No. First, and most obviously, superiority isn’t defined by a single aspect. So who is most superior, the smartest man in the world or the greatest athlete? It depends whether it’s being gauged in some sort of intellectual challenge or a physical one. Further, even intelligence isn’t something that can be so easily gauged. Who is smarter, the brilliant artist, the brilliant teacher, the brilliant politician, the brilliant mathematician, the brilliant strategist, etc.? Frankly, unless you’re comparing yourself to a 4-year-old, chances are that person has at least one aspect in which they would outshine you.
Now, maybe one can legitimately claim they just know more and are generally smarter in most areas that most people would agree they’re brilliant? So what? As Socrates said, the only true wisdom is to know that I know nothing. No matter how brilliant one is, as someone also mentioned the Dunning-Krueger effect, I often find it’s the smartest people who are the most humble, most willing to learn, and most generous with sharing their knowledge. Those who use their intelligence to feed their egos may even have incredible knowledge, but they’ve essentially declared that they’re done learning and growing and adapting and they’re terrible to work with.
Sure, I know I’m intelligent by most measures that society uses, but I’ve tried to apply that just how I’ve described. I still want to learn and I know that virtually everyone around me has something to offer me; there is no shame in admitting ignorance on a topic. And I strive to do the same for them, whereby anyone that wants to pick my brain, I want to lift them up. Unlike wealth or resources, knowledge and wisdom isn’t spread thin, it only enriches the world to share it. A rising tide lifts all boats; what better way to improve the world than to share knowledge and wisdom with the world?
Obviously it’s better to be smart than stupid. Yes, you can be a smart jerk. But you can also be a stupid jerk. And it seems to me that smartness and jerkiness are only weekly correlated. Being smart doesn’t make you more of a jerk, it sometimes makes you less of a jerk. Same way with athletic ability. Sure there are dumb jocks. But there are plenty of dumb people who aren’t jocks either. And there are plenty of people who are geniuses who are also gifted athletes. Life isn’t like a video game where you get 100 points to distribute to all your skills so everyone evens out. Some people are miserable sickly jerkish idiots, and some people are generous physically perfect genius philanthropists.
So what makes someone “overall superior”? It’s a meaningless question. Superior for what? What are you trying to measure?
In the grand scheme of things, human existence is meaningless, and our puny struggles don’t amount to a hill of beans. Great, so you’re the smartest ant on the anthill. How nice for you. So what?
I remember as a kid being “the smart one”. It was a major part of my identity. But as an adult I’m definitely not the smart one at the office. Maybe I’d be the smart one if I worked at a factory or mopping floors in a restaurant. But working in the software industry I might not be at the very bottom, but I’m barely breaking into average. If as an adult you still cling to the identity of “the smart one” it means you’ve deliberately put yourself in an environment where you can preserve that identity. You’ve stunted yourself to preserve your ego.