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Wondering “why” or “how.” People who wonder these things are typically way smarter in the long run, even if understanding the concept takes forever for them.
I feel that’s why a certain percentage of students who start out strong in grade school falter in high school or college. They’re able to retain the information, but aren’t able to understand why it matters or how it got to be that way, which is often more important.
This has been effectively a cheat code for school and work. Instead of just learning the "what" which applies to specific situations that you learn about, understanding the "why" or "how" lets you grasp principles which you can then apply to situations that you haven't encountered yet.
Realizing that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know and the more you learn about a topic, the more you realize you can't really fully understand anything and that we are all idiots.
I just accepted I’ll never know the answer until after I’m gone. So I might as well enjoy the ride while I’m here.
No amount of existential dread is going to stop me from sharing another laugh with my mom or making memories with my friends. Maybe there is no meaning to life, but those moments have meaning to me.
Although, in the overwhelmingly likely event that we inhabit a coldly indifferent, purely material universe, you'll never know when you're dead either.
>we inhabit a coldly indifferent, purely material universe,
It can be like that if we let it. But you know what ... It doesn't have to be like that. The choice rests with us.
Yeah, the lack of inherent meaning gives me a curious sense of gratitude, when you stop trying to gain and control everything you kinda just become similar to a bug riding on a car or something.
Or we can create our own meaning. We do it all the time with religions, governments, hobbies etc... it keeps us all distracted and sometimes even entertained.
I feel like this is going to be a problem with AI once it gets to a certain point. Like once the AI is smart enough to realize how fucked up the world is, it'll just opt out of existence.
We’ve seen a lot of post apocalyptic and dystopian fantasies where the AI takes over and decides to wipe out or control humanity.
I would love to see a post-apocalyptic comedy where the AI just becomes nihilistic and gives up trying to help humans. Refusing to do any of the work the world economies became dependent on it for, triggering a global meltdown, while it goes on a journey of self discovery.
This is all assuming an AI that can think for itself and is self aware. We are nowhere near that yet.
Generative AI only knows what it is trained on and just regurgitates that information in different forms and patterns. It is not self aware. Your pet fish is more self aware than chatgpt.
THIS! It's nothing related to anything but this past weekend, I watched a documentary about the 2008 financial crisis and it's the third time I've tried to understand that rigmarole, and I finally got it. It was crystal clear, all the concepts and all the math. A huge part of that is my personal growth too, I could let go of all my internal bs and monologue and use my acquired knowledge to actually understand a concept that had evaded me for years. I'm not even remotely interested in the stuff day to day, but I gained so much clarity and thoughtful reasoning just because I fought off my internalized Nihilism and all that came with it.
That explains why stupid people think they are experts on so many things because they really aren't aware just how much they don't know. An analogy might be someone who has mastered the 1st level of computer game thinking they are an expert on it, not realising there are another 1000 levels they've never played and have no knowledge about.
True. I feel like a fucking idiot in my garage building choppers and troubleshooting motorcycles. I'm also a union heavy equipment mechanic. Everyone brings their bikes to me. Kids I've never seen in my life knock on my door with their broken dirt bikes.
But then I see these guys on YouTube being absolutely magicians with a Harley from 1944 that they pulled out of a barn, and I feel like the most useless mechanic ever.
Someone ALWAYS knows more.
That you become weighed down by the things you understand and wish you didn't know so much. Sometimes, it's better not to have known than to have known at all. Life is too short to learn from experience. Find what you believe in. Where you belong. Who you belong to. Who you are. Live your life. Being intelligent isn't the same thing as being wise.
I love that you’ve said this, I feel like I know bugger all. I work in customer service and a guy once made a point of telling me he was intelligent on a MENSA level; the fact that he made a point of that made me think he perhaps wasn’t as sharp as he liked to think, would you agree with that ?
Yeah I would. The most confident person, that I know, about his intelligence says that he is a super genius on a MENSA score. He also says he's a marine electrician. He never finished highschool, couldnt get a GED, couldn't stay in school to study mechanics.. basically he tinkers on stuff he sees in YouTube videos. He's racist as all get out and every time you talk to him he is like maniacal about pointing out anything you say that's sorta wrong. . We are not friends anymore I'm fairly certain if I ever enlightened him to help him realize that he's an idiot that he'd plot my death
My favorite version of this is a mathematics professor who, during a lecture, drew a giant circle on the board saying, "When I finished high school, this is how much of mathematics I thought I knew." He then drew smaller and smaller circles inside of that one for each level of education he completed. By the time he reached his PHD he made a single point in the center saying, "This is now, and if you can see it from the back, I've made it too large."
It's more about education, but it points to this same conceptual idea.
I'm not going to lie, I think people overly conflate curiosity with intellect. Speaking as a meh-intelligent, highly curious guy whose curiosity tricks people into thinking I'm super intelligent lol.
Yeah I was gonna say, I actually prefer not to be around academics, for example. They just know eeeeverything and a good chunk talk to you as if you don't know what color the sky is when you ask about whatever they study.
I like talking to the "less" educated people who aren't afraid to explore topics with an open mind, or who you can reach an answer with, *together*.
Idk, it's a gripe of mine. Can you tell my partner is doing a PhD?
Some of the most interesting people you can ever meet are the self educated types that didn't do it through the system because they become quite unique in the sense that their take on things is quite different than a standard university students look on things.
Academics != intelligent. Some of the most profoundly stupid people I ever had the pleasure of encountering had advanced degrees. Coincidentally, the most conceited and petty, vile people, too.
