, this is conjecture based on who is currently drawn to which profession and their self image.
Just because the system (which is an expensive, consensus furthering, fund seeking business) supposedly places such people in those roles does not imply its actually a requirement or significant advantage, I see just as much evidence it's economic and social.
Quite certain a lot of the blue collars you mention would be just as suited to surgery as your genius doctors, doubt IQ is even in the top 10 important factors (ask a surgeon what they think about this)
this type of attitude usually says more about one's understanding or lack thereof of the job requirements of these high education positions; though it's obviously not true for all of them.
Great video as usual and thanks for the shout-out, MentisWave!
The problem with midwits is summed up best like this:
"It's easier to train a smart dog than a dumb one."
I feel like this midwit/average Joe dichotomy is quite significant to my life. In my early years I was convinced I was above average intelligence, sort of, due to my apparent success in academia. With time I hope I managed ro understand that I am, in fact, an average Joe, and I am trying to fix my life accordingly. I hope I am still in time to become Chad the Average Joe.
I'm kinda the opposite I have always thought that people overestimated my intelligence since I wasn't the greatest at math but I have learned early on that I was good at sounding smart and decided to be a writer
9:00 I've argued with midwits before on the internet. It can be quite the source of comedy at times. There was one time someone tried to go appeal to authority, "is your source reliable" on a paper published in Nature. They shut up that line of argument pretty quickly when I pointed out that Nature, (the most prestigious academic paper in the world) is probaly as authoritative as you can possibly get. Sometimes their usual lines of argument fall over due to their own lack of knowledge.
Nature has many donors. They did publish an article in which was a claim Covid-19 did definitely not come from a lab, which turned out to be bollocks.
"Suspects that something is wrong with the world but realizes its not his calling." ... That hit nicely 🙂 Nothing wrong, and arguably plenty right, with being the community's plumber or electrician.
"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education." - Theodore Roosevelt
Practical wisdom will almost always be preferable over standardized "intelligence".
The quickest way to test someone's intelligence is to make a generalized statement about a group.
Make a statrment like "on average, Asian men are shorter". If they say any variation of "but not all Asian men are short" or "I know a tall Asian man" you are dealing with someone who is a genuine midwit.
They have just proven in that short scenario that they aren't intelligent enough to understand abstract concepts like a statistical average or per capita. Why else would they think that bringing up an exception like it was some profound statement? They actually can't understand abstract concepts- no attempt at reasoning or rationalizing will increase their IQ.
I just had a thought after posting this- another reason they would raise this is to shit test your intelligence. Maybe they do understand generalizations, but think that you don't and just want to try and convince you otherwise to push whatever agenda they are.
Anyway, I still reckon that 9/10 times you do this test on people, they genuinely don't understand abstracts.
It's actually pretty wild to me how many people that I used to think of as being pretty intelligent don't understand this pretty basic concept.
Math is indeed a testimony to logical thinking ability.
A situation like that to me would propose that the person whom you’ve tried to test to confirm if they were in fact a midwit likely didn’t pay attention closely enough to the question and simply jumped the gun, focusing more upon the perceived question instead of the actual one which would in turn imply a strong impatience or lack of attention
read the 4chan post about it award
it is still a decent point tbh
Like of course not all Asian men are short but statistically most are its not that hard to comprehend
My father was a very smart kid, growing up. Even living in a less than savory place without parents, he still managed to get a scholarship into one of the best school's in the country. Sadly, he flunked out of that school, and ended up right back where he started. But instead of whining and complaining that some system had "failed" him, he kept going. He found a wife at church, got a decent paying construction job, started a family, and even bought a house recently. I wouldn't be here right now to tell this story if it weren't for him. I'd never call him an "average joe", but I certainly do think that label might fit him best. In the end, he has helped and will probably continue to help more people than your average collage leftie ever will.
Public school is actually awful. I spent most of my days on the internet learning instead, or playing games. I never did any of my homework so I don't think people thought I was smart, even though I would often be on the top of my class and the first to be done on tests.
I even asked to move ahead on mathematics and was told no because I wasn't the right grade level.
For a while in school I was in gifted, that’s due to early on schooling I tested for a high IQ and they put me in there, but once I got to junior year, nothing school taught me helped me with studying, because I could just wait till the day of and get it all done in 15 minutes. Now I’m in college and I have a fuckin issue with procrastination due to habit. Basic schooling kinda failed me cause instead of fostering my learning as advancing it kept me on the same track as everyone else except I got pulled out of classes and got to go on trips.
So TLDR: Due to scoring high on an IQ thing, I got fucked in schooling because of never learning study habits
That's your own fault. Learn personal responsibility
@@Kneejair Of course they bear some personal responsibility for failing to learn study habits, but I'm hesitant to blame a child for not being an autodidact. It is of course possible to learn these study habits at a later stage, but it is much more difficult than if they had been learned earlier. The public school system most definitely fails its brightest students by failing to challenge them. Why would a 12 year old put in the extra effort to learn more when they already get easy A's in their advanced placement classes? Most adolescents aren't thinking about their futures that hard.
