I ended up in grad school trying to get a doctorate, as I was so stupid that looking for a job sounded insurmountable. […] Wonder if any of academia would even be left. Imagine my stupidity of not thinking ahead here.

I don’t think you’re dumb at all, you’d have to jump some serious hurdles to get into a doctoral program[1].

I would suggest you seem to lack confidence though. That’s relatively easy to fix. A timely comment I came across on Hacker News today seems pertinent. One quote in particular sticks out, which I myself have experienced:

my life got immeasurably better when I stopped trying to prove myself to everyone.

LLMs are stochastic parrots, they can really only repeat previously acquired human knowledge and apply it in rudimentary ways. True outside-the-box thinkers will always be required. An LLM is, and always will be a tool.

So anyway, how do I cure my dumbness and actually function as a normal person?

The want and willingness to learn, and the right attitude or mindset: relentless curiosity. If you have a passion, follow it. Don’t get into a field just because there’s huge dollar signs at the end of it.

If it weren’t for curiosity in understanding how something worked by tearing it apart, seeing its insides, then putting it back together, I wouldn’t have the foggiest of clues how to build and fix computers today. Despite my academic qualifications[1] and long career in an unrelated field I’m opting to do some basic trade skills training in Electronics, because it helps satisfy my relentless curiosity, and because it might be useful one day.

Skills and learning things don’t necessarily have to be academic. There are people infinitely smarter than me in their own fields who don’t have any academic qualifications at all. Intelligence is relative to the field it is being applied to.

As for finding friends, if you have a hobby find a local club or maker-space or something like that and go along. Interact with people but don’t go with the singular explicit goal of ‘making friends’. Friendship will flourish as you get to know people naturally through a shared hobby or cause.

[1] for what its worth, I hold two distinct bachelors degrees (not a combined double degree) and am currently studying a masters degree.

Smart people know how little they actually know.

Go to therapy and work with someone who helps you find you. It’s not all depression, grief, or anger issues. You can go and talk.

Eating Reading a book is generally a good start.

For a more specific solution, we need more info on your dumbidity. What convinced you that you’re dumb? And what type of dumb? Any chance you’re smart but just very unwise?

Be curious. Ask questions.
Critical: answer those questions from a reputable source. Not ai. Ask a librarian for a book that can answer it.

Brevity.

Watch educational documentaries of high quality to try to identify topics that interest you and then look for books on those topics to go deep.

But also, I’m just gonna level with you. Life is pretty hard. It sucks a lot of the time. But it’s also awesome at other times. I just want to remind you that it though you’re feeling bad about it right now, it won’t always be this way. You won’t always feel this way. Hope you feel better soon.

Bruh you are underestimating yourself.

Most people don’t even know what academic papers or a doctorate are. So I immediately think you are way above average in intelligence and employability.

To make friends you just have to socialize more. Practice makes perfect.

Don’t tie your self worth to a collapsing system.

I don’t have an answer to your question. I just wanted to say that everyone is part dumb, so you’re not alone. There’s all sorts of smarts and all sorts of stupid, and everyone has some of each. Don’t know if that’s any comfort to you to look at it that way, but it helps me feel better about it.

I mean I know there is grade inflation and issues with education but I kinda feel getting into a PhD program is going to put you at least one standard deviation above the norm on intellect. This seems very rediculous. Is it just to complain about the llm situation?

Read books. At least one per month.

You are not a piece of paper with a list of scores. It’s not as simple as I am good at # therefore should do ABC.

You are a human with 100000s of aspects that make you amazing. So you’re not a rocket scientist, you might not be Brad Pitt either, but you need to get up each day and say hey I’m alive and I’m actually fantastic.

Good luck. Keep smiling, step away from the dumb LLM. Pick up a book, grow a flower, cook the best cheese toastie.

Are you dumb, or are you just anxious and sheltered? Your sentence about grad school makes me think it’s the latter. There are a lot of people like you in the world of academia.