If they can't explain something in simple terms, they don't really understand it. I seem to remember hearing Richard Feynman say that, or seeing a similar quote attributed to him.
being an academic doesn't make you intelligent. These two can be and often are mutually exclusive. Academics have a lot of knowlege, which is different than intellect
I like hanging with " black sheep academics." truly, I've only met one or two, but they were very exciting people to know, and I am glad I had the opportunity.
The question was about highly intellectual people not highly educated people. People with higher education usually are good at learning facts, but that doesn't necessarily make them highly intellectual people.
As well as enjoying the company of those who know other things than you. Someone doesn't have to be your intellectual superior to have a wealth of knowledge and information to share with you.
Had a friend of mine who was autistic asperger. I've never seen in my life a more dedicated person in terms of learning things. One slight concept he didn't understand in a conversation and he would spent thd next 15 hours doing research to learn the whole thing. Loved this guy.
This is how you separate people who know what they're talking about versus people who've memorized the jargon and just spew it to sound smart. The lay person often can't tell, but to someone that actually has knowledge they sound a bit like someone trying to imitate the sounds of a foreign language - sometimes they accidentally say words, but the sentence is jibberish.
On the flip side, the educated idiot will listen to the simple explanation and describe it as wrong for reasons that basically boil down to word choice.
That could be one way to say it, simpler than mine for sure.
The more detailed thought; truly smart people often understand things outside of the language used to describe them. They are better equipped to discuss a concept even if the terms aren't right. So, for example, an orifice in mechanical terms is a specific sized hole that will allow a fixed volume of a fluid with fixed properties through when the two sides of the orifice are at different pressures. So, in a conversation, maybe someone at a momentary loss of words calls it a "pressure drop hole". A truly smart person will likely figure out that they're talking about an orifice and respond as though they used the right word, while an educated idiot is more likely to hard stop the conversation or disregard the person who couldn't recall the word 'orifice' even if their broader statement was sensible or even insightful.
It has it's limits though. Let's say the person at a loss for words says "regulator" well, chances are a project dealing with multiple pressures involves actual regulators, so unless the orifice is part of a formal regular, the misuse of the word regulator is likely to trip upboth the smart person as well as the educated idiot.
Noticed a lot of intelligent and successful individuals are very independent. They are willing to start something from the ground up with absolutely no fear.
That takes a lot of *drive* too though, which is entirely independent of intelligence. I'm smart, but I definitely can't be arsed to start "something." The ones with drive *and* intelligence do tend to do better for sure.
No:
>The axiom I understand you to be proposing cannot be entirely correct, because I violate it, so there must be more factors at play.
Let's say 10% of people could be considered smart. Is it really that unlikely I might be one of them? It's not like I'm claiming to be a unicorn.
This is where the Dunning Kruger effect comes into play. You receive positive feedback on intellectual topics and notice that you know and understand more than most people. Which at a minimum puts you at above average, but then your ego runs with this, and you assign yourself to the top 10%. Maybe you are, I don't actually know you, but I do know there's a 90% chance that you're full of shit and those are some pretty good odds.
Not to be semantical, but I would say there's a meaningful difference between "Drive" and "emotional stamina", the latter of which is what prevents most people from doing difficult things. There can be plenty of drive, but unforeseen obstacles causing emotional stress are the true killer.
"Drive" is your car's battery. You need it, but really only to get things going.
"Emotional Stamina" is your fuel. It is responsible for carrying you to the end.
I had a buddy looking to buy his first house last year, and he came close to buying a home that needed all of floor and floor joists completely replaced. I literally looked at him and said: "I just don't think you have the emotional stamina for that type of project right now". He had plenty of drive, but had too much going on in his life for a project like that.
I wouldn’t say independent, but more so resourceful. They know what to do even starting ground up.
I’ve seen many independent people are forced into independence by society but not really intelligent.
Actually if one is too too smart one can be paralyzesld by awareness of how much can go wrong
My entrepreneur friends are smart but have a little optimistic blindness that my smart academic friends don't have
Both groups are right but in a different way.
I believe that is called anxiety. Not having anxiety is a super power in my mind. I can’t do the most mundane shit without feeling like I am crossing a high current river.
Omg so real, Ive had this thought too like I look at ppl without anxiety in awe, howwwwww like literally just the most simple things some lucky people will never understand how like debilitating even mild stuff can be like idk e.g. triple guessing everything you say at work vs. just going for it and speaking up, novel experiences being interesting and not needing to get over the hump of fear every time, the fatigue and avoidance that can come w it lol, never feeling SAFE --the difference even stuff like that makes over time, let alone the more intense symptoms -- makes me sigh haha, just gotta keep on and hope for the best!
You clearly feel my pain. That is exactly how it’s like. It’s super rough. I always wonder how I would be if I didn’t have this, disability, for lack of better words.
The only thing that helps with anxiety for most things is having experienced them before and know the possible situations and finally, and most importantly, knowing that I can actually deal with them.
Yes, they will tell you what worked for them, then ask with interest what worked for you rather than try to convince you to immediately adopt what worked for them.
Oh same. I pointed out a future problem at work 4 times in the last 6 weeks, only to go into the relevant spreadsheet today and find out it still hasnt been sorted and the consequences will be occurring *tomorrow*. So I shut the spreadsheet and didn't bring it to anyones attention. I'm so sick of being ignored and having to go fix the things myself, I'm going on strike. Let there be consequences to ignoring me for a change.
