I fear it is time for some thoughts on intellectual brilliance and its role (particularly in the UK). It will have references to Musk, the PM… so bear with me… (thread)
It is no secret that pop culture pretty much anywhere is obsessed with the idea of the supersmart. People with abilities ‘normal’ humans cannot fathom. Think Good Will Hunting or look at Einstein or Hawkins in pop culture. /2
There is something comforting in the thought: I cannot solve global warming, but hey - those supergeniuses will. The government seems a mess - but they are so smart, so the mess is part of a plan (the latter has broken down a bit, I fear) /3
The image of the supersmart keeps reappearing. Take this guardian article about Musk as the smartest person in any room anywhere /4 theguardian.com/technology/202…
I fear, though, that this very much misconceives what the IQ or indeed brilliance means. An academic idea gives you the benefit of meeting many, many supersmart people. They are not superhuman, though. /5
Smart people can and do tackle difficult problems. But they also regularly fail to do so. You can have a superhigh iq and be good at chess. And that’s it. Or you can be supersmart and let your talents go to waste. /6
Some are good at coming up with abstract ideas and that’s it. Others are good at selling ideas others had (and becoming so associated with the, we forget the innovators). /7
Which brings me to the PM. But not the PM as a person (I have never met him), but the description of him by @OborneTweets : he writes of him as the most brilliant journalist of his generation - and as someone who invented the EU news he wrote. For me, that is wrong. /8
A journalist who regularly makes up stories is not - and for me cannot be - one of the most brilliant journalists of a generation. It is a bad journalist. Period. Maybe a clever writer. But a bad journalist. /9
Instead of hunting for some elusive and sadly pointless abstract notion of brilliance, we should focus on what people do and whether they are good at it. The fact that superhumans do not exist means WE have to take responsibility.
But taking responsibility doesn’t mean ‘I have read 50 pages on vaccines or trade, now I am an expert’. It means hard work. And identifying the people who did and do the hard work in other fields and trusting them because, well, you cannot do everything.

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More from @hhesterm

14 Sep
OK. I deleted my original tweet on this, because nobody wants to hear "listen to experts" too often. But yes, the consolidated voice of experts - and an open offer from the EU was: "let's extend the transition, we cannot be ready because of Covid". What happened then? /1
HMG said we would be ready. The result? Instead of trade barriers hitting exports and imports equally, UK exports are now subject to barriers, imports are not (yet). But it's worse than that. /2
The transition extension under the withdrawal agreement contained a rather long period of notice. To enable everyone to plan ahead. Instead, we now punish those who actually DID plan ahead. Will they do so again next time?
Read 4 tweets
27 Aug
A fundamental lack of understanding of the EU runs through part of UK thought. Rather than tell us anything about @MichelBarnier ’s candidacy or France, this tweet illustrates the problem (thread)
The EU is a multilevel system of governance, a federal system - if you adopt a very broad definition of such a system.
The UK also is a multilevel system, but of a fundamentally different nature. Here’s the key difference…
Read 13 tweets
19 Aug
The Trump-Taliban agreement is an astonishing document. Trump apparently trusts the Taliban entirely. At the very least, this document disqualifies Republicans from ever criticizing the Iran deal against, which is rocksolid compared to this agreement. 2017-2021.state.gov/wp-content/upl…
A question to @FCDOGovUK and @AuswaertigesAmt : the MoU (my legal term, not Trump's) promises withdrawal of the allies to some extent. Something that factually, of course, was in the power of the US. Were we, as allies, consulted?
Here's what the press found out at the time
Read 5 tweets
4 Aug
Can we stop this? The EU system is similar to the US one (ESTA). The US one started in 2008. It is no coincidence that the EC stated its intention to examine the possibility of introducing an electronic system of travel authorization for the EU in... 2008 /1
Here's the 2016 feasibility study. Written by PwC ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/s… /2
And you know what? The UK will launch its own system just like that. So: spite and divisiveness on the part of the UK? No. Similarly following the same models schengenvisainfo.com/news/uk-to-lau…
Read 4 tweets
31 Jul
Some afterthoughts on the flooding in Germany that I think have not been stressed enough - but are important, whether for Germany or the UK or Canada or... anywhere really (short thread)
The debate about the floods have been difficult at times, there's been a lot of criticism of insufficient warnings. And I don't want to debate that away, but it misses an important point. /2
A lot of people in the world have had the privilege of living in locations that were climatically more or less safe. "Warnings" meant: maybe get stuff out of your cellar. Don't drive today. Red alerts often seemed to mean: "today no jogging". /3
Read 6 tweets
21 Jul
Oh my. Maybe it is time to explain how treaties work, with particular regard to fudge. Because this is just wrong. (thread)
Let's start off with some very very very basic facts: treaties are instruments concluded by two or more parties. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties actually defines them (I'll spare you details)
Treaties are binding. Art. 26 VCLT. Pacta sunt servanda.
Read 26 tweets

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