Chapter Content
Okay, so, like, let's talk about gatekeeping and why it's kinda messed up these days. I mean, we live in a world where design, right? Like, it tells us we can understand how everything works, you know, by diving deep into the inner workings. And we're told that to be "smart" is to have all this detailed knowledge, and that if we understand the parts, we can control the whole thing.
So, the idea is that if you know all the nitty-gritty details, you're an expert. Like, a doctor knows the human body inside and out, an MRI tech knows every bolt in the machine, right? But, what happens when knowing all that inner stuff, it doesn't actually matter anymore? What if, like, things are so complex now that the guts of the system don't even tell you how it works? What does that mean for how we judge people and decide who's "good" at something?
The truth is, a doctor doesn't need to know every single detail about the human body to be a good doctor. Really good doctors, they, like, *intuit* connections, you know? They see patterns, they connect symptoms to lifestyle, and they actually, like, *relate* to their patients. And an MRI tech? They just need to know how to operate the machine and get good scans. It's all about the interfaces, the high-level stuff. It's not about knowing the internals, really.
So, these "hard skills" we're always talking about, they're based on this idea that knowing the details is what matters. But in a complex world, that's just not true anymore. Like, knowing how a tool works doesn't make you better at using it or creating the next awesome thing.
But here's the problem: all these gatekeepers, the people who decide who gets opportunities, they're still obsessed with "hard skills." You gotta go through this whole education system that rewards knowing all the little details. And it's not just STEM, you know? It's art, it's social sciences, everything. The idea is that you can pick it apart, find the root causes, and, like, *that's* how you become a professional.
So, we're rewarding the wrong skills, and it's messing up everything. It's creating this glut of people with outdated knowledge. We need to, like, totally rethink how we value skills and put a spotlight on the things we've always been good at, like working together and building complex stuff. We gotta ditch the idea of "root causes" and start understanding how complexity actually works.
And then there's this whole nerd thing, right? Like, society *loves* nerds. They're supposed to be the smart ones who build all our cool inventions. And, yeah, in the past, when things were simpler, that was kinda true. But now? Detailed knowledge can actually hold you back. We're not just building simple bridges anymore, we're engineering, like, *emergence*. We need people who can create the way nature creates, you know?
So, it's not just about being socially awkward. This nerd worship is actually harmful because it puts the wrong people in power. Like, you see CEOs of tech companies who are all nerdy, because they rose through the ranks with their engineering skills. But they're focused on isolated facts, not the big picture. In a complex world, that's a disaster. We need people who can see the forest for the trees, basically.
And then, oh man, let's talk about IQ. People think high IQ means you're smart. But really, it just means you scored well on some standardized test. And those tests? They're based on this bell curve idea, and the brain? Oh man, the brain is *not* a bell curve. It's the most complex thing we know! It's all about emergence, and it doesn't fit into some neat little average.
High IQ can even be a disadvantage. We didn't evolve to think slowly and analytically. Real-world problems can't be solved that way. People with high IQ are good at solving, like, gamified versions of life, you know, these narrowly defined problems.
We need everyone, the whole range of abilities. Nature keeps the whole distribution around for a reason, it's for survival, you know? Nature selects at the group level. So, the idea that some tiny slice of the population is "smart" is just, like, totally wrong. Nature uses everyone to solve problems.
So, look, it's fine to be a nerd. But this "nerdism" idea, that only nerds are smart? It's super harmful. It's like we're taking this tiny slice of nature's problem-solving abilities and saying, "Okay, you're the only ones who matter." It's like creating, you know, those bulldogs with flat faces who can't breathe. We're focusing on specific traits and messing up the whole system. We need to appreciate how nature always uses the group.
And finally, this whole picking and choosing thing, right? It comes from choosing design over discovery. Academics, they pick the best parts of a topic and present those to students, leaving out all the context. It's like these utopian ideas that only focus on the pleasant parts of society, without realizing that the nice parts are only possible because of the messy parts.
Like, think about lifting weights, right? It's good to exercise, but people start focusing on individual muscle groups. You get a "leg day" and an "arms day." But then your body becomes this collection of isolated muscles. A bodybuilder can actually be less capable than someone who's naturally fit, like a farm boy. The bodybuilder's body is great for the weight room, but not so much in the real world.
Again, it's group selection, people! Nature uses the whole distribution. A healthy body has strong muscles, but they're distributed. They're not all huge and isolated.
Like, a weightlifter optimizing isolated muscle groups is like thinking only the peak of a distribution matters. There are all these other hidden things that make a strong body *truly* strong.
It's a well known thing, that bodybuilders look stronger than they are. If you get a farm boy to challenge one to a contest, the farm boy will usually win. What actually works to solve problems, is the full distribution, not just isolated and enhanced pieces. Complexity is comprehensive and all-encompassing, you know?