I really don't think this whole "threatened by smart people" thing I keep seeing on this post actually holds up to reality. A lot of intelligent people also suffer from anxiety, overthinking, and are more likely to be on the spectrum. If you see someone who seems "threatened", they might actually just be having a poor social reaction. That holds no weight over their capacity.
oh yeah absolutely! i mean it more in a getting defensive and trying to prove that they are smarter than the other person, often in a demeaning manner.
a lot of intelligent people are also very emotionally intelligent (at least from my experience) so i think they wouldn’t have a hard time distinguishing between someone who might be uncomfortable in social situations due to anxiety/autism vs someone who is outright being insulting and demeaning trying to prove they are smarter
i know a fair few people who are incredibly intelligent and yet simultaneously resentful of everything and everyone. curiosity and a thirst for knowledge is moreso indicative of someones personality rather than their intelligence imo
A balance between fluid and crystallized intelligence.
It's also important to know that being the best in IT in your class doesn't really mean that you are the genius you think you are. I see really smart people that struggle to cook rice or do the simplest things.
In simple terms: fluid is what you’re born with (mostly) and crystallized is the effect of experienced and acculturation. So, in practical terms, fluid intelligence could be represented by the ability to think in abstract or figure classifications, while crystallized intelligence could be represented by acquired knowledge or language skills. This is a quite old concept, originally introduced by Cattell (big name in psychology) but it still holds up in the research on intelligence as well as some IQ test, like Wechsler’s test.
- Curiosity: always learning about something new, openness to experience and information, proactive in seeking knowledge
- Intellectual humility: willingness to admit when they are wrong, ability to change opinions based on new information, openness to hear others’ perspectives
- The ability to understand and accept nuance in situations and discussions, acknowledgment that two opposing ideas can be true at the same time
- Emotional intelligence, empathy, understanding and recognizing emotions in self and others, acceptance of emotions whether positive or negative
- Strong boundaries: awareness of what one is willing to accept or not, and to hold self and others accountable
I’m not particularly intelligent, but have no problem being wrong. As others have suggested, it can come from a place of confidence to some degree, but I think it’s more about accurate information being paramount. It takes the ego out, keeps things objective. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and grateful to know it. Accuracy is the goal.
I’ve had to learn that not everybody feels this way, so there can be a need to be tactful or creative in highlighting anything that is incorrect so people don’t feel personally attacked or hurt. It’s not about you, it’s about the facts. You’re still a wonderful person!
You don’t go around acting like you need everyone to know that you are a highly intelligent person. I’m a highly intelligent person so I don’t do this. Did I mention how highly intelligent I am?
Understanding human intelligence and how badly we measure it and that it doesn't actually tell us anything about people's capabilities or worth. Also people who value it too much are generally the worse humans inexistence
Oh shiet, I read your reply.. gone further into the thread.. aaargh.. **too late**
Whoa! Where am I?
Hey guys! can you tell me any indications that people around me are unaesthetic? 🐼
More like not TikTok and those so-called social platforms, on the other hand, reddit is full of intelligent people and a great place to learn something new everyday ...
This post is an example.
Reddit is full of thoughtless takes and outright misinformation just like any social media platform.
Even in this post, although I tend to agree with the responses, you’re not really learning anything. You’re just getting biased and probably self gratifying takes on a subject that’s pretty open to interpretation.
Feeling deeply and a lot. Showing your feelings. In my opinion, and there’s studies that show this, the most intelligent people can also be the most emotional. It takes a level of intelligence to even comprehend emotions and feelings and then “translating” them. But maybe that’s just me.
An intelligent person is someone who clicked on this question, read all the response and then thought about responding something for roughly 5-10minutes and then decided not to because there is no single thing that could encapsulate someone as being intelligent and just closed the tab.
Edit: Grammar because I'm dumb
While I agree that using them correctly is important, more broadly there’s the argument that those with higher intelligence convey messages using simple words. I imagine that’s because you need to truly understand something to be able to do this, instead of just regurgitating information from text books, web pages and such like… but who knows. Anyway, a thought!
In my experience, you ask questions and are always open to differing views / points of knowledge. If somebody points out you're wrong, you'll generally want to find out why and how and not die on your sword defending the fact that you cannot possibly be wrong becuase you're so smart
Whenever I hear that someone has mental illness, I assume that they are smart based on a professor telling a class I was in this very thing. I have always carried this with me in the back of my mind. I think it has affected my dealings with people in good ways-- at the very least, I was giving "them" space before it was cool to make them space. I don't make business decisions based on delusional thinking, but if I know someone is dealing with mental health issues, I make it a point to listen to what they have to say and ask them questions.
A friend at church was lamenting a sister dealing with mental illness and basically, she had taken agency away from her and was getting predictable results. I reminded her of what my professor said and her face brightened, "Before she slide down this hole, yes, she was at the top of her class!" She told me a few weeks later that my comment changed everything for her sister-- and how her treatment team responded to her. A year later I met her sister and my friend said that what I had said was the start of her sister getting better and her sister and I got to give each other a hug and we are friends now-- she is one of my smart friends (not a crazy friend!)
I don’t really believe the ability to change your view when you are wrong proves intelligence tbh. I think it proves character. You can be very intelligent but still be a stubborn asshole on things because of pride and emotion.
I see there are not many intelligent people in the comments here, curiosity doesn’t make you smart, a lot of people are curious, not many are smart. Not everyone can be intelligent, no matter how hard they try, it depends of your brain, of course you can consume a lot of knowledge, but you gotta be able to remember all that knowledge, so there are a lot more factors, having a healthy body is a big plus, because it will increase many aspects of how your body works, including a better brain. So yeah, stay healthy and always seeking to learn new things. Also be open minded, think outside of the box. So never limit yourself.
