Idiot Resistance

"Designers and engineers strive to make newer and better idiot proof things, the universe strives to make newer and better idiots."

I've heard this said before and I whole heartedly agree. Though I do not believe that there is a such thing as "idiot proof." I prefer to say that things are "idiot resistant."

Back to the point. Having things being idiot resistant means that those using it don't have to think to use it. This not only pertains to new electronic devices, but even to the internet itself. With everything going idiot resistant and making getting information easier, people's brains don't get as much exercise as they should.

I find that things would be better if things weren't so idiot resistant. The simplicity of things makes idiots think that things are easier, until they try to do something they shouldn't. Basically the level of typical intelligence gives just enough knowledge to mess things up. It used to be where if someone didn't know what they were doing, they wouldn't do it.

Alot of employers are making the jobs easier and easier to do. They think that if they make things idiot resistant then they won't have any problems. What employers used to do was just not hire idiots. I'm not going to go into this to heavily, since all I really have to say is that I work at Walmart.

Automotive manufactures are also growing bad at this practice. This started back with anti-lock brakes, a simple safety feature that is now taken for granted. Call me old fashioned, but I don't need a computer to tell me when my brakes should be applied. The new "safety" add-ons that also seem to these issues is traction control, TPMS, back up cameras, automatic braking, and blind spot/lane monitoring systems. The worst of those is in fact the last one. Having a radar system to tell you that you have someone next to you, to stop you automatically, or notify you that you are drifting from your lane is simple laziness. If you need that, then you are dangerous on the road.

Anyway, the point is that making things idiot resistant only makes it easier for idiots to resist learning.

Inverse Intelligence Theory

Anyone that has dealt with lesser intelligent beings, knows of the effects of long term exposure. This is the first time where anyone has bothered to express it as a theory.

Having first hand experience in this, from working at Walmart, I found a way to express this effect in a scientific way. The amount of time spent with each effecting body, will take a negative effect on your intelligence quotient. These effecting body, from now on referred to as "stupids," can take many different forms.

The first form of stupid is the most well known and effective, the individual. These are people who consistently say/do stupid things. The individual can have two different effects, the area effect and the instant effect.
The area effect of an individual is simply put as that the individual acts as a intelligence black hole. Just being present makes everything around them stupider.
The instant effect of an individual is that an individual can instantly wipe out everything smart in the area with one simple stupid action or statement.

The second form of stupid is a equally effective one, the area. This is much like the individual's area effect, but it doesn't require the individual. Some places are just so dumb that being there effects you. Walmart is my area of effectiveness.

The third and most prominent online is the idea. This is like the individual's instant effect only because you can't be around it. Online the idea effect is most observed on the image board sites, such as 4chan, simply thinking about something that is said can effect you.

Now that we have covered the different types of effects, I need to cover the theory. The theory is similar to a worm hole theory, but it is expressed in a temporary way. The stupids drain intelligence, but it doesn't to into them, it vanishes.
In order to return to normal you need twice the amount of time away from stupids then you spent being effected by them. Though taking part in a actual intelligent conversation for that amount of time with double the speed of recovery.

The effect is expressed in this formula:
L = P / (t x .25s)

L is the loss
P is your principal intelligence
t is time, expressed in hours
s is the amount of stupids (per area effect or per 3 instant effects/ hour)

For example, say the principle IQ of the subject is 140. He spends 8 hours at Walmart working with one stupid individual who says/does an average of 4 stupid things per hour. His manager comes back 4 times during the day and says one stupid thing and he deals with 12 stupid customers over the course of the day.
Lets deal with the instant effects first. 12 customers added to the 4 managers gives you 16 over the day, 8 hours gives you an average of 2 stupids per hour. Add that to the 4 from the one stupid coworker and you get 6 per hour. When plugging this into the equation, you would divide that by 3. So you have an equational effect of 2 on top of the area effect of the individual and the area, which gives you 4.

The equation as an example:

L = 140 / (8 x .25 x 4)
L = 140 / 8
L = 17.5

This example is a real life example of my daily work life. The principal is estimated, because I've never had a formal IQ test. If that as an example is accurite, then I temporarily loose about 12% of my intelligence by the end of the day.

And people wonder why I hate my job. ;)