@@Kneejair human nature is to take the easy way
@@Kneejair Half-true. This is why you shouldn't praise a child for being gifted or talented, because it implies that they're born with it and it's not something they worked on and earned. If you want to praise children, tell them that they've worked hard.
basically if you're not completely retarded like all these normies in the replies, you don't need to try as hard as they did in fkn basic schooling. aka, school teaches you nothing you couldnt have just learned on your own time in no time. i was the same. thing is these idiots would also have benefited from an education that actually taught discipline instead of shitting on them with endless menial busywork.
so instead of saying something as fucking retarded as "wiseOwl" (more like birdbrain), or trying to act smart by making something so clearly black and white sound grey with "of course they bear *some* responsibility" or "half-true" (its not), im going to do the useful thing and give you the actual resources to learn how to study more efficiently from.
This is a book called A Mind for Numbers. Dont be a perfectionist like me, just read the book and let your brain absorb the info with time. There's a couple sections on procrastination that you'll find especially useful, skim through it.
archive.org/details/a-mind-for-numbers/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater
There's also Ultralearning by Scott Young, the author learned the entire MIT computer science program in 1 year on his own (he blogged about it, ik it sounds like cap lol).
My IQ has been measured multiple times. The lowest score that I ever achieved was 110, and the highest was 125. That puts me firmly in the midwit territory, yet I have been fortunate enough to avoiding finding myself among their ranks. I'm not sure precisely why, but I think having a working class father who worked as a tradesman gave me some of that glorious cynicism that working class people have. My mom's family are all upper class, and whilst they are all perfectly good people, they are the most compliant people one could ever meet.
A second thing that helped me was choosing a career that I'm really not very good at. I'm a software developer, and whilst I'm not utterly useless, I am very average. I make mistakes constantly, but I do always accept responsibility and take ownership. Failing is a very good way to realise how average you really are.
You do realize the IQ test is pattern recognition and capability to learn right? Not a sure fire measure of how smart you are
@@Laurentxoplex true but iq does play a role on how well you well be able to understand certain topics
@@Laurentxoplex I do, but it serves as a metric to measure intelligence. I don't consider myself exceptionally intelligent. I have interests that give me a wealth of knowledge on topics such as history and politics that many would not have, but that's merely the result of years of study, and not intelligence.
@@malicant123That one hits especially hard. I come from what you could call a "lower IQ region"(the Caribbean) but I've always been praised for being intelligent, not overly praised but just enough to have a bit of an ego. However I've always had this fascination with this platform. Eventually I came across the autodidact corner of UA-cam and never really looked back. I started with simple philosophy, then very VERY basic economics, some other stuff I don't really remember, then a lot of STEM, and finally the last two being breadtube and right libertarian think tanks.(In that order by the way)
Because of breadtube I was a leftist for about....2 months, but always hesitated with fully commiting to the ideology because of the sheet hypocrisy of these people. How can you claim to despise capitalism while having so many decoration and luxury in your home? How can you criticize society of being lazy and corrupt when your primary source of money are corporate sponsors and people donating money to you? I guess Google spied on me like always and recommend Mentis one day, and since then I completely destroyed any and all far left concepts I've had in my mind. But that also gave me a bit of a crisis since I realized I've never *actually* stuck to something, essentially hoping from one ideology to the next. One could argue that's a sign of better than average intelligence and an anti midwit trait, but at the same time I'd be disingenuous to assume I'm an intellectual because of it. I despise math in almost every sense even though I mostly understand all of it and am capable of handling abstract concepts very well. However I do horrifically wrong with anything based on shapes or "conjuring" an imaginary object into a 3 dimensional headspace. I sucked balls at geometry yes, like sucked BAD. To the point my teacher's were dumbfounded on how such a bright student struggles with something so seemingly basic? Ended up discovering this is most likely the cause of really really REALLY bad visual-spatial intelligence. Every time someone asked me to see anything and "eye ball it" I would be stumped at how others did such a great job at it yet I, the supposed "intellectual" couldn't even do the most basics(that's probably due to me being glued to a CRT since I was a baby, almost never really went outside so my early childhood were just video game's galore). Ever since then I've been seriously debating if I'm a genuine midwit or not, most of my interests(human psychology, neuroscience, general STEM, left leaning politics until recently, high fantasy, gushing about good writing) are generally not high IQ institutions or interests, and it's pretty easy to see that once you look at where these institutions lean politics wise. But hell there are high IQ individual who are cooks!! So who really knows. I've always been surrounded by humble people who I suspect actually fall on 1 standard deviation at the very least, yet none of them were midwits. That's probably why I myself am not a midwit even though I'm disproportionately destined to become one.
All this to say, I wish I had more people with the same experience I did, it's frustrating to try and come to a conclusion without someone else's perspective, and that may just be a sign of midwitery itself!
As offendingeverybody once said: Yea I’m stupid, but at least I know I’m stupid. And that’s better than most
My mantra in life.
I remember how much I suffered in public school because it favored midwits above intelligent folk, the fact I was trapped in that hell factory of shallow subject study crafted for the lowest common denominator in the human species for 8 hours a day and still had to study on my own in the library in order to actually learn anything(sometimes skipping class in order to study) is a burning memory in my mind to never forget the time that was stolen from me(the fact the food was so bad the students had to choose between hanger and food poisoning is merely an added bonus to the misery I felt there) and to never trust any public school system ever again(if I ever have kids I’m homeschooling).
