# Intelligence is Overrated **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 3, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456 "2013-05-03T21:38:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/61 "2013-05-05T15:10:06Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > I suppose the fact that that is much more challenging for some of us than others makes sense, as the more difficult it is the better equipped one should be to meet that challenge. Still, there is at least one person with an impossible task. > It’s also pretty selfish to always strive to position yourself to your own advantage, and if we all had the same goal, we couldn’t even gather in a room together anyway. That assumes we’re all accurately evaluating one another (and ourselves). Seems unlikely (see the reverse Dunning–Kruger effect, or the impostor syndrome). 🙂 And, yes, it’s selfish. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/62 "2013-05-05T15:12:31Z")
All I know is I’m so smart my brain hurts. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/63 "2013-05-05T15:22:54Z")
Have you tried a coccyx cushion? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/64 "2013-05-05T15:26:37Z")
Does a jockstrap count? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/65 "2013-05-05T15:29:29Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > Denying your limitations is a natural response to a society that condemns you for those limitations. If a person’s worth is measured by appearance, it should come as no surprise that a lot of time, energy, and other resources are spent on attempts to create the appearance that is most prized. If it is measured by intelligence, creating the impression of intelligence becomes tantamount. I think we all understand this from first-hand experience. We’ve all had moments where we’ve felt intellectually inferior. Maybe we started a new job and didn’t know anything, and we had to “fake it till we made it”. But there’s a smart way to “fake it” and then truly stupid ways to go about it. A smart way to fake it: if you’re in a conversation and someone throws out an acronym you’ve never heard. You don’t want to interrupt them, so you make a mental note to look up the acronym at a later time, and just nod your head like you understand. A stupid way to fake it: Saying “Yeah, I know all about PBR. I read a good article about it last year. I know someone who works there. Great stuff…or organization…or whatever.” The moment someone can tell you’re faking, you fail. The crime isn’t in the faking–because even the most arrogant of us will acknowledge that this is necessary sometimes. The crime is in faking stupidly. I really don’t know what it is that you’re rallying against. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/66 "2013-05-05T16:13:49Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > That assumes we’re all accurately evaluating one another (and ourselves). Seems unlikely (see the reverse Dunning–Kruger effect, or the impostor syndrome). > > 🙂 > > And, yes, it’s selfish. But the more intelligent a person is, the better they should be at evaluating the situation. How will you fool the more intelligent people in your room into staying? Every time someone dumber shows up, everyone else would logically leave and seek out rooms of smarter people, who will flee to do the same. Next thing you know, all the smartest people are sitting alone in rooms. The Unabomber was supposedly quite the genius and spent a lot of time by himself. Maybe he subscribed to this theory! ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/67 "2013-05-05T16:32:31Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I think we all understand this from first-hand experience. We’ve all had moments where we’ve felt intellectually inferior. Maybe we started a new job and didn’t know anything, and we had to “fake it till we made it”. > > But there’s a smart way to “fake it” and then truly stupid ways to go about it. A smart way to fake it: if you’re in a conversation and someone throws out an acronym you’ve never heard. You don’t want to interrupt them, so you make a mental note to look up the acronym at a later time, and just nod your head like you understand. A stupid way to fake it: Saying “Yeah, I know all about PBR. I read a good article about it last year. I know someone who works there. Great stuff…or organization…or whatever.” > > The moment someone can tell you’re faking, you fail. The crime isn’t in the faking–because even the most arrogant of us will acknowledge that this is necessary sometimes. The crime is in faking stupidly. > > I really don’t know what it is that you’re rallying against. First off, I’m rallying against this “necessity” to pretend that we know what various acronyms mean. PBR is a watery lager prized by hipsters for its low price and supposedly acceptable capacity for refreshment, as well as its working-class roots. There should be no shame in continuing your conversation at the nearest bar while you drink away your ignorance with a variety of draft samplings. Your experiential learning session will enable you to speak with authority the next time you hear reference to this beverage and will help pass the time while your bloviating “conversation” partner blathers on without pause for breath during which you could have asked what the letters meant without having to interrupt. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/68 "2013-05-05T16:55:39Z")
You seem to be under the impression that high intelligence is defined by poor social skills. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/69 "2013-05-05T17:01:18Z")
Secondly, the hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness that causes dumbasses to rail bitterly against the dumbassery of others, particularly when they the behavior they are offended by is perfectly innocuous or something they themselves do all of the time. For example a Facebook friend of mine who has proven himself repeatedly to be quite an idiot and is hideously unattractive by conventional standards–morbidly obese, balding with a comb-over, dresses like a paroled sex-offender–frequently posts agonized laments about the misery he must endure dealing with the stupidity of customers at his job. Their “stupidity” is usually ignorance of the specifics of his company’s policies, and for good measure, he expresses his offense with regard to how fat and ugly they are and the poor clothing choices they have made. It is my choice to read these postings, and I am not claiming to be victimized by them in any way. The issue is not this particular person; he is just one of the more egregious examples I have seen firsthand. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/70 "2013-05-05T17:03:42Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > You seem to be under the impression that high intelligence is defined by poor social skills. I don’t think that at all. What have I said that created that impression? ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/71 "2013-05-05T17:10:43Z")