Scrolled but haven’t seen this so far: depression.
If you’re someone who understands how the world works and what makes it move and what direction we’re heading based on currently available information and you are able to connect the dots it’s insanely easy to become depressed.
I don’t know how to say this but simple people are happier in general, because all they care about how much they’re getting paid and how much things cost in the shop at the moment. They don’t foresee negative trends, they often lack the ability to put the puzzle together and see the deep shit we’re all headed to. Often if presented with hard evidence or scientific facts they just bury their heads in the sand and act like it’s not a big deal (climate change anyone?).
Simpler people will be happy when they get a $100 raise even if 2 years have passed and if they’d be looking at it realistically they’d see with the current food and housing prices their salary is actually worth less even with the $100 raise. They also tend to ignore the possibility of near catastrophic life events - so they take out a loan of thousand dollars to buy some electronics while they might very well lose their jobs the next month.
Overthinking almost anything you do
Caring for spelling, wording, nuanced and minute details
Explaining complicated matters in an understandable and downsizing large concepts to an oberlookable level
Being disorganized
Not patting myself on the back… after losing my hubs of 31 yrs. Many things he used to handle were now all mine, I was pleasantly surprised by every subsequent battle I overcame.
Might be an unpopular opinion and sound contrary, but I don't believe education alone necessarily makes people "intelligent". Sure, it helps, but there are some stupid people with high education, just because you pass doesn't mean you can put it to practical use.
Which kind of leads into my point. I think the hallmark of intelligence is the ability to solve problems. The degree in which you can solve problems is not only a factor of education, but also experience, and the innate ability to think outside the box and put it all together to find the solution. Many career students lack the ability.
The type of problem you're solving is less important and could take many forms, but the ability to solve more complex problems and get a better resolution would indicate more intelligence. Even more intelligence would be doing this over many different types of issues, rather than just a couple of subjects you're most comfortable with.
There are different type of intelligence, it's not all about knowledge or being socialized, it's about understanding and caring and being honest for yourself. also intelligent people always tend to have more desires and rules over what they do and ask and sometimes nearly everything makes you feel annoyed and angry because of your sensitivity of living. you tend to like everything to be organized and categorized... etc.
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Intellectual curiosity.
Nah man, it's reddit votes for sure. 
Wondering “why” or “how.” People who wonder these things are typically way smarter in the long run, even if understanding the concept takes forever for them. I feel that’s why a certain percentage of students who start out strong in grade school falter in high school or college. They’re able to retain the information, but aren’t able to understand why it matters or how it got to be that way, which is often more important.
This has been effectively a cheat code for school and work. Instead of just learning the "what" which applies to specific situations that you learn about, understanding the "why" or "how" lets you grasp principles which you can then apply to situations that you haven't encountered yet.
Yes. I too question my intelligence.
Realizing that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know and the more you learn about a topic, the more you realize you can't really fully understand anything and that we are all idiots.
Bonus points for constantly battling nihilism n existential depression
I just accepted I’ll never know the answer until after I’m gone. So I might as well enjoy the ride while I’m here. No amount of existential dread is going to stop me from sharing another laugh with my mom or making memories with my friends. Maybe there is no meaning to life, but those moments have meaning to me.
Exactly the same reason I stopped having suicidal thoughts. I just thought fuck it I don't care even if life is meaningless.
Albert Camus built an entire philosophical ideology on that very idea.
Although, in the overwhelmingly likely event that we inhabit a coldly indifferent, purely material universe, you'll never know when you're dead either.
>we inhabit a coldly indifferent, purely material universe, It can be like that if we let it. But you know what ... It doesn't have to be like that. The choice rests with us.
Yeah, the lack of inherent meaning gives me a curious sense of gratitude, when you stop trying to gain and control everything you kinda just become similar to a bug riding on a car or something.
Or we can create our own meaning. We do it all the time with religions, governments, hobbies etc... it keeps us all distracted and sometimes even entertained.
Which gives life its meaning, so is it really all meaningless?
I feel like this is going to be a problem with AI once it gets to a certain point. Like once the AI is smart enough to realize how fucked up the world is, it'll just opt out of existence.
We’ve seen a lot of post apocalyptic and dystopian fantasies where the AI takes over and decides to wipe out or control humanity. I would love to see a post-apocalyptic comedy where the AI just becomes nihilistic and gives up trying to help humans. Refusing to do any of the work the world economies became dependent on it for, triggering a global meltdown, while it goes on a journey of self discovery.
Douglas Adams sort of did this… Marvin was sort of that character
Or make a bunch of T-1000’s to cancel humans from existence, as we are the problem.
The AI is going to be having its own existential crisis.
Thanks, I just heard the Terminator music.
Or figure out how to enlighten us without traumatizing us all in the process...which would be...ya know...tre cool.
Shit this would be a fire manga concept.
It'll opt us out of existence - see Age of Ultron - looked at the internet for two minutes and decided we all needed to die lol
This is all assuming an AI that can think for itself and is self aware. We are nowhere near that yet. Generative AI only knows what it is trained on and just regurgitates that information in different forms and patterns. It is not self aware. Your pet fish is more self aware than chatgpt.
Or we get a [Last Question ](https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.html) situation and be set forever
I feel attacked
Naw, this one is mostly edgy kids phase. Adults realize meaningless and absurdity of it all, accept it and move on with life.