Even if I have a low IQ, it doesn't matter and I'll try my best.
Midwit: If I can beat you at chess I am smarter than you!
Average: I don't play chess, it isn't fun
Also, they can't figure out it's smarter to have money while dumb than be poor while intelligent
i dont play chess because i dont know how to
I kinda liked chess before learning about the whole _check_ system. Like WHAM just hit your King from across the entire board with a sneaky Bishop you didn't notice, lol
Having the whole _check_ protection layer makes it less fun. I've read somewhere that earlier versions didn't do that, and it just kind of became a gentleman's agreement, like "oh, of course I wouldn't move this piece here if it exposes my King like that, sorry".
It shouldn't even matter 99% of the time against experienced people anyway, unless you're trying to force a tie by deliberately putting yourself in a situation where you won't be able to make your next move.
Chess midwits are notorious for obsessing over openings and the endgame, but they get exposed badly in the midgame and there's nothing they can do about it.
I know right. I'm not very good at chess (yet), but I am able to beat the people who go crazy over openings while I don't know many. @@sidneygray51
midwits will fill their brain with useless opening theory
true chads play the bong cloud
I think a term that perfectly sums up midwits, and that could probably get a whole video on its own, is "confident ignorance". The way I define it is stating things with absolute certainty that are either A) wrong, or B) debated, without either A) citing the source of their claim, or B) clearly stating that it's their opinion. It's a very lefty thing to do, because it's incredibly common for them to not acknowledge any legitimacy to opposing viewpoints, never putting any thought into those points, and thereby remaining firmly in their own stupidity, or to put it nicely, ignorance.
Ultimately, this stems from the fact that if you say something confidently enough to someone lacking knowledge on the subject, you can make them believe anything. So much of the left relies on this and I don't really see people talking about this. The right does it too, of course, but righties do a much more consistent job of clearly stating that what they're stating is both just their opinion and that they aren't really "experts", even going so far as to tell you to make up your own mind.
It just really boils my blood to see people like Hasan Abi or AOC or Bernie or Warren or Biden so confidently say something that I know to just be flat out wrong, or to simply state their opinion as truth, effectively trying to gaslight the audience.
It's also worth mentioning that most of the right wingers who would do this are probably already discredited by most people. More often than not, in my experience, is that when the right makes a claim, it's started with some type of "I don't understand how..." or "I think...", immediately showing that what they're about to say may or may not be complete fact. And even more of the right has learned to back up almost every claim with a source, because the left will pick on that one thing until they can rip the whole thing apart, regardless of whether it's true.
Seems like it would make a good video, but idk
I agree with you 100% bro.
Iv been saying the same shit too.
Whenever a right-winger talks, he first acknowledges if he's not some expert in the subject.
Iv spoken to a lot of dudes about how universal healthcare is cheaper cus it cuts administrative costs. When I back it up with stuff, they seem to agree and change their opinion afterwards.
But bruh, you cannot do the same thing with leftists.
They literally have mental breakdowns whenever you try to bring up shit that opposes their views.
They call you an uneducated retard half the time, and do their best to belittle you.
Its only American leftists too lowkey.
If you talk to anyone that's actually serious abt that shit, they make for good conversation.
But if its your average woketoid retard, it just becomes a shitflinging contest.
Tl;dr, as a paraphrase of Socrates: "An intelligent man believes he knows everything, a wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Exactly. Also once you really think about it, you'll realise that knowledge literally doesn't exist (in theory at least, but i'm pretty sure that also concerns in practicality since stuff like this is inherently theoretical and any practical proof or even hint at the opposite will make it devolve into theory again, and in theory it doesn't exist, so I just go with that. Tl;dr: as soon as absolutely anything contradicts the idea of knowledge (as being convinced of something that's 100% exactly like that) practically, it doesn't exist)
@@maxiona714 Okay, two things: firstly, bruh, this comment is from months and months ago, why comment now? Secondly, knowledge does exist, it is just not tangible unless made so in written form, etc, if that's what you mean.
@@aurenkleigeIs there a time limit for comments?
@@aurenkleige You phoneposters really need to learn how message boards work.
@ Yes. Have a sense of propriety, dingus.
I had to learn the lesson that education did not serve any purpose despite being a straight A student. Once I got into the workforce, it quickly taught me to be realistic with my expectations.
I feel like my intelligence is intermittent. I don't like to call myself intelligent. I am averse to arrogance. I don't use fancy words when I do because I'm trying to show off. It's just because that's how the thought happens to come out. I know I'm not stupid, because I have a good grasp on language and many other topics, like game dev, politics, and fitness, and I'm a fast learner when I'm interested in a topic. However, I find it very hard to muster the slightest bit of care for most things. Like the meme at 12:00. I understand what the pink animé plushie is saying, but I also don't care to think that far about things, because I already know from experience, which forms intuition, that wikipedia, and the type of thing it is, is indeed cringe. I lose patience for long reasoning, but sometimes I'm guilty of it myself. I guess the honest answer would be that I am 'tarded, but also with enough intelligence in certain aspects to use my tardity to my benefit. I also like to type like an imbecile online cus it r funi n i am moky 🐒
Looking back, I thought of myself as much more of an intellectual than I really was in my college days and the years after. The realization I was likely never going to get into the field I studied for was very humbling, and while I don’t get much fulfillment from it, the job I have has given me a satisfying lifestyle; me and my wife are on track to pay off our student debt, and we’re planning to start trying for children soon. So I’m happy to call myself Average.
