I’m not sure I buy it. Even if it’s true, I find it rather arrogant and narcissistic.
I’m just average, I guess… I never was in any special programs, I never “tested out” and have no idea what that even means. I had average to good grades, an average to good degree, and an average tp good job.
I’m also cursed with not having whatever disease of the day we all seem to have, ADD (I was just a hyper kid), aspergers (I had troubles relating once in a while), chronic fatigue (I get tired… I deal).
But this whole “we’re the smartest people on the entire internets” comes up again and again. I don’t know if it is true, but good god, the arrogance of this attitude is getting tiresome. Even if I were the smartest person in the world, doing quadratic equations in kindergarten, I’d have the good sense not to crow about it on the internet 30 years later.
I find this arrogant attitude by a few of the members here rather off-putting and wince-inducing. Frankly, I think most of us aren’t all that smarter than fark or whatever (hell, fark is far more wittier).
I don’t know if I’m dumb, average, or genius… I’d like to think I’m genius, but it’s frankly something I never think about or would ever build a case and brag about. I think a certain subset of us need to get over ourselves.
But it’s never made me happy, nor has it made me a better person. To the contrary, I’ve used my ability to score high on tests to denigrate others and prop up my own rickety self-esteem, in the past.
Fortunately, I’m mostly over that.
I recognize a lot of folks in this world as being better persons than I am. Kinder, more patient, more willing to give of themselves. Most of these folks are also not ‘smarter’ than I am, in the test-taking sense.
I was thinking the same thing when I looked at a few threads over the last few weeks. I’ve found over the past year or so that there are much better things for me to base my self-esteem on than my questionable intelligence.
I was going to start a companion thread to this thread: Who’s average and not afraid to admit it?
Intelligence is a weird thing. We’ve been told that it’s arrogant and conceited to talk about our gifts, and for the most part, we don’t. Few Dopers brag about their good looks or athleticism or their musical abilities. You don’t ever hear the jocks reminiscing about the time they won the winning point at the big game. But for some reason, cognitive giftedness is treated a bit differently around here.
I guess whether or not you’re sensitive to it depends on your own experiences. What sounds like chest-thumping to someone sounds like a neutral discussion to someone else.
I haven’t been around here for awhile and can’t think of any specific examples of what you’re talking about, but generally it does sound annoying.
One thing that’s always rubbed me the wrong way on the dope and IRL is people bragging about how early they (or their kids) did something, especially talking or reading. I often hear people claim to have been reading whole adult books at age 2 or 3, and I once had someone tell me their kid was talking conversationally in complete sentences at 10 months!
My neice will be 3 next month and she can’t do that. I think she’s pretty average.
I’ve never even considered whether or not I am smart or dumb. I’m not working at mcdonalds so I guess I’m not dumb, and I’m not a ceo so I guess I’m not smart. It’s something honestly I’ve never even thought about, and it’s weird to see so many people going on about it. I have a college degree but you can be a retard to get that… I consider it an accomplishment but not anything special.
The whole crowing about intelligence is just something strange here. I’d never even think to take the time to take an IQ test or compare test scores or whatever to measure my special ass against others. That’s just me though. Maybe I’m the smartest person in the world, maybe not, but I’d never be dumb enough to brag about it.
Cisco, I think the OP was reacting to this thread.
I agree that it’s pretty gauche to talk about how smart you are, especially compared to other people, but I’m smrt enough just to ignore those threads. Some people like to talk about stuff like that.
Ah, I see. Thanks. No comment, really. I was in “gifted”* classes my whole life but I don’t think anyone I’ve met in the last 10 years knows that about me, except maybe my wife. I don’t think about it much.
*I don’t think I was gifted with anything except maybe curiosity, and I often question if that was indeed a gift.
That’s my OP, and anyone who takes it as an “I’m better than everyone else around me” thread is oversensitive to begin with. No one’s claiming they’re a genius or stroking their own egos, if you see it that way, you’re reading way too much into it.
On paper I am highly intelligent: early reader, skipped a grade, ex-Mensa, blah blah blah. But I don’t use it the way I could. I feel downright dumb next to a lot of people. Mr. S sometimes talks about how he’s “dumb” next to me, because he didn’t go to college, was never tested as a prodigy, etc. But he has an excellent memory, reads voraciously, and can discuss almost anything intelligently. Many people think he’s college educated. I wish my brain worked more like his.
