Sigh.
I want there to be someone smarter than me who has all the answers. But alas, everyone is an idiot.
I bet I could even prove that, mathematically, that nobody knows nothing. How utterly frustrating.
So where's God in all of this? Playing hide and seek, I bet.
On Topic, what's so great about "being smart"?
Sigh.
I want there to be someone smarter than me who has all the answers. But alas, everyone is an idiot.
I bet I could even prove that, mathematically, that nobody knows nothing. How utterly frustrating.
So where's God in all of this? Playing hide and seek, I bet.
On Topic, what's so great about "being smart"?
It's nice to have people smarter than you around, to tell you what to do. When you're struggling with a question it makes you feel you're not completely on your own. You have someone who can discuss with you at the level that you want to discuss, to share ideas, and to challenge you. Especially when it comes to questions nobody has satisfactory answers to, like the meaning of life.
Being smart yourself? It is horrendous and lonely. Take it from me.
Sigh.
I want there to be someone smarter than me who has all the answers. But alas, everyone is an idiot.
I bet I could even prove that, mathematically, that nobody knows nothing. How utterly frustrating.
So where's God in all of this? Playing hide and seek, I bet.
On Topic, what's so great about "being smart"?
It's nice to have people smarter than you around, to tell you what to do. When you're struggling with a question it makes you feel you're not completely on your own. You have someone who can discuss with you at the level that you want to discuss, to share ideas, and to challenge you. Especially when it comes to questions nobody has satisfactory answers to, like the meaning of life.
Being smart yourself? It is horrendous and lonely. Take it from me.
When's the last time you found someone you let yourself think was smarter than you?
On Topic, what's so great about "being smart"?
It's nice to have people smarter than you around, to tell you what to do. When you're struggling with a question it makes you feel you're not completely on your own. You have someone who can discuss with you at the level that you want to discuss, to share ideas, and to challenge you. Especially when it comes to questions nobody has satisfactory answers to, like the meaning of life.
Being smart yourself? It is horrendous and lonely. Take it from me.
When's the last time you found someone you let yourself think was smarter than you?
I don't really like how this is phrased, because it heavily implies that I am refusing to acknowledge people smarter than me, but it's a good question.
Honestly, I don't remember. For the longest time, I've been the "smart" person around. It may sound cocky, but there are honestly very few people who've had as much intellectual achievements at my age or have spent as much time thinking as I have. Those people exist, but they're not around. By many traditional standard I'm in the top 0.01% of intellectuals, something like that. Hard to find people in that bracket, but maybe I'm in the wrong place. My grandfather was an intellectual, but he never dedicated his life to it.
I think God is smarter than me, if He exists, but it's almost by definition.
It's nice to have people smarter than you around, to tell you what to do. When you're struggling with a question it makes you feel you're not completely on your own. You have someone who can discuss with you at the level that you want to discuss, to share ideas, and to challenge you. Especially when it comes to questions nobody has satisfactory answers to, like the meaning of life.
Being smart yourself? It is horrendous and lonely. Take it from me.
When's the last time you found someone you let yourself think was smarter than you?
I don't really like how this is phrased, because it heavily implies that I am refusing to acknowledge people smarter than me, but it's a good question.
Most people do that though to the point that it's difficult to find people who don't. It's typically an expression of their ego angst over feeling alone within their subject matter... if not as compensation for having been treated as dumb for a long enough time in their lives. The insistence over one's own intelligence tends to be a calling card of their ego.
"He who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know." - Lao Tzu
Intelligence isn't just one measurement. Beyond general capacity, like brain processing speed and the room to adapt, people don't tend to be "smarter" than another rather than more gifted in the areas they find relevant.
It's like when Med keeps insisting she's smart by correcting people's English.
Honestly, I don't remember.
I tend to see people I'd call smart as open-minded enough to recognize others as smart, spanning potentially as far as the Dunning Kruger effect to such a degree that they'd presume they must not be smart.
As a general point rather than an all-inclusive one, those who think they're smart tend to be dumb while those who think they're dumb tend to know enough to know they don't know everything to the point of forming doubts over their own abilities, and these doubts often keep them unsure enough to sharpen themselves further rather than becoming complacent over how much they presume to know already.
The more you've learned, the more you see how much more there is to learn. If someone tells me they know enough I tend to not believe them.
For the longest time, I've been the "smart" person around. It may sound cocky, but there are honestly very few people who've had as much intellectual achievements at my age or have spent as much time thinking as I have.
Do you think you might be seeking out low hanging fruit as to keep that image of yourself perpetuating?
Like I've asked Spatial, if you find your peers to be 'dumb', what's stopping you from seeking out people who'd prove to be your better? With him at least, the problem was himself; He stood in his own way over wanting to feel like the smartest guy in the room, and when challenged on it he'd continue dismissing them as 'too dumb' rather than challenge himself.
Would someone smarter than you make you feel challenged, vulnerable, as if it wouldn't be as easy to hide or otherwise hold one over on them?
I think God is smarter than me, if He exists, but it's almost by definition.
I'd argue that's only true in the same way an AI is 'smarter' than you.
Return monke
Are you talking about Doodlesinurwalls? Or what is this? =_=
Dunning kruger effect is real. Intelligent people tend to underestimate their abilities, whereas dumb people tend to overestimate them. Only the most intelligent people know that they are intelligent, in my experience. They can be humble, but they know, and the people around them know. At some point, the objective signs are impossible to miss. Imagine discussing with a severely autistic person; it's as clear as day that "something" is missing, and it's not just your ego talking. There is a similar but not identical observation I can make with the people around me; hard to verbalize what I mean without a somewhat faulty analogy. And no, I am not saying all autists are stupid. I'm saying there is a clear distinction you can observe between yourself and them, just like a truly intelligent person can observe a clear distinction between themselves and others. But all of this is unimportant, in the end.
You're misunderstanding me when you ask would it make me feel vulnerable or angry or challenged if I found someone smarter than me. There is nothing in the world that would make me happier. I would love for there to be someone smarter than me around, as long as they weren't dicks about it. You think me declaring that I'm smart comes from a place of insecurity and ego rather than objective analysis. I've nothing to prove, and I have plenty that i don't know, but I am objectively very smart in relation to others.
I do feel lonely and unchallenged in my subject area, like you say. It does make me wonder what you're hinting at, if I'm defining being smart in a hyperspecific way. But then this just becomes about semantics, I dont really care too much what word we use for it.
So when have I last let myself think someone is smarter than me? I genuinely don't remember, despite havjng thought about it since you asked me the question. Not even as a kid, I don't remember ever thinking someone is smarter than me, but probably.more because I never felt as a kid that it was important, nor did I feel the need for intellectual pursuits. Objectively, when I was a kid, there were people smarter than me around. It goes without saying.
But nothing is stopping me from seeking out people smarter than me. I have sought out people smarter than me. I'm at a University, I attend to scientific conferences across the globe all the time, I frequent "intellectual" forums and keep abreast with publications by the brightest minds that there are.. Not all of these people are frequent contacts though. Maybe I should make more of an effort to get to know them as people and appreciate them for their other qualities, and just accept that I'm on my own when it comes to intellectual pursuits.
