The longer I live, the more I'm convinced people are only stupid when they have a safety net.
Let me put this another way: I would trust myself spending a week alone in the Alaskan wilderness, armed with only a compass and a loin cloth, scavenging for berries and building a shelter out of dead spruce branches more than I would trust myself working a manual can opener.
I've successfully done a number of things in my life that I would call very "categorically difficult." Traveling across Europe on a nine-day solo train trip. Moving across the country three days after college graduation to start my first job. Covering for my manager at said job while she is on a six-month maternity leave, even though I had only been at the company for three months when she left. Each of these tasks brought its own fair share of challenges, but I clearly survived and arguably thrived in all of them.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out the ten-minute drive from O'Hare Airport to my house in Wood Dale without a GPS. Upon buying an electric toothbrush, it took me five tries to figure out how to use it without the toothpaste magically jumping off the bristles once the vibration kicks in (pro tip: you need to put the toothbrush in your mouth before turning it on). And there's genuinely only a 50/50 chance I'll be able to work a manual can opener on any given day (I've found that Tuesdays have the highest success rate).
Part of my idiocy can be tied to a simple, unadulterated and irreparable lack of intelligence. I'm at peace with that. But I think many people also genuinely do get brain shrinkage whenever they sense a safety net beneath them, admittedly me included. And the existence of the internet means we practically always have a safety net under us, which means every hour of every day, I'm just a leaky faucet of IQ points.
Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on myself, but I think the general premise holds true: put me in swim lessons and I'll fail the class, but throw me in the water and I'll get to the shore.
And if you have any recommendations on a good electric can opener, please let me know.
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