When you realize that 99% of the people in this society are very stupid, your life will be completely overturned.
Shen Translation is a translation team under 36Kr, focusing on technology, business, workplace, life and other fields, with a focus on introducing new technologies, new perspectives and new trends from abroad.
Editor's Note: When 99% of people outsource their brains to algorithms and AI, the so-called fierce competition is nothing but an illusion. As long as you refuse to follow the crowd, there is actually no one in front of you. This article is translated from foreign content.
This title may sound extremely rude and presumptuous, like a rant from an arrogant person.
I am fully prepared for the backlash. Abuses like "You bastard who talks without knowing the hardship" or "Do you really think you are that great?" are bound to come one after another. But as always, those shallow-thinking people don't need me to do anything, they will trip over themselves and dig their own graves.
Behind the controversial appearance of the title lies a far more profound insight that will completely reshape your perception of the game of life. As long as it can help you understand this point, I don't care even if I risk being seen as an asshole, because it will do you a world of good.
Let's get down to business.
Irrefutable Statistics
Let's start with IQ.
IQ is set with a precise baseline average of 100, and about 68% of people have an IQ between 85 and 115. Therefore, measured only from the IQ dimension, 99% of people are obviously not stupid. However, IQ has never been an effective measure of stupidity.
An average person may have a completely normal IQ, but what really makes them stupid is the lack of curiosity, blind conformity without independent opinions, unexamined thinking inertia, or blind acceptance of external ideas that they never question, taking them as the only truth.
The most typical example I can think of is a religious person I once dated. She joined a fanatical cult and never questioned that the doctrines preached by the cult were actually entirely for the cult's own interests, not for her sake. It was impossible to reason with her at all. She was 100% convinced that she would go to the afterlife after death, but she could not produce any evidence. It was just because a certain cult leader said so, as if saying: "Bro, just trust me."
This is pure stupidity.
Statistically, the vast majority of people are following the traditional beaten path: stepping into an education system designed for assembly line workers, taking on huge debts in exchange for a diploma, and doing a job that becomes boring after just one year. Then they go through the motions day after day until they retire at the age of 65, when they are told that they can finally start enjoying life.
Don't think I'm that different, I'm no exception.
The reason why I didn't go to college is purely that my family couldn't afford it, but I didn't avoid this traditional path. On the contrary, I was trapped in the corporate system for more than ten years.
This is also why I am qualified to talk about this topic — because I used to be extremely stupid. Yes, I also joined a ridiculous religious group for a period of time, and I was extremely susceptible to brainwashing back then.
Successfully breaking away from the mediocre and stupid social ecology is the truly worthwhile victory to pursue. A foolish society is the starting point for most of us, but by no means our destined end.
The Amplification Effect of Modern Society on Stupidity (Also Your Perfect Chance to Turn the Tables)
Have you noticed that the whole society is getting dumber and dumber over the past five years.
This mainly stems from two fundamental changes:
People spend most of their time staring at their mobile phone screens, allowing endless pop-up notifications to bombard their brains until they are exhausted.
People outsource part or even most of their thinking process to AI platforms such as Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT.
Most people unknowingly live like robots, which is why they feel that life is lifeless and dull.
Looking at this phenomenon with empathy, the conclusion is obvious: if a person is kidnapped by the screen all day long and hardly does independent and in-depth thinking, it is completely expected that their intelligence will degenerate and they will become stupid.
Algorithms firmly dominate all major platforms we use, our attention is torn more fragmented than ever, and we are indulging in endless pan-entertainment information and nipple-pleasure at any time.
This state of existence is called "Brainrot" in modern times. Under the combined destruction of low-quality AI spam bombing, high-frequency scene switching, long screen time and complete abandonment of thinking, the human brain is literally degrading and decaying.
Therefore, if our default way of life is to act as a muddle-headed robot, it is inevitable that the whole society will become more and more ignorant; obviously, 99% of people now fit this definition of stupidity.
