The Ingenuity Hole

[valacosa]

Often I'm too smart for my own good. That is, I'm smart to the point where bad things happen to me. But the thing I find fascinating is the particular flavour of my "smart" is such that if I were smarter, or if I were dumber, I would avoid the problems I tend to have

Comments

[lmdemasi]

I remember in grade 9 science class doing the demonstration where they show you that heat causes expansion in a solid. First the teacher passed a ball through a ring. Then, she heated the ball and it would not fit. Next she asked what would happen when she heated the ring? Everybody except me said it would pass through. Why did I get it wrong? I thought that maybe when the ring expanded, some of it would expand into the hole in the ring.

[newinmyhometown]

When I read your example that's what I thought as well. It didn't occur to me that the ring could expand only outwards.

[valacosa]

That's a fantastic example. Thanks!

[lmdemasi]

Also, I forgot to mention this in my last post.

[timmyson]

I too have examples of this, but I have always thought of this in terms of the aphorism, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". I think I may have written a blog post about it at some point.

I was dealing in subtleties which an instructor was overlooking for pedagogical purposes since at least Grade 1. I don't think there is such a person who is smart enough to always be the Smarter Davenport. I think you're always going to be spending some time on either side of that line (and maybe a little time in Dumb Davenport, I remember once when you regaled Kelly and me with stories of your drunken cloaking device).