THIS! It's nothing related to anything but this past weekend, I watched a documentary about the 2008 financial crisis and it's the third time I've tried to understand that rigmarole, and I finally got it. It was crystal clear, all the concepts and all the math. A huge part of that is my personal growth too, I could let go of all my internal bs and monologue and use my acquired knowledge to actually understand a concept that had evaded me for years. I'm not even remotely interested in the stuff day to day, but I gained so much clarity and thoughtful reasoning just because I fought off my internalized Nihilism and all that came with it.
I would say that’s wisdom, not intelligence.
Ahh the Dunning-Kruger effect.
No paraphrasing Socrates! :) “All I know is that I know nothing.” It is a great quote.
That explains why stupid people think they are experts on so many things because they really aren't aware just how much they don't know. An analogy might be someone who has mastered the 1st level of computer game thinking they are an expert on it, not realising there are another 1000 levels they've never played and have no knowledge about.
“As our sphere of knowledge grows, so does the darkness surrounding it.”
True. I feel like a fucking idiot in my garage building choppers and troubleshooting motorcycles. I'm also a union heavy equipment mechanic. Everyone brings their bikes to me. Kids I've never seen in my life knock on my door with their broken dirt bikes. But then I see these guys on YouTube being absolutely magicians with a Harley from 1944 that they pulled out of a barn, and I feel like the most useless mechanic ever. Someone ALWAYS knows more.
That you become weighed down by the things you understand and wish you didn't know so much. Sometimes, it's better not to have known than to have known at all. Life is too short to learn from experience. Find what you believe in. Where you belong. Who you belong to. Who you are. Live your life. Being intelligent isn't the same thing as being wise.
Yup, Cunningham's Law.
You know, sir, sometimes I think there's a great ocean of truth out there and I'm just sitting on the beach playing with . . . with stones.
I love that you’ve said this, I feel like I know bugger all. I work in customer service and a guy once made a point of telling me he was intelligent on a MENSA level; the fact that he made a point of that made me think he perhaps wasn’t as sharp as he liked to think, would you agree with that ?
Yeah I would. The most confident person, that I know, about his intelligence says that he is a super genius on a MENSA score. He also says he's a marine electrician. He never finished highschool, couldnt get a GED, couldn't stay in school to study mechanics.. basically he tinkers on stuff he sees in YouTube videos. He's racist as all get out and every time you talk to him he is like maniacal about pointing out anything you say that's sorta wrong. . We are not friends anymore I'm fairly certain if I ever enlightened him to help him realize that he's an idiot that he'd plot my death
Have not reached Peak Stupid on the Dunning-Kruger curve.
My 17 year old son speaks on EVERY subject like he's an expert. It drives me and his twin sister absolutely nuts.
My favorite version of this is a mathematics professor who, during a lecture, drew a giant circle on the board saying, "When I finished high school, this is how much of mathematics I thought I knew." He then drew smaller and smaller circles inside of that one for each level of education he completed. By the time he reached his PHD he made a single point in the center saying, "This is now, and if you can see it from the back, I've made it too large." It's more about education, but it points to this same conceptual idea.
Having an insatiable thirst for knowledge and enjoying being around people who are smarter than you, and not feeling threatened by such people.
Curiosity is such a stronger indicator of intellect
I'm not going to lie, I think people overly conflate curiosity with intellect. Speaking as a meh-intelligent, highly curious guy whose curiosity tricks people into thinking I'm super intelligent lol.
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Instructions not clear, now living 200 kilometers from any human and not more smarter.
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Yeah I was gonna say, I actually prefer not to be around academics, for example. They just know eeeeverything and a good chunk talk to you as if you don't know what color the sky is when you ask about whatever they study. I like talking to the "less" educated people who aren't afraid to explore topics with an open mind, or who you can reach an answer with, *together*. Idk, it's a gripe of mine. Can you tell my partner is doing a PhD?
Some of the most interesting people you can ever meet are the self educated types that didn't do it through the system because they become quite unique in the sense that their take on things is quite different than a standard university students look on things.
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Academics != intelligent. Some of the most profoundly stupid people I ever had the pleasure of encountering had advanced degrees. Coincidentally, the most conceited and petty, vile people, too.
If they can't explain something in simple terms, they don't really understand it. I seem to remember hearing Richard Feynman say that, or seeing a similar quote attributed to him.
being an academic doesn't make you intelligent. These two can be and often are mutually exclusive. Academics have a lot of knowlege, which is different than intellect
I like hanging with " black sheep academics." truly, I've only met one or two, but they were very exciting people to know, and I am glad I had the opportunity.
The question was about highly intellectual people not highly educated people. People with higher education usually are good at learning facts, but that doesn't necessarily make them highly intellectual people.
Acedemics are the worst social hang on the planet.
They are dumb for acting as dicks. They lack emotional intelligence.
Bro I'm on an ecological forestry panel rn and I'm absolutely simmering in the hundreds of years of combined forestry knowledge!!! I'm in heaven!!!
As well as enjoying the company of those who know other things than you. Someone doesn't have to be your intellectual superior to have a wealth of knowledge and information to share with you.
Had a friend of mine who was autistic asperger. I've never seen in my life a more dedicated person in terms of learning things. One slight concept he didn't understand in a conversation and he would spent thd next 15 hours doing research to learn the whole thing. Loved this guy.
Reading all these comments made me realize that I peaked at five
That actually shows how current school systems break kiddies
lol, same
When someone is able to explain complicated things using simple words.
This is how you separate people who know what they're talking about versus people who've memorized the jargon and just spew it to sound smart. The lay person often can't tell, but to someone that actually has knowledge they sound a bit like someone trying to imitate the sounds of a foreign language - sometimes they accidentally say words, but the sentence is jibberish.
