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This is the reason every table top RPG since the 1980s has had intelligence and wisdom labled as different stats.
I would say that those are separate qualities: if someone had their memory erased, they could lose their knowledge and understanding without losing their intelligence or wisdom. (Intelligence isn’t unrelated, though—it’s what produces understanding from knowledge.)
Intelligence is a skill, it's both inate, and learnable and trainable. I'm pretty sure that that skill would last after memory loss.
However wisdom comes from experience and knowledge. Without the memory of such things you're wisdom would suffer tremendous.
Most people I know were 'educated' using multiple choice testing.
Great for people who can memorize things, but really doesn't require you to figure out how things work.
I was once studying with a fellow who is highly intelligent. We were quizzing each other on anatomy. All his questions were straight out of the book.
I asked him a question, "name five organs that are parts of two or more body systems."
Because that wasn't specifically mentioned in the book he was thrown.
multiple choice and contents/questions straight out of the book is pretty bad practise by the teacher. at least thats what i learned in swiss teachers training
USA here [surprise, surprise, surprise!]
From 6th grade to High School, my state had standardized tests for most courses. If you're going to test literally millions of kids it's hard to do it without standardization.
On the other hand, that started bleeding into the other courses. Overworked teachers like these tests because they are easy to grade.
When you understand something, you can deduce related information without having memorized it—so understanding increases your total capacity for knowledge. It’s like a knowledge compression algorithm.
Problem is that my brain uses lossy compression instead of lossless
That’s what gives us “educated guesses”.
Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
I know.
Damn internet. I know it's always the obvious jokes that get posted, but I thought I'd get away with being the first one in on this one. lol
I do it all the time
Are you talking about the Dunning Kruger effect?
I catch myself "parroting" sometimes when I talk. Where there is some fundamental gap in knowledge on some "best practice" I've learned.
Building things I've had the same experience too
I mean it gets you pretty dang far though
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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