Learning
What to Do if You Start Thinking You’re Stupid
If you’ve wound up on this page reading this article, chances are that at some point you’ve felt stupid. Some people worry about it far more than others. However even those who appear confident and successful on the outside will also have moments when they feel stupid or thinking stupid.
You may be familiar with one of these situations:
- You are sitting in a company and suddenly people begin to discuss a topic in which you do not understand anything. It doesn’t matter what it is: nuclear physics, the politics of Europe, or the influence of memes on modern culture.
- You have found a job in a dream company. But you read the description and decide not to send a resume. The list of responsibilities is quite long, and you think that you will not be able to cope: “There are still many candidates better than me.”
- You want to address one of the paytowriteessays services because you don’t have the time or the possibility to cope with assignments but think that only stupid students do so.
Often such thoughts interfere with life. But stupidity is a relative concept and depends on what exactly you put into it. For example, is the lack of erudition in some areas a distinctive feature of being stupid? No, you’re just not good at one topic but you can be brilliant at another. Therefore, if you consider yourself stupid, there are more questions for self-esteem than for intelligence.
There can be several reasons for the idea of one’s own stupidity.
Children’s Experience
What significant adults say and broadcast, the child takes for the pure truth. If their parents tell that they are stupid because smart children only get A’s, or refuse to listen because the child is “talking nonsense,” it is not surprising that even as one grows older, they will consider themselves not smart enough.
Adult Experience
Many attitudes are formed in childhood but this does not mean that an adult is not subject to them. For example, the classic tactic of an abuser is to convince the victim that they are stupid, untalented, and not capable of anything. Naturally, this is a radical example. Less systemic and painful things can also leave their mark. For example, the boss scolded you in front of everyone, and now you doubt your own abilities.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
This is a cognitive distortion, which consists of the following: the less competent a person is, the more inclined they are to exaggerate their skills. And vice versa: the more a person knows, the more modestly they evaluate their experience. In other words, it is not common for stupid people to doubt their intelligence, this is just a feature of those who are smarter.
How to Stop Thinking You’re Stupid
Here are some helpful tips for you.
- Analyze data: Try to find evidence that you are stupid and refutation of it. Psychologists advise avoiding the phrases like “I think” and “I believe”. You need facts.
- Find an alternative explanation: Chances are, the situation isn’t worth branding yourself as a fool at all. There is probably another interpretation.
- Form a new belief: Let’s say you really don’t see the difference between Manet and Monet. You can consider yourself stupid. But you can remember that you are just a person who cannot know everything.
Approach the problem constructively. Self-flagellation has no prospects. But if you move from thinking “I’m stupid” to finding gaps in your knowledge and filling them, it can help you, for example, in your career. The main thing is to remember about the Dunning-Kruger effect: the more you know, the clearer you see how little you really know.
