28 March 2008

Smart people

This week I attended no less than 5 lectures, each about different subjects. I didn't have class this week since my professor was out at a conference, so I needed to get my academic fix from other sources. My search was definitely not in vain. Here are some of the topics I heard about all within a 72 hour spread:
  • New church advertisement campaign
  • Emotional expression effects on children who witness IPV
  • Instructional design applications
  • Evolution of BYU's role in LDS higher education
  • Generating valuable discussion in interviews
I would have went to one on string theory too, but I slept in that day. Looking back I don't think it wasn't such a bad idea to skip that one after all, I think my head would have swollen to the size of a large watermelon trying to pack in another new concept, especially string theory. I mean seriously, 5 lectures almost put me into a knowledge induced coma. 6 lectures??!! Lets just not even go there.

All this exposure to so many new things made me come up with one core notion: there are alot of smart people out there!

And thank the heavens there are geniuses among us. Think about it, what would we have done if nobody ever invented being smart? I'll tell you: we'd all be idiots. Believe me when I tell you that we do not want to live in a world of idiots. Wasn't 7th grade as close as we ever need to get to that kind of nightmare?! Of course there's the argument that if we were all idiots then nobody would actually realize that he or anyone else was an idiot thereby eliminating any negative perception of our collective lower intelligence and blah blah blah ....yeah lets not get into the whole self-reference paradox thing. I think it's safe to say that the fact that there are geniuses living in the world at this very moment make our lives much better.

Here are just a few smart people from recent history that I think we should all pay a few moments of homage to for making this world a little better because they were smart:
Needless to say, we need more smart people to rise up and push the limits and make life better for the rest of us idiots. Thanks to all of you out there who are well on your way!

4 comments:

Kelly said...

Hi Brian. How is it going? Its the Kleinmans! Hey I need your email so I can send you an invite to our blog. Email me kellykleinman@msn.com Well talk to you later.

Pickett said...

Also, smart people tend to congregate to each other. I think this was a huge lesson of high school. There's only a certain kind of caliber of person that's going to take an AP class, especially if it has scary words next to it, like Physics or English Literature or Calculus. In college it's even better, because everyone has at least a modicum of intelligence to get a 27 on the ACT or whatever the bottom score is. But then, out of this group of smart college students, I've noticed that all of the kids that try to do well gravitate toward each other (unless I absolutely hate their guts for fronting--that's right, Michelle in my American West class) while the folk that try to maintain a C average have their own group. Sure it's more complicated than that, because things like personalities and roommates and such also play a factor, but the fact remains the same. And, from what I hear, grad school is even better because they only let the smartest and most ambitious of the smart people in there (or the most bored and aimless, but even they have to be pretty smart). And because I consider myself to be a smart person, I'll also throw this out: intelligence attracts intelligence. There's no way I can have a relationship with a stupid girl. Smart people need to find smart spouses, and if you want to marry someone with brains, make sure you got some yourself, honey.

Mr. Walker said...

word rayman, word.

bryan said...

heya. That lecture on string theory wasn't until eleven o'clock in the morning. You're sleep habits never cease to amaze me. By the way, I think that I've been getting dumber since the seventh grade =(