IGNORANCE VS STUPIDITY

At one point in my life, I found myself in the position of a professional educator.  During that time, my fellow educators and I found ourselves frequently having to differentiate between those students who were ignorant and those that were stupid, because we frequently equate the two, when, in fact: they are different.  Put simply: someone who is ignorant is someone who simply does not KNOW something.  Everyone on the planet is ignorant: their ignorance simply needs to be uncovered and, in turn, it can be rectified.  No one can know everything, and you can easily corner someone and “stump the dummy” with some sort of gee whiz pop-quiz on random state capitals or the atomic symbol for Boron or the melting temperature of copper, etc etc.  And once this knowledge has been imparted upon that person, their ignorance has been corrected: now they are slightly less ignorant than there were before.  But stupidity?  My co-workers and I had to constantly repeat the mantra of Ron White: “You can’t fix stupid.”

Yes yes, I know: he never actually said that.  Sometimes, a good story is more important than the truth.

 

While ignorance is a lack of knowledge, stupidity is a lack of ability to COMPREHEND and apply knowledge.  Stupidity is a character trait, a quality, a part of one’s being, whereas ignorance is simply the absence of information.  A car with no gas is ignorant of gas: a car with no gas tank is stupidly broken.  Why does this distinction matter?  Well, as educators, it was important for us to understand when we were dealing with an ignorant vs a stupid student because the approach to rectify the situation was different.  An ignorant student simply required more time: more time to teach, more time to study, or more time to employ different strategies to convey the information in a manner that they COULD understand.  But once it was determined the student was stupid?  We were now beyond the point of fixing: we had reached the limit of this student’s ability to absorb and retain information, and now it was on us to find a better place for them.  …I realize that reads as though we euthanized them, but we enrolled them in a program that was better suited for their abilities.

 

Ok, why does this discussion matter?  Because ignorance and stupidity can exist in both an intellectual capacity AND in a physical capacity as it relate to the matter of physical transformation, and trainees get this confused in all sorts of ways, resulting in them spinning their wheels in an attempt to resolve the wrong problem.  So many young trainees are operating off the false assumption that they are, somehow, intellectual ignorant on the matter of physical transformation.  These trainees consume TONS of media on the matter of physical transformation, typically in a matter best suited for those with short attention spans, ala Tik Tok and Instagram reels, but some even legitimately read studies (not just the abstracts), watch multihour long podcasts, attend seminars, read published books, etc etc.  Yet, despite obtaining ALL this knowledge, these folks still have nothing to show for all that effort.  What gives?  How much more do they need to KNOW before they can finally unlock the secrets?

No matter how smart you get, a strong man with a sword will still be valuable

 

These trainees are, in fact, stupid, and in a variety of ways.  Intellectually, they are stupid because they simply don’t realize that physical transformation is NOT that complicated.  I always point out that we had TWO men that could bench press over 600lbs in 1967: Pat Casey, who did it officially in a meet, and his training partner “Superstar” Billy Graham.  The bench press itself was a new lift at this point, and bench PRESSES were shoddy pieces of equipment that you wouldn’t risk yourself on in a modern setting with even an empty bar, and these two dudes benched that weight raw.  Nearly 60 years later, with all the advances we’ve had in drugs, training “knowledge”, nutrition AND a much bigger pool of athletes to select from, a 600lb raw bench press is STILL insane, and the record has only advanced by less than 200lbs.  We KNEW everything we needed to achieve ridiculous physical transformation well over 60 years ago, and, in truth, far earlier than that as well, as humans have been getting big and strong for years relying on the basic principle of straining hard, eating big and recovering well.  “Effort, consistency and time”: it always comes back to these 3.

 

However, these trainees are ALSO, quite often, intellectually stupid: despite the VOLUME of material they consume, they lack the ability to understand and apply the majority of it.  My background is POLITICAL science, and even from that I learned how to read a study, which, in turn, also gave me the ability to learn how to determine when studies were performed poorly, by observers who didn’t know what to observe with volunteers who were unfit to volunteer and controls that were poorly implemented, to say nothing of epidemiological studies that rely on self-reported information from a populace that has a terrible ability to recall information.  So many young trainees just cut straight to the conclusion or the abstract: not looking into the details of the study, or rely on some internet talking head to do all the interpreting for them, ignoring the strong possibility of bias in reporting due to the fact that many of these folks have an agenda based around promoting their own brand (to say nothing of biases in studies based on who is funding them, but I digress).  And many other trainees (myself HEAVILY included) are simply too stupid to understand any of the actual SCIENCE within the study itself.  I was a straight D student in all of my chemistry and physics classes: biology was the only form of science I ever did well at, and whenever I try to read about chemical reactions and bonds, my eyes just plain glaze over.  I recognize this limitation in myself, which is also why I default to the case of Pat Casey: this stuff AIN’T that complicated.

Meatloaf sandwiches between sets and hard work got you a 600lb bench on a bench you wouldn't pick up for free off the side of the road

 

But trainees remain ignorant and stupid in another sense as well: the physical sense!  Often times, trainees cannot apply all the knowledge they soaked up from all their study because they lack the physical EXPERIENCE necessary to be able to implement it.  And the worst part about this type of ignorance is that it is very much a “if you know, you know” sort of phenomenon.  Like trying to describe the color red to someone that has been blind since birth, physical experience is one of those things that, once you obtain it, it’s obvious, but until you do, it’s elusive.  One of the greatest examples can be found in maximal exertion and training to failure.  A physically experienced trainee knows HOW to push themselves to their absolute physical limits: well beyond the point is discomfort, pain, and agony, and bypassing many of their natural governors, digging DEEP into their own recovery wells and going all out for one BIG push that tends to leave them exhausted for days, if not weeks.  A junior trainee simply lacks this ability: it’s something that can only be developed through years of consistent practice.  In turn, an advanced trainee discussing the significance and impact of training to failure or maximal effort is speaking to an entirely different impact than what this junior trainee can generate, yet, if that same trainee tries to implement the instructions FROM that advanced trainee, they will achieve a less than ideal outcome, simply as a result of their physical ignorance.  Their body needs to “learn more” before it can excel.

 

And, of course, physical ignorance can be even more rudimentary.  Some trainees simply haven’t been taught how to perform certain movements and, once they receive instruction, they are now less ignorant and able to perform.  Dave Tate talks about adding 50lbs to a trainee’s bench simply by teaching them the correct way to bench.  Some trainees, however, are physically stupid: they have problems that simply aren’t going to be overcome through more physical knowledge, and they need to recognize this limitation.  Some trainees are going to be in possession of leverages that are simply NOT suited for weightlifting (as in, the sport of the clean and jerk/snatch, rather than the mere lifting of weights): doomed with a short upper torso and long limbs, these folks will make great deadlifters.  Some trainees are going to be severely lacking in type I muscle fibers and find explosive work ill-suited for them.  And some folks, no matter how hard they try, are going to flat out have some movements just NOT click for them.  Rather than try to put the square peg in the round hole, they need to get enrolled in a “new program” and find what works for them.  And yet again, these trainees need to recognize their physical stupidity in order to understand how their attempts to rectify all issues via resolving intellectual ignorance is amiss: no matter how much they “learn”, they won’t be able to apply it.

Sometimes our talents are just waiting to be discovered

 

All this to say that nothing is hopeless here: we simply need to understand what is the right solution for the situation.  You can’t “fix” stupid, but you can redirect it to the appropriate program.  Ignorance is easy to resolve: it simply takes time, but if your issue ISN’T ignorance, your time is being wasted.