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 No.10493

File: 1641861922622.png (253.81 KB, 1156x1024, 289:256, large.png) ImgOps Google

Through pretty much my whole childhood and early life, I was considered smart.  Someone said I was probably the smartest person to graduate my school.  The implication, of course, is that I'd go on to some kind of greatness.

I feel like I've spent a good deal of energy trying to undo this expectation.  I don't think I'm *that* smart, and even if I am, looking back and nearly always seeing my productivity or progress as below par is not helping.

I'm writing here because I think this might be a shared concern and it's hard to write about this without feeling like I'm bragging somehow (this is one case where not having a name is kinda nice).

I need to stop being "smart."

 No.10494

yeah, being dumb is tops! define your own expectations for yourself, other people can live their own lives instead of yours

 No.10495

>>10494
Exactly.  Well, I kinda want to exit the smart/dumb line completely, of course I don't want to take the other extreme.  Suppose if I can't exit the line, just seeing myself as an average pony will do.

With the added assertion that average ponies can do smart-people things if they want.  Or maybe that we shouldn't tag activities smart or dumb -- everything has aspects of either.

 No.10496

I've got a video on hand kinda related to this, so I'll post that.

The short version of my opinion, though:  intelligence is largely a myth and not worth tracking in any particular way, and you don't owe other people their expectations of what you can do.

>I don't think I'm *that* smart,

This one in particular stands out as something that's been on my mind for a few months.  I imagine most smart people don't feel smart, because they've never had the experience of being not smart.  For a "smart" person, being smart is normal and no part of life suggests to them that other people don't think exactly like they do.  This is compounded further if you've surrounded yourself with other smart people and your comparisons for intelligence are all located within the upper tiers.  It's hard to define what "smart" means, or even measure if it exists with any accuracy, but assuming that it does, I don't think it's noticeable from a natural perspective.

 No.10497

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>>10496
>I've got a video on hand kinda related to this, so I'll post that.

The video was relevant and interesting.

My participation in state-aligned education seems like a long time ago.  I was bored a lot, yes.  (But isn't that common?).  Sometimes I'd go way beyond what was called for by the teacher.  I guess that was boredom.  Sometimes I procrastinated and didn't do very well.

I don't know if I had to study like others.  I do know I seemed to approach math and physics classes differently, I could generally use my intuition.  But in school, my capacity to memorize serialized data was poor.  I remember being almost ridiculously bad at states and capitals, and it wasn't because I wasn't trying.

>intelligence is largely a myth and not worth tracking in any particular way

Agree.

>you don't owe other people their expectations of what you can do.
One advantage of getting older is there's less room for "potential."

>no part of life suggests to them that other people don't think exactly like they do.

I know I have an intensity at my core that's a bad match for most ponies.  But maybe it's just because I'm a Scorpio.

>surrounded yourself with other smart people

I'm a pretty independent mare, especially in my work.  My roommate, who is the person I talk to the most actually had his IQ tested by the school and it's 96 or 102, I forget exactly but effectively average.

-

When I think of "*that* smart", it can as smart as people perceive.

More often it means smart enough to be valued even though I'm weird and introverted.

 No.10498

File: 1641930755284.png (2.38 MB, 848x1200, 53:75, 0ad7ea4edbe9c75caef6da51e0….png) ImgOps Google

>>10493
>Someone said I was probably the smartest person to graduate my school.  The implication, of course, is that I'd go on to some kind of greatness.
The implication is wrong.  Intelligence is only one part of success.  There are many very intelligent (i.e., high-IQ) people who do poorly in life.  

And although intelligence in difference areas (e.g., math and verbal) are positively correlated at the population level, some individuals have much greater cognitive ability in certain areas than other areas.  See also: https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/31/the-parable-of-the-talents/

>I don't think I'm *that* smart
Do you have any objectives measures of your intelligence (e.g., professionally adminstered IQ test, SAT scores, etc.)?

