This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
The idea that for anything to achieve mass significance, it must appeal to and be explainable by "midwits."
When it shows up
Mass movements, popular memes, widely-shared political ideas. Observations that an idea's popularity is inversely correlated with its intellectual sophistication.
Failure mode
Ideas requiring sophistication for full understanding cannot scale. For mass reach, an idea must be explainable by a person of average intelligence. This filters out most subtle ideas; what survives is often wrong but simple.
Countermeasure
Don't evaluate ideas by popularity; the filter selects for simplicity, not accuracy. Be especially skeptical of broadly popular positions; they passed the midwit filter, which is not a truth filter.
Related traps
Also connected in the map3 more, locked
Credit & first seen
PopularizedCoined/popularized by Gurwinder Bhogal (The Prism - gurwinder.blog). First heard on Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson () source ↗
Also revealed
Entry #143 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon