The Dumbest Things That Smart People Have Done

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mattstaff
Jul 17, 2021 1:00 PM EDT

Just because someone has the "book smarts" doesn't mean that they're not staggeringly clueless in other parts of life that require nothing more than some common sense. It can be beneficial for the world's brainiacs to have their egos put in check every now and again. Otherwise you run the risk of having to deal with some people that are sold on the naive idea that they know everything of importance in this world. That's just not an outlook that's good for anyone. 

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  • 01
    Font - momx3f • 13h My sister. My wonderful sister. So intelligent, educated... but dang. They had their house inspected and the inspector found an issue with their gas heat. Called in a repairman and it turns out the were having lower levels of carbon monoxide leaking into their home. When my mom asked her why she didn't have several working detectors she answered "well I did, but one just wouldn't quit beeping". This was 10 years ago and we still bring it up all the time. Thankfully everyone t
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  • 02
    Font - t-h-e-d-u-d-e• 13h 2 3 2 Awards My aunt. College professor. PhD in mathematics. Was blown away when watching my father cook rice without a rice cooker. 6 Reply 1 9.1k 3 ...
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  • 03
    Font - massi95 · 12h 3 9 Awards My friend has a master's degree in mechanical engineering and robotics. He once made a potato salad with raw potatoes because he thought, since it's a salad, you're not supposed to cook it. G Reply 1 13.1k 3 ...
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  • 04
    Font - dasUberSoldat · 13h 1 Award Easy. Dads an actuary. Basically a cross between a mathematician and an economist. Wrote a text book for his field, and has been CEO of several very large companies. I came home many years ago to hear Age of Empires blaring at a million dB. Thats odd. I wander downstairs to find him playing the game, with headphones on... but unplugged. He had the sound turned up on the speakers because he couldn't hear it over the dampening of the headphones. To top it off, he
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  • 05
    Font - Jmiller13202 • 13h 5 Awards I have a neighbor, he is by far the smartest person I know. A couple fourth of July's ago he got a quarter stick of dynamite, and strapped it to an rc boat with a detonate button and a timer. He sent it out on the lake at night, flipped the switch and it didn't go off. So he took it back into the house to fix it, but never turned the detonate button off. So when it was fixed the 7 second timer started going. It ended up going off in the house and blowing out al
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  • 06
    Font - PrestigiousMonk8825 · 14h 1 Award My buddy who is now a brilliant emergency medicine doctor at one point while sledding bet he could jump off his moving sled, over a flat bench, and land on the sled. While moving, he realized he couldn't position to jump and crashed ribcage into the bench. Dumbest genius I have ever met... G Reply 4 13.7k 3
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  • 07
    Font - misspoopyloopy · 13h 1 Award My dad, Tafe professor. Got his mortgage down to $20,000 and had the opportunity to pay it all. Redrew and bought a brand new car. Totalled car. Bought another brand new car. Gave it to girlfriend at the time. Girlfriend left and kept car. Currently owes $250,000 on his same mortgage. G Reply 4 16.5k 3 ...
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  • 08
    Handwriting - Comprehensive_Crab79 · 9h My brother was in uni in the UK And needed a toaster. He ordered on off of Amazon for £3 and was surprised to find one so cheap. Turns out it was a kids toy, it came with plastic pieces of bread as well. O 6 Reply 4 593 3
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  • 09
    Rectangle - PeppermintFart · 13h S 2 Awards They used their bare hand to check if the stove was still hot by pressing it directly on the burner, and they had two doctorates. G Reply 4 1.4k 3 ...
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  • 10
    Rectangle - Azryhael · 14h 1 Award My husband. He's a mathematician for the Feds, but he has repeatedly gotten us to the wrong airport in cities that have more than one. Like at least three times. He's brilliant, but a moron. O G Reply ↑ 6.2k 3 ...
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  • 11
    Font - El_Dentistador • 14h 7 Awards I was picking up my date (future wife) when her valedictorian roommate turned quickly away from the TV and said in all seriousness "don't look, they're welding! It will damage your eyes". She got more serious as I continued to look back and forth at the tv and her. She actually yelled "it's going to blind you!" I then asked her "So when your tv is showing an image of the sun...". That's as far as I got. You could see the wave of embarrassment wash over her fa
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  • 12
    Rectangle - JohnWarosa69420 · 17h Tried jumping over a pallet of boxes with their arms tied behind their back. Split lip open. O G Reply 4 8.7k 3 ...
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  • 13
    Font - katierose0324 • 13h 13 Awards My dad is the smartest person I (and anyone who knows him) know and once when we were kids he tried to make us laugh by sticking peas in his nostrils and ended up accidentally snorting them up into his nasal passages. Best part: he's an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. One of the best in the region hear him pleading with my mother to take them out because he couldn't face his colleagues with peas up his nose that he voluntarily put there. I can still G Reply 4
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  • 14
    Font - circus-witch • 15h 3 Awards I don't know if he's necessarily the smartest person I know but I know a pretty smart astrophysicist who pointed out a 'star' to us which was in fact a plane. G Reply 1 19.3k 3 ...
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  • 15
    Rectangle - AlwaysInTheFlowers · 16h No joke, poured gasoline on a campfire. G Reply 4 2.5k lord-stryker117 OP · 16h A guy I know tried to start a wood fire heater using cooking oil. Safer but still stupid 997 3 ...
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  • 16
    Font - whydidyadothat · 14h 3 Awards Brother in law is a pretty clever guy. Ran a bath for his kid, couldn't get the tap to turn off, mad panic, rang a plumber friend asking him to come round quick or the house is gonna flood. Friend was like, you could just pull the plug? Real nice, real clever guy. Zero common sense 5 Reply 4 21.5k 3 ...
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  • 17
    Rectangle - cootbaybee · 15h My older brother was the highschool validictorian and decided to cut an apple with a large knife while holding it in his hand. He has a lovely scar from it. G Reply 5.2k 3 ...
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  • 18
    Font - needsomevitaminstbh · 16h 6 Awards My brother has PhDs in bioengineering. We were on a call one day and he was saying "i can't find my phone. Probably my kids took it." Didn't realize until i told him that he was using his phone to talk to me. G Reply 4 15.2k 3 ...
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  • 19
    Rectangle - sizzlingmaniac69 • 13h 2@ 79 Awards while applying for a job, he thought "sick pay" meant that the job paid really well G Reply 4 50k
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  • 20
    Font - Klotzster • 16h 2 Awards I lived in Colorado Springs. My friend came into town and was booked into a hotel. I called and asked for the name or address of the hotel and he told me he did not know, but he could see the mountains from where he was. He narrowed his location down to a time zone. G Reply 21.8k 3 ..
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