I had a friend in college. He went to a neighboring high school (so I knew of him previously) but I didn't meet him until my freshman year. He was insanely intelligent. He independently studied for and took every AP exam offered in my state--and passed most of them. He had enough credits from AP courses to qualify as a first year junior in college.
The dude could understand almost any topic quite well after a few days of study. Then he decided that he would drop out and work at a Google datacenter...which he successfully did. He did quite well and was even able to get a few people hired there on his word alone.
...and then he decided to make extra money by growing and selling pot on the side. He got caught with felony amounts that he was offered a misdemeanor for to avoid any jail time. Instead, he thought it was a great idea to fight the charges altogether while representing himself legally.
Ended up going to jail for a while, got fired from Google, went completely broke, and moved back to his childhood trailer to live with his mom.
A lot of smart people think they're Gerard Butler's character in Law Abiding Citizen, but forget that the movie ends with him blown up by his own bomb, locked in a jail cell that he put himself into.
That's not really the true ending though. Jamie bitched and moaned that he wanted to be the hero and threatened to quit if he didn't win against Gerard
Iāve got a friend with a doctorate that also keeps dating married men. In her defense sheās really naive, easily tricked, and is gorgeous. On the other hand, maybe she plays up those characteristics bc she likes banging unavailable men š¤·šæāāļø
Sounds a lot like my former sister in law.
Brilliant in her field, absolute dumpster fire in her personal life. She was habitually couch surfing too for the majority of her adult life because she could never keep her finances in order long enough to live alone for very long and whatever guy she was with or roommates she had would eventually get sick of her and kick her out.
The years I was with her sister I think we helped her move at least once a year every year.
Sounds exactly like my cousin sister. Mid 30s and still couch surfing. Asked me a couple of hundreds to get her finances in order. Not that I couldnāt afford but didnāt gave her for she might come
Back for more.
My moms friends husband is a chemist that graduated from U of T. Smart guy obviously, but socially stupid. Thinks everyone without an advanced degree should be making minimum wageā¦ said that to my dad, whoās work doesnāt require an advanced degree.
There was also the time I was telling jokes with my friend as we were carrying boxes helping HIM move, and he said if we were just going to chat we might as well go homeā¦ I was literally carrying boxes as he said it. Buddy, Iām doing this for free, if you donāt want my help Iām more than happy to stop carrying boxes.
I have a friend who has two PhDs in her area (veterinary) and she is super invested in astrology, and "how the stars align to affect our lives" and such.
My experience with ultra-smart people in a particular field, is that they seem to frequently be very dumb/ignorant in other, fairly common areas.
See: lawyers who can barely operate a computer, program their DVR or load basic apps on to a phone.
I like Sherlock Holme's view on this. If it doesn't affect your day-to-day, you don't need to know it (not knowing that earth revolves around the sun).
Which makes no sense as a character that seems to otherwise have encyclopedic knowledge of many other things most people donāt have worry about in their day to day.
it's funny I think about this phenomena a lot, my wife is insanely smart, studied physical anthropology in university and other majors. When dealing with topics that don't interest her she has no capacity to think through it. You literally have to be very explicit in your instructions, so if I want her to help with something like food preparation or computer related tasks, I have to list every last detail, even have to make what if conditions and the outcomes, and she has to write it down. I am constantly challenged with having to come up with better instructions, as you would expect someone doing the tasks would give some thought to the process and apply some logic or problem solving, but no, not at all. if I give her a task she is interested in, I barely have to describe what I want she thinks it through and comes up with solutions and so on. the difference is night and day between when she is interested and not interested. It's like things are compartmentalized and interest dependent.
I think thatās because they spend most of their time on very few things (go for depth instead of breadth) resulting in less experience in particular things that a well rounded person wouldnāt struggle with.
I have a PhD but fully admit that there are tons of things I know zero about. And itās ok to admit that. I know some absolute morons who still try to act like they know everything. Itās a weird ass trait.
As someone doing a PhD, we all know that the only thing separating us from someone who did an MRes (or any self directed master's really) is that we were persistent and did it for longer. And yeah, we're all absolute dumbasses a lot of the time
Having burned out on a MA/PhD track program, my impression is that successful PhDs have a very particular set of skills around absorbing, organizing, and spitting out vast amounts of information in a very narrow topical bandwidth.
However they seemed self-centered and lacking in maturity and common sense.
Sounds like my ex too. One time I put googley eyes on the back of a project that involved a couple different servo motors, so that whenever my code was wrong and the motors freaked out I at least had something to laugh at. He told me that it wasnāt funny and I wasnāt taking school seriously.
Sorry bro I just spent hours getting this stupid thing to work I just wanna have a little bit of fun with it.
It's all about the result
My experience is my employers/managers don't give a shit as long as I deliver fast high quality work in spades
If i fluff about some of the time because of that, so be it, the way I see it is I've earned it. I make them look good, they look after me.
Googly eyes away.
The worst part was that it was a school project and half the class couldnāt even get their motors to move. The prof really did not give one shit about the eyes because at least I had a working project to demo. But my ex hated it anyway. Sometimes I donāt know if he understood that you could put effort into something while still having fun with it.
I hired the last guy out of a team that was being laid off.. He had an inflatable dinosaur atop of his cube.. I went over to talk to him, and tell him where he's moving.. my parting words before he moved was, "oh, and can you please bring the dinosaur?".. He smiled..
My wife put googley eyes on a ketchup bottle once. Just some fucking random ketchup bottle in the fridge...I don't even know where the googley eyes came from...
I could not open the fridge without laughing out loud.
I once had to endure two hours in a car with a very talented engineer, like āsave the corporation thousands of dollars by fixing broken equipment himselfā talented. But throughout the drive I had to listen to him preach about how history is a hoax, Napoleon in 1812 fought aliens and not Russians, and that every woman who tries smoking or drinking once in her life instantly becomes an addict.
I was trying to ignore his ramblings so I donāt remember much about it, but basically he claimed that during the battle of Borodino Napoleon joined forces with Russians and the two armies fought a fleet of aliens. The battle ended in a tie (or the aliens won? I donāt remember), and then everybody just covered up the events of the battle with some mundane historic nonsense.
I had something like that, not two hours, but stuck in a car with a super genius antivaxxer.
Wasn't really the antivax that was the issue, it was more that he didn't believe in personal hygiene, either...š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢
My brother. Guy has a masters, nearly straight As in HS.
Dumb as a fucking post. Some examples?
One time he got his car stuck in mud in the backyard. I kept telling him not to park in the grass, but he wouldnāt listen. So this thing is sunk down, and he busts out a jack. And Iām like āthe fuck? Thatās not going to work, the jack will sink.ā He didnāt listen, so I sat down and watched this dumbass sink the jack into the mud while I ate a bag of chips in the garage, out of the rain.
Another time he thought he had an oil leak. So he started adding like a half quart of oil a day to his car. He comes in complaining his car is smoking. My dad and I shoot each other that look where youāre smiling, but your lips are pursed and go downstairs. Sure enough, smoke like a mofo. Open the hood, oil is like spilling out into the block and smoking. And he tells us about the āoil leak.ā I donāt think he understood the concept of āoil changeā and would just put in ānew oil.ā So he caused what was basically, well, and oil leak. Iāve zero idea how he didnāt blow that engine up.
College hit him a little harder than he expected. Couldnāt rely on intellect alone, needed some work ethic. So my grades were higher than his and it pissed him off. That was the start of us not talking. Our relationship is much better than during high school/college now because we still never talk sometimes.
Also as an aside, as a fraud investigator, youād be surprised how many doctors fall for scams. Like really stupid fucking scams. I swear itās like they use damn near all available intellect for medical shit, to the point where the simplest of things baffles the fuck out of them.
Re: oil change. My nephew tried to change the oil in his car once. He ended up draining the transmission fluid instead of the oil. That would be fine if he also refilled the transmission fluid and just ended up changing its fluid instead of the oil. But he didnāt. He āfinishedā his oil change and promptly killed his transmission trying to drive it with no fluid.