I have a few ‘friends’ from high school I could classify as Midwits that I eventually had to block on social media because I just couldn’t put up with them anymore. One of them ironically was named Carl; his main thing was writing out massive paragraphs to address a single point and using his experience volunteering in a poor Black neighborhood as moral superiority.
lotta westernized south and east-asian people fit this bill hard as hell
Amusingly, this is one of those areas where "cultural upbringing" *actually* is a major factor.
Different cultures value different aspects of intelligence: as a broad-strokes generalization, "Western" cultures (especially Germanic/French/Anglo cultures) have historically prized the ability to deduce, discover, learn, or create new knowledge; the same broad brush would say that Eastern cultures (most strongly China) have historically prized the ability to memorize known facts.
Consider the difference between writing a (good) story, and winning a spelling bee: The former requires one to create new characters, a plot, wrap them together into something that people find interesting and believable; while the latter requires that one rigorously memorize a large number of words and spelling conventions. Both are tests of "language mastery," but each emphasizes a very different aspect of that field.
I can attest that I have had wonderful and engaging conversations with people who are of 'average intelligence', but when I encounter the midwits (of 110-120 IQ) it is infuriating. While not ever being formally measured myself, I can say from my educational background I have somewhere between 125 to 135 (probably 129 if I were forced to make a guess). Those with an IQ of about 115 are insufferably arrogant. Smart enough to be trained, but stupid enough to not be capable of real critical thinking and therefore easily programmed by the education systems aiming for indoctrination into state myths and its secular religion. You simply cannot reason with these types of people. Their first assumption is to assume you are stupid and be incredibly condescending. When they find they are not actually up against someone of lesser IQ, they immediately move onto emotional blackmail and threaten social and reputational harms in order to win an argument. Buoying their arguments of sophistry and motte and bailey arguments. The only thing to be done is to mock them and refuse to engage with them at any higher level.
As someone who has iq in the 140s trust me they think Im stupid too. (Im highly religious)
I personally think I’m pretty dumb but I don’t do assumptions and other similarly ridiculous things like that socially, so I guess that’s better than nothing
Last time I took one it was around 125 but it was online so it could be fake but I think mine has dropped do to an accident last year I use to take quizzes to test my creativity but my best friend responded with how would you even measure that and I feel better
@@walleras i once tested mine and it came around 148. You WOULD believe how much these midwits have put me through hell. This is not an exageration. My life was destroyed by them. I always felt like i was the wrong in every situation, when they were probably (in one way or another) just jealous of me...
This is a really good take, but I think there's also more going on than just IQ differentials honestly.
"Midwits" in my experience can be very smart - even two standard deviations or more. I know people who I'd consider a "midwit", but who would probably ace me in terms of pure brain power in most intelligence tests. The difference between me and them I think is more accurately described by my deep rooted scepticism of authority and the fact I'm just on the spectrum so have a high immunity to group think.
I find smart person can reason themselves into a hole when they don't have a good grasp on the foundations their opinions are built on. For example, if you accept the idea that white people are privileged and black people are discriminated against it becomes very easy to reason that therefore we perhaps need the state to intervene to balance the scales. It's not so much that it takes someone who's highly intelligent to question whether the foundational assumption that privilege exists is true, but probably does take someone who naturally distrusts popular narratives and takes the extra step to look into whether they hold any weight.
Another observation I've made is that while my girlfriend shares my scepticism of popular narratives and she's very creatively intelligent, she isn't very maths smart. I find I tend to believe nothing I hear and instead look at stats then reason myself to my own opinion from said stats. But because my girlfriend can't reason herself to opinions like I, and since she doesn't trust anyone, she instead has to observe the world through her own eyes then trust her gut on things. Prior to 2016 I used to mock her for this because she'd often say silly things like "it's snowed for 2 years in a row, how can global warming be real?". But I'm far less critical now because she's also been able to see straight through a lot of BS that gets pushed in society today.. I think people like her partly explain the bell curve meme where low IQ individuals often seem to come to the same conclusions as high IQ individuals, but for different reasons.
Just some thoughts anyway. Great vid.
God bless you both.
I have to admit, i was a conservative midwit. That description perfectly dwscribed me. Good thing it was for only 2-3 years in high-school.
Yes, I defended libertarianism until I saw that it sold communist China rope to hang us. The international trade exports never happened, despite common economic theories.
I don't know what I watched to get the algo to start changing it's to me, but it's been recommending some badass channels lately that cover topics and give words to things I've been thinking and seeing for literal YEARS and never had anyone to talk to about it since no one seemed to understand or care.
