Artificial Cheese

I’ve always fancied myself as a somewhat intelligent person. Not particularly knowledgable, and not too smart, but intelligent enough to hold a meaningful conversation and perform moderately complex tasks. I performed one of those tasks today.

What the task entailed isn’t important, and it may take some time to explain, so lets just say I ’shaved the boars back’. I have worked with people who I know are smarter and more capable than I am, and they were unable to shave the boars back, but I did it without much effort at all. The moment that I reported shaving the boar’s back to my superiors/co-workers they commended me hard.

Those of you who know me know that I am as modest as I am handsome. I immediately explained that the instructions for shaving a boar’s back were easily found on the internet, however they continued to praise me. I tried to explain that I didn’t use my boar shaving skills to accomplish the task, I just knew what to search for on Google. Still, they continued to chalk it up to my intelligence and ability.

Whats going on here? Personally, I don’t believe that looking something up on the internet and following instructions is quite the same as understanding a subject and writing those instructions. However the internet has become an aggregation of knowledge, and the ability to search through that collection is being mistaken for intelligence.

Does looking up a recipe on the internet mean that you are a good cook? How about reading fantasy sports tips and implementing them in your own team? Is this any different from following cryptic instructions that come with crappy swedish furniture and calling that skill carpentry?

No? Alright, forget it.