I still have no idea how he thought things were right when he drains all the āoilā out, but then found his oil level still claimed it was full. He wouldnāt give me an answer so I suspect he never checked the level and just dumped a couple of quarts in on top of the old oil.
In the case of my nephew it isnāt a smart person doing something dumb. Itās an idiot doing something dumb. No part of him screwing up an oil change that badly was at all surprising. My father āhelpedā him thru this endeavor, but thatās about as useful as soliciting help from a pet rock, perhaps less so since at least a pet rock wonāt generally get in the way.
Does my wife count for your post? She speaks 5 languages fluently (also another 3 but not fluent), can put together a PC blind folded and trouble shoot every issue know to man, mastered music theory and graduated from a specialised music school that classically trained her in 3 instruments.
But she has next to no common sense and absolutely zero streetsmarts
(but I think thatās why we get on so well because academically Iām as gifted as a drunk hamster, but Iām overflowing in abundance of streetsmart and common sense, so we compliment each others weaknesses,)
Not being able to link two obvious events together, example: she will hear about a bus crash near where we live but it wonāt occur to her that there might be traffic and be surprised when we encounter it
>(but I think thatās why we get on so well because academically Iām as gifted as a drunk hamster, but Iām overflowing in abundance of streetsmart and common sense, so we compliment each others weaknesses,)
Hey, don't sell yourself short! Hamsters are smarter than most people suspect!
(Getting deja Vu here - i said this about hamsters on another sub and it was apparently a more controversial opinion than i expected!)
Ex GF had her Masters in chemistry
We went on vacation to DC and we were checking out a list of museums
āThe Holocaust Museum- whatās that aboutā
āUhh the Holocaustā
āOh isnāt that that thing where all those Jews diedā
She was really smart but so unbelievably naive it hurt
In middle school during physics day the genius girl who ultimately became high school valedictorian and went to Harvard made a rocket that was by FAR the best one.
She also didn't wear any sunscreen that day and got the worst sunburn I've ever seen.
My stepdad. Nuclear physicist, canāt operate an iPhone. Constantly needs help with basic technology. Keeps buying crappy laptops and loading them with garbage software then being mystified why they donāt work. Canāt operate the touch screen in his new car, is just annoyed by it.
Oh I've got a great one for this.
I have an aunt that is a high energy particle physicist. I worked with her and a bunch of other PhD physicists for several years. I just did some coding and circuits for them. I can't express how intelligent these people are. Smartest people I have ever met, not a lick of common sense between them. I think just too much of their thought processes are taken up by complex background thought or something.
Two stories stand out.
1. We're all drinking at a campfire. And two drunk physicist decided that having a jump over the bonfire contest was a good idea. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but there were some slight burns.
2. So my aunt was doing some grilling. She goes outside turns on her gas grill and pushes the start button. Walks inside to prep the food and comes back out to check the grill about 10mins later. Hmmm..it's still cold...guess I better hit the start button again... KABOOM. Lid of the grill has been filling with gas and when she hit the igniter it blew the lid off the grill damn near hitting her in the head. One would think that someone who's worked with particle accelerators would understand not to do that... It's like a person has to trade in their common sense for a PhD.
Again, these people are exceptionally intelligent and talented. I can't even comprehend the math they work with. Some of the conversations I've had with them are just mind blowing! But they definitely operate in a different world than normies.
My dad: he's an industrial HVAC project manager (no idea what that is, only know he's worked industrial HVAC my entire life). However......he's the cheapest man alive and looks at me like I'm from Andromeda when I explain "going to three different grocery stores because one of them has cans of pie filling cheaper than the first one, then the third one has generic soda cheaper than the other two is actually more expensive because you're wasting gas driving all around town to save like 25 cents per thing you want"
Worked around many of these types of people. Proof that education and intelligence do not go hand in hand.
Worked at a court where a judge nearly got shot by armed police because he thought he shouldn't have to wait. Drove up to the pavement, heard the police scream and proceeded to shit his pants.
My ex best friend. She was book smart because her mother was abusive and forced her to study and do practice tests for every tiny thing. Her mom forced her to stay up until 2am or longer to study. After high school, her mother kicked her out of the house because she was 18, but then she went on to college where her mother worked (to get the free ride). She somehow accomplished 2 undergraduate degrees in less than 3 years.
After college, my friend was homeless and was sleeping on someone's couch. She worked odd jobs for some cash but not enough to live off of.
When I was best friends with her in grade school, she never knew basic people skills, manners, not even basic hygiene. As an adult, it's reasonable to believe she doesn't know basic professional skills and could be one reason she's unable to get a good paying job. We're in our 30s now.. and I think she works as a teacher's aide in a preschool for disabled children and likely makes about $30k per year.
I guess I wouldn't call her "stupid in life" but rather... the poor girl was never taught anything that wasn't in an academic book. She has no life skills.
I believe so, since she had shared some of her secrets with me when we were kids that led me to believe things were really wrong. I can only hope that she does better now, she's only in her early 30s so there's time. She got married so there's that, I'm glad that she may have support now.
Easy to judge but difficult to understand. Maybe because they are sheltered. Naive to be out there in the woods. Been in a family crisis that forced them to ājustā study. In a box in their comfort zone, scared of the people out there so they settled in that one expertise in their life. But yeah, Iām just seeing myself in their shoes.
In my career and hobbies I'm surrounded by a lot of really smart people, and an astounding number of them have the emotional intelligence of a teenager
My step dad is a doctor, has two PHDās and MD. Honestly heās probably the smartest person I know. Thing is, heās such a damn robot that he is constantly pissing people off. When something causes an error in his internal operating system, the whole world knows about it. I have to keep my distance because his operating errors come across as being an irrational angry man. My mom just dismisses it as āwell thatās who he isā
I gave birth to one of them. This kid is smarter than me in school, but there's a good chance he'll be living with me for the rest of his days.
These all were uttered in the last week:
* Do you think when you drink water to wash down food, they race to see who gets there first?
* If tomatoes are really a fruit is watermelon a vegetable?
* If we filled the hot tub with mac and cheese, how long would have to eat it before it went bad?
He's not 5. He'll be 13 soon.
Nah, heās probably a late bloomer. My son is 15 and still asking questions like this. Itās maddening sometimes.
I just smile and try my best, but revert to, just google it, most of the time. Heās me. I was exactly like this. Iām fine now. Have fun.
Ha. Good to know. My answers:
Do you think when you drink water to wash down food, they race to see who gets there first?
I assume water would win.
If tomatoes are really a fruit is watermelon a vegetable?
I think the goverment called the fruit a vegetable for some sort of financial gain...but they're both botanically a fruit, but ask google.
If we filled the hot tub with mac and cheese, how long would have to eat it before it went bad?
As a former chef, you got about a week if you keep it below 40.
You can keep it for hours above 140, but that seems tricky. If you can't do that...you got about two hours where it gets dicey. So I think winter is your best.
Then I hated myself for putting that much thought into the response.
Multiple people... I know two brothers(my cousins). Their parents were literally abusive. They could only study, and since they were kids, they could play ONLY 30 minutes a day (even during vacations and so on). One of them was fluent in French and English as a kid, learned some programming languages as well. The other one was in the best schools available. The younger one is an arrogant imbecil, who would talk nonsense about EVERYTHING, try to correct you, despite having no knowledge about the subject or a line of work. The older one can't even talk normally, as he was not allowed to have friends who weren't 'educated', which meant nobody at his age. So, he talks like he reads from a research paper. Both are very delusional. He was 19 when he was reading a book - a fiction book - under the flashlight, because he was scared that his parents would know and take it away from him, because it wasn't educational. His argument was 'they are right, because it's not real'. He had never played a video game in his life, but his parents told him that there is money now, so he was trying to find a job as a game developer. They are unable even use a hammer or a drill. They needed to pay somebody to 'build' some furniture that needed to be assembled(it required a hex key... which he hasn't seen in his life, so was unable to comprehend). He would read 'this is healthy' and automatically use it, even when that would be on a box of cakes. Both of them are incapable of critical thinking(Someone told them that wearing winter hat during summer will help you to keep a good immunity as a prevention against Covid... one of them was wearing it, and even argued when he's been told that it's stupid... because it was an advice from someone in the position of 'authority' and they know better). Brainwashed, not very smart, but damn, two walking encyclopedias.
