The Pham Effects

2026-05-10 · Ho Chanh Nghia

Originally published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pham-effects-khanh-pham-cinuc/

The Pham Effects

In the spirit of the Dung and Kruger effect.

First premise is that the bell curve is true. *I personally have some reservations about it, but for the most part, it is accepted as a fact.

Second premise is that the middle majority consider themselves the representative of the height of intelligence.

Corollary 1: both the idiots and the genius are undiscernible to them. The height of the common sense.

Corollary 2: everyone cannot be wrong. So if 1,000 idiots were to share the same conclusion, then it must be correct.

Corollary 3: if they are rich they must be intelligent.

Corollary 4: if a million people follow them, then they must be intelligent.

Most of the metrics used are easy to measure and tangible. Wealth, sex symbol, amount of follower on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. The type of metrics used to measure intelligence by Confucius, Socrates, and Plato would not be understood.

So by the time people have a little education, understand that human intelligence are spread out across 0-99%, they develop a sense of where they are, and try to remain in that bracket that believes themselves to be in. While this is a personal opinion of their place in the scale of intelligence, they will go to great length to prevent it from falling apart. So as a commoner in the majority, the highest priority is being accepted as the “norm.” Which is the antithesis of high intelligence, but it is the foundational belief block of a normal person, thinking themselves to be in the smarter spectrum of society.

This is one of the fears of a democracy ruled system. Basically a mob psychology system with guns, courts, lawyers, etc., who support the mob mentality.

I believe these results can be reproducible, and verifiable, and falsifiable.

Apply this test to the popular host of the reality TV show, The Apprentice, and see if this theory holds water.

There is a famous trans in Vietnamese show biz, she usually offers profound advice in lieu of the traditional sages from classic education from the Han dynasty. Stuff like money can buy everything. Marriage is for losers or stuff like that. And the people would quote her and idolize her for her sagely wisdom.

Saying that many of the people here are not in fact intelligent, can be conflated and concluded that anyone famous is not intelligent. No, not at all. Tennis champions like Roger, Nadal, Novak, Pete, Agasi, Chang, etc., I find them highly intelligent, they simply do not sell wisdom like many of our famous sagely gurus. Many actors or actresses also display high intelligence, but I cannot name names beyond the comedians which I have a greater taste for. They understand deeply and broadly, but they focus on having a good laugh. Many of the creators of fictions and anime are also on this list of high intelligence for me, because they bring questions and answers that are simply not common at all. Being successful and intelligent are not mutually exclusive. But this graph and insight shows that they are not the same thing, but independent of each other.

Intelligence is a hard to measure and hard to confine word, so it is actually hard to use. But hard to measure does not mean it cannot be measured.

“You can measure anything.” Douglas W Hubbard

I have 7 dogs, 30 chickens, 6 dead cats, roughly 100 dead chickens. I can affirm that all of them are intelligent, but none of them are more intelligent than me. So we can say that these animals at least are less than me, or less than human if we can extrapolate it a little at the increased risk of being wrong. I question if all humans are smarter than the dogs running around my yard acting like dogs.

While Howard Gardner presented it as 9 types of intelligence, that’s just his decision on categorizing intelligence. Similar to how we want to categorize Dolphin as not a fish. Most people cannot see beyond the category, but that is all it is. While Buddha does not call it intelligence, he did divide it into 89 types of minds, which are sort of types of intelligence.

While it is more likely than not that I would be hanged for ranking one human more intelligent or less intelligent. Near absolutely be burned for declaring myself the smarter one in the bell curve, or top 1% in the ASVAB. Socially tabooed and all. But tabooed does not mean it is not true. Facts are facts regardless if 100% of the living people denies it. Some of us are better at thinking than others, even if we condense and oversimplified it to “intelligent,” it still can be measured. I usually can measure this with just 1-2 sentences really. Anytime you present a real problem, you can see their processing ability of the person, and you can at least judge if they are processing better or worse than you (assuming you know yourself at all), and you can measure it qualitatively or quantitatively (but requires you having some grasp of measurements).

This effect is the major majority, so mostly people who have a basic K-12, and 4 years of college, and established a stable career. Some may even be in management. One most common demographic are the 15 years old. I don’t believe I was this way, but in 2024 all the 15 years old seem to be among this self-appointed emissary of human intelligence. College students would almost always be here as well, and definitely college graduates. When Mike Thomson told the college student protestors to go home, I sympathize with what he is saying. I was pro Palestinian freedom and saving helpless people. But I was also not interested in seeing young college students get mobilized as cannon fodder against the empire. But that’s the only weapon the weak forces have against the empire, so I understand their choice completely. Those political issues are beside the point though. The point here is these people who think they represent the top of human intelligence range, are in fact just the “average.”

After 11 years working in CBRNE related mission. Getting lectured by political activists on Corona virus was insulting to say the least. These people who lack every measurable foundations in CBRNE, but only possessed demonstrated success in making more money than the average, appointed themselves as the dictator of health and medical practices for everyone. I could not really tolerate that. Forced medical treatment or practice is firmly enshrined as the evil of human tendencies, for me anyway. You force a needle of unknown substances inside my system, I get to force a million of those needles inside your system. That’s how I feel about it.

What good is knowledge if it is not usable? I think this is usable. I use it to predict what will be.

In business investing, which I lack every measurable achievement in, I have heard, and I believe that whatever the money wants, the money gets. It is a tangent to this effect I described. There are too many of these people to argue against. Socrates would have to drink hemlock again a thousand times before this majority changes its mind to that of Socrates.

We can use this to predict what the US empire will do tomorrow as well.

Think about that.