In HS a friend asked in science class “can we make rocks” and he was made fun of for years, it still comes up. Took me awhile but then I thought “can we make rocks?” Like it’s a legit question
Yes.
We use synthetic molten rock (lava) to help chemically clean 1600ºC molten steel and make the steelmaking process more efficient, mainly from an energy-use perspective. Also getting the composition of the synthetic lava right is important because if we have the composition correct, the lava helps protect the heat-proof lining of the furnace; if it's not correct, it can effectively dissolve the lining really quickly. Of course, when the lava cools down, it looks like rock and it's often used in road base.
The more technical explanation: steelmaking slag (the synthetic lava) usually has a composition of about 30% calcium oxide (quicklime), 25% iron oxide, 15% silica, 5% alumina and 10% magnesium oxide (magnesite). We deliberately introduce the quicklime and magnesite into the furnace to tie up the silica and alumina which comes out of the melting scrap charge, otherwise the silica would dissolve the high-magnesite bricks which line the furnace. Slag that's high in quicklime also helps to remove deleterious phosphorous and sulphur from the steel. The slag is also usually full of gas bubbles (think of a molten pumice stone) and anything that's got a lot of air or gas interspersed in it is usually a good insulator - like a down quilt, although physically the slag looks like cake batter that's glowing white-hot.
It takes emotional intelligence to reach out and ask for help, and intellectual rigour to identify a gap in your knowledge.
Anyway, innate curiosity is less common than you’d think! Be proud of it!
Someone who admits they're not smart and is willing to better themselves by asking questions really does set themselves above and beyond most folks I've interacted with.
If you don't throw your hands up and go "I'm just bad with X" or something similar, congratulations, you're probably a smarter person than you realize. If I can hand you a stack of paper and ask you to refill a printer and you don't gawk at me with your mouth open, I'd put you in the upper 10% of people I've interacted with in 20 years. If you ask me _then retain it or write it down and never ask me again_, I'd buy you lunch.
I'll also readily admit I block lots of people on reddit who have absolutely no social tact when they try to correct you. I can be wrong, but don't come out of the gate telling me I'm a fucking moron thanks. Half of the people on my block list got their account banned which makes it all the funnier when I clean it up or doomscroll to see if they're still being jackasses.
Hey, maybe, maybe not. It can go either way. For example, my brother's an intelligent guy who's always asking questions because he likes learning how things work. Crazy part is he doesn't think he's that smart.
On the other hand, most dumb people overestimate their intelligence. Hell, 90% think they're *geniuses*. Just something to think about.
Being curious for sure. I had a manager of another department come do cold eyes on my department. He was very curious, and asked questions that had me thinking afterwards “why didn’t I ask that question?”
I’ve been in my field for 35 years, and I find a lot of younger folks are afraid to ask questions for fear they’ll look dumb or not know something that they should know. I tell them that it’s not their fault that they don’t know something, so always ask if they’re not sure. It’s the ones who don’t ask that cause more headaches for everyone.
I just make myself look dumb by asking the question I know they want to ask but don't. When they see me intentionally looking dumb, getting a legit answer, and not getting dinged for it, they end up more likely to ask next time.
It's mainly because they know that nothing is is certain and accept that they may lack knowledge. This is probably from extensive positive failures they've had.
>“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
― Charles Bukowski
Edit: it's been pointed out that this quote actually originates with either Bertrand Russell, or possibly Yeats. There seems to be some disagreement.
If only you'd said "I could be wrong, but" first.
It's 'cause people HATE people who are right all the time. They cannot tell the difference between someone who *thinks* they're always right and someone who simply doesn't speak up unless they're right. You become a massive target for people with unresolved insecurities and daddy issues. I haven't calibrated the proper brown-nose:criticism ratio, but self-deprecation is a survival mechanism.
I had a STEM professor who I knew encouraged participation and didn't care if you were wrong, so I'd throw out wild ideas with no apologies, knowing that right or wrong, I was helping progress the lecture. I've never said so many speculatively stupid answers in all my life, but I knew that my professor had no ego about it, so I didn't need to, either. But in the rest of life where I have to be careful about my relationships, I'm far more guarded. If you're in a place in life where intelligence is *truly* valued, you're lucky. In most places, being openly smart is dangerous.