In this light, the point of view expounded in this article is not controversial at all, it is just stating the objective reality.
The Inflection Point of the Era That No One Expected
(Not even I foresaw it.)
People no longer trust large multinational corporations, because they have been deceiving the public for too long.
This started in 2020. At that time, thousands of giant enterprises that kept claiming to "care about their employees" and had teams of smiling tiger HRs launched massive layoffs without warning at the most critical moment when their employees were quarantined at home due to the epidemic and most needed to keep their jobs.
I experienced this historical node personally, and the shock was appalling.
The sheepskin coat that enterprises have always worn was completely torn off for the first time, revealing the nature of wolves. With the disguise gone, we finally see the cold truth.
Since then, a quiet earth-shaking change has taken place in the underlying sentiment of society.
More and more people are beginning to wake up, no company really cares about your life or death, you are just a replaceable consumable part responsible for temporary projects. They try their best to suppress your salary, only to extract the maximum profit from your labor.
Nowadays, for many people, the traditional route that used to be taken for granted is increasingly looking like a self-deceiving stupid path.
We pin the livelihood of the whole family and the hope of making a living on a false god. Some people choose to continue to indulge in lies because it is more convenient; while others (including me) choose to face the glaring and cold truth directly.
Human Psychological Weaknesses Drag Us Into the Abyss Again and Again Like a Blunt Knife Cutting Flesh
If you measure stupidity by behavior, you will find that "doing nothing" is the crux of the problem. Why are we always stuck? You might resent my answer: lack of self-improvement.
The goals or practical methods in any field ultimately point to those clichéd basic laws of self-improvement. These truths sound so cliché today that when I write them here to share with you, I even feel so disgusted that I want to take a shower.
If a person wants to get rid of laziness and ignorance and really achieve results, he must: break down goals into daily habits, maintain a positive and optimistic attitude, record and quantify results, associate with like-minded people, practice every day, and humbly learn from predecessors. Look... this is the Jim Rohn-style preaching from the 1970s that I am repeating.
The truth is extremely simple, but few people really put it into practice.
The reason why the public is mediocre and dull is precisely because they have never practiced these most simple laws of self-improvement. On the contrary, they pin their hopes on illusory prayers, vain luck, blind fantasies, waiting for the so-called "good opportunity", or work for three days and then slack off for two. Without conscious progress, the "ape instinct" deep in our brain will stay in the original survival mode, completely stifling all possibilities of achieving success.
The most ironic thing is that everyone is very familiar with these basic laws of self-improvement.
However, knowing is not equal to doing. There are always moments when it is very difficult to persist in practicing, so it is easier to give up completely — either deceive yourself into thinking that you are working hard, or comfort yourself that it is not too late to act when the limelight passes and the time is ripe.
Behind the Viral Meme That Swept the Internet Lies the Most Straightforward Answer
If we agree that 99% of the public are trapped in stupidity because of their way of acting, and the starting point of the vast majority of people is in this quagmire...
...then the way out is extremely simple: do the opposite, do exactly the opposite of what 99% of people do.
This witty remark that is often used as a meme has become popular all over the Internet because, like all humor, its background is naked truth.
When most people go to work step by step, you explore diverse forms of work — contract work, consulting, independent entrepreneurship, freelance work, and so on.
When most people are glued to their mobile phones all day long, you establish a rigid mechanism to ensure that you never indulge in the screen.
When most people let all kinds of notifications bombard their brains without a moment's peace, you turn off all notifications decisively and make it your default daily state.
When most people outsource all their thinking to artificial intelligence and follow the patchwork AI-generated clichés, you maintain full independent thinking, and only use AI as an amplifier of your thinking, not a substitute for your brain.
When most people's skills and experience are exploited at low cost, you focus on expanding multiple sources of income, serving multiple clients, instead of betting your whole life on only one client (your employer).
When most people are lazy after work and numb themselves by watching dramas every night, you use your spare time to think deeply, recharge and advance, and put spending time with your family first.
