How intelligent are you?

[Vallium]

To create new content, lets have a poll here, and discuss

Hows that brain of yours? and how do other people think of your knowledge and vas intelligence?

theres the poll

Me? I've always considered myself fairly intelligent, I take interest in topics considered to be for bright-minded folk, it fascinates me.

although...my older years Ive felt far too average than one of the brighter minds out there. Not being competant in college sure puts a damper on that mindset.

I think as a kid in my youth I was fairly above average, I would read and even write quite a bit, and my scores on my state based proficiency tests always indicated I was above average in comprehension levels (5 being  the highest, 3 being average, I almost always landed a 4 or 4.5 on reading; 3 in math, not my strongest subject, but as a kid I was never below the mark on that as I am now)

In middle school my scores apparently indicated I had a "12th grade reading level"

In Eighth grade I landed a 5.5 out of six on a state based essay score, the closest Ive been to perfection.

Throughout school Id been able to land Good or decent grades simply by listening in class, I didnt study much (should have), but in knowledge-based things I always did well holding on to the memory of things I needed to and getting passing grades.

in high school I somehow landed a 102% on a test in English honors, due to the test curve and simply paying attention to the details repeated frequently in the literature books that I needed to know. I was the only one to score that high...oddly enough, Im quite certain I studied the least and hardly read the source material.

 

 

Despite the bragging of my past time, things have leveled out, Im just an average, spending my days on forums and trying to make a living

[Mayonnaise]

I'm a dumbass. Doesn't matter though, it's not fatal after all.

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

I'm smart. I'm loyal. I'm a genius.

[Dr. Doggo]

I'm a genius but I look like a dumbass

[Alexxx-Returns]

My nickname in school and university was brainbox so I guess people thought I was smart. And I did my first degree standing on my head pretty much. But I DID get kicked out of med school so... I'm not the smartest of the smart.

I'm not smart where it counts though. Like with people and emotions and social situations. It really sucks.

[SkyboundTerror]

I'm pretty much the failure in my family (though I'm looking to change that v:).

I was one of the smartest kids in elementary and middle school, being put in classes that "challenged" the kids who were ahead of the curve. I was always a quick learner and I excelled in English courses (my first language is Spanish), and I'd often soak up information so quickly that some of my teachers would let me slack off in class for days while the rest of the kids tried to make sense of lessons. I don't know my exact placing in state testing, but I was supposed to go to some private school in New York for braniac teens after I placed high on a state test. All I needed was parental constent, but my mother prevented that from happening. She didn't want me to move across the country and be away from my family.

Once high school came, my academics went to shit lol

Freshman year was alright with straight A's, but the years afterwards, I stopped caring about school entirely due to family drama and other personal issues, on top of school being the most unengaging thing ever. I got D's and F's across the board save for English, which continued to be my best subject. I wasn't even supposed to graduate from high school but I got pitied into graduating because of teachers who knew of my "potential." I heard so many "I know you're more smarter and hardworking than this" lectures.

And I did all of that without doing drugs and shit. Lethargy is killer.

Because of my slacking in high school, my overall knowledge sucks and I struggle to do simple math at times. Meanwhile, writing and reading are still the love of my life, and my friends view me as "wise" rather than "intelligent" because of the family and personal struggles I went through during high school.

[Hux]

I'm an idiot and I've came to accept it. At least I'm intelligent enough to have some self awareness. There's nothing more annoying than an idiot who thinks they're smart. I'm sure we'll see a lot those folks in this thread talking about how they peaked when they were, like, 12 years old and how normies just can't understand they're sophisticated intellects.

[Chrysocyon]

100% certified dumbass.

[Guest]

My family always said I'm smart, but that's what every parent tells their son/daughter. Right now I feel fucking braindead, I can't be bothered with doing any serious mental activity. Previously, other than school I had things like, say, worldbuilding to keep me mentally trained, I suppose: proper worldbuilding requires you to look up the materials required and to understand them, ranging from astronomy to geology, history, politics, economics etc. etc.. It also requires you to squeeze your brain in order to come up with interesting stuff. Then you have to select what you want to keep and what you want to discard, organize everything. It is a rather involving process. I wish I had the will to keep doing it but I'm too unmotivated atm

[PastryOfApathy]

In my 100% objective opinion, I'm the smartest person on this entire site.