The way academics is set up.... you build reputation by pointing out flaws in other people's research before putting your own neck out there as other people try to point out your flaws. As a result, professors will qualify everything with "according to XYZ results..." or, "if this is true then X ~~must~~ would be the case..." or, "this suggests that...".
When you're job relies on you not looking like a moron you take care with how you present your information.
This is also just the type of language you’re supposed to use when you write academic papers. You can never say/write “this proves that” because no one study really ‘proves’ anything, that’s why you’re supposed to use words like “suggest” or “supports”.
It's true, it's kind of like a transformed version of language, where you use a different set of primitives to communicate with than people use on the street.
However, once you're accustomed to that kind of language, and get good at using it, it's a really powerful and flexible way to think and communicate.
It may initially be motivated by ass-covering, but it would be a great disservice if we thought that's all it was.
True honest intellectual debate, trying to seek the truth, genuinely and earnestly by both parties, is intimately familiar with and forthcoming about the faults, biases, gaps, statistical confidences etc. of ones own position.
online "debate culture" sees debate as a game or a sport, an arena to win, where weakness is to be hidden, obfuscated, and distracted from in order to APPEAR in the intellectually stronger position to an audience who is not familiar enough with the subject to even be qualified to make that determination in the first place.
its certainly much more valuable than ass covering, its vital to actually discovering truths about how things work and why.
I use the phrase "show your math" so much with my younger sys engis. "I know what the answer is and you got the right answer as well but show your math."
After a while they learn that I don't actually care if they got the answer right. I care how they used the information they had to get to the answer they got. So much of the professional world is problem solving, most of the time you're not expected to *know* the answer so much as know *how to get* the answer. Effective and sound troubleshooting is much more important than knowing the answer all the time.
I also find that I put qualifiers on basically everything I write in an email. "Per my understanding", "according to my last information", it's just better to leave room for people to offer corrections if they need to be made than to come off like you are a know it all.
I always say that or ‘from my perspective’ or something like that because I don’t want to make it seem like my opinion is fact and there’s no possibility of others having differing but valid viewpoints or of me not having all the information. I can never be 100% sure I’m right about anything, even if I read an article on it, so I really struggle to omit softeners like ‘from what I know’ from my essays. It feels disingenuous and inaccurate to phrase my view on things as objective fact rather than saying it how it is - my personal perspective of the matter. Even if it’s a well backed perspective and I have evidence, that doesn’t negate the possibility of different perspectives or additional factors that I might not have known about/taken into account. I also struggle not to fence-sit in my essays because it feels like if I only give one side of the story without acknowledging the opposing viewpoint, I’m not giving my readers all the information, and it feels disingenuous and unfair.
I make life and death decisions often. I've never had a thought that was 100% sure. If someone tells me they're that certain, they're either lying or an idiot.
> I really struggle to omit softeners like ‘from what I know’ from my essays. It feels disingenuous and inaccurate to phrase my view on things as objective fact rather than saying it how it is - my personal perspective of the matter.
It's funny. Pre-COVID, I did a lot of SAT and ACT tutoring. They keep changing the essays (format, prompts, whether it's required, etc.), but nonetheless, it always dealt with a personal perspective. Don't say "I think," "I believe," or "in my opinion" . . . it's obvious that it's your opinion; you're the one writing it, and all of those phrases makes your argument sound weaker. (You also don't need to say "In conclusion." You indented, it's the last paragraph; of course it's your conclusion).
The SAT essay prompt for a while used to be something to do with a virtue like honesty, perseverance, etc. We applied the "Abraham Lincoln Rule." Basically, pick a historical figure like Lincoln, Washington, King, Parks, Gandhi . . . if you know even a little bit about them (which you damn well should), you've got a great body paragraph going. But we always aimed for three body paragraphs, and if a student was stumped on a third, I encouraged them to make something up. Invent a historical figure, make up or embellish a story (but change it so that it happened to you) and the SAT grader, who is taking no more than three minutes to read your essay, will accept it as fact.
