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<p>It doesn&#39;t matter how smart you are, we all have our &quot;stupid&quot; moments from time to time.</p><p>In some cases, someone widely known for being smart makes the most ridiculous gaffes, because they&#39;re so uniformly focused on what&#39;s floating through their mind, they forget how to function like a person.</p><p>Remembering that even people lauded as geniuses make ridiculous snafus can be helpful when you&#39;re down on yourself.</p><h2>In <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/103aueg/whats_the_best_example_of_a_smart_person_being/" target="_blank">a popular Ask Reddit thread</a>, people shared the best example of a smart person being incredibly stupid.</h2><h2>1. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Jackthebodyless/">Jackthebodyless</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>When I was in my final year of physics at university, we had a professor who would get very irritated at the pull string for the projection screen, as it would dangle down in front of the whiteboard.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Every morning, he would spend a good couple minutes attempting to throw the weight on the end over the light fixture above the whiteboard, taking anywhere from 5 to 30 tries each time.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>All the students would give tips and encouragement, and this became a kind of inside joke for the class of how long it would take every morning. Months go by, and one day near the end of the quarter, we end up with a substitute.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>The sub goes to the board and, without hesitation, grabs the string and hooks it over a thumbtack stuck in the cork at the top of the whiteboard. The entire class literally gasped in unison!</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>The sub whirled around, asking what happened, and the whole class just starts laughing.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Eventually, someone explained what happened, and we all had a good laugh that an entire class of physics majors never even thought of that solution, let alone noticed that the tack had always been there for that purpose.</p> </blockquote><h2>2. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PhilosopherActive677/">PhilosopherActive677</a>:</h2><p> </p><blockquote> <p>Our physics professor once had held a remote lecture without turning his Google Meet on. So he just spoke to the computer for 1.5 hours.</p> </blockquote><h2>3. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ExaminationDouble240/">ExaminationDouble240</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>One of my best friends, who is now a surgeon, and one of the smartest people I have ever met. During his first year of med school he was visiting his hometown during a break in the semester.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>We were at a restaurant catching up, he ordered a milkshake for dessert that came with a maraschino cherry on top. He excitedly ate it then said something to the effect of:</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>&quot;Man, I love maraschino cherries, I could eat a million of these. I always wanted to buy a jar, and eat it all to myself&quot;</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>To which I replied with:</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>&quot;John, you&#39;re 24 years old. You own a house, have money in the bank, and are in med school. You&#39;re an adult, if you want to get yourself a jar of maraschino cherries, you can. We can hit up the store as soon as we&#39;re done here.&quot;</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He spent about 5 minutes struggling to process this new found information. You could almost see the gears in his head turning. After this brief delay, he looked at me with the biggest, almost childlike smile and said &quot;Let&#39;s go now!!!&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>We paid our bill, then headed to the nearest grocery store. John the purchased the largest jar of maraschino cherries available, and started eating. Afterward we went to a house party, where john refused to drink, instead he just ate from his jar.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Long story short, he ate the entire jar in about 1 hour. 15 minutes later he started puking neon red cherries for the rest of the evening.</p> <h2>4.</h2> </blockquote><h2>5. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BakedBeanWhore/">BakedBeanWhore</a>:</h2><p> </p><blockquote> <p>My father-in-law is very intelligent. He taught himself how to solve a rubiks cube without looking anything up and is generally a genius in math, logic, puzzles what have you.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He believes dinosaurs couldn&#39;t be real because they would be too big for their skeletons to uphold their weight.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He has lots of other really stupid ideas because he is so intelligent he thinks he can just reason himself into correct conclusions without doing research or adhering to the scientific process.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>6. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/_shes_a_jar/">_shes_a_jar</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>My doctor. During the period of my life in which I was dating my ex gf my doctor would INSIST every time I saw him that I needed to be on birth control because it was responsible to be preventing pregnancy.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>No matter how many times I told him that I was in a monogamous relationship with a woman he would still keep asking. I guess it just didn&rsquo;t compute.</p> </blockquote><h2>7. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/toywars/">toywars</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>Well, my cousin who has two f**king Masters degrees in finance and economics, put his hand in still spinning lawnmower to help it blow out rest of the grass faster. He lost a finger. I asked why he didn&rsquo;t wait till it stopped completely.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He said it was just in a hurry.</p> </blockquote><h2>8. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Bamcanadaktown/">Bamcanadaktown</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>University physics professor at a Hyundai dealership arguing with a tech telling him about the noise in his car.