"The problem with educated idiots is often that they are not smart enough to know what they don't know. After all, they've been given a piece of paper that says they are an engineer, or an architect, or a doctor"
No, you have it completely all wrong. From personal experience - when I started both my Masters and PhD it quickly became apparent to me how little I knew. I would say the curs of knowing that you don't know it all falls heaviest on those that are more educated.
When I was a business consultant my main role was mapping organisational practices. This meant basically seanding time with employees at every level of the company and mapping what they did, talking to them about how they did their work and so forth. From my experience anyone who sees education as finishing when formal schooling ends is by far the greater idiot than the person who seeks life long learning and I feel insulted that anyone would try to argue otherwise.
All those folk you spoke about were educated people, whether they were engineers, mechanics or scientists. every single on of them discovered or created something by working hard through a process of discovery, not by mere chance or fluke which is what the idiot would do.
If you think higher education is about "pieces of paper" then I think you have it all around the wrong way. Maybe you think like that about your piece of paper but no one I know does. Not a single PhD student I have ever met cares about the piece of paper. In fact I don't even think my undergrad or masters certificates are even in the country I live in.
It't the true idiot that never thinks about themselves, or asks questions about the world, or seeks to improve their knowledge or skills every day, regardless of their professions. The true idiot is always happy to give their opinion, regardless of whether they know jack about the topic. Divorcing manual labourers or tradies from this equation is unfair. Just like some doctors/engineers/architects are perhaps more competent or creative than others, there are a whole load of really poor tradesman and so forth.
Working with your hands is not some mystic calling that grants wisdom or special knowledge. It's just a different way of interacting with knowledge. Before I was an academic, I was an interior decorator, A bus driver, a labourer, and semi professional footballer who at one stage contemplated becoming a professional fighter and an outdoor adventure guide and mountain guide.
I was definitely less wise than am now, and definitely more of an uneducated idiot.
I know you said you didn't want to denigrate researchers, but really, thats how it comes across. Getting my PhD was the hardest thing I have done. It takes more commitment than training for fights, driving a bus, or climbing mountains.
If every one stuck to having opinions about topic they actually know a lot about, then I think the world would be a much better place.
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