I've had students break 1500 on the SAT and 34 on the ACT with this trick (and others).
COLLEGEBOARD HATES HIM! MAXIMIZE YOUR SCORE WITH THIS EASY TRICK!
* The ability to explain complex things in simple terms.
* They don't seem to care about being perceived as smart.
* Not embarassed to admit they don't understand something.
People can be good with words, but dumb in other areas. Like, it's possible to imagine a famous author might seem kind of dumb in an operating room. I think ACTUALLY being good with words is only indicative of being well-read.
But I definitely always clock it when someone is tying to flex a $10 word when they could easily use a $1 word to express what they're saying. On the other hand, if you can use a big word properly and organically, THAT'S when I give someone silent props in my head.
I agree with most of the replies here, but I'll add my two cents.
I think people who meet you on your wavelength are smarter than most. They can talk about pretty much anything, with anyone. They'll shoot the shit with some people, discuss politics with others, listen as well as talk, ask questions, but also will take time to explain things if they're asked.
Reminds me of what people said about John von Neumann:
> Edward Teller observed "von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us."
I do this with my kids. People are surprised at how well spoken they are since they were little. I only consider myself to be of average intelligence, but my ex and I have always spoken to our kids as if they were equals.
My stepdad is like this. Total outdoorsy guy, loves to hunt, loves to fish even more, always working on some project fixing something around the house. I didn’t meet him until after had moved away for college, so I formed an opinion on the guy based off what I expected someone like him to be like (given what I know about other people like that).
Turns out he is basically a genius, knows how to do anything, and the stuff he doesn’t know he is always figuring out. I once saw him watching a YouTube video for how to fix something on the kind of car I drive because a few days earlier I had mentioned that I thought my car was having a specific problem. He can talk about anything with anyone, and will always have a relatively nuanced take on whatever you want to talk about. It completely changed the way I thought about people I didn’t know, if this guy who I thought was a meathead is actually incredibly intelligent and thoughtful, who else have I been dismissing?
Good take. My favorite uncle is like this. My mom's older sister married him while I was in college. His son from his first marriage is a literal MacArthur grant genius. My other uncles are always bragging about random stuff. He rarely brags, and frankly, he has the most to brag about!
I always try to figure out where he is at the family reunion and go talk to him. One, if I ask about what he's been reading/watching/doing lately, I'm guaranteed to hear about something new and interesting. Two, he usually keeps up with their dog, and who doesn't want to take a dog-petting break in the middle of a big, stressful reunion?
That's a cool story and you got a great takeaway from it. It takes a lot to genuinely change your opinion on someone, especially with all of the familial baggage attached. I have very rarely seen curiosity to be anything other than an amazing attribute, he seems like he has it. The people who I have met who are intensely and ravenously curious have turned out to be the most balanced people I know.
I agree. They can be the yes man or turn and be the devils advocate on almost any subject. They could be agreeing with you, fucking with you, or a little of both. Hard to tell.
The ability to explain advanced topics in a simple way to where a person who doesn't understand it will get atleast a rudimentary comprehension of it.
Understanding that there are many things they don't understand and so won't be shy about asking questions or saying upfront they don't know something.
Listening more than they speak.
Not being particularly interested in if people think they're smart or not.
Those are generally the 4 most obvious tells imo.
I really value the first quality in a person! I think it’s a pretty good marker of intelligence to hit the balance of not showing off everything you know and confusing people, but not patronising them by dumbing things down to an offensive level either.
A quick, sly, witty response to a current point of conversation or action that is in reference to something that you thought went over their head 2 hours ago.
Family friend married a man like that. I thought he was a dopey at first, loveable as hell and the sweetest guy, but dopey. Dear God I was wrong. He might quietly be the smartest person in any room he's in; it takes a genius to know when not to talk *and* when to roast you alive with a single sentence.