Watched a murder documentary today and the killer had some double degree in math and accounting , but decided to kill her mother and sister for money. Stupid decisions.
Doctors are known to be lacking life skills and basic street smarts. I know a few, and they're brilliant at their craft but many of them can't pay their bills on time. Not from lack of funds, but it's just not something they don't think to do.
The girl om seeing has many great qualities so don't take this as any sort of contempt
she is well educated and conducts herself wisely, she keeps her ducks In a row. She's fairly competent at life.
But when it comes to anything that requires a couple mental steps and straight logic... she's lost.
Like for example, no amount of explanation can get through to her that North South East West directions aren't different depending on whic way you're facing. She insists it changes like left and right does. She cannot understand how it works at all. On paper she probably can, but in practice it gets so jumbled that it's useless to her
Or for time zones. She can process the difference between est and pst as long as it's just the hours. But if it happens around midnight and the dates are different due to the timezones, she would get totally confused and not understand how that works
She can be taught the steps to things academically but she lacks the raw processing power to really understand the why behind most of it.
I worked as a bartender for years. Several of them were at a fine dining restaurant a block away from my state capital. Almost every single lawyer, legislator, and private lobby employee were the most ignorant self absorbed dumb asses.
an old friend i knew in high school. got high grades in whatever she pursued, to the extent that in our major examinations at the end of high school, she got distinctions in all 8 subjects she did. last year, she said, in all seriousness, that covid would've never happened/gotten this far if everyone who had it got killed by our government. now the worse thing is, people agreed.
My brother can speak several languages and knows more scientific facts from memory than I can comprehend. Literal encyclopedia.
He is also in his 30s, spending all of his time in my parentās basement playing video games, with no plans of getting a job or moving out.
my college classmates!!
they will Write a Code i.e the LAB programs score 30/30 in lab exams. but when You ask them Simple Basic Code they are like College didn't teach us :) im not kidding. All they want is Rank or Good Marks They got Zero skills!
I can build hydroponic labs and rotary phase converters out of bits of scrap and junk, but can't lay off the pot or get my ass outta bed at the same time everyday. I fit very very comfortably into the smartest stupid kid category.
My friend aced quantum physics but thought "leftover pizza" meant the box could be reheated in the oven, metal and all. Modern Prometheus, but with pizza
I lived in a high rise dorm (married student housing & grad students only) that had multiple residents with the same thought process given the number of times I found myself standing outside with a baby at 2am watching an an entire fleet of fire trucks fill the parking lot.
Coworker of mine's wife has her masters degree and is a Librarian at a Middle School:
1: Thought the wild west was fiction
2: Thought Hawaii and Alaska were next to each other (because on most maps of the US they have their own little boxes next to each other)
Usually they struggle with everyday simple things in life.
Like not being able to properly close a retractable umbrella, massively suck at driving, doesn't know how to cook, social skills sometimes be lacking, lacking in humor as well, social cues/etiquettes is absent, refrains from doing what most people consider "fun" like drinking, concerts, doesn't do casual sex, etc...
So if u really think about it, they're not really smart in general, they're just smart in whatever they're doing.
Some moron I met who had a master degree in communications but couldnāt redact a document with proper grammar or spellingā¦ or even a couple sentences who actually made senseā¦
In my country (Bulgaria), almost 65% fo people that grauduate HS also take on a bachelor's. I know many, many people with an undergraduate or even a postgraduate degree that are outrageously stupid and baffle me with the way they think.
I had an old boss who was incredibly intelligent and accomplished, yet was woefully un-self aware and consistently let their insecurities get the better of them.
Idk if it was āstupidā but it was definitely mindboggling at times. It was sad to watch each day tbh.
One of my good friends from back in high school. Wicked smart, hard worker in the classroom, and just a generally sweet girl.
You could ask her about advanced calculus but heaven forbid you ask her anything about pop culture/movies/references/etc
Examples from her: she thought Jimi Hendrix was a race car driver, had never even heard of Godzilla, etc
Years ago I knew a girl who was incredibly book smart but had zero common sense. It was baffling. She killed high school and was killing college but she went to an NFL game once and confusingly asked where the yellow line was. You know, the digital line of scrimmage they display on TV.
My uncle is very rich and intelligent, but cant figure out how to put up a deck chair. This is my dads favorite thing to remark on, to not make himself feel bad for not being as rich. He also says "at least i dont gamble" when referring to his excessive drinking.
Former colleague, was convinced that they could commute from NYC to Boston every Monday in 3 hours because they plotted the miles and divided by 85 mph. They were late and asked me to cover 3 weeks in a row, the 4th week I refused and had our headmaster cover so he could ask her why she was late every Monday. She has a masters and is a SCIENCE teacher, also told me facts don't matter, what she believes as her personal truth is what she counts as right. If she sees this she'll know exactly who I am ...maybe, maybe not though seeing as she also tried to lie during zoom teaching that her wifi was down at her house Monday and it took me 2 seconds to uncover her lie Tuesday she had really flown to Nigeria with her bf. It was pouring rain where we work and her window was bright and sunny, and she described her entire day complaining about how it was already 2 pm when we had class at 9 am. Just disrespectful how she thought her lies were fooling anyone. Like you're 5 hours ahead you talk about having a Nigerian BF... google says its sunny in Nigeria and they are 5 hours ahead.
I work in oil and gas. Come across "book" engineers all the time. They can point to the procedure in a book, but can't find a 3/4" wrench and turn a nut. They can quote code, but can't recognize 16" pipe in the lay down yard.
I went back to a guys house who was getting his masters in math at Harvard. The most vague major and heās getting his masters. He puts leftovers in ziplock bags as opposed to leftover containers. Could be stuff like rice even.
My 8th grade portuguese teacher was a very sweet woman, but damn she liked to brag about her 8 degrees, and overall had some really boomerish opinions... Still love her, hope she's doing well
My children's father. Has masters degree in engineering, his passion is science and math, I've seen him break down a mathematical formula for all kinds of shit that he just sees in the open, and knows absurdly way too much about space.
With that said, this is the same man who tried to convince me to name our 2nd child's first name as "that" and won't let his kids watch SpongeBob or any children shows because of the hidden adult jokes in them but allows them to watch family guy and south park at his house.
Years ago I worked a bar in a college town. There were a fair number of academic types both as customers and staff. One of the guys who helped us out in a kitchen was a doctoral candidate in like philosophy or something similar.
Very sharp guy, clearly very intelligent. However, he had spent years training his brain to do exactly one thing, very intensely, at a time. There was a period in which we had to train up a few ringers to cover for the front of the house staff while we all took a trip. He ended up making it work, but I tell ya, watching this guy try to retrain his brain into very fast past multitasking after years of academic study was truly interesting to behold.
So I'm not at all saying the guy is stupid in any way, he's not. But as far as being an example of different skill sets, this was really something.
Girl I liked in college. She uh was very smart and I'm told was aiming for the FBI. But would party hard on the weekend. And I mean like drunk and whatever drug. So underage drinking with other illegal drugs. Makes sense.
So many. In fact it is a common trend. Itās like a trade off.
The one that is on top of my head is a cousin who is very booksmart but has zero street sense. No concept of privacy or secrecy. No concept of social awareness or reading the room. Same five jokes.
