And I mean book smart. I know a guy who got a 34 on his ACT. That’s the best i can do.
One of my best friends in high school got a 1600 on his SAT. He was a classic case of a “lazy genius.” Got a full scholarship to a top-notch school, but nearly flunked out because he didn’t do any work. Haven’t heard much from him since then.
I’ve got a friend who got a 1600 on his SAT, a 36 on his ACT, and is a freshman at MIT right now. He skipped a couple grades in school and was taking something like junior year college math courses during his senior year in high school. He wrote a book in eigth grade, although he never attempted to get it published. He got 5’s on 9 AP tests.
But, of course, he pales in comparison to me. 
Nymysys, 'cause she told me she was 
Keith
Probably a friend of mine from college. He started out as a math major and was taking classes so advanced his notebooks looked like they were written in Sanskrit. He eventually went into computer science and was working for ILM for a while–during the Jurassic Park, Terminator 2 era.
Me.
Friend of mine got a 1600 on the SAT in grade school (middle school for some). Calc BC as a soph, 3-dimensional calculus as a junior. Harvard. Crazy shit. Also a varsity athlete nearly every semester of high school, as well as playing the piano really well and being a member of several clubs. And in her spare time during spring break she drove with some friends down to a poor section of VA and helped repair houses.
Umm, hello? I am the smartest person I know. As well as the smartest person you all know! I got, like, a bazillion on my SATs and, uh, like, a lot on my ACT.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, a history professor here at Oxford, whose historical biography of Thomas Cranmer not only won several historical awards, but also the Whitbread Biography Award–which had never been (and has not since) been awarded to a book about a historical subject. (Plus he said my research was good–eat that, Jack Dean Tyler!)
Then there’s my wife, who got the top first in English Language and Literature for 1994–for the whole of the UK.
Then there’s Professor Niall Ferguson, the sort of guy who you call when you want to know anything, including statues in Trafalgar Square.
Boy, Oxford can make you feel dumb in a hurry.
I think Mildred Dresselhaus gets my “startlingly smart” award, but that’s because she looks like your grandma. You expect her to hand you a cookie and instead she slays you with terrifying tensor calculus.
For most educated, I work with a woman who has a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering, an M.D., a Ph.D. in biology, (I think) a master’s in art restoration, and she’s currently at Harvard Law School. She also takes assorted college extension courses for fun when she’s not in a degree program.
Well, there’s this syndicated columnist and book author I know of who’s supposed to be pretty smart…
Me too!
Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams! Cecil Adams!
My dad.
Um, he graduated top of his class and student of the decade at MIT. Got his Doctorate of Science in Nuclear Engineering in less than a year. Has the most researched doctorate thesis in MIT history. Need I say anymore?