[Gator]

people used to think i was smart because i liked to read the dictionary and knew a bunch of useless stuff about things nobody cared about

same still applies with people who talk to me, but i think most people who don't know me well these days think i'm legit retarded.

as for my own opinion... "i have my moments".  sometimes they're moments where i feel smart, but mostly they're retard moments.  shrug

[Proper noun]

Radical lif hax here, feed people useless facts and people think you're smart

[Socketosis]

31 minutes ago, Hux said:

I'm an idiot and I've came to accept it. At least I'm intelligent enough to have some self awareness. There's nothing more annoying than an idiot who thinks they're smart. I'm sure we'll see a lot those folks in this thread talking about how they peaked when they were, like, 12 years old and how normies just can't understand they're sophisticated intellects.

Same. A couple of people have said I'm a smarty but I find it hard to believe. I agree about people who think they're smarter than they are.

[DrDingo]

I'm pretty good at the smart things
I mean, I did manage to land myself a place at the third best university in the UK

But my peers think I'm smarter than I am. When I say I'm stressed about an exam, they think I'm taking the piss or lying

[Enigma]

I'm intelligent enough. I don't care how other people perceive my intelligence.

[#00Buck]

Millionaires and Billionaires come to me for advice so yeah I'm pretty smart. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Enigma said:

I'm intelligent enough. I don't care how other people perceive my intelligence.

You work with freaking military jets. You must be hella intelligent

[Enigma]

Just now, Amiir said:

You work with freaking military jets. You must be hella smart

It doesn't take rocket science to do that.

Just talk to a crew chief.

[Mapa]

Honestly, fuck the whole concept of general intelligence. I'm good at some things, and terrible at others. I don't need to put myself above/below other people citing how "smart" I am, and I don't need a bullshit excuse for when I mess up due to my lack of discipline.

[Aouzy]

It depends on the type of day.

[Endless/Nameless]

I'm an intelligent person. I have a lot of facepalm moments tho.

I really don't know how others perceive me.

[Victor-933]

All my life I've been told I'm a genius. Spent a lot of time with government appointed therapists and psychologists while in DODDS (Department Of Defense Dependent Schools -- where service members dump their rugrats while on post) and had to take weird tests every so often. I still have some of the reports; my reading level was in the 99th percentile in fifth grade (~1999) and I seem to remember my IQ being rated something ridiculous like 127 around the same time.

Trouble is, I have a very hard time giving even one iota of a shit about most things. Furthermore, being an Air Force brat entailed a lot of transfers and moving around -- ended up attending 11 different schools before graduating. It was a big clusterfuck and combined with my apathy it's left me kinda crippled I think; I struggle with basic math. Doesn't help that I often abused these special programs to get out of doing work, and the disjointed nature of my schooling left what little I did participate in as a jumbled mess...

That said, I admit I still have very strong learning and retention abilities and often find myself operating on a level that seems exponentially higher than that of my peers, which is frustrating as hell and it usually ends up with me inadvertently talking down to people, which then pisses them off. Combined with rampant bullying, especially in high school, it's left me with pretty low self-esteem and a low opinion of people I general; I often question peoples' motives and try to isolate myself as much as possible, and often have doubts about my own abilities... people tell me I'm smart but for some reason I always have a hard time believing them.

 

kinda went on a tangent at the end but fuck it

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

I'm a dumbass but people IRL call me smart for whatever reason.

[Cingal]

I took an IQ test and I got like 80%, so, that's almost 100%.

[Lucyfish]

I'm pretty sure I'm dumb as a fucking brick lol

[DevilBear]

I am a fucking dumbass.

If this were caveman days I'd have been eaten by a North American cheetah or trampled by a giant sloth. I'd be the first guy to die in a house fire after my cave went up after I decided it'd be a good idea to warm up my sleeping straw before I used it.

If this was ancient Rome, I'd be the guy to suggest lead is a fantastic way to flavor.

If this were 1929, I'd be the guy telling my friends to get into the stock market. Guaranteed results, I'd be saying.

I don't want to vaccinate my kids because they use mercury in them and that causes autism.

Im voting for Trump.

[Vallium]

26 minutes ago, Cingal said:

I took an IQ test and I got like 80%, so, that's almost 100%.

80% is almost 100%???? I didnt know that! Gosh Cingal, youre so smart!

[Hux]

48 minutes ago, Endless/Nameless said:

I'm an intelligent person. I have a lot of facepalm moments tho.

I really don't know how others perceive me.

You seem like a really intelligent guy, fambro. 😃

[Vallium]

1 hour ago, pothocket said:

Honestly, fuck the whole concept of general intelligence. I'm good at some things, and terrible at others. I don't need to put myself above/below other people citing how "smart" I am, and I don't need a bullshit excuse for when I mess up due to my lack of discipline.

very true, in the end its not how much you know but what information and skills you harness to achieve life to the fullest potential

tribal people tend to be considered less intelligent by modern standards but...theyre living.