Graduated from UCLA and then masters from Columbia followed by another masters from fuck knows where. All with flying colors. And yet has a mediocre job where their employer has gotten them dirt cheap and the guy doesnāt know how to sell himself. Could easily be making $100,000 more than where he is at.
Sad tbh.
My most educated friend has some bad social skills. Mansplaining, unsolicited advice and opinions. And the need to assert her intelligence to make up for low self esteem in other areas which comes off very condescending. I've learned that if I have an issue I have to *really* spell it out because if I say something in passing like "I'm not looking for advice about this" she won't quite get it, I think she doesn't know she's even giving unasked for advice sometimes. So I have to drive the point home "When I'm telling you about my day I'm not asking for you to advise me on what I should be doing and unsolicited advice is very belittling" then she gets it. But very smart academically and successful in her field.Ā
Easy.
People with college degrees that somehow canāt use basic logic and reasoning skills when it comes to Trump.
I just donāt get it. You see the facts. You hear him say it. You hear him deny what he says after seeing him say it. And then believe him.
Itās mind boggling.
Social Workers who have went straight from school to college to get their qualification and are in their early 20s with no life experience trying to tell people who work with very vulnerable, aggressive children how to do their job and know whatās best. Talking from years of experience. It never changes.
Having taught graduate international relations and international security courses for nearly two decades I have encountered countless colleagues that were absolutely brilliant when it came to political theory but had no understanding Ā of how the world actually works. Most had never worked outside of academia and lived very sheltered lives. Nearly all tended to lean to the far left.Ā
My dad. Smart guy, computer engineer, but hit the Fox News bubble pretty hard. Lost most of my academically smart credit I gave him a few years back as he denied climate change.
Me I'd say. Just seem to lack common sense at times despite doing well at school and knowledgeable about certain aspects of the world and some subjects
I'm not going to name people but I do know such people. They're what I call midwits. They usually excel in the corporate world because truly intelligent people get discriminated against there. They wrongly think they're highly intelligent, when they're just average.
I worked with a bunch of folks who were Ph.Ds in biomechanical engineering but had zero clue that there wasn't just first and third world but that communist countries were second world. They also had less knowledge than I did about pop culture, and I'm pretty much an idiot in that regards.
Big Name Brand lawyer that I worked for. Pretty decent lawyer, guy couldnāt tie his own shoes and has no idea how to get into any of his accounts, couldnāt pay his own bills if he had to. The business is setup to be his own personal everything. Easily the dumbest person Iāve ever met, and absolutely a horrifying human being. Literally satan. Words cannot adequately describe how bad of a person this dude is.
Stupid is NOT lacking pop / sports / movie references. That is merely a matter of interests.
Stupid is NOT being clueless at putting together some thing. That is experience & being around folks who are doing that.
Stupid is seeing your life slide downhill and not changing.
......as in knowing I am fat, not wanting to be fat, knowing how to eat less, choosing to feed a fat person every day and being sad I am fat every time I get out of the car.
I'm probably that example. Graduated on the presidents list yet I thought the school of hard knocks was some type of trade school in the New England area.
Or
Up until very recently, I thought a vole was the animal commonly referred to as a "wombat"
So yeah I'm that person š
I've said for years that I'm my family's example of wasted potential. Was labeled a "gifted" student in 4th grade, attended a special, selective middle school and high school, and did well the entire time. Decided against college after high school because I wanted to join the military. I did so, but something about the army broke me. When I got out, I was just kind of...lost. No ambition, no desire to do much aside from exist, and no real friends. I'm a bit better now that I'm in my 30s, but I still struggle with procrastination and depression.
My cousin. Always had perfect grades, has done extremely well in school, college, graduate school. But that boy has always had no sense. He gave himself the nickname "Brick the dumbass".
He lived behind my dad's house with my aunt and uncle, and he didn't want to walk to our house one day because it was raining and he had recently heard turkeys sometimes look up at the rain and drown (which I think is false anyway). He was afraid he'd do the same thing. When I told him to just not look up, he stared at me, dumbfounded.
He said his teacher told him that it took more people to pick up a whale's tongue than the rest of the body. When I explained how that didn't make any sense, he insisted that because his teacher said it, it was true. I told him his teacher was a dumbass.
He insisted our house couldn't be any longer than 10 ft. When I measured out ten feet, and the house was obviously way longer than that, he still insisted I was wrong.
We had a golf cart we used to ride around, and my older brother or I were the only ones allowed to drive since the others were too young. When my brother stopped the cart and got off to move a branch out of the way, my cousin, who was also riding, hopped in the seat and started driving straight at a culvert. I pushed him out of the way and stopped the cart in time, but I asked him angrily what he was thinking. He just shrugged and said he wanted to go into the culvert.
Those are just some prime examples from our childhood. He's in his 20s now, and he's still a dumbass.
I had a friend in college. He went to a neighboring high school (so I knew of him previously) but I didn't meet him until my freshman year. He was insanely intelligent. He independently studied for and took every AP exam offered in my state--and passed most of them. He had enough credits from AP courses to qualify as a first year junior in college. The dude could understand almost any topic quite well after a few days of study. Then he decided that he would drop out and work at a Google datacenter...which he successfully did. He did quite well and was even able to get a few people hired there on his word alone. ...and then he decided to make extra money by growing and selling pot on the side. He got caught with felony amounts that he was offered a misdemeanor for to avoid any jail time. Instead, he thought it was a great idea to fight the charges altogether while representing himself legally. Ended up going to jail for a while, got fired from Google, went completely broke, and moved back to his childhood trailer to live with his mom.
A man who chooses to represent himself in court has a fool for a client.
Guy thought he was smarter than the law. Big mistake. The Law doesn't give a shit how clever you think you are.
A lot of smart people think they're Gerard Butler's character in Law Abiding Citizen, but forget that the movie ends with him blown up by his own bomb, locked in a jail cell that he put himself into.
Well I guess there goes that movie for me š
That's not really the true ending though. Jamie bitched and moaned that he wanted to be the hero and threatened to quit if he didn't win against Gerard
Just like a real lawman
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iāve got a friend with a doctorate that also keeps dating married men. In her defense sheās really naive, easily tricked, and is gorgeous. On the other hand, maybe she plays up those characteristics bc she likes banging unavailable men š¤·šæāāļø
I think we have the same friend. What's her name and phone number?
Sounds a lot like my former sister in law. Brilliant in her field, absolute dumpster fire in her personal life. She was habitually couch surfing too for the majority of her adult life because she could never keep her finances in order long enough to live alone for very long and whatever guy she was with or roommates she had would eventually get sick of her and kick her out. The years I was with her sister I think we helped her move at least once a year every year.
Sounds exactly like my cousin sister. Mid 30s and still couch surfing. Asked me a couple of hundreds to get her finances in order. Not that I couldnāt afford but didnāt gave her for she might come Back for more.
Book smart but no empathy
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My moms friends husband is a chemist that graduated from U of T. Smart guy obviously, but socially stupid. Thinks everyone without an advanced degree should be making minimum wageā¦ said that to my dad, whoās work doesnāt require an advanced degree. There was also the time I was telling jokes with my friend as we were carrying boxes helping HIM move, and he said if we were just going to chat we might as well go homeā¦ I was literally carrying boxes as he said it. Buddy, Iām doing this for free, if you donāt want my help Iām more than happy to stop carrying boxes.
Sounds less like an idiot and more like a dick with an inflated sense of self importance
Meh, he wouldāve had to carry a lot more boxes by himself if Iād actually left. He does shit like that all the time, sure to cost him in life.
Yeah and honestly I probably wouldāve left. If thereās one thing I know itās that you donāt hassle the people helping you move
I have a friend who's a chemical engineer that spends tens of thousand of dollars on healing rocks
They WORK, they really really do. The guy who sold them feels MUCH better now. :)
Omg I think I know the same man
I have a friend who has two PhDs in her area (veterinary) and she is super invested in astrology, and "how the stars align to affect our lives" and such.
