This is my first entry ever, so excuse any mistakes please.
As a bright person, I am sometimes amazed at the things people ask me. Today it was how to make a <degree> sign in Word or other programs. And all too often my shock at the question shows on my face, and they get annoyed that I think they’re stupid. Now there is a lot I don’t know, and I will admit it and ask questions, and I do make mistakes, but I am frequently accused of intellectual arrogance.
So if you have encountered this, how do you handle it?
As an intelligent person I have encountered a lot of jealousy. People of lesser intelligence seem to get all insecure around me and I’m sick of it.
Do you encounter this as well OP?
This is going to sound bad but stupid people really annoy me.
I don’t think not knowing how to make the degree sign in Word means you’re any less intelligent, though. It’s just a piece of information someone may never have needed. To be honest, even though I used to know how to do it in the old Word, since I upgraded to the new Windows, I doubt I’d be able to do it all that easily.
Yes. It’s a curse. My body language betrays me at every opportunity.
Im not joking here either. I truly wish I could change myself as it’s very off putting to folks who don’t know me. I’ve tried many times and am still trying to control my transmitter. I’m really not very smart either.
I am shocked that you should be shocked that someone might not know something like that. It is not the sort the sort of thing that has anything to do with intelligence, or being generally well informed. It is just one of those things that some people happen to have learned, and some, who may be equally or more intelligent, may not have. I myself do not happen to know how to make a degree sign in MSWord, but I will warrant I know how to do lots of things (and probably lots of things with computers) that you do not.
If you are shocked by something like that, you are not displaying intellectual arrogance so much as social incompetence (and you are clearly not as “bright” as you think you are).
Second of all, the fact that you asked this question (especially as your first post ever on the SDMB) raises some red flags in my mind. It makes you sound in need of intellectual validation. It makes you sound arrogant. (Note I say sound – don’t get too defensive, eh).
So my suggestion to you would be – don’t worry about what other people think. This is easier said than done, but I think you will find that if you cease to care whether or not others are cognizant of their relative intellectual standing, then your problems will dissolve naturally. I know this from experience. Try to connect with people ‘on their level’. Take that upon yourself as an intellectual challenge.
In fairness to the OP – the point might be that for an ‘intelligent’ person there are a lot of ways of answering the MSWord question yourself. First of all, it isn’t so hard to navigate the menus and find it if you are computer literate. Second of all, it isn’t so hard to google or use the help menu. Etc Etc… when someone asks me a question like that I too roll my eyes. I just do it on the inside.
Judging people as “intellectually below you” based on whether they know some particular factoid is a pretty silly way to go through life. It makes you sound like a complete idiot, and a tool.
Lots of extremely intelligent people don’t have lots of formal education. Some of them never even used a computer. Yeah, I know its hard to believe that a person who hasn’t memorized “wingdings” could possibly be intelligent, but I assure you it is true. They might even know something that gasp you don’t!
Stop congratulating yourself on what is surely your just-slightly-above-average intellect, then maybe you’ll be able to relate to the peons around you.
One of those ways is to ask someone. People with developed social skills often <gasp!> talk to other people in order to gain knowledge. On occasion, this social interaction can lead to things like real-world friendships and even sex.
I happen to know a handful of ALT codes off the top of my head, but I wouldn’t know that one. In fact, I’d wager that most people don’t know it off hand, and in fact, most people don’t have any idea where to even look for it. The trick is not to roll your eyes or have a “whaddayoustupid” tone about your voice when you answer their question.
Me, I correct people. I have been working very very hard over the last year or so to stop, but it’s difficult. When someone says something that’s completely incorrect or mispronounces something or asks a factual question that they consider rhetorical (Oh my god, why is it dark out at 4:30 in the afternoon) I have a really really hard time keeping my mouth shut. It’s gotten to the point where my sister has starting vocally calling me out on it. It usually goes like this.
In conversation, someone might mention say:
Someone: “You have to ______because otherwise _______”
Me: “Actually, you-”
Sister: “Joey, knock it off, no one cares”
On the one hand, I’m really starting to resent her. I’m trying to inform someone, she’s rudely and publicly, telling me (in nicer but condescending words) to STFU
OTOH, it’s making me realize how often I actually do it.
Well, gosh, now I know I am certainly not bright at all. I don’t use glyphs, wingdings or google or anything. I just looked at it, and thought-damn, that’s a superscript caps O. I guess it just seemed so insanely easy to me, that I was boggled.
But, in all honesty, it was simply the first example that came to mind. And the person who asked (who is not the first, (it’s common in our field), knows many many things that I don’t, and is a master of Excel, which I know next to nothing about), is a good guy, and not at all stupid, he is in fact, our co. webmaster.
Edit to add–I am practicing rolling my eyes. On the inside. <smile>
It is hard to know unless you are there, or you know the exact circumstances. Sometimes you ask an ‘easy’ question as part of normal social interaction, because you know the person won’t mind answering it. You like to shoot the shit, and it is slightly easier for the other person to answer than for you to figure it out yourself. Yes, this is part of basic social skills. But other times the question betrays a gross underlying ignorance, and often a degree of poor social skills (ie the person is too lazy to figure it out himself, takes advantages of the time of others’ who are not friends).
My grandmother CERTAINLY doesn’t know how to do it. But she’s brighter than most people I’ve met.
Don’t make the mistake of equating intelligence with knowledge. Just because someone told you something doesn’t make you brighter than someone who wasn’t told that thing. Especially since you don’t know what *else *that person might know.
How about you try practicing not rolling your eyes at all, and instead just get a grip on the notion that, quite regardless of intelligence, not everybody happens to know all the same little facts (and that one of the best, and most intelligent, ways of finding out the things you don’t know is to ask someone who might know).
But a superscript capital O is not a degree sign; it may look close enough, but it’s not exactly the same. The Alt keystroke is Alt + 0176.
Superscript capital O: 30[sup]O[/sup]
Alt+0176: 30°
And just to clarify - I’m not trying to be a smartass; I had to look that up in the character map. There’s almost always more than one way to do things (in general, not just in Word), but there’s usually a best, most correct way. That’s what I’d want to know if I were asking; if I’d asked somebody how to make a degree sign in Word and their response was “just use a superscript capital O”, I’d think they were being intellectually lazy and/or dismissive. YMM(obviously)V.
Do you seriously think that is the case with this example? Searching through Microsoft (and not just Microsoft) Help is notoriously frustrating and time consuming. Asking a question takes a couple of seconds. If there is someone else there who might, even just possibly, know, an intelligent person will ask first.
As others advised, learn to hide your inner feelings. Sure people can be stupid, but that’s no excuse for being impolite. Smile, explain how they can find out the answer for themselves, let them know they can come to you for help any time, tell them the answer, then stick a post-it note that says “I’m stupid” on their back as they leave.
I use alt-248. What is 176? My chart says it’s one of those partly-shaded fill rectangles.
As soon as superscript capital O goes through plain text it will turn back into a plain old O, and change meaning. 100 ºC boils water. 100 OC means that things are a hundred (somethings) apart on centers.
Love people instead. They won’t bristle when you do that. People don’t need to be smart to be lovable. In fact, finding the lovable in a person is also excellent intellectual exercise, if you like.