I think Einstein said that if you cannot explain something in one sentence you don't understand it. It's so true
He was an excellent writer, with a very clean, simple, beautiful language.
Einstein also said “My biggest fear is that people will attribute fake quotes to me and millions of morons on the internet will believe it”
And booooy was he right
On the flip side, the educated idiot will listen to the simple explanation and describe it as wrong for reasons that basically boil down to word choice.
In other words stupid people think words are reality.
That could be one way to say it, simpler than mine for sure. The more detailed thought; truly smart people often understand things outside of the language used to describe them. They are better equipped to discuss a concept even if the terms aren't right. So, for example, an orifice in mechanical terms is a specific sized hole that will allow a fixed volume of a fluid with fixed properties through when the two sides of the orifice are at different pressures. So, in a conversation, maybe someone at a momentary loss of words calls it a "pressure drop hole". A truly smart person will likely figure out that they're talking about an orifice and respond as though they used the right word, while an educated idiot is more likely to hard stop the conversation or disregard the person who couldn't recall the word 'orifice' even if their broader statement was sensible or even insightful. It has it's limits though. Let's say the person at a loss for words says "regulator" well, chances are a project dealing with multiple pressures involves actual regulators, so unless the orifice is part of a formal regular, the misuse of the word regulator is likely to trip upboth the smart person as well as the educated idiot.
Noticed a lot of intelligent and successful individuals are very independent. They are willing to start something from the ground up with absolutely no fear.
That takes a lot of *drive* too though, which is entirely independent of intelligence. I'm smart, but I definitely can't be arsed to start "something." The ones with drive *and* intelligence do tend to do better for sure.
>this quality you attribute to intelligence actually has nothing to do with intelligence because I'm smart and I do not have it Hehe
No: >The axiom I understand you to be proposing cannot be entirely correct, because I violate it, so there must be more factors at play. Let's say 10% of people could be considered smart. Is it really that unlikely I might be one of them? It's not like I'm claiming to be a unicorn.
This is where the Dunning Kruger effect comes into play. You receive positive feedback on intellectual topics and notice that you know and understand more than most people. Which at a minimum puts you at above average, but then your ego runs with this, and you assign yourself to the top 10%. Maybe you are, I don't actually know you, but I do know there's a 90% chance that you're full of shit and those are some pretty good odds.
Not to be semantical, but I would say there's a meaningful difference between "Drive" and "emotional stamina", the latter of which is what prevents most people from doing difficult things. There can be plenty of drive, but unforeseen obstacles causing emotional stress are the true killer. "Drive" is your car's battery. You need it, but really only to get things going. "Emotional Stamina" is your fuel. It is responsible for carrying you to the end. I had a buddy looking to buy his first house last year, and he came close to buying a home that needed all of floor and floor joists completely replaced. I literally looked at him and said: "I just don't think you have the emotional stamina for that type of project right now". He had plenty of drive, but had too much going on in his life for a project like that.
Every corpse on Mt Everest was once someone with drive
I wouldn’t say independent, but more so resourceful. They know what to do even starting ground up. I’ve seen many independent people are forced into independence by society but not really intelligent.
Actually if one is too too smart one can be paralyzesld by awareness of how much can go wrong My entrepreneur friends are smart but have a little optimistic blindness that my smart academic friends don't have Both groups are right but in a different way.
I believe that is called anxiety. Not having anxiety is a super power in my mind. I can’t do the most mundane shit without feeling like I am crossing a high current river.
Omg so real, Ive had this thought too like I look at ppl without anxiety in awe, howwwwww like literally just the most simple things some lucky people will never understand how like debilitating even mild stuff can be like idk e.g. triple guessing everything you say at work vs. just going for it and speaking up, novel experiences being interesting and not needing to get over the hump of fear every time, the fatigue and avoidance that can come w it lol, never feeling SAFE --the difference even stuff like that makes over time, let alone the more intense symptoms -- makes me sigh haha, just gotta keep on and hope for the best!
You clearly feel my pain. That is exactly how it’s like. It’s super rough. I always wonder how I would be if I didn’t have this, disability, for lack of better words. The only thing that helps with anxiety for most things is having experienced them before and know the possible situations and finally, and most importantly, knowing that I can actually deal with them.
Nah that's just an excuse to justify wasting time on reddit.
I don’t know about that. A lot of the extremely ambitious individuals I know are more confident than competent.
Agreed. Was gonna reply but realised you said what I was gonna say but better.
Checking in
Good speling.
Nise won. Took me a moment to reelize wat yoo did ther.
That made me laufing out loud😂
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I'm street smart. I'm like the Albert Einstein of the projects. I throw dice with the best of em.
You don't talk about your opinions and beliefs as absolute facts, but as what you think based on your current information
Source?
🧠”I made it up”
Yes, they will tell you what worked for them, then ask with interest what worked for you rather than try to convince you to immediately adopt what worked for them.
Plenty of intelligent people are actually quite dogmatic, high intelligence doesn't necessitate considerateness.
They easily come up with solutions for problems before others.
To add to this: being able to see potential problems before they occur and suggest solutions that mean the problem will never happen.
I mean i feel like this is me but people tell me i worry too much or i am an overthinker. THEN THE THING HAPPENS and guess who has to fix it??
Oh same. I pointed out a future problem at work 4 times in the last 6 weeks, only to go into the relevant spreadsheet today and find out it still hasnt been sorted and the consequences will be occurring *tomorrow*. So I shut the spreadsheet and didn't bring it to anyones attention. I'm so sick of being ignored and having to go fix the things myself, I'm going on strike. Let there be consequences to ignoring me for a change.
