Customer Reviews

Understanding Stupidity

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you have interest in psychology, sociology, or philosphy you may want to take a look at Understanding Stupidity. Dr welles first sets up a working definition of 'stupidity' then elaborates upon how it affects human belief sytems and why in fact stupidity is necessary to the existence of such systems. emotions are what we are given as children via socialization. these emotions unconciously become a filter for information thus taking the place of rationality...in a sense this is what stupidity is. I'm trying to summarize, and by doing so i dont do justice to the idea, but i'll leave it as such just to present a basic knowledge. i respect dr. welles' ideas because they are well thought out and are presented clearly and accurately...he doesn't leave many holes in his arguments. my only complaint is that he tends to be repetitve, although this may be necessitated by readers tendencies to drift over important details. Regardless, i felt less stoopid having done had read it. and dats whut!

I haven't read this book (though I had to pick a rating to post and justify a high rating to myself by a sense that the worst my rating based on ignorance can do is balance some low ratings based on the allegations against Welles). I'm looking at the book, along with some other books about human stupidity--so very apparent in current U.S. society, government, foreign and domestic policy, media, and life.

The allegation of attempted child sexual abuse is a very serious charge to make against a person. If it were true, I would not want to read the book. There are so many great things to read and learn written by people of great and admirable intelligence and integrity. If Welles is a child sexual abuser, I would not be able to forget as I read that the words come from a person of no integrity.

But if the charges are false, and the arrest a set-up, Welles is being slandered and these slanderous comments should be taken off the website. We must not be so stupid as to forget that arrests and charges of all kinds are made to discredit people for some reason.

The presence of these comments in my view requires some investigation from the webmaster so that Welles is treated fairly.

Book provides a perspective found no where else on human thinking and decision-making. It outlines how our choosing is influenced by who we are as beings with innate flaws that cloud what we choose to do. A must for leaders of organizations and groups of all types and sizes. A leadership-essential textbook.

Ever find yourself wondering how people can be so stupid, blind and self-destructive? Then this is the book for you. Though the jargon gets a little deep and wide sometimes, Welles takes a comprehensive look at where stupidity comes from and how it is transmitted individually and culturally. You might want to read it with a highlighter in hand.

Half the time it took me to read this book was spent wiping the tears from my eyes; James Thurber would have given "Understanding Stupidity" two thumbs up. This is the funniest stupidity I have ever run across and the stupidest truth. I sent copies to all my friends for Christmas and he said it was the stupidest thing he ever read. Ha, ha, my friend is an idiot.

You'd think that a guy who's written the book on stupidity (two, in fact), wouldn't be as dumb as author James Welles. But the 61-year-old Florida writer/degenerate, James Welles, was arrested 11/01/02 for soliciting sex from a 15-year-old girl he met in an online chat room. Except, of course, the girl was actually Todd Dwyer, a 40-year-old detective with the Lantana Police Department. The author of "The Story of Stupidity" and "Understanding Stupidity" spent three weeks corresponding with his teenage friend before arranging a face-to-face date at a Denny's. But when Welles arrived at the restaurant, he was arrested by cops and charged with soliciting sex from a minor, a felony. According to this probable cause affidavit, Welles wrote in one damning e-mail, "You just have to remember--bottom line, I'll be committing a crime." The Smoking Gun suggested an epilogue may be in order for that "Story of Stupidity."

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Before making a study of anything that people do, read this book.
It renders whole libraries superfluous. It reveals why humans can't do anything right. The reason is they have a Schema in their head. I take it that Schema means model. People don't deal with reality. They deal with the model in their head, which is usually very faulty and easily moulded by groups and leaders.
Why waste your time reading a lot of history, philosophy, religion etc when all of it is just schemas that will only lead to your failure.

You have to admit - he really knows his subject.

Here's the latest on him from the newswires.

Sixty-one-year-old James Welles has been arrested "for allegedly trying to arrange sex with a 15-year-old girl over the Internet. The girl turned out to be an undercover male detective." Welles is the author of a pair of books, "The Story of Stupidity" and "Understanding Stupidity."

Since Dr. Welles's arrest has become a topic of consideration, let us set the record straight. It was due to neither stupdity nor criminal conduct on his part but criminal conduct on the part of the police. The state's case was based entirely on unsubstantiated hearsay and can be characterized as obstuction of justice and features withholding evidence, tampering with evidence, falsifying evidence, fabricating evidence and multiple counts of perjury. The charge against Dr. Welles has been dropped and the record expunged. It is too bad others who wrote about this incident did not bother to get their facts straight.