This is one such topic and it validates what I've thought about "midwits" since 2016. Amazing.
It’s incredible how perfectly this describes Reddit users
When I was around 17 or 18 I spent 2 years at a school that had a lot of middle class professional type people, one was a girl that got all A or A* grades, she was quite attractive and refined, probably wealthy, but I noticed that she couldn't really entertain questions about the subject matter that deviated from what was being taught, I sat next to her and her other 2 friends I think because they felt sorry for me as I was alone for a few reasons. So I was able to observe that she didn't think like me, she was also more socially competent in a stereotypical way. I should specify this was in science classes which was my favoured subject.
This is no secret but I for sure belive that the school model, at least in the US and so presumably in the UK also, it is easier for women to go through
@@notascientist709 It is. The school system is designed around the ways that women learn best while often disregarding men that would learn better from other ways.
My man just described origin story off Jacob Geller, CGP Grey, exub1a,Solar Sands , all off Breadtube,Trey the Explainer, Rational Animations etc.
Finally consistent gameruplouds
I used to be one of those kids that everyone praised for being gifted. Had some humbling experiences when I was in middle and high school when I overestimated myself. Thankfully, I've come to terms with being only slightly above average. If someone is talking about something I don't know about, I keep my damn mouth shut, unlike my past self.
Same I went through that experience where I was constantly told that as a child. Yet, as I matured and went through HS, I had to learn that your intellect takes you nowhere unless you put in the effort to learn both hard and soft skills. I thank my parents for teaching me that sooner rather than later. One of the most important thing I ever learned was that intelligence is not a substitute for wisdom, skills, and experience.
I'm 2-3 standard deviations above normal but I've always felt like intellectually I'm missing something.
Same
It's because you don't have obsession that's needed to do something great. Most great thinkers were not shut ins only because of bad social ability but because they only truly cultivated one skill/talent or field of study. They also tend to die young.
I went to university. I wasn’t the smartest person in the room but I certainly wasn’t the dumbest
One characteristic of the midwit is also the obsession with finding a double standard of some sort, even if there is none, they will try as hard as they can to prove one because then they feel smart. Also a midwit doesnt want conversations of a high risk in failure or nonvalid arguments that happen because the subjet is very complex, he would rather point out those errors and close himself from anything beyond the norm, that is what he identifys with. But after all, these high risk subject conversations are those advancing society.
I was home schooled and I am proud that my parents Worked hard to make sure I know what I know today.
Many people who arent smart enough to be midwits still use appeals to authority and personal experience they just choose different leaders. This could mean their pastor or friend instead of a teacher or academic but they still outsource their thinking. Its an obvious strategy if you can recognize successful people but are bad at making decisions
3:35 that mispronunciation of Prussian really hurt my history nerd ears
i love how in all of the bell curve memes in your videos the common sense, rational take is always comfortably couched in the 160+ zone
Past performance is not an indicator of future success. People with high raw intellect still do bizarre things like build atom bombs.
I struggled in high school, and I never understood why, but I went to college to obtain an engineering degree and found out that I was best at math and reasoning, as well as actually applying myself to the subjects I enjoyed. I’ve gotten into research on materials and I have never been happier
The problem is when people live their entire lives not knowing something is the cause of a problem.
I don't know what you thinking when you made these ones, but why do you even put unrelated gameplay if you still put images that are relevant? Why not remove gameplay and put focus on images that meant to illustrate your point?
dude the avarage human attension span is very low no joke goldfish have longer attension spans, he needs viewer retention so his videos get pushed by the site.
It's sad that instant gratification in apps and social media caused this
I guess I was fortunate to learn the chad's lesson pretty early in my life.
I've learned that often the best way to overcome a problem in life is often to submit to it, because once you're at the bottom of the pit, the way out becomes extremely obvious, and I think that's basically what chad here realized, so for him the way to a happy, successful life was very easy
A correct understanding of your place in the world is important. I am one of those 'high IQ individuals', with my IQ being higher than about 80% of the population.
Unfortunately, that's not because I'm particularly smart, but more of the fact that all humans are kinda dumb. I'm just a little less dumb than most.
It's being able to realise that which is why you are in the top 20% whereas the proverbial midwit never seems to realise that.
So.
Average Joe has humility.
And Midwits do not.
Am I getting this?
This thing on leftism being clearly the right thing. When I was first introduced to politics in school when I was 12 my first question was: "Clearly leftism is the correct opinion. So how come some people believe the opposite?"
Great video! I love how informative it was
"That's common sense" "intuitive truth" "papa always said" and "so many generations of people couldn't be completed wrong" are the most based arguments and any conversation with people disagreeing is meaningless
Intuition, reasoning, and tradition get you quite far.
@@stalinjosefstalin480 It's an extremely useful tool, intuition and reasoning skills can be extremely useful but the fact is that even computers make false positives and false negatives all of the time, there are times when your intuition and reasoning are faulty.
There's indeed traditions that should be kept but there's also traditions which should be abolished.
@Im-BAD-at-satire
I agree, but what's the alternative? Generally speaking, traditions are traditions because they're good (or at least, better than the alternatives). I believe that we should hold to traditions unless we're 100% sure something else is better.
