Its not that being smart is bad necessarily, but neither is it automatically good. I would never wish myself dumber, and maybe being smarter would be helpful… But most of my problems on life aren’t linked to a limited intelligence.

Obviously, it depends on your definition of intelligence (itself a complicated issue) but if the button would just give me better IQ score type intelligence I don’t think it’d help much. I’m plenty smart for my day to day life, job, relationships etc. The internal problems that prevent me achieving things are to do with focus and discipline / time management. And the main actual barriers are social or economic.

So sure, if the button made me so smart that I could somehow just see some novel solution that I could then market for money, so I could afford the life coach who would help me actually achieve the goals I want, then yeah smart me up! But being given a bunch of money would be a more direct solution. And a button that that improved my ability to actualise the plans I’m already smart enough to create would be muchore appealing!

Tldr: lemmy is full of people who are smart enough that not being smarter isn’t the main barrier I’m their life.