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Is this smart or stupid?

Are you smart if you achieve something that is dumb & stupid with clever & smart meth

  • Total voters
    7
Maximus Zeebra

Maximus Zeebra

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Are you smart or dumb if you achieve something that is dumb & stupid with clever & smart methods?
Lets say the "goal" is something completely stupid that only a moron would think about, but the "methods" for achieving it is enormously clever and smart..
Is the person then dumb for failing to realize that the result is dumb or is he smart for actually achieving it in a smart and clever way?


ONLY two options.Feel free to debate it as much as you want tho, but don't complain about the options, choose one of them.

1. The main question is "Are you smart or stupid if you achieve something that is dumb & stupid with clever & smart methods".
2. To make this a meaningful question you have to think of the "goal/achievement" as DEFINITELY stupid, to do this you can associate it with an experience or something you find stupid.
3. You have to imagine a situation where the "final goal/achievement" is DEFINITELY stupid, but where the methods of achieving that goal is DEFINITELY smart and clever.
4. You have to not think of an actual scenario, but a hypothetical scenario where 1&2&3 are definite factors, but where an "association" is optional to grasp the question asked in 1.
5. You have to remember that the question doesn't refer to any specific case or actual scenario, but that it refers to a hypothetical and philosophical question.
6. Then you can go ahead and answer the question.
 
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Maximus Zeebra said:
Are you smart or dumb if you achieve something that is dumb & stupid with clever & smart methods?
Lets say the "goal" is something completely stupid that only a moron would think about, but the "methods" for achieving it is enormously clever and smart..
Is the person then dumb for failing to realize that the result is dumb or is he smart for actually achieving it in a smart and clever way?
ONLY two options.Feel free to debate it as much as you want tho, but don't complain about the options, choose one of them.
Click to expand...

I think dumb is dumb no matter how it is achieved, but if something is dumb there probably isn't a clever way to achieve it. Also, who would want to judge the cleverness, not me.
 
To answer the the title question....the latter.:2razz:
 
Smart. Everyone does stupid things, only a smart person can come up with something so profoundly intelligent to make doing stupid things easier.

For example, the wright brothers were doing something incredibly stupid by taking to the air for the first time with a mechanical device. The odds of dying were astronomical. Hundreds of people died attempting this ludicrous dangerous and incredibly stupid thing before them.

Success = Genius.
 
Tucker Case said:
Smart. Everyone does stupid things, only a smart person can come up with something so profoundly intelligent to make doing stupid things easier.

For example, the wright brothers were doing something incredibly stupid by taking to the air for the first time with a mechanical device. The odds of dying were astronomical. Hundreds of people died attempting this ludicrous dangerous and incredibly stupid thing before them.

Success = Genius.
Click to expand...

Results are the final judge. I agree.
 
Tucker Case said:
Smart. Everyone does stupid things, only a smart person can come up with something so profoundly intelligent to make doing stupid things easier.

For example, the wright brothers were doing something incredibly stupid by taking to the air for the first time with a mechanical device. The odds of dying were astronomical. Hundreds of people died attempting this ludicrous dangerous and incredibly stupid thing before them.

Success = Genius.
Click to expand...

I don't agree.. The thought of flying was SMART(everyone at the time could imagine the enormous advantages it would have for the human race) which was why so many people was trying to fly.
The thought of creating a nuclear Bomb for example was stupid but it took geniuses to actually do it.
 
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Maximus Zeebra said:
I don't agree.. The thought of flying was SMART(everyone at the time could imagine the enormous advantages it would have for the human race) which was why so many people was trying to fly.
The thought of creating a nuclear Bomb for example was stupid but it took geniuses to actually do it.
Click to expand...

Considering the threat at the time the A-bomb was put together it was a necessary evil.
 
winston53660 said:
Considering the threat at the time the A-bomb was put together it was a necessary evil.
Click to expand...

Sure it was, but the thought of putting together bomb that could blow up the whole world just to stop a war that was already about to be stopped was pretty damn stupid. Creating a bomb that can blow up and ruin the earth and its inhabitants at all is just a dumb idea, and putting this technology in the hands of the future and potential future Hitlers was just a dumb gamble.
 