 

Doesnt stop people from having their own self concept or overall concept of intelligence, however

[Endless/Nameless]

17 minutes ago, Hux said:

You seem like a really intelligent guy, fambro. 😃

[Red Lion]

Eh I dunno, I'm sort of creative but most days I feel like I'm dumber than people think. 

[Mapa]

11 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

very true, in the end its not how much you know but what information and skills you harness to achieve life to the fullest potential

tribal people tend to be considered less intelligent by modern standards but...theyre living.

 

Doesnt stop people from having their own self concept or overall concept of intelligence, however

True, I'll admit my post was poorly worded. I guess what it amounts to is it doesn't really matter how smart you are if you can't apply yourself.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

10 minutes ago, Sylver said:

*snip*

Nice humblebrag there bro.

[DrGravitas]

I am average to slightly above average, with a few highly specialized advanced skill sets and knowledge. Sure, I've implemented a python-based KD Tree for intelligent skin-weight binding on 3D models, but I've also had to ask the people at Home Depo how to hang a picture (there's a friggin' wall of nails at that place!) Skills and specialized knowledge do not define ones intelligence, there is more to it than that. I consider this largely in observation of the nature of my learning style, the speed at which I grasp things, and other reasons. I learn slowly, but tend to eventually gather a deeper understanding of the subject. The processes by which I learn can yield impressive capabilities but generally makes it harder for me to utilize them in combination with others. It's hard to explain what I mean and the key example I could give would make this post gigantic and still likely fail to express it effectively. But, when considered on the whole, I feel I round out to maybe slightly above average.

But, I have distinct personality traits (not all of them exactly natural-born...) that lend themselves to convincing people that I'm extremely, even intimidatingly, intelligent. This all generally holds until they get to know me more deeply. Those specialized skillsets and knowledge tend to reinforce this in shallow observation. This is especially true at work. I recall one time overhearing my co-workers discussing which superhero each of them and their friends would be. One of them proposed Tony Stark for me and it was unanimously accepted without debate. :3

[Kleric]

I can confirm that Trekkie will not be honest in his answer, he is too bashful and selfless to self proclaim himself as anything good. 

So I'll answer for him: He is extremely smart, he is straight up Google, you can ask him anything and he always has some form of answer. Probably because he spends his time reading encyclopedias. Also this is reflected by his IQ being 143, which is borderline genius. :0

 

ACCEPT IT JEREMIAH! 

[Osrik]

I am by most standards highly intelligent, but people tend to assume I am some kind of genius when they only know me casually. I think this comes from my bookishness and ability to delve into topics most know nothing about (possibly also my social awkwardness being misinterpreted as an intellectual aluftness), but these people quickly seem to assume I know everything on the subjects in which I display the least knowledge, and by extension subjects I know nothing about (though they often know even less about these subjects, so they will buy anything I say on them).

I am also at times lazy in my work and writing, but have seemed to get away with it to an amazing extent at least in college. I graduated summa cum laude this past May, but I rarely wrote a paper more than three days before it was due,and still easily did better than my friends who put in serious work, hell, I have even received better grades than them on papers I accidentally wrote on the wrong topic. I think this is mostly do to my mastery of the style and tone of academic writing, so that my papers read more similar to something a professor would read from a peer at least in the categories of style and tone, while I also often wrote on subjects on which they were less than knowledgeable. I am probably overstating how bad I was, but it still makes me feel kind of scummy as well as disillusioned, as I feel I to some extent cheated and tricked my way to the top of my class (though I never did anything as bad as plagiarizing, but i often overused sources and at times reused their arguments to a greater extent than generally acceptable).

So, at least in my field, I feel that my apparent ability and intelligence is to some extent built on pillars of sand, ready to collapse once an expert in the subjects I write on examines my work.

[Vallium]

20 minutes ago, Kleric said:

I can confirm that Trekkie will not be honest in his answer, he is too bashful and selfless to self proclaim himself as anything good. 

So I'll answer for him: He is extremely smart, he is straight up Google, you can ask him anything and he always has some form of answer. Probably because he spends his time reading encyclopedias. Also this is reflected by his IQ being 143, which is borderline genius. :0

 

ACCEPT IT JEREMIAH! 

A true gentleman and a scholar

 

Its incredibly easy to spot that he's quite the attainer of knowledge  I dont doubt your claim.