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>The professor was freaking out saying he couldn&#39;t even understand what the tech was trying to say, because the tech said &quot;centrifugal force&quot;, instead of &quot;Centripetal force&quot;. The conversation could not move forward. It was weird.</p> </blockquote><h2>9. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/-eDgAR-/">-eDgAR-</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>One time I was at my friend Claudio&#39;s apartment with his brother just hanging out and watching a movie. All of sudden I hear a <em>woosh</em> and see a big flash of light. I look over at Claud and his hair is on fire.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>We get it out quickly and I asked him what the hell just happened. He told me, &quot;I was trying to listen to the sound the lighter made when I flicked it.&quot; We were completely sober at the time.</p> </blockquote><h2>10. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/lillyvines/">lillyvines</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>I&#39;ve been waiting so long to tell this story. Two members of my family are very highly intelligent, so I always thought. I go to their house and they just installed an above-ground pool that came with a pool COVER.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Instead of using the pool cover they went and bought all these insulated pink foam boards (1 in thick, 4x8 ft rectangle foam boards) I just sat there and watched while they cut up all the foam into like puzzle pieces to fit in that ROUND pool.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I asked them why and they said it was to keep leaves out of the pool. So every time they got in the pool they had to remove all the puzzle pieces, then clean the pool because tiny pink insulation was floating on top.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>When they were finished for the day spend an hour trying to connect all the puzzle pieces they cut back into the pool. The original pool cover was by the pool in the bag it came in. The dumbest thing I&#39;ve ever witnessed in my life.</p> </blockquote><h2>11. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/notthesedays/">notthesedays</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>I&#39;m a pharmacist. I have worked with fellow pharmacists who did not know that:</p> <p>- Lesbians menstruate</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>- Women usually do not produce breast milk until after they have given birth</p> <p>- Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses do not believe in blood transfusions</p> </blockquote><h2>12. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/zrannon/">zrannon</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>I knew a girl studying medicine. We were talking about planes and how they work. She asked me where the engine is, and I said &ldquo;you know those big spinny things?&rdquo;</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>She said &ldquo;ohhh, I thought those were to blow the clouds away.&quot;</p> </blockquote><h2>13. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Otherwise-Archer/">Otherwise-Archer</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>I used to work at a chemical engineering plant. One day I was in the kitchen washing my glasses with a drop of dish soap and one of the lead engineers said I shouldn&rsquo;t wash my glasses like that.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I asked him why not and he responded that I will wash the prescription off.</p> </blockquote><h2>14. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Altruistic-radish45/">Altruistic-radish45</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>One of my closest guy friends is a chemistry major with a 3.9 GPA but bought a fake ID that said he was younger than he actually was.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>15. From <a data-testid="comment_author_link" href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Large_Changus/">Large_Changus</a>:</h2><blockquote> <p>Very early in my career, I was tasked with an industrial engineering project on improving efficiency on a high-volume product line. I guarantee you&#39;ve seen the product.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>First, during a current state analysis, I determined that the company was losing around $0.08 per part shipped. We sold them for $0.29 each. That&#39;s...not good, especially when you&#39;re producing millions of these things each month.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I presented this to the executive management team. One of the VPs cut me off mid-sentence and said &quot;Nonsense...we make it up in volume!&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

15 people share times they saw a smart person be 'incredibly stupid.'

It doesn&#39;t matter how smart you are, we all have our &quot;stupid&quot; moments from time to time.In some cases, someone widely known for being smart makes the most ridiculous gaffes, because they&#39;re so uniformly focused on what&#39;s floating through their mind, they forget how to function like a person.Remembering that even people lauded as geniuses make ridiculous snafus can be helpful when you&#39;re down on yourself.In a popular Ask Reddit thread, people shared the best example of a smart person being incredibly stupid.1. From Jackthebodyless: When I was in my final year of physics at university, we had a professor who would get very irritated at the pull string for the projection screen, as it would dangle down in front of the whiteboard.  Every morning, he would spend a good couple minutes attempting to throw the weight on the end over the light fixture above the whiteboard, taking anywhere from 5 to 30 tries each time.  All the students would give tips and encouragement, and this became a kind of inside joke for the class of how long it would take every morning. Months go by, and one day near the end of the quarter, we end up with a substitute.  The sub goes to the board and, without hesitation, grabs the string and hooks it over a thumbtack stuck in the cork at the top of the whiteboard. The entire class literally gasped in unison!  The sub whirled around, asking what happened, and the whole class just starts laughing.  