And while coming to conclusions through reasoning can lead down a bad path, there isn't an alternative that is worth pursuing. You could claim that we could rely on religious texts or religious authorities, but that isn't necessarily mutually exclusive to using reasoning.
8:40
Basically every “argument” against praxeology
As well as against arguments created using praxeology. You can explain why an incentive would logically lead a person to act in a certain way and why that way is the most efficient method to achieve a desired end, and you will immediately know whether or not you are talking to a midwit if their go-to response to this is to ask for a source.
On the subject of right-wing midwits, I think most of them tend to congregate around various internet father figures like Jordan Peterson and regurgitate some of his basic life advice as being the most insightful information around. The kicker is seeing if they actually follow through with any of that advice in their lives rather than debating people online.
Oh man! How much money is being spent to promote these mediocre Internet gurus?
I think that's a straw man. It's not that the young men you're referring to necessarily hold him in such high esteem because what he's saying is so insightful, profound or abstract. I believe it's simply because Peterson's lessons and advice, which, when taken as a whole, create this formula for these young men to follow and implement that is generally a good guide to living their lives. Living their lives without the constant self loathing and bitterness a lot of other popular 'thinkers' preach. In short, I find that Peterson advises young men on how to harness and control their masculinity.
Peterson is patently very high in verbal reasoning and verbal intelligence and is de facto a leading intellectual. He does not pretend to knowledge that he does not have but is undoubtedly very well-versed in psychology and sociology, with a studied interest in philosophy, politics and macro-economics. More recently, biblical criticism and exegesis from a psychological and sociological perspective. His oft-quoted main influences are Jung, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Trying to demote or diminish Peterson is a sure hallmark of mid-wittery. His many avid adherents may oft fall short of their guru, but Peterson is worthy of their accolade.
@6:50 I would argue that both mid-wits and average joes occupy the space between 93-107 IQ. The basis of average joes trending 1 standard distribution below average and mid-wits trending 1 S.D. above does not correlate strongly with the distinctions between the two groups. Keep in mind that the space between 85 and 115 is ~67% of the population, the space between 93 and 107 should be just under 50% of the population. Also keep in mind that an IQ of about 93 is necessary to understand hypotheticals.
I think the primary driving factors between the groups are things like the Big Five Personality Traits and social role fulfillment. That is why mid-wits are so confirmative compared to average joes.
Great video pushing my ego down and accepting the fact im just a regular guy has been real good for me i start school in a couple weeks
Really, it's just a matter of where they offload their critical thinking. Do they offload it onto 'experts and academia' or do they offload it onto practicality of experience and 'common sense'. The latter has a track record of the entirety of recorded human history, if only because that's how it's been formed. Experts don't stand a chance against it. Even if they expert is correct in theory, it doesn't translate to efficacy in practice. The web of social, political, ethical, etc., dimensions ensure that relying on common sense, though it fails strict scrutiny, is nevertheless a much more well-rounded and effective strategy for navigating life.
This is part of what Rightwing Authoritarians have absolutely correct. Though it's derided simply as 'tradition and culture' when it's much more than that. They discredit themselves when they refer to it as strictly 'American' or 'European'. 'Western' does it more justice but it's not well understood that what 'Western culture' refers to is everything we've developed since the written word. So midwits think 'Western' is racist when it's our record of human history, testing, and conclusions.
I guess I would be considered a midwit in my early 20's and even my teens. I've thumbed my nose at people who were "uneducated"...it wasn't until I got older and faced some hard real life lessons I realized...the "average joes of the world" were probably more observant and realistic than I was. I've since changed my tune and looked at the world in a different light. Nothing wrong with average. Thankfully I'm still relatively young and am trying to make very strong corrective decisions so my children can be setup for success whether they take those advantages or not.
I am a midwit,i always was,i wish i knew that earler,but i am adjusting my expectations,
Although i did want a trade,my parents gaslight me into an education(where i am mybe 66% done,while my original class is graduating) but once i am done i will adjust my expectations and live a virtious live
Rip
It’s never too late to change mate.
A midwit is only a midwit for as long as he fails to comprehend his own failings.
If you understand your own abilities, nothing can stop you from succeeding at what you are suited to. Whatever that may be.
What are you studying?
@@a.b3203 pharmaceutical engineering and technology
@@a.b3203
Pharamaceutical engineering
The chad is a good laborer, and successfully creates more laborers. the virgin is a poor laborer with dreams of something more than labor, and may or may not know those dreams are unachievable
The midwit was sold a bunch of bullshit about "You can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it."
This is 9 months old, but I think it sort of doesn't address a big part of the problem.
Decades there were some studies done that showed that self validation helped people perform better, that a group of people who were told they were useless and worth nothing would never achieve anything due to that belief. Thus the educational system gradually shifted towards a paradigm of self-validation over education, shortly after my generation left school we had what we now called Millennials getting their participation trophies and so on. The idea was that if they told everyone they were special and incredible, they would become that way, and of course as activists infiltrated the system they doubled down with certain groups telling them they were even more special for being X. Then of course this was even further combined with political indoctrination.