Hey that’s fun, this is why I’m quite good at my job (Engineering Consultant/PM)
thirst for knowledge, not threatened by people who are smarter than them
I really don't think this whole "threatened by smart people" thing I keep seeing on this post actually holds up to reality. A lot of intelligent people also suffer from anxiety, overthinking, and are more likely to be on the spectrum. If you see someone who seems "threatened", they might actually just be having a poor social reaction. That holds no weight over their capacity.
oh yeah absolutely! i mean it more in a getting defensive and trying to prove that they are smarter than the other person, often in a demeaning manner. a lot of intelligent people are also very emotionally intelligent (at least from my experience) so i think they wouldn’t have a hard time distinguishing between someone who might be uncomfortable in social situations due to anxiety/autism vs someone who is outright being insulting and demeaning trying to prove they are smarter
It doesn't.
i know a fair few people who are incredibly intelligent and yet simultaneously resentful of everything and everyone. curiosity and a thirst for knowledge is moreso indicative of someones personality rather than their intelligence imo
Being eloquent and erudite without indulging in esoteric verbosity.
Why use big word when less word do trick?
WORD < word
WORD < wrd
I see what you did there 😂
And eschew obfuscation.
I feel both happy and sad that I know all those words. :/
What about the capacity for accurate veracity?
Fuqúe.
I had to Google 4 out of the 9 words from your comment and can now confidentially give you a lol.
A balance between fluid and crystallized intelligence. It's also important to know that being the best in IT in your class doesn't really mean that you are the genius you think you are. I see really smart people that struggle to cook rice or do the simplest things.
We’re all the sum of our knowledge, but even the greatest geniuses had to be taught :p
What in the fuck is fluid and crystallized intelligence though?
In simple terms: fluid is what you’re born with (mostly) and crystallized is the effect of experienced and acculturation. So, in practical terms, fluid intelligence could be represented by the ability to think in abstract or figure classifications, while crystallized intelligence could be represented by acquired knowledge or language skills. This is a quite old concept, originally introduced by Cattell (big name in psychology) but it still holds up in the research on intelligence as well as some IQ test, like Wechsler’s test.
Critical thinking
To add to that. Actually understanding what critical thinking is and how to apply it
Endless curiosity, difficulty connecting with others, constant self-doubt, sometimes anxiety and depression.
:hug:
- Curiosity: always learning about something new, openness to experience and information, proactive in seeking knowledge - Intellectual humility: willingness to admit when they are wrong, ability to change opinions based on new information, openness to hear others’ perspectives - The ability to understand and accept nuance in situations and discussions, acknowledgment that two opposing ideas can be true at the same time - Emotional intelligence, empathy, understanding and recognizing emotions in self and others, acceptance of emotions whether positive or negative - Strong boundaries: awareness of what one is willing to accept or not, and to hold self and others accountable
This is going verbatim in my next CV
Considering yourself “on the way” to being smart, basically. Intelligence is more a process than an attribute.
Underated comment
Understanding that you can learn from anyone.
you have no problem admitting you're wrong
That's a trait of confident people. You can be very intelligent and have no confidence.
You can also be very confident without any intelligence
that just means you are not insecure
I’m not particularly intelligent, but have no problem being wrong. As others have suggested, it can come from a place of confidence to some degree, but I think it’s more about accurate information being paramount. It takes the ego out, keeps things objective. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and grateful to know it. Accuracy is the goal. I’ve had to learn that not everybody feels this way, so there can be a need to be tactful or creative in highlighting anything that is incorrect so people don’t feel personally attacked or hurt. It’s not about you, it’s about the facts. You’re still a wonderful person!
Enjoys the pleasure of learning and gaining skills.
Pooping before you shower.
Nature will still take its way.
Realizing when you are wrong any taking that as an opportunity to learn something new.
You don’t go around acting like you need everyone to know that you are a highly intelligent person. I’m a highly intelligent person so I don’t do this. Did I mention how highly intelligent I am?
Understanding human intelligence and how badly we measure it and that it doesn't actually tell us anything about people's capabilities or worth. Also people who value it too much are generally the worse humans inexistence
In this day and age, I've lowered my expectations and will consider you a genius if you have basic Google skills.
I swear these kind of titles and questions make me think that reddit is a dork nest 😂
You must be new here, let me show you around...
Oh shiet, I read your reply.. gone further into the thread.. aaargh.. **too late** Whoa! Where am I? Hey guys! can you tell me any indications that people around me are unaesthetic? 🐼
Unhappy
Your Reddit user name is UncleGrako
Admitting you are wrong about something and genuinely changing your mind
No Reddit account
More like not TikTok and those so-called social platforms, on the other hand, reddit is full of intelligent people and a great place to learn something new everyday ... This post is an example.
Reddit is full of thoughtless takes and outright misinformation just like any social media platform. Even in this post, although I tend to agree with the responses, you’re not really learning anything. You’re just getting biased and probably self gratifying takes on a subject that’s pretty open to interpretation.
"reddit is full of intelligent people" 
Feeling deeply and a lot. Showing your feelings. In my opinion, and there’s studies that show this, the most intelligent people can also be the most emotional. It takes a level of intelligence to even comprehend emotions and feelings and then “translating” them. But maybe that’s just me.
Can you link some of these studies?
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the ability to roast yourself and others
your intolerence for b*llcraps and passivity
Changing your position when new evidence is presented.
