When I was a kid I decided that test pilots must be idiots.
My logic:
Being a test pilot is dangerous. Only idiots do dangerous things. Therefore test pilots must be idiots.
Later (embarrassingly later) I learned that many test pilots were also engineers. This made me reconsider my opinion. I learned to be very careful when judging intelligence, and also the limits of inference.
Being an idiot us a varied and nuanced thing. Plenty of very intelligent people are idiots in one way or another. Being drawn to excessively risky behavior is just one aspect of idiocy.
I think these comments highlight to me how difficult it is to reason and talk about intelligence.
Intelligence and stupidity suffer from fundamental attribution error.
The main thing I learned from reflecting on my error is that making any sweeping conclusions about people is foolhardy.
So yes, engineers can be idiots, test pilots can be idiots, smart people can decide to do dangerous things on purpose, idiots can do dangerous things on purpose, idiots can do dangerous things on accident, so on to absurdity.
Putting people in buckets based on some observed criteria is rarely advisable; everyone's story is different.
My logic:
Being a test pilot is dangerous. Only idiots do dangerous things. Therefore test pilots must be idiots.
Later (embarrassingly later) I learned that many test pilots were also engineers. This made me reconsider my opinion. I learned to be very careful when judging intelligence, and also the limits of inference.