Eventually, someone explained what happened, and we all had a good laugh that an entire class of physics majors never even thought of that solution, let alone noticed that the tack had always been there for that purpose. 2. From PhilosopherActive677:  Our physics professor once had held a remote lecture without turning his Google Meet on. So he just spoke to the computer for 1.5 hours. 3. From ExaminationDouble240: One of my best friends, who is now a surgeon, and one of the smartest people I have ever met. During his first year of med school he was visiting his hometown during a break in the semester.  We were at a restaurant catching up, he ordered a milkshake for dessert that came with a maraschino cherry on top. He excitedly ate it then said something to the effect of:  &quot;Man, I love maraschino cherries, I could eat a million of these. I always wanted to buy a jar, and eat it all to myself&quot;  To which I replied with:  &quot;John, you&#39;re 24 years old. You own a house, have money in the bank, and are in med school. You&#39;re an adult, if you want to get yourself a jar of maraschino cherries, you can. We can hit up the store as soon as we&#39;re done here.&quot;  He spent about 5 minutes struggling to process this new found information. You could almost see the gears in his head turning. After this brief delay, he looked at me with the biggest, almost childlike smile and said &quot;Let&#39;s go now!!!&quot;  We paid our bill, then headed to the nearest grocery store. John the purchased the largest jar of maraschino cherries available, and started eating. Afterward we went to a house party, where john refused to drink, instead he just ate from his jar.  Long story short, he ate the entire jar in about 1 hour. 15 minutes later he started puking neon red cherries for the rest of the evening. 4. 5. From BakedBeanWhore:  My father-in-law is very intelligent. He taught himself how to solve a rubiks cube without looking anything up and is generally a genius in math, logic, puzzles what have you.  He believes dinosaurs couldn&#39;t be real because they would be too big for their skeletons to uphold their weight.  He has lots of other really stupid ideas because he is so intelligent he thinks he can just reason himself into correct conclusions without doing research or adhering to the scientific process. 6. From _shes_a_jar: My doctor. During the period of my life in which I was dating my ex gf my doctor would INSIST every time I saw him that I needed to be on birth control because it was responsible to be preventing pregnancy.  No matter how many times I told him that I was in a monogamous relationship with a woman he would still keep asking. I guess it just didn&rsquo;t compute. 7. From toywars: Well, my cousin who has two f**king Masters degrees in finance and economics, put his hand in still spinning lawnmower to help it blow out rest of the grass faster. He lost a finger. I asked why he didn&rsquo;t wait till it stopped completely.  He said it was just in a hurry. 8. From Bamcanadaktown: University physics professor at a Hyundai dealership arguing with a tech telling him about the noise in his car.  The professor was freaking out saying he couldn&#39;t even understand what the tech was trying to say, because the tech said &quot;centrifugal force&quot;, instead of &quot;Centripetal force&quot;. The conversation could not move forward. It was weird. 9. From -eDgAR-: One time I was at my friend Claudio&#39;s apartment with his brother just hanging out and watching a movie. All of sudden I hear a woosh and see a big flash of light. I look over at Claud and his hair is on fire.  We get it out quickly and I asked him what the hell just happened. He told me, &quot;I was trying to listen to the sound the lighter made when I flicked it.&quot; We were completely sober at the time. 10. From lillyvines: I&#39;ve been waiting so long to tell this story. Two members of my family are very highly intelligent, so I always thought. I go to their house and they just installed an above-ground pool that came with a pool COVER.  Instead of using the pool cover they went and bought all these insulated pink foam boards (1 in thick, 4x8 ft rectangle foam boards) I just sat there and watched while they cut up all the foam into like puzzle pieces to fit in that ROUND pool.  I asked them why and they said it was to keep leaves out of the pool. So every time they got in the pool they had to remove all the puzzle pieces, then clean the pool because tiny pink insulation was floating on top.  When they were finished for the day spend an hour trying to connect all the puzzle pieces they cut back into the pool. The original pool cover was by the pool in the bag it came in. The dumbest thing I&#39;ve ever witnessed in my life. 11. From notthesedays: I&#39;m a pharmacist. I have worked with fellow pharmacists who did not know that: - Lesbians menstruate  - Women usually do not produce breast milk until after they have given birth - Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses do not believe in blood transfusions 12. From zrannon: I knew a girl studying medicine. We were talking about planes and how they work. She asked me where the engine is, and I said &ldquo;you know those big spinny things?&rdquo;  She said &ldquo;ohhh, I thought those were to blow the clouds away.&quot; 13. From Otherwise-Archer: I used to work at a chemical engineering plant. One day I was in the kitchen washing my glasses with a drop of dish soap and one of the lead engineers said I shouldn&rsquo;t wash my glasses like that.  I asked him why not and he responded that I will wash the prescription off. 14. From Altruistic-radish45: One of my closest guy friends is a chemistry major with a 3.9 GPA but bought a fake ID that said he was younger than he actually was. 15. From Large_Changus: Very early in my career, I was tasked with an industrial engineering project on improving efficiency on a high-volume product line. I guarantee you&#39;ve seen the product.  First, during a current state analysis, I determined that the company was losing around $0.08 per part shipped. We sold them for $0.29 each. That&#39;s...not good, especially when you&#39;re producing millions of these things each month.  I presented this to the executive management team. One of the VPs cut me off mid-sentence and said &quot;Nonsense...we make it up in volume!&quot; 

It doesn&#39;t matter how smart you are, we all have our &quot;stupid&quot; moments from time to time.  In some cases, someone widely known for being smart makes the most ridiculous gaffes, because they&#39;re so uniformly focused on...