# Are you intelligent? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 21, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498 "2012-04-21T14:11:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/41 "2012-04-22T16:52:05Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t understand the question. No worries-- all the answers are “yes”. I was smart enough to figure that out. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/42 "2012-04-22T16:57:35Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m so intelligent, I proposed a theory of everything on a dinner napkin. Unfortunately, I’m so absent-minded I left it at the restaurant. Was it Fermat’s Delicatessen? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/43 "2012-04-22T17:17:59Z")
Badly worded question. I am a teacher, so in some fields I guess I would be intelligent - but surrounded by other teachers in other fields, I often feel like an idiot and learn new stuff from them every day. I suppose if I hung around The Pit all day, I would feel more intelligent, but I am intelligent enough not to go there. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/44 "2012-04-22T21:23:04Z")
> [@living\_in\_hell](#): > > I’m somewhat struck by your comment regarding “social retardation” and wonder how this correlates with the rest of your post. Shrug. OP asked. I try to be honest. I don’t go around proclaiming this from the rooftops or anything. People do eventually notice when they catch me with a book about quantum electrodynamics. They ask why I’m reading it and I tell them for fun, because it is. I got tired of being embarrassed about it when I was in college. I am not only not socially retarded anymore, but people ask me for advice quite a lot. I’m not always right, but enough so that occasionally someone leaves convinced I can read minds. A friend recently asked me for advice about a girl he’d just started seeing and I called both “she’s going to break it off” and “she doesn’t really like guys” about three hours before he got hit with both, without ever having met or spoken to the girl. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/45 "2012-04-22T21:39:16Z")
I be a poster on the Strait Dope I yam I yam so me be real smart. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/46 "2012-04-23T06:01:42Z")
I paid in USD for a membership of this board. That itself shows how intelligent I am. Also, I once answered a GQ correctly. I am now convinced that I am very intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/47 "2012-04-23T06:09:53Z")
I’m somewhat smarter than most people my age, but like **DSeid** , people in my family and that I work with think I’m smarter than I am. Unlike **DSeid** , I have no idea why. I know lots of people smarter than me, that’s for sure. I married one of them! ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/48 "2012-04-23T12:40:14Z")
I was always a top-of-the-class kid, usually more mature than the people around me, and figuring I would have an easier time getting through life than they would. I never got used to not being among the best. I also didn’t get used to effort and study. So I avoided things where I would lose, like chess, like armwrestling, etc. Physical education courses were a nightmare. Never mustered up the nerve to take an official IQ test, probably for the same reasons. I coasted through my computer science degree without much effort (and consequently with good, but not perfect grades). (Fast-forward 25 years.) I’m in my mid-forties now. Gay, married, no kids, atheist, vaguely leftist, very stable job-wise. Less socially awkward than as a teen, but there are still areas where I don’t know how to behave. When I attend a high school reunion, I’m surprised to see that people I had considered not very smart have actually made a life for themselves, and are now able to hold a normal conversation and even philosophise a bit. I shouldn’t be surprised really: life is made by the people in it, and having kids, dealing with failure, starting a business, losing a loved one, etc. are all growth opportunities. Being smarter than average and having a better memory doesn’t change that. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/49 "2012-04-23T13:00:17Z")
I have a good vocabulary and memory. This leads to people thinking I am more intelligent than they are. In my youthful arrogance, I tended to agree. After graduate school, when classroom grades stopped having any importance, I was forced to re-examine the situation. Carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, and all sorts of tradespeople do things routinely that I don’t know how to do. Even after I read books and watch videos, though I may have a notion how to do them, I can’t do them with ease or skill. Basically, I gained a lot of respect for people who can actually do things. Certain other vocations, which rely heavily on just knowing things, I don’t regard as highly as I used to. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/50 "2012-04-23T13:22:40Z")
The OP seems to be working on two term papers. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498/51 "2012-04-23T13:28:06Z")
I’m smarter than average, but by no means the smartest out there. School was easy, great ACT score, but college reminded me I had more to learn. Now I think what makes me look smart is that (like **monstro** ) I collect trivia. I can add something to most topics. Piled on top of that is the fact that I also enjoy nerdy things like documentaries, D&D, computer games and message boards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-intelligent/619498.md?page=2)