Maximus Zeebra said:
Sure it was, but the thought of putting together bomb that could blow up the whole world just to stop a war that was already about to be stopped was pretty damn stupid. Creating a bomb that can blow up and ruin the earth and its inhabitants at all is just a dumb idea, and putting this technology in the hands of the future and potential future Hitlers was just a dumb gamble.
Click to expand...

Would you rather someone else have that technology first? Someone would have invented it.
 
Tucker Case said:
Smart. Everyone does stupid things, only a smart person can come up with something so profoundly intelligent to make doing stupid things easier.

For example, the wright brothers were doing something incredibly stupid by taking to the air for the first time with a mechanical device.They were not the first; many others flew, but using a glider. The brothers simply added the engine.. The odds of dying were astronomical.No, not true, they , and others, had many accidents which did not kill them. Hundreds of people died attempting this ludicrous dangerous and incredibly stupid thing before them.

Success = Genius.
Click to expand...
Todays man seems to be living in so much fear, that if they were prevalent 100 years ago, we would have no air travel....

Not a good example, and I do not buy into this "dumb' and "stupid" terminology.
I, for one, can dream up many things, but with added thought, most are poor ideas, but some are good, IMO...and of those, someone smarter or more ambitious has patented or discarded...
 
independent_thinker2002 said:
Would you rather someone else have that technology first? Someone would have invented it.
Click to expand...

If the nuclear bomb was not invented during and as a result of the second world war, and lets say the US stopped Japan militarily instead with the help of others. Then why would the nuclear bomb have been developed by someone else when they wouldnt have known the theory behind it nor have the need for something like it?
 
Maximus Zeebra said:
If the nuclear bomb was not invented during and as a result of the second world war, and lets say the US stopped Japan militarily instead with the help of others. Then why would the nuclear bomb have been developed by someone else when they wouldnt have known the theory behind it nor have the need for something like it?
Click to expand...

Hitler was also working on the bomb.
 
Maximus Zeebra said:
If the nuclear bomb was not invented during and as a result of the second world war, and lets say the US stopped Japan militarily instead with the help of others. Then why would the nuclear bomb have been developed by someone else when they wouldnt have known the theory behind it nor have the need for something like it?
Click to expand...

Scientists are curious folks. They were studying the atom already. They would have known the awesome power and put 2 and 2 together. We also have nuclear energy. There was a need for that.

And who can quantify how many lives have been spared by MAD?
 
independent_thinker2002 said:
Scientists are curious folks. They were studying the atom already. They would have known the awesome power and put 2 and 2 together. We also have nuclear energy. There was a need for that.

And who can quantify how many lives have been spared by MAD?
Click to expand...

True.. But in the end the atom BOMB is a pretty stupid invention, especially knowing it could one day put an end to human life.
The ability to fly however was a smart idea.. I am just trying to separate smart and dumb ideas that came though due to clever methods, as an example. Its easy to misunderstand the intention of the poll.

I can use the Iraq war as another example. The cunning and clever methods of fooling the people into such a stupid idea. Thats in the end just dumb, even though the methodology of achieving this dumb goal was smart.
 
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Maximus Zeebra said:
True.. But in the end the atom BOMB is a pretty stupid invention, especially knowing it could one day put an end to human life.
The ability to fly however was a smart idea.. I am just trying to separate smart and dumb ideas that came though due to clever methods, as an example. Its easy to misunderstand the intention of the poll.
Click to expand...

particularly since no intention was stated in the OP?

the atom bomb may seem stupid to you, but "putting an end to human life" isn't necessarily a qualifier. the atom bomb saved lives when it was used instead of soldiers to end the war in japan, for example. inventing a bomb is therefore a very clever defensive/tactical move. whether you object to it on moral grounds has little to do with the "stupidity" of it.

by making "smart" (flying) and "stupid" (killing) entirely dependent on your personal opinion, you are making it difficult to debate, to say the least.
 
If you knows that what you are doing is dump, then you are smart ...
 
emdash said:
by making "smart" (flying) and "stupid" (killing) entirely dependent on your personal opinion, you are making it difficult to debate, to say the least.
Click to expand...