I’ll bite. I don’t like the stupid things that stupid people do. One thing I dislike more than the stupid things that stupid people do is the stupid things that stupid people who think they aren’t stupid, do. I also think it’s better to be smart than stupid, that intelligence is a great thing to have, and that the OP is kinda stupid. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/72 "2013-05-05T18:18:21Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > More proof that religion relies on ignorance. :smack::smack: I am amused that in a thread where posters are arguing about the necessity of intelligence (often trying to prove their own), there are comments such as this that demonstrate ignorance. The anecdote demonstrated that one individual was described as mentally and socially challenged. Nothing in that anecdote can logically be expanded to a “proof” regarding a generalization about religion. Go look up threads in which various CT loons have tried to use “science” or “reason” to prove their nutcase theories. A nutcase is a nutcase regardless of his or her affiliation with any specific system of belief or knowledge. The anecdote could be an example of one aspect of some religious behavior that one finds irritating, but it is not a “proof” of anything, much less a claim that religion, _per se_, “relies” on ignorance. As a demonstration of one aspect of religious behavior that appears foolish, it is OK if a bit weak. As any kind of “proof,” it fails. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/73 "2013-05-05T19:14:05Z")
Thanks to Pedigree Collapse I suppose that Shania Twain and Sam Clemens should both have the last name of “Charlemagne.” ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/74 "2013-05-05T19:32:48Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > Not to single out Locrian, but this example does not illustrate what it purports to either. Regardless of whether “religion relies upon ignorance,” a person insisting that they can heal through touch indicates ignorance perhaps, but does not imply a dependent relationship between religion and ignorance, let alone proof of same. > That is to say, the existence of a person who is both ignorant and religious proves little more than the fact that both conditions can occur concurrently. It also proves intelligence is overrated. 😉 Remember: He LUNGED at my friend’s injured leg. He might’ve fallen, might’ve been hurt, and Jesusfreak might’ve been arrested. “I know it’s wrong to lunge at a person, officer, but I can heal through Jesus!” Possibilities entirely fueled by lack of intelligence. And thinking your can heal by touching through the spirit of Jesus/Cathulu/Zeus/Aquaman is unintelligent period. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/75 "2013-05-05T19:55:45Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > People are constantly self-righteously bitching about how much they “hate stupid people” and how awful it is for them to have to deal with them. Of course usually the bitcher is at least as stupid as whomever is being bitched about, but naturally they are oblivious to their own idiocy. Regardless, others nod and chime in about the plague of stupidity that has infected everyone but them and the injustice that they too are forced to endure being surrounded by such morons. > Why is it socially acceptable to hold people responsible for their own intelligence? And why do people pretend to think that they think intelligence is such a desirable trait anyway? People like to feel like they themselves are intelligent, but it is obvious that as a society we value appearance, financial success, and athletic prowess far more than intelligence. > In keeping with the irrational contradictions, of course none of us have unintelligent children. They are all misunderstood geniuses with learning disabilities. That is actually a really good point. I don’t think the people you are referring to define intelligence along the strictly cognitive/academic POV though. Some very intelligent people make terrible interpersonal and intrapersonal decisions. I think you are referring to people who have a low intrapersonal and/or interpersonal intelligence along the 9 forms of intelligence [spectrum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences). Luckily things like social intelligence and emotional intelligence are supposedly much more malleable than mathematical and spatial intelligence (barring some serious brain disease like autism or BPD which would make it far harder to improve yourself in social or intrapersonal areas). FWIW, there is essentially no correlation between IQ and wealth. But again, why is wealth so valued? I’d rather have a high interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Being emotionally healthy and having meaningful relationships are very underrated in our society, things like having a high IQ or being thin or having money and socially dominant relationships (fame, attractiveness) are way overrated. In and of itself, our worship of wealth and thinness, or our lack of insight (always claiming one is intelligent and everyone else is a moron) is a sign of low intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. That seems to be where the misery comes from, not low IQ. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/76 "2013-05-05T20:23:20Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > All I know is I’m so smart my brain hurts. It’ll have to come out! ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/77 "2013-05-05T20:23:54Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > First off, I’m rallying against this “necessity” to pretend that we know what various acronyms mean. PBR is a watery lager prized by hipsters for its low price and supposedly acceptable capacity for refreshment, as well as its working-class roots. There should be no shame in continuing your conversation at the nearest bar while you drink away your ignorance with a variety of draft samplings. Your experiential learning session will enable you to speak with authority the next time you hear reference to this beverage and will help pass the time while your bloviating “conversation” partner blathers on without pause for breath during which you could have asked what the letters meant without having to interrupt. Uhh…what’s “bloviating”?? Is that like, uh, when you’ve got to fart really bad? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/78 "2013-05-05T20:27:09Z")
Ahhh… One of my favorite words IMO used not nearly often enough. It’s like farting but it involves lots of words that really don’t mean anything and come out the other end. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/79 "2013-05-05T20:47:11Z")
In case my point was missed, often times pretending you know what a word means isn’t about trying to look smart, but rather a way to keep a conversation on its course. Not recognizing this isn’t a sign of global stupidity, but it does indicate low social aptitude. Which, I think, is really what people find frustrating. Honestly, I think this is why many people are driven to seek diagnoses for their social problems. People generally _are_ compassionate towards those who have a diagnosed disability. If I suspected my annoying coworker suffered from a condition, I would be more inclined to give him a break. But because I think he’s perfectly normal, I get irritated. Are you saying I should still give him a break? OK, but why? I don’t give other people doing bad things a break, and they too could be suffering from various disorders (like psychopathy). As long as I have some compassion for people–and I think I have a lot–I ain’t got no problem rolling my eyes at the others. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456/80 "2013-05-05T21:04:06Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Uhh…what’s “bloviating”?? Is that like, uh, when you’ve got to fart really bad? Exactly, except words come out. And given the direction of this conversation, can someone please explain to me again why ignorance and intelligence are interchangeable words? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intelligence-is-overrated/657456.md?page=5)