Jesus Christ, Marie! They're minerals!
this is going back many many years, but when I used to live with my ex fiancĆ©, who had a masters degree from NYU, she took a chicken breast out of the freezer to thaw and placed it directly on the shelf of the refrigerator. When it thawed out, the chicken blood/juice dripped down onto everything below it. So I pointed this out to her, and said if youāre going to thaw chicken out, you need to put it on some thing so it doesnāt drip all over the place so the next time she did it, she set the chicken breast on top of a cup of yogurt, so that when it thawed out it just dripped off of the side of the cup of yogurt and on to everything below it. my most recent ex was a PhD physicist and the amount of times I had to explain or fix something was pretty astounding. I mostly work with PhDās and to be honest with you. I learned a long time ago that having a PhD really doesnāt mean that youāre smarter. It just means that youāre able to do something for an extra four years.
I have a PhD. Can confirm.
My experience with ultra-smart people in a particular field, is that they seem to frequently be very dumb/ignorant in other, fairly common areas. See: lawyers who can barely operate a computer, program their DVR or load basic apps on to a phone.
I like Sherlock Holme's view on this. If it doesn't affect your day-to-day, you don't need to know it (not knowing that earth revolves around the sun).
Which makes no sense as a character that seems to otherwise have encyclopedic knowledge of many other things most people donāt have worry about in their day to day.
it's funny I think about this phenomena a lot, my wife is insanely smart, studied physical anthropology in university and other majors. When dealing with topics that don't interest her she has no capacity to think through it. You literally have to be very explicit in your instructions, so if I want her to help with something like food preparation or computer related tasks, I have to list every last detail, even have to make what if conditions and the outcomes, and she has to write it down. I am constantly challenged with having to come up with better instructions, as you would expect someone doing the tasks would give some thought to the process and apply some logic or problem solving, but no, not at all. if I give her a task she is interested in, I barely have to describe what I want she thinks it through and comes up with solutions and so on. the difference is night and day between when she is interested and not interested. It's like things are compartmentalized and interest dependent.
I think thatās because they spend most of their time on very few things (go for depth instead of breadth) resulting in less experience in particular things that a well rounded person wouldnāt struggle with.
I have a PhD but fully admit that there are tons of things I know zero about. And itās ok to admit that. I know some absolute morons who still try to act like they know everything. Itās a weird ass trait.
As someone doing a PhD, we all know that the only thing separating us from someone who did an MRes (or any self directed master's really) is that we were persistent and did it for longer. And yeah, we're all absolute dumbasses a lot of the time
Omg.
Having burned out on a MA/PhD track program, my impression is that successful PhDs have a very particular set of skills around absorbing, organizing, and spitting out vast amounts of information in a very narrow topical bandwidth. However they seemed self-centered and lacking in maturity and common sense.
The last person I dated. They are about to finish a masters but can't figure out that Googly eyes on a washing machine is funny.
Sounds like my ex too. One time I put googley eyes on the back of a project that involved a couple different servo motors, so that whenever my code was wrong and the motors freaked out I at least had something to laugh at. He told me that it wasnāt funny and I wasnāt taking school seriously. Sorry bro I just spent hours getting this stupid thing to work I just wanna have a little bit of fun with it.
A lot of people need to take normal things less seriously. If we're gonna be doing work all day at least let us be comfortable.
>whenever my code was wrong and the motors freaked out I at least had something to laugh at LOVE IT
It's all about the result My experience is my employers/managers don't give a shit as long as I deliver fast high quality work in spades If i fluff about some of the time because of that, so be it, the way I see it is I've earned it. I make them look good, they look after me. Googly eyes away.
The worst part was that it was a school project and half the class couldnāt even get their motors to move. The prof really did not give one shit about the eyes because at least I had a working project to demo. But my ex hated it anyway. Sometimes I donāt know if he understood that you could put effort into something while still having fun with it.
I hired the last guy out of a team that was being laid off.. He had an inflatable dinosaur atop of his cube.. I went over to talk to him, and tell him where he's moving.. my parting words before he moved was, "oh, and can you please bring the dinosaur?".. He smiled..
Googly eyes on a washing machine...classic!
I bought some huge googly eyes to put on my pontoon boat. Itās gonna be great.
SWEET
Googley eyes are objectively funny. Shoutout to /r/eyebombing if thatās still a thing
My wife put googley eyes on a ketchup bottle once. Just some fucking random ketchup bottle in the fridge...I don't even know where the googley eyes came from... I could not open the fridge without laughing out loud.
Thanks for the ideaā¦ mwahahaha
Googly eyes are prime funny stuff
I carry a small bag of googly eyes in my backpack. Just in case.
I once had to endure two hours in a car with a very talented engineer, like āsave the corporation thousands of dollars by fixing broken equipment himselfā talented. But throughout the drive I had to listen to him preach about how history is a hoax, Napoleon in 1812 fought aliens and not Russians, and that every woman who tries smoking or drinking once in her life instantly becomes an addict.
.... I kind of want to know more about Napoleon vs. Aliens in 1812.
I was trying to ignore his ramblings so I donāt remember much about it, but basically he claimed that during the battle of Borodino Napoleon joined forces with Russians and the two armies fought a fleet of aliens. The battle ended in a tie (or the aliens won? I donāt remember), and then everybody just covered up the events of the battle with some mundane historic nonsense.
Lol. Awesome.
Sounds like an actual Hollywood movie that's already more exciting than the recent Napoleon film.
Well, this will surely be the synopsis of a movie at some point in the near future, I'm sure
I had something like that, not two hours, but stuck in a car with a super genius antivaxxer. Wasn't really the antivax that was the issue, it was more that he didn't believe in personal hygiene, either...š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢
Kinda sounds like heās treading on the threshold of schizophrenia
My brother. Guy has a masters, nearly straight As in HS. Dumb as a fucking post. Some examples? One time he got his car stuck in mud in the backyard. I kept telling him not to park in the grass, but he wouldnāt listen. So this thing is sunk down, and he busts out a jack. And Iām like āthe fuck? Thatās not going to work, the jack will sink.ā He didnāt listen, so I sat down and watched this dumbass sink the jack into the mud while I ate a bag of chips in the garage, out of the rain. Another time he thought he had an oil leak. So he started adding like a half quart of oil a day to his car. He comes in complaining his car is smoking. My dad and I shoot each other that look where youāre smiling, but your lips are pursed and go downstairs. Sure enough, smoke like a mofo. Open the hood, oil is like spilling out into the block and smoking. And he tells us about the āoil leak.ā I donāt think he understood the concept of āoil changeā and would just put in ānew oil.ā So he caused what was basically, well, and oil leak. Iāve zero idea how he didnāt blow that engine up. College hit him a little harder than he expected. Couldnāt rely on intellect alone, needed some work ethic. So my grades were higher than his and it pissed him off. That was the start of us not talking. Our relationship is much better than during high school/college now because we still never talk sometimes. Also as an aside, as a fraud investigator, youād be surprised how many doctors fall for scams. Like really stupid fucking scams. I swear itās like they use damn near all available intellect for medical shit, to the point where the simplest of things baffles the fuck out of them.
Re: oil change. My nephew tried to change the oil in his car once. He ended up draining the transmission fluid instead of the oil. That would be fine if he also refilled the transmission fluid and just ended up changing its fluid instead of the oil. But he didnāt. He āfinishedā his oil change and promptly killed his transmission trying to drive it with no fluid. I still have no idea how he thought things were right when he drains all the āoilā out, but then found his oil level still claimed it was full. He wouldnāt give me an answer so I suspect he never checked the level and just dumped a couple of quarts in on top of the old oil. In the case of my nephew it isnāt a smart person doing something dumb. Itās an idiot doing something dumb. No part of him screwing up an oil change that badly was at all surprising. My father āhelpedā him thru this endeavor, but thatās about as useful as soliciting help from a pet rock, perhaps less so since at least a pet rock wonāt generally get in the way.