>>10496
I mostly agree, except for this part:
>intelligence is largely a myth
I suggest reading this blog post: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/11/does-the-glasgow-coma-scale-exist-do-comas/

 No.10499

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>>10498
>Do you have any objectives measures of your intelligence (e.g., professionally adminstered IQ test, SAT scores, etc.)?

No.  And I don't plan to be a customer of any additional psychological services unless I am authorized and licensed to make practical use of the results.

>I suggest reading this blog post
Skimmed it.  I take the argument to be intelligence is a predictor, much like the depth of a coma predicts how long you might live.  I wouldn't deny you can create a predictor function for high income and doing well on tests.

I suppose the question is more how much that particular predictor function should hold a place in an individual's head.

 No.10500

>Through pretty much my whole childhood and early life, I was considered smart. Someone said I was probably the smartest person to graduate my school. The implication, of course, is that I'd go on to some kind of greatness. I feel like I've spent a good deal of energy trying to undo this expectation. I don't think I'm *that* smart, and even if I am, looking back and nearly always seeing my productivity or progress as below par is not helping.

Basically every word of this applies to me as well.

To add on to what others have been saying, I think that "intelligence" is a concept that people have to accept is inherently fuzzy because it includes a lot of disparate ideas that often are only somewhat related to each other (for example, using common sense, why is it assumed that somebody who's decent at doing mathematical equations would be brilliant playing a musical instrument).

I find myself interested in the theory of "multiple intelligences" and think that learning about it is helpful to all:

> https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/gardners-theory-of-multiple-intelligences.shtml

People are inherently diverse and different. Everybody has natural ability and immense potential to do positive things for themselves and the broader world to some extent. Unfortunately, the modern education system and broader population culture has segregated different abilities from each other in terms of intense specialization, which ultimately (I think) makes modern life atomized, dehumanized, and impersonal. There's a lot more to your worth as a human being that being an expert on something particularly mathematical, visual, or whatnot in a way that makes your employer lots of money.

It would be absurd to generalize that taller people are inferior to shorter people due to, say, different health outcomes and lifespans. Or to say the same thing about nonbinary people versus men versus women. Really, all projects to categorize humanity as "inferior" and "superior" due to supposedly "scientific criteria" is doomed to failure. Science doesn't work that way. Humanity at a population level is one thing, but at an individual or small group level brute force determinism is pure folly.

Personally, I hope to continue with my higher education and achieve career goals that, I guess, would fit with the stereotype of being a "smart person". Yet that's for me. I'm not doing it in terms of other people's views of me.

 No.10501

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>>10500
I think I agree with most everything you say.  It is good to get a sense that I'm not alone.

> I hope to continue with my higher education and achieve career goals that, I guess, would fit with the stereotype of being a "smart person".

Wish you the best of luck.  :)  What are you studying?

My experience with college was pretty mixed.  While this may not be acceptable to everyone, I've found college is not my route to a career.  My life has become more "who is going to stop me," rather than "who approves."  I think I'm happier that way, seeking the approval of others is a questionable project anyway.

 No.10502

>>10501
I'd prefer not to talk about my plans in depth when it comes to studies and whatnot right now, honestly, since things are rather in flux.

Regardless, I'm glad that you're achieving real happiness now, and I hope that I and others here will be the same.

 No.10507

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Success in life is much more a matter of luck than most are willing to accept.

Opportunity is not evenly distributed around the world, nor is it infinite, and many are explicitly barred from access to opportunities.

And even if exploiting opportunities would require effort and skill (once you have access to opportunities of course), the gains one makes from those opportunities does not necessarily depend on the skill or intellect required to take advantage of thise opportunities. Plenty of average or below average people can be (and have been) momentously successful without even really needing to be geniuses or gifted (or even understand how they are successful for that matter) and plenty of highly competent people flounder in life, because of that fundamental unequal distribution of gainful opportunities.

Competency doesn't really matter that much when the universe is fundamentally unfair and more chaotic than we are comfortable accepting.


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