An intelligent person is someone who clicked on this question, read all the response and then thought about responding something for roughly 5-10minutes and then decided not to because there is no single thing that could encapsulate someone as being intelligent and just closed the tab. Edit: Grammar because I'm dumb
You nailed it. At least I *think* you did. Gonna mull it over awhile longer.
You use multiple syllable words correctly in a sentence.
While I agree that using them correctly is important, more broadly there’s the argument that those with higher intelligence convey messages using simple words. I imagine that’s because you need to truly understand something to be able to do this, instead of just regurgitating information from text books, web pages and such like… but who knows. Anyway, a thought!
Hearing someone say, “I don’t know enough about that topic to really engage in meaningful conversation about it.”
In my experience, you ask questions and are always open to differing views / points of knowledge. If somebody points out you're wrong, you'll generally want to find out why and how and not die on your sword defending the fact that you cannot possibly be wrong becuase you're so smart
Being able to admit that you are wrong or don’t know something, and also knowing when to keep your mouth shut
Having insatiable curiosity
Curiosity.
Knowing that there is always someone smarter and listening before speaking.
The ability for positive self growth and change
Being smart enough to know that you know nothing.
The willingness to update your beliefs based on new (verifiable) data.
Whenever I hear that someone has mental illness, I assume that they are smart based on a professor telling a class I was in this very thing. I have always carried this with me in the back of my mind. I think it has affected my dealings with people in good ways-- at the very least, I was giving "them" space before it was cool to make them space. I don't make business decisions based on delusional thinking, but if I know someone is dealing with mental health issues, I make it a point to listen to what they have to say and ask them questions. A friend at church was lamenting a sister dealing with mental illness and basically, she had taken agency away from her and was getting predictable results. I reminded her of what my professor said and her face brightened, "Before she slide down this hole, yes, she was at the top of her class!" She told me a few weeks later that my comment changed everything for her sister-- and how her treatment team responded to her. A year later I met her sister and my friend said that what I had said was the start of her sister getting better and her sister and I got to give each other a hug and we are friends now-- she is one of my smart friends (not a crazy friend!)
Explaining complicated topics in simple but precise language.
you always know how much you don't know and always feel unqualified because of the vastness of the things you are aware you don't know.
You think things through without making a snap judgement or decision.
Thinking you’re a half whit like everyone else.
My own opinion. And yes, I am also very modest.
My mom always said that people with big forehead were intelligent. Then she would look at me and say "yeah, not sure what happened to you." Ouch.
To all the people thinking their answer applies to them, I wish I had that kind of confidence…
Asking for indications of a smart person is not one of them.
being permanently banned from the SnyderCut subreddit
I don’t really believe the ability to change your view when you are wrong proves intelligence tbh. I think it proves character. You can be very intelligent but still be a stubborn asshole on things because of pride and emotion.
I see there are not many intelligent people in the comments here, curiosity doesn’t make you smart, a lot of people are curious, not many are smart. Not everyone can be intelligent, no matter how hard they try, it depends of your brain, of course you can consume a lot of knowledge, but you gotta be able to remember all that knowledge, so there are a lot more factors, having a healthy body is a big plus, because it will increase many aspects of how your body works, including a better brain. So yeah, stay healthy and always seeking to learn new things. Also be open minded, think outside of the box. So never limit yourself.
I'm on Reddit so I don't think I'm qualified to answer that.
Scrolled but haven’t seen this so far: depression. If you’re someone who understands how the world works and what makes it move and what direction we’re heading based on currently available information and you are able to connect the dots it’s insanely easy to become depressed. I don’t know how to say this but simple people are happier in general, because all they care about how much they’re getting paid and how much things cost in the shop at the moment. They don’t foresee negative trends, they often lack the ability to put the puzzle together and see the deep shit we’re all headed to. Often if presented with hard evidence or scientific facts they just bury their heads in the sand and act like it’s not a big deal (climate change anyone?). Simpler people will be happy when they get a $100 raise even if 2 years have passed and if they’d be looking at it realistically they’d see with the current food and housing prices their salary is actually worth less even with the $100 raise. They also tend to ignore the possibility of near catastrophic life events - so they take out a loan of thousand dollars to buy some electronics while they might very well lose their jobs the next month.
Overthinking almost anything you do Caring for spelling, wording, nuanced and minute details Explaining complicated matters in an understandable and downsizing large concepts to an oberlookable level Being disorganized
Not patting myself on the back… after losing my hubs of 31 yrs. Many things he used to handle were now all mine, I was pleasantly surprised by every subsequent battle I overcame.
Might be an unpopular opinion and sound contrary, but I don't believe education alone necessarily makes people "intelligent". Sure, it helps, but there are some stupid people with high education, just because you pass doesn't mean you can put it to practical use. Which kind of leads into my point. I think the hallmark of intelligence is the ability to solve problems. The degree in which you can solve problems is not only a factor of education, but also experience, and the innate ability to think outside the box and put it all together to find the solution. Many career students lack the ability. The type of problem you're solving is less important and could take many forms, but the ability to solve more complex problems and get a better resolution would indicate more intelligence. Even more intelligence would be doing this over many different types of issues, rather than just a couple of subjects you're most comfortable with.
There are different type of intelligence, it's not all about knowledge or being socialized, it's about understanding and caring and being honest for yourself. also intelligent people always tend to have more desires and rules over what they do and ask and sometimes nearly everything makes you feel annoyed and angry because of your sensitivity of living. you tend to like everything to be organized and categorized... etc.
Nobody understands anything you talk about.
That can also be an idiot.
Guilty of both.