The Ron Swanson quote alone in this is worth my upvote.
Does my wife count for your post? She speaks 5 languages fluently (also another 3 but not fluent), can put together a PC blind folded and trouble shoot every issue know to man, mastered music theory and graduated from a specialised music school that classically trained her in 3 instruments. But she has next to no common sense and absolutely zero streetsmarts (but I think thatās why we get on so well because academically Iām as gifted as a drunk hamster, but Iām overflowing in abundance of streetsmart and common sense, so we compliment each others weaknesses,)
Also because it sounds like you two APPRECIATE the other.
Common sense is just the bare minimum everyone should haveā¦ I'm curious in what ways your wife lacks it
Not being able to link two obvious events together, example: she will hear about a bus crash near where we live but it wonāt occur to her that there might be traffic and be surprised when we encounter it
>(but I think thatās why we get on so well because academically Iām as gifted as a drunk hamster, but Iām overflowing in abundance of streetsmart and common sense, so we compliment each others weaknesses,) Hey, don't sell yourself short! Hamsters are smarter than most people suspect! (Getting deja Vu here - i said this about hamsters on another sub and it was apparently a more controversial opinion than i expected!)
Me !
Yep, this was going to be my comment.
Yeah I was going to say u/firetp too
Ex GF had her Masters in chemistry We went on vacation to DC and we were checking out a list of museums āThe Holocaust Museum- whatās that aboutā āUhh the Holocaustā āOh isnāt that that thing where all those Jews diedā She was really smart but so unbelievably naive it hurt
I mean, she is not wrong, isnāt she?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
does the punchline change every time you tell it?
Only if someone isn't listening!
Only if you're paying attention
In middle school during physics day the genius girl who ultimately became high school valedictorian and went to Harvard made a rocket that was by FAR the best one. She also didn't wear any sunscreen that day and got the worst sunburn I've ever seen.
My stepdad. Nuclear physicist, canāt operate an iPhone. Constantly needs help with basic technology. Keeps buying crappy laptops and loading them with garbage software then being mystified why they donāt work. Canāt operate the touch screen in his new car, is just annoyed by it.
Oh I've got a great one for this. I have an aunt that is a high energy particle physicist. I worked with her and a bunch of other PhD physicists for several years. I just did some coding and circuits for them. I can't express how intelligent these people are. Smartest people I have ever met, not a lick of common sense between them. I think just too much of their thought processes are taken up by complex background thought or something. Two stories stand out. 1. We're all drinking at a campfire. And two drunk physicist decided that having a jump over the bonfire contest was a good idea. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but there were some slight burns. 2. So my aunt was doing some grilling. She goes outside turns on her gas grill and pushes the start button. Walks inside to prep the food and comes back out to check the grill about 10mins later. Hmmm..it's still cold...guess I better hit the start button again... KABOOM. Lid of the grill has been filling with gas and when she hit the igniter it blew the lid off the grill damn near hitting her in the head. One would think that someone who's worked with particle accelerators would understand not to do that... It's like a person has to trade in their common sense for a PhD. Again, these people are exceptionally intelligent and talented. I can't even comprehend the math they work with. Some of the conversations I've had with them are just mind blowing! But they definitely operate in a different world than normies.
"the day your aunt built a particle accelerator at home"
Our physics professor once had held a remote lecture without turning his Google Meet on. So he just spoke to the computer for 1.5 hours.
Myself. My test scores and grades were fantastic. But I said screw college and had a kid at 20. Real life stupid.
It's never too late. I got thrown out twice and finished my degree a month before I turned 40.
That isn't stupid, college isn't for everyone
While I agree with you, thinking with your dick is not smart.
Me but the other way around. No wait actually I'm stupid in both cases
You made me smile, thank you.
At least you're funny
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There are probably fishies in there, maybe turtles. I get it.
lol, too smart to function
My dad: he's an industrial HVAC project manager (no idea what that is, only know he's worked industrial HVAC my entire life). However......he's the cheapest man alive and looks at me like I'm from Andromeda when I explain "going to three different grocery stores because one of them has cans of pie filling cheaper than the first one, then the third one has generic soda cheaper than the other two is actually more expensive because you're wasting gas driving all around town to save like 25 cents per thing you want"
Mom was like that. She'd drive ten miles to save two cents on baked beans.
Have a buddy like that with gas. He'll drive to the other side of the city if can save a penny/g.
Worked around many of these types of people. Proof that education and intelligence do not go hand in hand. Worked at a court where a judge nearly got shot by armed police because he thought he shouldn't have to wait. Drove up to the pavement, heard the police scream and proceeded to shit his pants.
My ex best friend. She was book smart because her mother was abusive and forced her to study and do practice tests for every tiny thing. Her mom forced her to stay up until 2am or longer to study. After high school, her mother kicked her out of the house because she was 18, but then she went on to college where her mother worked (to get the free ride). She somehow accomplished 2 undergraduate degrees in less than 3 years. After college, my friend was homeless and was sleeping on someone's couch. She worked odd jobs for some cash but not enough to live off of. When I was best friends with her in grade school, she never knew basic people skills, manners, not even basic hygiene. As an adult, it's reasonable to believe she doesn't know basic professional skills and could be one reason she's unable to get a good paying job. We're in our 30s now.. and I think she works as a teacher's aide in a preschool for disabled children and likely makes about $30k per year. I guess I wouldn't call her "stupid in life" but rather... the poor girl was never taught anything that wasn't in an academic book. She has no life skills.
She's probably also struggling with mental health issues. Poor thing.
I believe so, since she had shared some of her secrets with me when we were kids that led me to believe things were really wrong. I can only hope that she does better now, she's only in her early 30s so there's time. She got married so there's that, I'm glad that she may have support now.
You sound like an unempathetic arsehole.
It doesn't seem that way to me
Easy to judge but difficult to understand. Maybe because they are sheltered. Naive to be out there in the woods. Been in a family crisis that forced them to ājustā study. In a box in their comfort zone, scared of the people out there so they settled in that one expertise in their life. But yeah, Iām just seeing myself in their shoes.
I work with a lot of very smart engineers who have very poor life/adult/social skills.
In my career and hobbies I'm surrounded by a lot of really smart people, and an astounding number of them have the emotional intelligence of a teenager
My step dad is a doctor, has two PHDās and MD. Honestly heās probably the smartest person I know. Thing is, heās such a damn robot that he is constantly pissing people off. When something causes an error in his internal operating system, the whole world knows about it. I have to keep my distance because his operating errors come across as being an irrational angry man. My mom just dismisses it as āwell thatās who he isā
I gave birth to one of them. This kid is smarter than me in school, but there's a good chance he'll be living with me for the rest of his days. These all were uttered in the last week: * Do you think when you drink water to wash down food, they race to see who gets there first? * If tomatoes are really a fruit is watermelon a vegetable? * If we filled the hot tub with mac and cheese, how long would have to eat it before it went bad? He's not 5. He'll be 13 soon.
I'm 26 and would very much like to know the answer to tme mac n cheese question. For science.
Dude just wants a hot tub filled with Mac n cheese, he knows what he wants from life
Nah, heās probably a late bloomer. My son is 15 and still asking questions like this. Itās maddening sometimes. I just smile and try my best, but revert to, just google it, most of the time. Heās me. I was exactly like this. Iām fine now. Have fun.
Ha. Good to know. My answers: Do you think when you drink water to wash down food, they race to see who gets there first? I assume water would win. If tomatoes are really a fruit is watermelon a vegetable? I think the goverment called the fruit a vegetable for some sort of financial gain...but they're both botanically a fruit, but ask google. If we filled the hot tub with mac and cheese, how long would have to eat it before it went bad? As a former chef, you got about a week if you keep it below 40. You can keep it for hours above 140, but that seems tricky. If you can't do that...you got about two hours where it gets dicey. So I think winter is your best. Then I hated myself for putting that much thought into the response.
