Most of them really do believe that education = intelligence, and so because they have the alphabet soup after their names is like little gold star bonuses. Which is funny because I had started looking into getting some of those certifications to realize how little significance they actually hold.

I remember once on a job where the engineer on site would be informed about an issue with the plans and he would instantly start tapping that pinkie ring on the desk to say "I'm the smart one here." While a contractor was trying to explain the issue, I know a couple others brought it up and same response. 6 months and ~1 million dollars later the machine arrives. Not only was the concrete pad it was supposed to sit on too small, it didn't even fit in the room built to hold it.

Anyway, those smug pseudo-intellectuals are probably among the last group to ever accept that their whole world view was wrong.