Smart-Dumb Content: The New Language of the Internet

Hello readers,

Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth:

Much of today’s “intelligent” content is not just hollow — it’s actively anti-intellectual.

What we’re seeing is the industrial rise of pseudo-intelligent media: content engineered not to enlighten, but to simulate enlightenment.

It mimics depth. 

It mimics nuance. 

But at its core, it’s empty, optimized for algorithmic approval, not human understanding.

If you’ve ever watched a clip of Lex Fridman nodding solemnly while someone says absolutely nothing, you know what I mean.

This isn’t just a glitch in the system. It is the system.

And it’s reshaping how we think, talk, and understand the world.

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From Literacy to Legibility

Marshall McLuhan once said, “The medium is the message.”

Today, the medium is TikTok or Instagram reels. The message?

Compress your intelligence into 60 seconds or be ignored.

What does that do to content?

We get ideas that are legible, but not literate.

That is, ideas that appear smart to the untrained eye, but collapse under scrutiny.

A few examples:

• “Naval Threads”: Decoupled from his essays or podcast, most Naval tweets are productivity fortune cookies—ambiguous, reductive, and unchallenged.

• “Visual MBA” Carousels: Summarizing 700 pages of Michael Porter or Peter Drucker into a Canva slide doesn’t help you learn strategy—it helps you feel seen by the algorithm.

• Reels like “How to Think Like Elon Musk”: Which mostly involve staring into space and asking first-principles questions with zero understanding of physics, org design, or execution risk.

This is the equivalent of feeding your brain a diet of protein powder with no real food.

You’re full, but not nourished.

Why Pseudo-Smart Content Works

Let’s break down the mechanics.

1. It rewards pattern recognition, not originality.

Smart-dumb content mimics the form of smart content: long threads, frameworks, synthesis, jargon.

It learns how intelligence sounds, but doesn’t require understanding.

2. It exploits cognitive ease.

Daniel Kahneman’s concept of "System 1" (fast, intuitive thinking) is tailor-made for this stuff.

Real learning lives in System 2 - slow, deliberate, effortful.

But System 2 doesn’t get clicks.

3. It thrives on the illusion of mastery.

A 30-second clip summarizing a 300-page book creates perceived competence - a known bias in psychology.

But in reality, it's intellectual cosplay.

The result?

We feel informed, but we’re not.

We feel fluent, but we can’t explain.

We feel smarter, but we’re just mimicking what looks like intelligence.

This Isn’t Just a Creator Problem

We’re not just passive victims - we’re complicit.

We crave productivity without complexity.

We want to sound smart in meetings without doing the hard reading.

We’re mistaking intellectual vibes for real ideas.

This is how “Smart-Tok” and Instagram carousels have become our default learning platforms.

They’re not built to teach. They’re built to perform the act of teaching.

It’s media as performance art.

And like most performance art, it often says more about the audience than the artist.

The Real Risk: Thought Collapse

When every idea becomes content, and every content piece is judged by metrics, this is what happens:

• Depth becomes a liability. It’s too slow, too dense, not shareable.

• Nuance becomes confusing. Nobody wants 3 sides of an argument — they want one bold opinion and 7 bullet points.

• Critical thinking is outsourced. We don’t form beliefs, we curate them from thoughtfluencers.

The net effect?

We’re not just misinformed - we’re confidently misinformed.

This is the most dangerous state for a society to be in.

And it’s eerily similar to what Neil Postman predicted in 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' except now, it’s not just entertainment eating discourse.

It’s “intellectual” content doing it.

So What’s the Way Out?

If you’re a creator:

Make hard content.

Not just viral content. Not just accessible content. But rigorous, inconvenient, and occasionally unpopular content.

If you’re a consumer:

Seek friction.

Read long essays. Watch full interviews. Read primary sources. 

Ask: could I explain this to someone else?

And for all of us:

Stop mistaking aesthetics for understanding.

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Leeds1888 is not in the business of looking smart.

We’re in the business of understanding culture and calling out its blind spots, even when it costs us reach.

If this resonated, forward it to someone who needs to hear it.

If it challenged you, reply and tell me what I missed.

Either way, let’s raise the bar.

Until next Wednesday

Vipul Agrawal,

Leeds1888