I’ve found people generally fall into 3 categories of knowledge:

1. ) Cursory surface swimmers: they understand a topic enough to bring it up in conversation (usually over cocktails), yet they don’t understand the deeper levels or complexities of a subject. About 80% of the world falls into this category;
2. ) Deep divers: these people have drilled down and know a subject to almost a Ph.D. level of detail (Wall Street is chock full of these ass clowns). The downside is this level of knowledge has a very narrow focus and is full of biases. About 15% of the world falls into this category. This tends to be the domain of the Intellectual Idiot;
3. ) Aqualung swimmers: these people have both deep diver levels of understanding on a subject, yet have also been able to contextualize it within the greater scope of the world around it. As such, they can see that adoption of certain ideas or beliefs, by the masses, will lead to paradoxes and the opposite effect will arrive from the original cause. They don’t make Descartes error. They also understand that combining gut instinct (emotion) with thoughts (intellect) they can generate a synergy that succeeds in the real world. Unlike the Intellectual idiots who are constant bungling things, these people tend to be the creators, entrepreneurs and movers within a free, competitive society. It takes a balanced brain and a risk-seeking emotional makeup to be one of these people. Unfortunately, only about 5% of the world falls into this category.