That just tells a lot more about you. Killing AINT smart. Geez. Arent you typical American or what?
ITS NOT MY ****ING PERSONAL OPINION THAT KILLING IS STUPID, MOST NORMAL PEOPLE THINK SO.. Wow.. Now my anger is just boiling over at you.. I am just going to refrain from answering your next post out of fear that I will get banned when I really take of my gloves and tell you what I think of you, your last post and probably that next post. :caution:
 
Maximus Zeebra said:
Are you smart or dumb if you achieve something that is dumb & stupid with clever & smart methods?
Lets say the "goal" is something completely stupid that only a moron would think about, but the "methods" for achieving it is enormously clever and smart..
Is the person then dumb for failing to realize that the result is dumb or is he smart for actually achieving it in a smart and clever way?


ONLY two options.Feel free to debate it as much as you want tho, but don't complain about the options, choose one of them.
Click to expand...

If it's stupid, but it works, it wasn't stupid.
 
Jerry said:
If it's stupid, but it works, it wasn't stupid.
Click to expand...

Many things that work are still stupid. A lot of things can be MUCH better, but if we are satisfied with stupid things that work then we will never get anywhere.
 
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Maximus Zeebra said:
That just tells a lot more about you. Killing AINT smart. Geez. Arent you typical American or what?
Click to expand...

it's smart to kill someone who's trying to kill you. it's smart to kill someone who's a danger to society. it's smart to kill an animal before you eat it. it's smart to kill fleas, roaches, rabid dogs, certain bacteria, babies you don't want, agricultural pests...need I go on? my point was that "killing" in general is not automatically a bad thing, and in certain cases it could even be considered a more worthwhile investment than say, flight.

Maximus Zeebra said:
ITS NOT MY ****ING PERSONAL OPINION THAT KILLING IS STUPID, MOST NORMAL PEOPLE THINK SO.. Wow..
Click to expand...

sometimes. let's not overgeneralize.

Maximus Zeebra said:
Now my anger is just boiling over at you.. I am just going to refrain from answering your next post out of fear that I will get banned when I really take of my gloves and tell you what I think of you, your last post and probably that next post. :caution:
Click to expand...

oh please. all I said was that you can't ask people for their opinion on "smart" and "stupid" and then go on to insist that the words be defined by your personal moral beliefs. those words are subjective; to tell someone that weapons are dumb and trying to fly is smart is your opinion--and, imho--quite debatable.
 
Maximus Zeebra said:
Many things that work are still stupid. A lot of things can be MUCH better, but if we are satisfied with stupid things that work then we will never get anywhere.
Click to expand...

Oh, like this thread, I gotcha.

What are we talking about anyway?
 
Maximus Zeebra said:
Many things that work are still stupid. A lot of things can be MUCH better, but if we are satisfied with stupid things that work then we will never get anywhere.
Click to expand...

Jerry said:
Oh, like this thread, I gotcha.

What are we talking about anyway?
Click to expand...

Thanks for bringing this thread to a whole new level of intelligent debate. Thanks for your post bashing. Please don't sink to the level of personal attacks..

If you don't understand the thread, then why are you here at all?:doh


Ps. People like you with silly comments angers me.. Thanks a LOT.
 
emdash said:
it's smart to kill someone who's trying to kill you. it's smart to kill someone who's a danger to society. it's smart to kill an animal before you eat it. it's smart to kill fleas, roaches, rabid dogs, certain bacteria, babies you don't want, agricultural pests...need I go on? my point was that "killing" in general is not automatically a bad thing, and in certain cases it could even be considered a more worthwhile investment than say, flight.
Click to expand...

Wow.. Now I just want to ignore you. I am not even going to mention that I think you are a terrible human being for saying these things. Why not be smart and avoid situations where you need to kill someone who is trying to kill you.. Wouldn't that be smarter?


emdash said:
oh please. all I said was that you can't ask people for their opinion on "smart" and "stupid" and then go on to insist that the words be defined by your personal moral beliefs. those words are subjective; to tell someone that weapons are dumb and trying to fly is smart is your opinion--and, imho--quite debatable.
Click to expand...

So you are one of those who can never see the context in favor of petty argumentation and debate. This thread wasn't about my personal moral..

-I never said weapons are dumb
-I never asked for opinion about smart and stupid
-Smart+flying is my opinion yes, you are right about 1 thing at last.


PS. Actually read the thread next time before you answer it.
 
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