# You A Gifted? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 24, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859 "2011-08-24T03:17:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/41 "2011-08-24T20:12:09Z")
In 1960? ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/42 "2011-08-24T21:14:07Z")
[Nope, never been gifted](http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4093766.html). Joe ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/43 "2011-08-24T21:38:51Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > [Nope, never been gifted](http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4093766.html). > > Joe Wow, no shit, really? That’s…well, sad or fucked-up or both. Hey where’s our OP? That first post was a lot of work, no follow-up? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/44 "2011-08-24T23:51:44Z")
> [@THE\_REAL\_GIFTED](#): > > \*\*\* Are you multi-talented? I can walk and chew gum at the same time as long as the ground is level. Does this count? > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Do you have so many interests and abilities that it is hard to focus your energies on developing any of them to your satisfaction? No. I pretty much have one track and devote all my energy to it. Kinda like Einstein. Or Issac Newton. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Do you continue to believe in yourself and your vision, even when no one else does? No, because I’m not a narcissist. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Do you talk compulsively? I’m too busy thinking to talk. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Are you adventurous where new sensory experiences are concerned (food, music, erotic experimentation, different environmental settings, for example)? No. I’m boring in these respects. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Do you love to explore a wide variety of theories and ideas? I’m constantly thinking about different stuff–different fantasies, story plots, and things to create. Does this count? > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Are you excruciatingly sensitive, with intense emotions? No. I’m pretty stoic and stony-faced. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Are you an independent thinker, individualistic, and mentally self-sufficient? Very much so. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Are you determined to make a meaningful contribution during your life? I don’t care about making a contribution. I just want to do what I like, and if it helps other people, that’s swell. But I’m not idealistic enough to think I can change the world or be anything other than another cog in the wheel. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Are you hard to get to know, more involved with your internal world than you are with others, and have only a few close friends that know you well? Yes, pathologically so. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Are you driven to achieve “what could be” when you think of “what is?” I’m a great problem-solver and I am very creative. But my world is very “inner”. I don’t care about stuff around me; I feel like I’m exempt from it somehow. Sometimes I have great ideas, but I don’t have the passion to carry them out. Or persuade others to help me. If I think about a problem too long, I start thinking, “Is this really _that_ important?” Usually the answer is no. I am not a visionary, but I can talk like one. So, as you can see I am not A Gifted. ---
**Author:** ![OneMissedPost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OneMissedPost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneMissedPost)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/45 "2011-08-25T00:04:29Z")
Who decides whether or not people are **gifted**? Define **gifted**. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/46 "2011-08-25T00:08:34Z")
I know somebody that is a special snowflake. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/47 "2011-08-25T00:23:50Z")
Well, it _is_ my birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/48 "2011-08-25T01:25:50Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, it _is_ my birthday. Really? Were you a gifted? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/49 "2011-08-25T02:18:32Z")
I’m gifted enough to know that “gifted” isn’t a noun. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/50 "2011-08-25T05:00:28Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Really? Were you a gifted? A Several times. My birthday was really on Saturday. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/51 "2011-08-25T05:22:45Z")
All together now… _I’m a gifted You’re a gifted He’s a gifted She’s a gifted Wouldn’t you like to be a gifted too? Be a gifted Drink Dr. Gifted…_ Hm. Suddenly, I have this great urge for a certain soda. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/52 "2011-08-25T05:40:02Z")
It is possible that some posters in this thread are conflating “a gifted” with [“a special purpose.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJJA6WRpvlg) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/53 "2011-08-25T05:52:14Z")
I am _many_ gifteds. In fact, I might have been JFK. You know, before this. ---