The problem is with what your calling "Midwits" is that everyone is conditioned now to think they are super smart, especially if they believe certain things politically. It's not so much popularity, but indoctrination making these points of view so omni-present. Every person who is told they are super intelligent never stops to think about what happened to all the average or dumb people, they are simply told no one is anything like that anymore.
Understand also that as the focus moved away from education, the grades meant less and less, especially as various kinds of deeply curved systems were used to ensure nobody failed to prevent backlash against the schools and keep parents happen. It's not just poor schools where this is a problem, people from good schools also face this, especially as parents might get upset if they are spending tons of cash and their child isn't seen to be succeeding. The kid typically might think he's getting good grades, especially with rich parents, when really he's failing.
Beyond garbage like liberal arts and gender studies degrees, at a college level there is also a push to have everyone being seen to succeed, especially certain "special" groups of people. This leads to a lot of degrees being pushed out when they might not actually be teaching the subject as intended. Hence a lot of the problems when people show up, with their fancy degree, thinking the paper itself is a magical talisman that means "smart and capable", when in reality it's just a piece of paper. If they were boosted through the system on identity politics, or just given it because they paid, it doesn't mean much. This is why for young people in particular they hit these walls and they want people with experience because in reality many of them have probably learned nothing of value despite their debt, this is why most companies want experience, and proof you can do the job, not a paper that says you can because in many cases someone might come up with a brain full of activist garbage, and no real skills at all. This started slowly with the Milennials, and has gotten progressively worse. It used to be that a degree could at least open doors, but now it does so less and less, even from a "good" school as all of the "good" schools have gone political and businesses might play along but at the end of the day they want people that can actually do the job. When forced to make do... well, you see what's increasingly happening to the economy.
The point I'm getting at here is that performance is based on education and intelligence, and your typical "midwit" both overestimates their intelligence, and typically doesn't actually have the education or expertise they think they do because of the ways the system is broken. They simply assume those with the same political consensus they are a part of are right, but at the same time their own lack of success should tell them something, and yet it never actually does.
What the story does reinforce for me at least is sort of the point that in fixing the educational system, especially with current testing ability (when properly deployed, without bias), we're going to have a pretty good idea of what people can do, and safeguards for rare talents and late bloomers already considered. We need an educational system to tell "Chad Average" that he is that, merely than just hoping for self revelation. The actually smart people can then be clearly identified and given the attention they need, the same with the people who are below average (which seem to have vanished for the last several decades) who might need special attention.
See, it's a problem when every kid thinks they are suited for an exciting position that is creative, prestigious, or exciting. They spend too much time focusing on the dreams of the youth, and validation, rather than having schools provide actual guidance. Telling some kid nobody listens to that he should pursue management training to be a leader among men is doing no one a favor, especially him. Ditto for telling kids they can be sports and entertainment stars, the president, astronauts, and other things. Maybe when they are little that is fine, but when they do more testing, yeah they need to sit down and tell "Chad Average" or your typical Midwit "College would be wasted on you, consider trade school or vocational education" and helping them get a reasonable grasp of what they can do, and preparing them for being able to survive and succeed in adult life. I think half the "artsy, creative types" who will "die working a normal 9-5 job" on Tiktok (some have been parodied in UA-cam) are that hilariously messed up because nobody was willing to basically give them "the talk" wen it's obvious they aren't going to be able to do that and prepare for reality. Now yeah schools can't suggest only fans obviously, but they can say "You know, you have no real artistic talent... so maybe you should consider thinking about a culinary school or something. Your not likely to be Gordan ramsay, but cooks are always needed, and if nothing else a practiced short order cook can find work anywhere. While your young you can probably make some money waiting table, and then move into something like that when you get older". Now granted nobody wants to hear that (including parents) but obviously it would solve a lot of problems. You self validate by simply not knocking reasonable and realistic outcomes for the average person.
I got distracted by Megaman gameplay. What was this about again?
Sometimes, I want to say I'm smart, that I must have a high IQ. Strictly because of the sheer volume and intensity of outright stupid people I've met. But every single time, I can't help but wonder, what if I'm still a midwit? What if the reason I feel so superior is because I'm one of the few people of my level who hasn't sought out a community of equal or greater intelligence? Or am I one of the few who has not made a sufficient effort to improve? Thus leaving me as the slightly larger crab in a barrel meant for the runts.
And who am I to say that I would even qualify to join said community? I learn slow, my only strength is memorization and consistency, I'm hard of hearing, easily distractable, and diminutive in confidence and charisma. Yet if I can still out perform my peers, where do I belong? I look down upon their metrics for success in life, but I am the outlier. Would that not make me the failure? I've missed so much that others seek, and I have the tools to achieve it, yet I would find it worthless even if I did. So why should I labor to achieve the common goals of others? Should I not endevor to be unique? Yet they own the civilization from which I've procured all that I have. So would that not make their methods superior? But would it not be favorable to improve upon their system to pursue my own goals and provide for others like myself? Yet who am I to enforce my whims and selfishly pursue my goals if they might destroy the path I leave behind. Who am I to subvert or undermine any social norm when there are others around me that strictly adhere to and rely upon it? Where do I go? What do I do? Do I even have the capacity to find my path, let alone understand it? What if everything I worry about is by all accounts nothing more than pseudo-intellectual drivel concocted by a midwit that stuggles to even realize his own intellectual failure?