My friend’s son is extremely gifted and he knows it; he also has some of the social awkwardness that goes with extremely high IQ. Once during a car ride he was talking about his intelligence, insinuating that it makes him better than other people because he’s so smart. I tried explaining to him that everyone has something to offer the world, but he didn’t get it. He was quite young then; let’s hope he’s growing out of that attitude and will eventually discover that everyone can learn something from someone else. If not, it certainly won’t help him in life.
Out in the real world, even professional adults mistrust and dislike ‘smart’ people, just like the popular kids in high school did.
All our lives we were called names, made fun of, and occasionally assaulted* for being better than others in something (do you often see people, even kids, doing that to people who sing, dance, or play football better than others?). Most of us have learned to underplay or apologize for our gifts, or have gravitated toward ‘nerd’ professions.
So here, with our own, we relax and admit just how nice (and good, and fun) it is to be smart.
I’m not over-sensitive, I just find it arrogant… it’s just something that I think many of us never even think about. It’d be interesting to take an IQ test against you (that’d fulfill the competitive streak in me), but I don’t really care. I just find it weird that so many people do care and take the time to talk about their supposed intelligence.
Reading too much into it? How is “When did you gain a conception of yourself as smart, or smarter than the masses of children around you?” not supposed to sound painfully elitist?
However, I find IQ threads and others quite entertaining. They tend to drift to the right of the Bell Curve starting the first page. “Mine was 120”. Ok, that is smart but that is about the average for university professors. “I scored a 130”. Possible but that is pretty high. “I scored a 142”. That is within shouting distance of possible. You were most likely the smartest person in your town. “I scored a 153”. Now you are claiming that you are not only the smartest person ever in your high school but also your town and probably your county. “I scored a 165”. Now we have someone who is most likely one of the smartest people in the state - ever. “I scored a 173”. Now we are dealing with one of the highest scores recorded in the history of the world. “I scored a 185”. Well call in INS because we have an alien on our hands.
The irony is that people that claim these things have zero understanding of bell curves and statistics. Casually tacking on 15 points to inflate your score causes a jump of an entire standard deviation and tacking on 30 points or so brings us into super-liars and dumbass land.
There are a few other subjects that bring on the same things. Penis length is one but, oddly, the coldest weather you have ever been in is another. The coldest weather thread induced people to claim they had been in weather for an extended amount of time that was much colder than the lowest temperature ever recorded for that state.
I am sure that there are a few more but we have conclusive evidence that many dopers Lie - Lie - Lie.
I didn’t post to the “smart kids” thread, but I feel the need to respond here.
Yeah, I’m as guilty of bragging about my intelligence here as the next Doper. But I guess the reason I do this is because book smarts is about all I’ve got, and not even that much – I suck at math. I’m not that physically attractive and never have been (let’s be honest here, I’m a 3 at best on a scale of 1 to 10), I have no money and pathetic social skills, I’m obese and unathletic, I live with my parents 'cause I couldn’t make my marriage succeed, and I can’t even drive a fucking car. So please allow me to cling to what is pretty much the only thing I have going for me. Thank you.
(goes off to play the world’s smallest violin for self)
It may be all some people have. I enjoy a variety of mental and physical pursuits, arts and entertainment, interpersonal relationships, etc. Some people may only be really good at math, or at taking IQ tests, or at getting straight A’s. I can see why they’d want to get together and talk about it. It’s like the guys gathering at the bar to talk about football.
If you were just a hyper kid, had occasional troubles relating, and get tired sometimes, you are correct: You don’t have ADD, Aspergers, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Do you want congratulations, or a cookie, or something?
Possibly the only thing more tiresome than people bragging (whether it is about intelligence, money, or good looks - and FTR I don’t think NightRabbit’s OP was particularly arrogant or bragging) is people smugly saying that because they “get tired sometimes” and deal with it just fine, then people who have an actual diagnosable syndrome should do so as well. Because as we all know, most medical conditions can easily be cured or overcome by just shrugging it off and deciding not to be sick. :rolleyes:
Hah! I admit I don’t know much about IQ test results - is this true or are you just throwing numbers out to make a point?
One possible explanation:
The only IQ test I ever recall taking in which I got the results back was a couple years ago on the internet. It was iqtest.com or something similar - not sure about the exact url - but it was ad-based and tried to sell you a “complete IQ profile” or somesuch at the end. I got a 173. I didn’t believe it for a second and still don’t. I think they inflate your score to make you think you’re a genius and didn’t know, and you have to buy their complete profile. I’m sure it was the most popular internet IQ test, at least at the time, and that could be where the big numbers came from in dopers’ results. Or maybe they just lie - lie - lie!