**Author:** ![THE\_REAL\_GIFTED](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e8c25b/32.png) [@THE\_REAL\_GIFTED](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THE_REAL_GIFTED)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/54 "2011-09-09T00:12:04Z")
Ha, I didn’t initially reply to all these informative posts because I saw it was deleted, but I appreciate that it was resurrected, which I just noticed now. Anyways, I’ll just address a couple of posts & points made, even though I tried to be straight up in the initial posting. > [@Pai325](#): > > No, but I certainly know many who are. Fair enough. I appreciate the response. > [@silenus](#): > > Reported. Was it you? > [@Cunctator](#): > > All that giftedness and yet the thread title isn’t even gramatically correct… I could break this comment down, but I’ll just simply retort: Haha funny; I didn’t know thread titles were suppose to be grammatically correct; It got people to click; Message \> Grammar; An Intellectually Gifted Individual would question and answer _Why is this title titled the way it is_ > [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I spent a year and a half in a gifted program. I was demoted because of absences caused by my clinical depression which had set in about that time. > > I loved the gifted program. But when I was demoted, I really didn’t give a shit enough about anything to feel too badly when it happened. I saw it coming anyway. It was just another sack of crap to fall into my life, I thought at the time. > > I think the program fell in later years due to budget cuts anyway. That and anti-elitism which was rife in the public schools then. > > Anyway, giftedness and stigma? I never really felt stigmatized personally. Do the gifted have a higher percentage of mental disorders? Yeah, I think there’s something to that. Being gifted intellectually usually means you don’t think like everyone else tends to. Sometimes that can lead to an isolation of the mind of sorts, which is fraught with pitfalls where mental health is concerned. Ever think that your depression could be in relation to Giftedness? Because it can be. “The Gifted Program” is funny in that it usually focuses on the education aspect vs the emotional aspect, when in reality it should go hand in hand. “Anti-elitism” is actually part of the Gifted stigma. Funny enough, these “mental disorders” can also be attributed to Intellectually Giftedness, where a large problem is that Intellectually Gifted Individuals don’t know what what Intellectual Giftedness is, or how it applies to them. > [@sandra\_nz](#): > > The OP confuses me. And I’m gifted. This comment confuses me. Are you Intellectually Gifted? [quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:24, topic:593859”] Taken individually, those words in the OP are all perfectly good words… [/QUOTE] My trusty sarcasm detector is stalling. > [@rachelellogram](#): > > I was considered a gifted child, but I’ve never been the same since attaining adulthood. Multiple psychological disorders later, it’s a miracle if I can function enough to take a shower before heading off to work anymore. You know what they say, once you’re Gifted, YOU’RE GIFTED FOR LIFE. Seriously, Giftedness does not expire, and it may be Intellectual Giftedness that affects multiple psychological disorders, if they exist or are mis-diagnosed. > [@OneMissedPost](#): > > Who decides whether or not people are **gifted**? > > Define **gifted**. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, it’s what an individual identifies themselves with. Technically, Psychologists in the field specializing in let’s say Gifted Programs, identify Intellectually Gifted children / students. Therapists may identify clients, children or adults who seek their advice. Evidently, one may realize the self-actualization of Intellectual Giftedness. I think I defined Gifted already, at least in this context. Intellectual Giftedness, Intellectually Gifted. Of the top of my head; Highly intelligent, highly creative, intense emotionally, energetic physically, rebellious to the status quo, idealistic, perfectionistic, asks why, wants to know how, likes to experience things, having many many interests— basically an almost overwhelming combinations of those things, but I’m sure I left out numerous factors. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/55 "2011-09-09T00:23:17Z")
So I’m guessing the nice men in the white coats let you use the computer in the community room once every two weeks, then? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/56 "2011-09-09T02:10:11Z")
I was lifted, sifted, grifted & re-gifted. …and then returned for store credit. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/57 "2011-09-09T02:24:53Z")
You must be gifted if you can title a title. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/58 "2011-09-09T06:22:34Z")
If it takes a psychologist or therapist to tell you that you are gifted, then you ain’t fucking gifted. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/59 "2011-09-09T06:31:25Z")
I’m too gifted for my shirt, too gifted for my shirt, so gifted, it hurts. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2011, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859/60 "2011-09-09T06:34:00Z")
> [@OneMissedPost](#): > > Who decides whether or not people are **gifted**? > > Define **gifted**. Defining things well is a gift. One that I lack. My gift is fucking up. And it’s one I can’t re-gift to someone else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-a-gifted/593859.md?page=4)