I don't know, and that scares me...
Hallo, dumbass liberatarian here who read the entirety of your comment since I found the first part fascinating...
And I suppose I kind of feel the same 😅
Even if the burden of proof is on the reader since you blast a bunch of questions, it does make me feel like I relate to you considering how I over-question everything...
My journey from midwit to above average joe has been a painful one.
People around me think I’m smart, but I’m not too sure about that. I just keep trying to learn new things, and I keep my ego in check when I stand corrected. Hell, anyone worth their weight in salt should find being incorrect to be more exciting than being correct. I’m married to my wife, not opinions or ideas.
Why is Megaman fighting in Vietnam?
I've spent mych of my school career being told I am significantly above average. I can only hope to escape the pitfalls of this, whether I am or not notwithstanding.
Pretty sure I engage in midwittery more often than not.
Before I heard the word 'midwit', I called these people 'Squidwards'
I'm one of the "midwit" (IQ ~115) who became an ardent "Socialist" during my college days. But the real life experience I get from working as govt supplier/contractor makes me realize that Socialism is just not feasible as the foundation of any large society (of more than several hundred individuals), such as nation.
Politicians and bureaucrats are just as greedy and corrupt as any corporate CEOs, giving them power over the whole economy and the state (justice system, military, etc) is downright stupid.
Socialists might argue that's the exact opposite of what they want, because they actually want to give more power to "the people". However, collectivization (in the form of wealth redistribution, nationalization, or abolition of private property, which is the hallmark of Socialism) means they took power from our hands and give it to "the collective".
"The collective" is *NOT* "the people", but a group of influential political elites (in this case usually ideologues and agitators, like Lenin, Mao, etc) who will rule in the name of "the people".
Sadly, most of my fellow midwit who never actually work with govt/state institution might never experience this, and thus continue to have misplaced trust on authority figures, just because they are supposedly "elected and therefore are accountable" to them/"the people".
Hunter Avallone is the peak midwit
This reminds me of a study on UA-cam where there were 5 or 6 individuals of various backgrounds and levels of education. They were told to converse with each other for a while and then rank who had the highest IQ in descending order. One of the very liberal women in the group (who was also the most outspoken) thought she was the smartest person of them all, especially when comparing herself to a former military member. Almost everyone thought they we're surely smarter than the prior enlisted member, but he actually ranked highest on the IQ test after the poll results. The outspoken woman, to no surprise, was the lowest scoring person.
I can't remember who said this, but they were exploring a reason why leftism is seems so prevalent in academia. I think the reason he said is similar to why "midwits" seem to be so attracted to it. It's a social survival mechanism.
Its strange I went the total opposite way of most people in the middle of the bell curve. I guess due to the way I was raised (or the lack of being raised...) I actually spent most of my life thinking I was debilitatingly stupid. I actually sit somewhere around 120 IQ. I realized once I got to college I actually wasn't as stupid as I thought, but I also realized the program I took was filled with a lot of people who were way smarter than me and the further into the program I got the more I realized I really wasn't cut out for it. I ended up really hating it but I scraped by and managed to graduate... barely. My biggest regret was not getting into the trades instead. I would be in a so much better position in almost every facet of my life right now I'm sure.
Theres also the fact that people dont use the academic definition, or the academic definition is maliciously falsified against reality just because "its the best source" or something like that
You can be a genius in one facet of your life and a midwit on certain subjects. For example I was highly advanced academically, 150 IQ, 1600 SAT, 3.8 at a top 5 world university in EECS/Math double where avg GPA was below 3.0. Have been beyond successful in career But I was off loading my political beliefs to consensus/status quo like a midwit… until I woke up to the impact some of these consensus ideas were having on my life, and since then I have become an extreme skeptic, staunch anti-woke anti-establishmentarian, borderline anarcho-capitalist. I’m embarrassed by my laziness in the past when I was a political midwit.
Thanks for this explanation, the way "education" works really hinders people.
A man's got to know his limitations.
I was arguing with a midwit today who unironically tried using ChatGPT to prove that me insulting him while refuting his argument was an "ad hominem"
I got pretty good grades in my school days, but I never considered myself a genius. I was just really psyched that I managed to do a good job after getting all nervous before exams.
You're essentially the product of your environment. There's, of course, some RNG factors but let's not distract ourselves from getting busy putting people into neat little boxes with definitions on them.
Completely opposite.
Wrong.
Your genetics create your environment outside of some exceptions. Your ancestors who had your genetics created the situation you were born into and beyond that the wider kinship groups you are a part of ethnic/nation group also are genetically similar. Environment and genetics are inextricably linked together.
You think IQ is determined by environment? It's luck. Just like your height, your place of origin, your eye colour and basically every other conceivable biological factor that constitute who you are as a person.
Just found this channel, just subscribed. Keep posting king.
Um askually this is captilsm fault cause it was because of factory owner Horace mann cause they need mindless worker or something