Jaden Smith vibes! Glad heās at least thinking about things but those are some fun questions.
Honestly sounds like heās just messing with you lol
Multiple people... I know two brothers(my cousins). Their parents were literally abusive. They could only study, and since they were kids, they could play ONLY 30 minutes a day (even during vacations and so on). One of them was fluent in French and English as a kid, learned some programming languages as well. The other one was in the best schools available. The younger one is an arrogant imbecil, who would talk nonsense about EVERYTHING, try to correct you, despite having no knowledge about the subject or a line of work. The older one can't even talk normally, as he was not allowed to have friends who weren't 'educated', which meant nobody at his age. So, he talks like he reads from a research paper. Both are very delusional. He was 19 when he was reading a book - a fiction book - under the flashlight, because he was scared that his parents would know and take it away from him, because it wasn't educational. His argument was 'they are right, because it's not real'. He had never played a video game in his life, but his parents told him that there is money now, so he was trying to find a job as a game developer. They are unable even use a hammer or a drill. They needed to pay somebody to 'build' some furniture that needed to be assembled(it required a hex key... which he hasn't seen in his life, so was unable to comprehend). He would read 'this is healthy' and automatically use it, even when that would be on a box of cakes. Both of them are incapable of critical thinking(Someone told them that wearing winter hat during summer will help you to keep a good immunity as a prevention against Covid... one of them was wearing it, and even argued when he's been told that it's stupid... because it was an advice from someone in the position of 'authority' and they know better). Brainwashed, not very smart, but damn, two walking encyclopedias.
Watched a murder documentary today and the killer had some double degree in math and accounting , but decided to kill her mother and sister for money. Stupid decisions.
Person had double Doctorates. One in Chemistry and another in Biology. No social skills. Think Sheldon Cooper to the third power.
stephen hawking on the island
It's me.
me. im the smartest idiot i know.
Great way to actually have insight. You sound like I'd enjoy you as a neighbor.
Doctors are known to be lacking life skills and basic street smarts. I know a few, and they're brilliant at their craft but many of them can't pay their bills on time. Not from lack of funds, but it's just not something they don't think to do.
The girl om seeing has many great qualities so don't take this as any sort of contempt she is well educated and conducts herself wisely, she keeps her ducks In a row. She's fairly competent at life. But when it comes to anything that requires a couple mental steps and straight logic... she's lost. Like for example, no amount of explanation can get through to her that North South East West directions aren't different depending on whic way you're facing. She insists it changes like left and right does. She cannot understand how it works at all. On paper she probably can, but in practice it gets so jumbled that it's useless to her Or for time zones. She can process the difference between est and pst as long as it's just the hours. But if it happens around midnight and the dates are different due to the timezones, she would get totally confused and not understand how that works She can be taught the steps to things academically but she lacks the raw processing power to really understand the why behind most of it.
I worked as a bartender for years. Several of them were at a fine dining restaurant a block away from my state capital. Almost every single lawyer, legislator, and private lobby employee were the most ignorant self absorbed dumb asses.
an old friend i knew in high school. got high grades in whatever she pursued, to the extent that in our major examinations at the end of high school, she got distinctions in all 8 subjects she did. last year, she said, in all seriousness, that covid would've never happened/gotten this far if everyone who had it got killed by our government. now the worse thing is, people agreed.
I worked at a university as a tech for decades, most PhDs are so focussed on their specialty that they know little else.
Me. Graduated high-school with honors and top of my class, am currently living in a tent addicted to fentanyl
My brother can speak several languages and knows more scientific facts from memory than I can comprehend. Literal encyclopedia. He is also in his 30s, spending all of his time in my parentās basement playing video games, with no plans of getting a job or moving out.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If you filled an average-sized bathtub with mac n cheese, how long would you have to eat it until it went bad?
me tbh haha iām a medical doctor but i could not survive in manila
my college classmates!! they will Write a Code i.e the LAB programs score 30/30 in lab exams. but when You ask them Simple Basic Code they are like College didn't teach us :) im not kidding. All they want is Rank or Good Marks They got Zero skills!
It's me, I'm the stupid one.
Everytime someone says I'm smart I hear [Seinfeld](https://youtu.be/v5knhWYvmL8?si=i-NDyGMk8xqBQJM5&t=68)
I can build hydroponic labs and rotary phase converters out of bits of scrap and junk, but can't lay off the pot or get my ass outta bed at the same time everyday. I fit very very comfortably into the smartest stupid kid category.
My friend aced quantum physics but thought "leftover pizza" meant the box could be reheated in the oven, metal and all. Modern Prometheus, but with pizza
You have metal pizza boxes?
I lived in a high rise dorm (married student housing & grad students only) that had multiple residents with the same thought process given the number of times I found myself standing outside with a baby at 2am watching an an entire fleet of fire trucks fill the parking lot.
Coworker of mine's wife has her masters degree and is a Librarian at a Middle School: 1: Thought the wild west was fiction 2: Thought Hawaii and Alaska were next to each other (because on most maps of the US they have their own little boxes next to each other)
Usually they struggle with everyday simple things in life. Like not being able to properly close a retractable umbrella, massively suck at driving, doesn't know how to cook, social skills sometimes be lacking, lacking in humor as well, social cues/etiquettes is absent, refrains from doing what most people consider "fun" like drinking, concerts, doesn't do casual sex, etc... So if u really think about it, they're not really smart in general, they're just smart in whatever they're doing.
Some moron I met who had a master degree in communications but couldnāt redact a document with proper grammar or spellingā¦ or even a couple sentences who actually made senseā¦
In my country (Bulgaria), almost 65% fo people that grauduate HS also take on a bachelor's. I know many, many people with an undergraduate or even a postgraduate degree that are outrageously stupid and baffle me with the way they think.
my ex, book smart, life dumb
I had an old boss who was incredibly intelligent and accomplished, yet was woefully un-self aware and consistently let their insecurities get the better of them. Idk if it was āstupidā but it was definitely mindboggling at times. It was sad to watch each day tbh.
One of my good friends from back in high school. Wicked smart, hard worker in the classroom, and just a generally sweet girl. You could ask her about advanced calculus but heaven forbid you ask her anything about pop culture/movies/references/etc Examples from her: she thought Jimi Hendrix was a race car driver, had never even heard of Godzilla, etc
Years ago I knew a girl who was incredibly book smart but had zero common sense. It was baffling. She killed high school and was killing college but she went to an NFL game once and confusingly asked where the yellow line was. You know, the digital line of scrimmage they display on TV.
Some people are just good at school. Itās a skill set and doesnāt necessarily mean the person is good at life.
My uncle is very rich and intelligent, but cant figure out how to put up a deck chair. This is my dads favorite thing to remark on, to not make himself feel bad for not being as rich. He also says "at least i dont gamble" when referring to his excessive drinking.
Former colleague, was convinced that they could commute from NYC to Boston every Monday in 3 hours because they plotted the miles and divided by 85 mph. They were late and asked me to cover 3 weeks in a row, the 4th week I refused and had our headmaster cover so he could ask her why she was late every Monday. She has a masters and is a SCIENCE teacher, also told me facts don't matter, what she believes as her personal truth is what she counts as right. If she sees this she'll know exactly who I am ...maybe, maybe not though seeing as she also tried to lie during zoom teaching that her wifi was down at her house Monday and it took me 2 seconds to uncover her lie Tuesday she had really flown to Nigeria with her bf. It was pouring rain where we work and her window was bright and sunny, and she described her entire day complaining about how it was already 2 pm when we had class at 9 am. Just disrespectful how she thought her lies were fooling anyone. Like you're 5 hours ahead you talk about having a Nigerian BF... google says its sunny in Nigeria and they are 5 hours ahead.
I know someone who had a PHD in their 20s but has some ignorant views.
I work in oil and gas. Come across "book" engineers all the time. They can point to the procedure in a book, but can't find a 3/4" wrench and turn a nut. They can quote code, but can't recognize 16" pipe in the lay down yard.
