The other day I remembered an old “King of the Hill” episode focusing on Bill Dauterieve. Basically he stops listening to Hank and does lots of stupid stuff on his own/listening to Dale. At the end Bill admits he’s mad at Hank because Hank makes all his decisions for him and that Hank is always right. Hank points out that if he’s always right and Bill does what he says, that means Bill is always right also.
So anyway, this got me thinking, are there stupid people out there who admit that they are stupid and put their trust in someone smarter? I really wonder, because sometimes what I see just makes me sad. For example, overweight people giving tips on losing weight and talking about how X is healthy and Y is not. “Oh but I just can’t manage to make myself keep eating healthy foods,” they will say, not realizing they are A wrong, B not using good techniques to implement, or C both. If someone is failing at something, I think that they ought to be listening to new ideas, trying new things, or, like Bill, have someone who knows what they’re doing and follow their example.
Taking this train of thought a step further: because someone who is stupid probably cannot internally come to the conclusion that they are stupid, I should assume I’m stupid and thus seek people more intelligent than myself to learn from.
Things to do: keep an open mind, listen to those who have good results, don’t listen to those who don’t have good results, and find great mentors.