How to Think Like a Genius 67-Regular
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Rick Rosner)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/11/08
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Like astrologers and dowsers, they get big followings and accomplish a lot in their lives for instance. That’d be a form of genius.
Rick Rosner: I don’t now that astrologers are considered geniuses.
Jacobsen: Oh, no, in terms of productivity, they could either be frauds or self-delusional, but could have a mass following and achieved a lot. I’m not saying it’s good. (Laughs) I’m saying it’s terrible. What things should people bear in mind, even common things, like statistical and numerical literacy?
Rosner: Numerical literacy, it is just being able to do math. There’s a numerical literacy. You want to have a numerical understanding of the world in certain areas, with regard to risk, for instance. People are afraid of stuff, are disproportionately afraid of statistically unlikely things because those are the things that end up on the news and the TV shows like terrorist attacks — even though there’s crime, crime rates are pretty low. One of the things that doesn’t get reported on the news is car wrecks, where even if you’re not hurt in a car wreck. Cars are pretty much safer than ever, but having been in some car wrecks. Cars are no longer made to a standard to withstand even the tiniest contact with anything else. Bumpers get messed up. To some extent, it is a safety thing. A bumper that is completely destroyed in a serious wreck, but absorbs enough energy it is to say it is a good bumper. But it’s to say it is a bad bumper too because it costs $600.
My wife drives a Toyota Camry and the bumper is crap. It doesn’t withstand anything. It is like a cement parking block because the little plastic rivets tear away under just a few pounds of pressure.
Numerical literacy might be driving as little as possible without being ridiculous about it, and when driving as if mistakes are expensive because they are. There was a wreck where I tapped another guys bumper, even though there was zero damage luckily. He found a shyster lawyer. There’s a claim that the guy might have soft tissue damage, which is probably garbage, and the insurance companies pay out a certain amount of money because it is difficult in America. If you look at a bogus whiplash charge, and that will cause your insurance rates to go up, it will cost one thousand dollars. If people understood this, they might drive — where a single little mistake, not a crazy drunk and reckless driving mistake — having a reasonable idea of risk is part of not necessarily being a genius, but of being a regular person.
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