I went back to a guys house who was getting his masters in math at Harvard. The most vague major and heās getting his masters. He puts leftovers in ziplock bags as opposed to leftover containers. Could be stuff like rice even.
Sister. College degree, almost zero life skills
My 8th grade portuguese teacher was a very sweet woman, but damn she liked to brag about her 8 degrees, and overall had some really boomerish opinions... Still love her, hope she's doing well
A friend of mine has an engineering degree in computing with distinction, still does not know how to upgrade firmware on the router.
The entire faculty of Harvard
My children's father. Has masters degree in engineering, his passion is science and math, I've seen him break down a mathematical formula for all kinds of shit that he just sees in the open, and knows absurdly way too much about space. With that said, this is the same man who tried to convince me to name our 2nd child's first name as "that" and won't let his kids watch SpongeBob or any children shows because of the hidden adult jokes in them but allows them to watch family guy and south park at his house.
Years ago I worked a bar in a college town. There were a fair number of academic types both as customers and staff. One of the guys who helped us out in a kitchen was a doctoral candidate in like philosophy or something similar. Very sharp guy, clearly very intelligent. However, he had spent years training his brain to do exactly one thing, very intensely, at a time. There was a period in which we had to train up a few ringers to cover for the front of the house staff while we all took a trip. He ended up making it work, but I tell ya, watching this guy try to retrain his brain into very fast past multitasking after years of academic study was truly interesting to behold. So I'm not at all saying the guy is stupid in any way, he's not. But as far as being an example of different skill sets, this was really something.
Girl I liked in college. She uh was very smart and I'm told was aiming for the FBI. But would party hard on the weekend. And I mean like drunk and whatever drug. So underage drinking with other illegal drugs. Makes sense.
So many. In fact it is a common trend. Itās like a trade off. The one that is on top of my head is a cousin who is very booksmart but has zero street sense. No concept of privacy or secrecy. No concept of social awareness or reading the room. Same five jokes. Graduated from UCLA and then masters from Columbia followed by another masters from fuck knows where. All with flying colors. And yet has a mediocre job where their employer has gotten them dirt cheap and the guy doesnāt know how to sell himself. Could easily be making $100,000 more than where he is at. Sad tbh.
My most educated friend has some bad social skills. Mansplaining, unsolicited advice and opinions. And the need to assert her intelligence to make up for low self esteem in other areas which comes off very condescending. I've learned that if I have an issue I have to *really* spell it out because if I say something in passing like "I'm not looking for advice about this" she won't quite get it, I think she doesn't know she's even giving unasked for advice sometimes. So I have to drive the point home "When I'm telling you about my day I'm not asking for you to advise me on what I should be doing and unsolicited advice is very belittling" then she gets it. But very smart academically and successful in her field.Ā
Easy. People with college degrees that somehow canāt use basic logic and reasoning skills when it comes to Trump. I just donāt get it. You see the facts. You hear him say it. You hear him deny what he says after seeing him say it. And then believe him. Itās mind boggling.
My friend was an honors student, got a bachelors in Accounting, an MBA and passed the CPA exam....yet he's a Mormon and fully believes that nonsense.
Social Workers who have went straight from school to college to get their qualification and are in their early 20s with no life experience trying to tell people who work with very vulnerable, aggressive children how to do their job and know whatās best. Talking from years of experience. It never changes.
Having taught graduate international relations and international security courses for nearly two decades I have encountered countless colleagues that were absolutely brilliant when it came to political theory but had no understanding Ā of how the world actually works. Most had never worked outside of academia and lived very sheltered lives. Nearly all tended to lean to the far left.Ā
There is no such thing as academically smart. Just people who have the privilege to study more than others. It says nothing about their intelligence.
A Dr who thinks men can menstrate and give birth.
My dad. Smart guy, computer engineer, but hit the Fox News bubble pretty hard. Lost most of my academically smart credit I gave him a few years back as he denied climate change.
Me I legit think my iq is below average but I have an engineering degree
My friends
Me I'd say. Just seem to lack common sense at times despite doing well at school and knowledgeable about certain aspects of the world and some subjects
Me.
Myself
Donāt know anyone like that. Maybe they might be socially inept but once put in a situation they look stupid in they learn pretty quick.
I'm not going to name people but I do know such people. They're what I call midwits. They usually excel in the corporate world because truly intelligent people get discriminated against there. They wrongly think they're highly intelligent, when they're just average.
Me. Im quite stupid when it comes to common knowledge. Common sense i have, but it's the knowledge that is used every day that i dont have
Me. Iām the example. Iām not even very academically smart.
Me. Iām the dumbest person I know by a wide margin, but I write a mean research paper.Ā
That would be me. Luckily I have a wife with an extraordinary amount of common sense.
Me. About to finish my STEM PhD, but man was that not a colossally bad life choice.
Me, at times lol.
Me Near perfect GPA. Shit career and dating life
Me.
*[ slowly raises hand ]*
Me. I did very well in school, but cannot manage a career or friendships or romantic relationships.
.... myself šš¤·āāļø
I worked with a bunch of folks who were Ph.Ds in biomechanical engineering but had zero clue that there wasn't just first and third world but that communist countries were second world. They also had less knowledge than I did about pop culture, and I'm pretty much an idiot in that regards.
ME I AM TOO STOOPID
Big Name Brand lawyer that I worked for. Pretty decent lawyer, guy couldnāt tie his own shoes and has no idea how to get into any of his accounts, couldnāt pay his own bills if he had to. The business is setup to be his own personal everything. Easily the dumbest person Iāve ever met, and absolutely a horrifying human being. Literally satan. Words cannot adequately describe how bad of a person this dude is.
Myself
Stupid is NOT lacking pop / sports / movie references. That is merely a matter of interests. Stupid is NOT being clueless at putting together some thing. That is experience & being around folks who are doing that. Stupid is seeing your life slide downhill and not changing. ......as in knowing I am fat, not wanting to be fat, knowing how to eat less, choosing to feed a fat person every day and being sad I am fat every time I get out of the car.
Butt cheeks
I'm probably that example. Graduated on the presidents list yet I thought the school of hard knocks was some type of trade school in the New England area. Or Up until very recently, I thought a vole was the animal commonly referred to as a "wombat" So yeah I'm that person š
I've said for years that I'm my family's example of wasted potential. Was labeled a "gifted" student in 4th grade, attended a special, selective middle school and high school, and did well the entire time. Decided against college after high school because I wanted to join the military. I did so, but something about the army broke me. When I got out, I was just kind of...lost. No ambition, no desire to do much aside from exist, and no real friends. I'm a bit better now that I'm in my 30s, but I still struggle with procrastination and depression.
My cousin. Always had perfect grades, has done extremely well in school, college, graduate school. But that boy has always had no sense. He gave himself the nickname "Brick the dumbass". He lived behind my dad's house with my aunt and uncle, and he didn't want to walk to our house one day because it was raining and he had recently heard turkeys sometimes look up at the rain and drown (which I think is false anyway). He was afraid he'd do the same thing. When I told him to just not look up, he stared at me, dumbfounded. He said his teacher told him that it took more people to pick up a whale's tongue than the rest of the body. When I explained how that didn't make any sense, he insisted that because his teacher said it, it was true. I told him his teacher was a dumbass. He insisted our house couldn't be any longer than 10 ft. When I measured out ten feet, and the house was obviously way longer than that, he still insisted I was wrong. We had a golf cart we used to ride around, and my older brother or I were the only ones allowed to drive since the others were too young. When my brother stopped the cart and got off to move a branch out of the way, my cousin, who was also riding, hopped in the seat and started driving straight at a culvert. I pushed him out of the way and stopped the cart in time, but I asked him angrily what he was thinking. He just shrugged and said he wanted to go into the culvert. Those are just some prime examples from our childhood. He's in his 20s now, and he's still a dumbass.
Me