Mama always says stupid is as stupid does … Forrest Gump
If that’s true then stupidity is not the word you typically expect to be associated with Albert Einstein. But if you define stupid as the way you feel when you’re working on a difficult problem, as being wrong until you’re right, or the way others might feel about your speculations until they’re proven, then it’s easy to see that Einstein was stupid for a very 
long time until on November 7, 1919 the London Times proclaimed: “Revolution in Science/New Theory of the Universe/Newtonian Ideas Overthrown.” Suddenly Albert Einstein wasn’t stupid any longer.
But where would the world be if Albert Einstein was afraid of being stupid, feared being wrong, and avoided being misunderstood? It’s when you view stupidity this way that you realize that being stupid …. is actually a good thing.
So stupid is not actually the problem, it’s the fear of being stupid we’ve internalized that’s the real problem. When we are afraid of being perceived as stupid: we don’t try, we don’t risk, we don’t start over again, we don’t put ourselves out there, we don’t stand, we don’t point out, and we don’t make a ruckus. Most of all we don’t change, because deciding to change is admitting that the course we were on before, the way we thought before, or the way we conducted ourselves before was wrong…it was stupid. And far to many of us avoid that feeling of being stupid at all cost.
Seth Godin says the equation is obvious: Change —-> Stupid —-> Afraid
One way we can avoid stupid is to avoid changing, or we can embrace change, and just skip being afraid.
Something To Make You Go…Hmm! Isn’t it ironic that the dumbest thing you can possibly do is to be afraid of appearing … stupid. Tweet