Cheers! Wish to visit you guys sometime

[Lopaw]

I'd be considered very intelligent. I can recall a myriad of mundane facts relatively easily and was able to memorize most of the various engineering formula I was taught recently.  It got to the point where I had at least 5 people interrupting me every so often whist doing assignments asking me how I had managed to pass. I have been able to act as a unofficial teacher explaining to most of my class how to work their way around autodesk inventor using my basic 3D modelling knowledge gleaned from blender during a very major crunch period,  in which the CAD part of our drawing unit was taught in a day by a stand-in teacher when it was supposed to have been taught over a week by teachers with backgrounds in the field. My friend broke down in class because it was that bad, if I hadn't done anything the whole class would have failed the course.

I have also had to explain to some of the less bright people in my class many things they should have picked up on. One more or less ignored my advice on how to use a set square to get decent lines (these where engineering diagrams where such matters)

Also been asked too many times:

What transistor type is used in a certain circuit and what it does.

What various heath and safety acronyms mean.

What machine is this? (during the unexpected machinist unit that scared me when doing a practical session)

 

[Strongbob]

I took an IQ test one time that summed me up pretty well.  It said that I am not a genus, but many people will think you are.  This really is me in a nutshell.   I do a fair amount of dumb shit, but I cover it up well enough that most people don't notice and I do enough smart shit to make people say 'oooh, ahhh, he genus' which I am most definitely not.  

[Jtrekkie]

I can remember some things and figure stuff out, but I frequently make poor decisions and overlook the obvious. Sometimes people think I'm smarter than I really am, sometimes I do, but I have a long list of people beyond my ability.

I have noticed that among those really smart people there is a tendency to assume that ideas you've pieced together are correct, even though they may just be approximations, and to dismiss anything contradicting you. That's a trap for everyone to watch out for. Read books, but also find smart (or wise) people and talk to them. Learn everything you can and take some time to think about it. You only know what you know; there's always something more to find so keep pushing your horizons.

 

Also I played hooky from school for a whole year and always forget to not touch hot things. Confirmed muggle.

 

 

5 hours ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

tribal people tend to be considered less intelligent by modern standards but...theyre living.

 

Doesnt stop people from having their own self concept or overall concept of intelligence, however

 

A considerable part of that is nothing more than malnutrition, which is a persistent problem in the sub-Saharan Africa. Luckily that's a fixable problem with high returns.

Just the addition of supplemental iodine into our diets has done a lot for us. 

 

And visits sounds fun, @WolfNightV4X1. I was hoping to try to make the trip with Kleric but it didn't work out.

[JegoLego]

/r/iamverysmart

But honestly I'm only able to remember things visually. Like I'll read info from a textbook, and when I recall it from memory I'll also remember the font and location on the page. Usually this'll help me remember things word for word. Anything audio related I associate with what I saw while hearing it. But lately my memory and decision making skills have been degrading as I'm not eating enough, like at all.

Eat food, kids. Food is good.

[LadyRadarEars]

I'm about average I guess, but there are some things (like history) where I kind of just study on my own for hours and hours and hours and I become a living encyclopedia. School thought I was smart enough to put me in the fast track fast learning groups and shiz, but outside one or two they weren't very good for me.

[GarthTheWereWolf]

“I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with.”

[Vallium]

1 hour ago, Strongbob said:

I took an IQ test one time that summed me up pretty well.  It said that I am not a genus, but many people will think you are.  This really is me in a nutshell.   I do a fair amount of dumb shit, but I cover it up well enough that most people don't notice and I do enough smart shit to make people say 'oooh, ahhh, he genus' which I am most definitely not.  

I thought the misspelling was an ironic mistake but seeing as it's been twice I'm starting to think it's an ironic joke...

Lucky you

[Taikugemu]

Average I guess.

[Hewge]

This is like one of those questions on a terrible personality quiz

[Strongbob]

5 hours ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

I thought the misspelling was an ironic mistake but seeing as it's been twice I'm starting to think it's an ironic joke...

Lucky you

Ha ha, of course it was a joke. Everyone  knows smart people have perfect spelling,  that's why everyone constantly asks me how to spell words.  I occasionally give them the wrong answer to test them. Hey look at that squirrel!  'runs'

[Zaraphayx]

I'm a genius, everyone says so, especially me.

 

[LazerMaster5]

In high school, I was about average among my friends. We were all in honors classes and shit.

However, in my intro to welding class back in the spring, I was considered the smart one in the class. It also doesn't hurt that half the class didn't give a shit about the class and failed from lack of effort.

Still, I try to stay humble. 

Also, I can't be bothered to remember shit. I must have hit my head one too many times back in 10th grade.

[Revates]

I used to think I was the smartest of the smart but I had a lot of humbling experiences and now I'm happy with just being a dumb dog.