I'm With Stupid

'Bring me fools and geniuses' - Jim Carroll, BBH

CEOs should hire Fools, like medieval monarchs did.

In fact, we could all do with being a little more foolish.

At our fingertips is as much knowledge as we want, and the tools to act. The biggest danger is in thinking you know more than you actually do.

The Midwit meme captures this truth. The hyper-intelligent often see the world much as dullards do, just for different reasons. Either way, the world they inhabit is simple and satisfying. And the Midwit - the average person? A slave to their own tangled reality.

It's a joke that's a vehicle for a powerful truth.

The same way a Fool is.

In Shakespeare, the Fool is usually the smartest character. The one who can see things as they really are. A character who has distilled the clutter and fuckwittery of middlebrow thinking, and cut through it all to get to raw and simple clarity.

Ironically, it's the Fool who usually understands that a little intelligence and self-regard are the perfect vehicles to fool yourself and, as Feynman said - 'you're the easiest person to fool'.

Deep down, we all know we don't need more quasi-intellectuals second-guessing and yes-manning. We need more fools to call us out.

Less jargon. More jokers.

Maybe use the budget from a failed celebrity Creative Director... (BlackBerry & Alicia Keys comes to mind). A premise that was ultimately misguided, because what's really required are lateral perspectives on our woes. Prima donna jesters whose jokes contain powerful, bullshit-calling, company-saving insights. (Maybe if Blackberry had brought on someone like Dave Chapelle, they might have given themselves a valuable perspective. BlackBerry... CrackBerry... anyone who knows his work knows the jokes would write themselves.)

Jim Carroll at BBH knew this; that mid-weight thinkers and wannabe smart fuckers would only add needless complexity. Only the truly clever and the truly foolish can simplify. And only the jester would have the needed bravery to puncture pretence.

Thus, it is with sadness I acknowledge my Midwit status, and embark instead upon the troubled path of the Fool.

If you need me, I'm with stupid.

With thanks to @GroupThink for the Jim Carroll inspo, and @AliAbdaal for my favourite and also least racist/horrific version of the Midwit meme