Dumb

In a $100 SnG that I recently played, the following hand occurred: At Level 3, 25/50, I open-raised 4x in MP with AhQh. The button and BB called. I bet half the pot on a Qs 8h 2h flop and the button called. I bet the pot on the 3c turn and the button called. I pushed all-in on the 9c river and the button called, showing 9d2c and busting me in 8th.

Besides being set on a Tilt Machine of epic proportions, the beat sent me into a deep philosophical fugue. It produced a question, one to which I needed to find the answer.

How can people be so stupid?

Well people, I'm happy to note, and to share with you, the reasons why Fish exist. And why they will continue to exist.

Behold Scientific Evidence: Unskilled and Unaware: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.

That's rich.

I used to spend a lot of time on baseball message boards, before I got bogged down with the illogical nature of it all. Once, when arguing with a particularly deficient individual (and yes, I recognize arguing on a baseball message board doesn't exactly paint me in any kind of Aristotlian light), I said, "One of the biggest problems with stupid people is that they don't know they're stupid."

It seems I have been proven correct. Take that DM1967!