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The Second Kind Of Mistake
The Curious Case of Human Stupidity
There are two kinds of mistakes in life. The first happens because we don’t know any better. The second happens because we do.
The first is called ignorance. It’s almost unavoidable. Children, students, the unlearned, and every beginner live there. Thankfully, ignorance is curable. We learn. We grow. We gain experience.
The second kind of mistake is harder to explain. It’s the moment we know exactly what the right choice is, yet we choose something else anyway. That isn’t ignorance. It’s stupidity. And sometimes I wonder if it’s curable at all.
Ignorance Is Curable
Over the years, I’ve learned that stupidity and ignorance are not the same thing, even though we often use the words as if they were interchangeable. Ignorance is innocent. Stupidity is a choice.
And rarely do either have anything to do with intelligence. That’s the puzzle I’ve been trying to understand. I’ve spent a good portion of my life teaching college students. I also spent a good portion of my life doing spectacularly stupid things.
When I walked into my anatomy and physiology classroom each semester, I never expected my students to know everything. That was the whole point of taking the class. They were…
