Stupid people amaze me

Always wondered what it's like to live for stupid people

Recent example,

1) I was helping an older guy logging into a network with his smartphone, he has the codes and stuff and keeps typing them in and it doesn't work. He asks me how to make it work.

2) I tell him "you need to use a browser or it doesn't work"

3) He ignores, just keeps doing his thing (tapping confusedly in his phone) for a while

4) After a while I go (discretely) YOU NEED TO USE A BROWSER!!! ARE YOU USING A BROWSER!! BECAUSE YOU NEED TO USE ONE! IF YOU ARE NOT USING ONE; YOU SHOULD BE USING ONE!

5) He then says he doesn't know that a browser is, I help him locate one in his smartphone and he's online.

What I really don't get is his step 3, why he asks for help and then ignores the help given.

I guess he gets confused with words he doesn't know what is, so his minds sort of shuts down because is gets overloaded? And then you need to shock it back to reality sorta.

This i weird for me. If I am trying to start a spaceship and the alien tells me "you need to use a ZGLORB-45"' I'd not just go blank because I have no idea what a ZGLORB-45, I'd ask the alien what a ZGLORB-45 is, since it seems I need one and he knows what it is plus might help me get one. The way to seems to be to start up some communication about the ZGLORB-45.

I just don't get so many people don't just do it that way.

Maybe you can really blow people's minds using words they don't know what is? Like it's scary for them or something?

With the caveat that not knowing computing technology does not mean a person is stupid, I suspect what is happening in those situations (which I’ve seen too) is a variation on learned helplessness, a psychological phenomenon where a creature that discovers itself unable to avoid a painful stimulus basically shuts down and stops trying. Such people may have experienced poor teachers who threw a bunch of jargon at them, perhaps with a dash of arrogance, or they dislike computers and consider them something of a waste of time, but everyone is using them and so they half go along but lack the patience to really learn it. In any case, the asking and then basically ignoring it while doing something ineffective is more or less the equivalent of banging on the computer hoping it will fix it, while also giving a nonverbal response to the nearby technical person saying, essentially, “To heck with this crap.”

@shymax

Learned helplessness? This sounds interesting.

It means it is more like an emotional hostility to the whole thing rather than lack or brain power?

TBH, you could also call that stupid. Letting your emotions block very accessible info that you very much want isn't so smart.

Something like that, somewhere between disinterest and impatience and a little resentment of having to learn something that, to the person, seems kind of trivial and a waste of time, and will probably change in 15 minutes anyway. Just the other day I was helping someone who was doing things similar to what you describe, just kind of banging away, frustrated and not really listening. He’s a bright retired engineer who worked in an industrial setting and could no doubt run circles around me on a CAD program and who works on classic cars as a hobby. I’m sure he could tell me every detail of engines and suspensions and transmissions. I am sure he is full of patience when he’s tinkering out in the garage. There’s no lack of intelligence there. Smart phones and computers just aren’t his thing. And to be honest, if I had to spend a lot of time in the garage, I might be the same way. Different strokes and all that.

You're showing more about yourself with those pompous statements. That and your lack of ability to teach. Not being able to properly explain and show someone something in a way that they can understand it is not something to be proud of nor a measure of intelligence on the other person's part.

Unless you're happy living life self-enamoured with yourself I'd recommend thinking of things in a larger perspective than the immediate instance in front of you.

There is Nothing called " Absolute Stupid " or " Absolute Genius " . :P

I says this to my children :

If you say someone is stupid, then YOU are the one who does not understand !