When most people expect to escape from the boring and suffocating life on weekends and holidays, you are committed to creating a free life that you don't need to escape from at all.
When most people are overweight and indulge in high-sugar dopamine, you stick to regular daily exercise, eat natural and clean whole foods, and reject pure artificial and chemical additives.
The core logic is that following the crowd will only lead you to a dead end. Choosing the mediocre default option will only get you mediocre public intelligence and a mediocre ending.
But you can totally choose to rebel, choose to resist.
The control is in your own hands; go for it, because 99% of people in society are either absent-minded or lazy, and no one can stop you from moving forward.
The Next Epiphany That Will Wake You Up Suddenly
The reason why many of us give up on pursuing our dreams in our hearts is that subconsciously we always feel that the market is already saturated and the competition on the track is too fierce. This idea seems reasonable, but if you understand everything I said before, you will realize that it is complete nonsense.
There is no real competition at all. The whole market is in a state of ignorance: they bow down to scroll through their mobile phones all day long, surrender at the slightest setback, chase cheap dopamine frantically, binge on fast food information, are short-sighted, and have no perseverance to focus on one thing for five years.
This is the god-given opportunity in front of you. If the so-called competitors are just imaginary scarecrows from the very beginning, how much achievement can you make? The answer is: unlimited.
Leave those imaginary enemies aside, and life will suddenly become bright. The entry threshold is incredibly low, or even non-existent. Your life is like starting a level-breaking game. As long as you advance steadily in the simple mode for a period of time, the victory is already predetermined.
This is also the key breakthrough I experienced five years ago. At that time, I thought that the Internet must be full of elites who keep writing, continuously outputting, accumulating subscription communities, and selling products and services, which would make it difficult for me to stand out.
The reality is completely different. I can hardly find any decent opponents when I look around.
Even if there are a few competitors occasionally, they have been in the industry for less than a year, which cannot be compared with my 12 years of deep cultivation. Along the way, I have always been worried that some extremely smart people will leave me behind, and I always thought that the market would be extremely mature and involuted, so that it would be impossible to make a voice on the Internet.
However, none of this has ever happened. With the leap of technology, instead of taking advantage of tools to soar into the sky, people are distracted by more fancy new gadgets, becoming more and more dispirited.
This rule also applies to you.
The most dangerous situation is never falling to the bottom, but being stuck in the middle: comfortable and tepid, everything seems fine, no crisis is burning.
——Dan Koe
What All This Means to You
You don't have to be a member of the mediocre and ignorant army.
You can break away from the established track, learn to think independently, and steadily practice the basic skills of self-improvement to avoid falling into the abyss of mediocrity and stupidity. But I hope you win more thoroughly, even to ensure that you are in an invincible position.
The best way to do this is to think and act like a leader. The current era is extremely short of leaders, and this is exactly the path with the least resistance to overtake on a curve. To be a leader and achieve your long-cherished wish, you only need to show a little courage every day.
You can no longer avoid difficult conversations, avoid getting rid of disconnected relationships, waste time in indecision, or hide behind anonymous social accounts to muddle along. You also don't need to care about the comments of the outside world, because you don't have mind control, and you can't control how others see you at all.
Finally, you must be prudently skeptical of everything in front of you. Assume that all the inherent ideas and beliefs in your mind may be wrong, or at least have cognitive defects. You must believe that what ultimately determines whether your life can jump to the next level is your underlying thinking paradigm.
This psychological remodeling will allow you to calmly deal with any changes. This is crucial, because the reason why ordinary people are stuck is that they are extremely vulnerable when facing changes. You must not follow their footsteps. You must dance with the changes and regard transformation as the norm.
If you can put the above points into practice, the chips of victory will overwhelmingly tilt towards you, and it will be difficult for you to lose. Probabilistically, the chance that all your imaginary enemies can do all these things is less than one in a thousand. In my opinion, this winning rate is quite considerable.
Translator: boxi.