He was an MIT grad in physics and minor in math, his girlfriend was a mathmatician too. Clearly he must be intelligent.
Yes, depending on how hard he worked, properly a bit above average. But really it doesn’t say much.
I would assume that he would be smart enough to funnel money out to secret untraceable accounts
Why? As you said he graduated in physics and maths. That seems more like something a lawyers or economists would know about.
But I agree. He should have been smart enough to at least hire someone to help him with that.
Stamets@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You are making a mistake that a lot of people do. Just because you are intelligent in one particular field doesn’t mean that knowledge applies elsewhere. Time and time again we’ve seen some insane theories from truly talented people. My go to example is Ben Carson is a world renowned doctor who pioneered and succeeded in a surgery no one ever could have thought possible. He also believes the pyramids were used to store grain.
LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“I can’t believe what a bunch of nerds we are… we’re looking up money laundering in a dictionary.”
morriscox@lemmy.world 11 months ago
People with Ph.Ds will sit down at a keyboard and drool out of the corner of their mouth while contacting tech support.
hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
And then there’s also a difference between being intelligent and being smart. If you are intelligent, you might know how to cheat in a videogame. But if you are smart, you know that this a bad idea because of a plethora of reasons.
AnarchistsForDemocracy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Excellent point.
It’s just very very weird. If I sat on that much money, and had his IQ I would of figured something out.
Stamets@lemmy.world 11 months ago
IQ isn’t reliable and hasn’t been for a very long time, if ever. People get smart in areas, not overall. The brain is like a video game in that sense. You get skill points and get to spec them into certain areas. Some people spread them around and get middling knowledge in all areas but you won’t ever find someone who’s a genius universally. It’s just not a thing.
Then you’ve got something else that is extremely important to this discussion. Arrogance. The smarter you are the more arrogant you tend to be. Usually not on purpose. Mostly it’s a byproduct of being told you’re smart constantly or by everyone else being slower than you and you get frustrated. When you have that arrogance you don’t seem to be aware of what you don’t know.
Which leads me to a third thing. Actual smart people don’t assume they have knowledge. They know they don’t know a lot and are really hesitant. Conversely, people who aren’t that intelligent are usually convinced they know more than they do. Why? Because they’re not smart enough to see gaps in their knowledge. They’re looking at what’s in front of them but not the overall picture.
All of that leads to this dude just genuinely not being smart. He was a combination of lucky and knowledgeable in a particular field.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I sure as hell wouldn’t have committed major financial crimes to float a failing company run by some gal I only occasionally wanted to bang. Dude is a top notch dumbass.