I was dumb enough to ask this question to LLM, and ofc I got bland answers like “You are probably not dumb, here’s ABC to improve oneself”…
So sad that I am too dumb to get a job or make friends. I ended up in grad school trying to get a doctorate, as I was so stupid that looking for a job sounded insurmountable. Now, LLM apocalypse is dawning upon us, which manufactures papers faster than we can even follow. Wonder if any of academia would even be left. Imagine my stupidity of not thinking ahead here.
So anyway, how do I cure my dumbness and actually function as a normal person?
Get some radish seeds and plant them in some soil.
LLMs generate papers because they steal real scientists papers that are close to getting published.
You should really, really consider not to use the LLMs that are known to do that. Ideally go full local, but it costs. Maybe coop with someone in locallama subs to use their compute idk.
how do I cure my dumbness and actually function as a normal person?
Reevaluate your base line.
Most “normal people” have issues you probably never even thought about because you just solve them. Their struggles and their life are defined by things you probably will find boring or trivial.
Besides, LLMs are supposed to be useful.
which manufactures papers faster than we can even follow.
Does that sound useful to you? It doesn’t to me. Find that difference between papers and application and somewhere in there will be your niche.
If you honestly think you’re dumb, get a full psychological evaluation (note: NOT a psychiatric evaluation—that’s something else entirely). This is an extensive series of yeasts that should take around 8 hours (often split over two days). That should settle the matter for you.
However, if you made it into a Ph.D. program, you almost certainly aren’t “dumb” in the sense that you have a below average IQ. While it is true that most of academic success is actually based on work (e.g. studying), IQ does place a limit on its ceiling.
I would suggest getting into therapy and only accepting therapists you deem to be smarter than yourself. Intelligence isn’t the most important characteristic in a therapist, but it matters. A good therapist will be able to help you tease out objective evaluations of your own intellect from insecurity-biased ones. A therapist with a solid background in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a plus in this case.
I ended up in grad school trying to get a doctorate, as I was so stupid that looking for a job sounded insurmountable. […] Wonder if any of academia would even be left. Imagine my stupidity of not thinking ahead here.
I don’t think you’re dumb at all, you’d have to jump some serious hurdles to get into a doctoral program[1].
I would suggest you seem to lack confidence though. That’s relatively easy to fix. A timely comment I came across on Hacker News today seems pertinent. One quote in particular sticks out, which I myself have experienced:
my life got immeasurably better when I stopped trying to prove myself to everyone.
LLMs are stochastic parrots, they can really only repeat previously acquired human knowledge and apply it in rudimentary ways. True outside-the-box thinkers will always be required. An LLM is, and always will be a tool.
So anyway, how do I cure my dumbness and actually function as a normal person?
The want and willingness to learn, and the right attitude or mindset: relentless curiosity. If you have a passion, follow it. Don’t get into a field just because there’s huge dollar signs at the end of it.
If it weren’t for curiosity in understanding how something worked by tearing it apart, seeing its insides, then putting it back together, I wouldn’t have the foggiest of clues how to build and fix computers today. Despite my academic qualifications[1] and long career in an unrelated field I’m opting to do some basic trade skills training in Electronics, because it helps satisfy my relentless curiosity, and because it might be useful one day.
Skills and learning things don’t necessarily have to be academic. There are people infinitely smarter than me in their own fields who don’t have any academic qualifications at all. Intelligence is relative to the field it is being applied to.
As for finding friends, if you have a hobby find a local club or maker-space or something like that and go along. Interact with people but don’t go with the singular explicit goal of ‘making friends’. Friendship will flourish as you get to know people naturally through a shared hobby or cause.
[1] for what its worth, I hold two distinct bachelors degrees (not a combined double degree) and am currently studying a masters degree.
Smart people know how little they actually know.
It’s the ultimate state of every expert:
Philosophers are people who know less and less about more and more, until they know nothing about everything. Scientists are people who know more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing.
Iirc, Descartes’ famous “cogito ergo sum” was the result of him realizing that nothing he knew carried a guarantee of truth, so discarding everything he had learnt throughout his life he set out to discover something universally true. And his famous quote was among the first such truths.
Read books.
Look around your house. Do you know how that thing works? Do you know how it was made? Do you know how it was invented? Do you know why someone wanted to make it? Research those things. Learn about it until you can explain it to someone else.
Don’t tie your self worth to a collapsing system.
Are you dumb, or are you just anxious and sheltered? Your sentence about grad school makes me think it’s the latter. There are a lot of people like you in the world of academia.
Be curious. Ask questions.
Critical: answer those questions from a reputable source. Not ai. Ask a librarian for a book that can answer it.This. Curiosity is a hallmark of it intelligence. Reading sci fi and fantasy is also a good indicator of how imaginative you are. Find your interests and read about then we much as possible. After that find conventions or clubs that match your interests and eventually you’ll find some good people to chat with.
highkey same, I feel so dumb dumb stupid boy all the time
I feel way dumber now than 8 years ago, I wonder if long covid just thanos snapped the good parts of my brain
You are not a piece of paper with a list of scores. It’s not as simple as I am good at # therefore should do ABC.
You are a human with 100000s of aspects that make you amazing. So you’re not a rocket scientist, you might not be Brad Pitt either, but you need to get up each day and say hey I’m alive and I’m actually fantastic.
Good luck. Keep smiling, step away from the dumb LLM. Pick up a book, grow a flower, cook the best cheese toastie.
Got a love a random Shania Twain’s quote
how do I cure my dumbness and actually function as a normal person?
Make mistakes. Learn from them. Big ones, small ones, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. What matters is that you learn.
The book ‘How to Read’ by Mortimer J. Adler is a good starting point. It also has book suggestions for various subjects you might be interested in. Do whatever you find most interesting, the rest will come as long as you try.
Don’t forget to pace yourself so you don’t burn out; Self-Care is very important to keep motivated and energized ❤️
I wish you well on your journey~
Get a library card. Find something you are interested in, and ask the librarian if they have any books. Read. Read more. Not AI generated shit, or crowdsourced noise. Read things that people took the time into words and get printed.
Then read some more.
One game-changing fact I learned is: “When you’re reading for fun, you don’t have to read an entire book from beginning to end.”
You can just go to a library, pick up a book and flip through it to see if there’s anything interesting, and if not just move on to another book. If you find something interesting you can start reading until it’s not interesting any more, then move on to the next book. Whatever you want.
