Published on 12, July, 2020
Or are you like me? Expecting at any moment to be outed as an intellectual fraud. It's an area of high,possibly pathological,insecurity for me. I think it connects to the bullying related trauma. Being treated as a lesser person by my school age contemporaries, especially as a teenager.
JuniperFromGallifrey said:Intellect is overrated.
Intelligence without the wisdom to apply it is worthless.
I did all the academic overachieving stuff long ago and it was little benefit to me in the real world other than opening doors to interviews.
Once you start having the opportunity to apply the mechanics of your brain you will start to realise that you need to understand the environment into which your bright ideas will be deployed and this is where a wisdom comes into it.
I've seen some great ideas deployed in ways that were truly apalling and counterproductive because the propellor head who came up with it didn't understand how normal people think and react.
.........I agree with your opinions....but would add that, in my opinion, the most valuable asset that we can all strive for, irrespective of all other matters, is to try and feel contented and happy with our lot, in the moment. Achieve that, and EVERYTHING is golden!
I consider myself as having average IQ - and I have enough humility to not brag about abilities that I don’t have, which would also be untruthful and hypocritical to say so, where doing so is also undignified not honourable and not classy
It dosen't matter how high your IQ but how much of it you use, I've met some people with very high IQ's in the past and they're so intelligent their almost incapacitated by it. They seem to look for complexities where none exist and find the simple, like making tea and toast very difficult. So on paper they may be in the genius level, but if they're only using half of it, they probably effectively score lower than average. IQ tests can be learned, the more you do the better you get at them.
I had long periods of my life where I was called thick and stupid, was bullied for not being as good as others, it took me a long time to recover from and it recovery was all done by myself, from doing puzzles like crosswords and word searches to get to grips with how words worked, to reading my way through the local libraries history section.
Now I am confident in my intelligence, but I admit the areas that I struggle with and if others have a problems with it, then it's their problem not mine and I don't need people like that in my life. I still struggle with the memories of being bullied about it all, but a while ago, I adopted a sort of time limit on worry. If something happened 30 years ago and those people are no longer in my life, some of them are dead and have been for years, why am I still worryiing about it? Would they even remember it or me for that matter? I think bullies often loom larger in the memories of their victims than we do in theirs.
As I relish a good discussion or debate, I welcome the challenge of someone trying to call me a fraud, I have had someone try to do that in the last few years. They said I didn't have a proper degree because I didn't go to a top uni and got all snobbish about it, I laughed at them and called them out, so did others, they went away disgusted at our combined love of our own ignorance, which I found even funnier.
OK you clearly do have issues - but they are not about not being intelligent.
You ARE intelligent - it's bl o o dy obvious!
I don't have an overly strong sense of self identity. That doesn't help when you've been described as rather dull witted by some, and a genius by others.
It's not that important. I want to come back as a well loved dog and the brightest of them are as intelligent as an average human 3 year old.
It has become an obsession with you. Easier said than done, but I suggest you move on. You are already exactly as intelligent as you are. New evidence is not going to make you any thicker or brighter.
I have an inquisitive mind.
Street smarts= definitely not. Emotionally intelligent = same as you. I've done tons of tests, some better than others. It's like there's a gremlin in my head repeatedly saying 'need more proof. You got lucky on that one.'
Intellect is overrated.
the only thing that matters (in my opinion) is the capacity for Growth: openness to reasoning, a desire to understand, and a healthy relationship with doubt (scepticism or whatever you’d like to call it- a thing which allows us to have a little laugh at our control issues, admit when we’re wrong and interrogate our own bias)
Well, yes. I can consistently get well above average in any decent (not Facebook clickbait) intelligence test. Emotionally Intelligent - probably not. Street smarts = probably not. My intelligence is one of the few things that I can be totally confident about.
It is obvious from reading your posts - whether I agree with you or not - whether I'm like you or not - that you are an intelligent person. I don't think this is a good use of your resources to get worried about. I don't think anyone can take this away from you.