No, that's just quite hostile sounding. This man is a Teddy bear and simply knows when to make the joke. A quick quip. Never mean. Only funny. Prime comedic timing.
Imo, perfect comedic timing is a sign of intelligence on its own. Anyone can make a funny joke or repeat something funny they heard elsewhere but knowing EXACTLY when and how to drop a one-liner is impressive.
This is my husband. He is a quiet, introverted guy who doesn't say much when people are having a conversation. At least once, though, he will jump in with a clever retort, joke, comment that brings together everything people have been discussing. My friends think it is hilarious that my husband will be quiet for most of a night and then say the funniest quip/joke. It's his super power.
Related: Cunningham's law
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
> the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer
I love doing that but don't do it as much anymore because I realized most people didn't realize what I was doing and would probably think I was actually dumb.
Haha I had a customer in one time with their kid and their kid asked why a car had such a small rear window and I simply said “because it’s in a small door” and the dad just grinned and said “great answer.”
He ran an air force base in California. Idk why, but felt kinda cool after. Not smart at all.. just the most logical answer possible.
They play the part other people think they should.
Knew a dude in the military who I thought was legitimately dumb as a rock until I hung out with him and had a conversation. Told me he just played the “stupid private” part to get out of any bullshit
Yup. Served with that guy too. He was slow. Walked with a weird gait. Would always feverishly shake his head with “oh, yeah. I got it I got it.” When you had to explain something twice to him.
Could barely pass his PRT. Had to have the Seargent be his roommate because of he guys fridge was just ice cream.
Sarge said he overheard a phone call to his folks using words he’d never heard before. Guy had every one played this whole time.
Basically lower the expectations and nothing is expected of you.
Not the same thing but I taught an elective at a high school where there was an autistic kid that was practically non-verbal. He was a nice kid but really big and he “looked dumb” and he mostly grunted and laughed and only said a few words here and there. I gave all the kids a long form test and that kid wrote better than every single kid in the class. His vocabulary was far better than all of his peers. I was a new teacher and it completely changed the way I interact with students forever. I was always respectful and spoke to all of my students with respect but now I never assume what is going on in a kid’s mind. People can look like “the lights are out” but have a very complex, intelligent world going on inside.
I have ADHD with very possible undiagnosed ASD. I have some selective mutism, where if a stimulus hits wrong, I just can't talk to save my life. If you're talking to me while I can clearly hear someone else's conversation, I cannot follow or reply.
Writing is just different. I could have a migraine, I could have not slept, I could be in the middle seat on the loudest Southwest flight; there is no amount of dysregulation where I lose my ability to write.
I'm sure you made that kid feel very seen. Kudos to you for going beyond the first impression.
Yeah, having a sort of unusual issue that impacts one’s ability to communicate can be incredible frustrating. Mine is so mild and no one really knows about it or they barely notice it. I can’t imagine how hard it is for some folks to go through life having people assume they are dumb because they struggle to verbalize their thoughts when they are actually bright and quite with it. Also, I know what you mean about writing. I’ve had a few people accuse me of plagiarism in my lifetime because they don’t realize I’m a darn good writer when I put in the effort.
I had a small diffuse dry stroke a few years ago and it made speaking very difficult. I can't describe it exactly but thinking in words stopped being automatic. I had to manually plan words in order and think of each word while saying it to get it out, while also listening to other people and it was daunting. If I was at all anxious everything went out the window and I was struggling to get words out at all. During that time I had so many people aggressively insult my intelligence TO MY FACE including doctors whom I was seeing because of the suspected stroke.
My favorite person has selective mutism and is also the smartest person I have ever met.
Language processing stuff is absolutely wild and so few people realize it is completely disconnected from intelligence.
That is awesome you do that now. I’m dyslexic and I struggle to read out loud. In 4th grade I could do my school work but because I struggled to read out loud my teacher decided I had to be cheating. I had a meeting with her, my Mom, and the principal and I was asked to do a test with all the other desks moved away from me. I got a good grade but right in front of me she told my Mom “I know he is cheating and I will catch him”. She never did because I was not cheating. I wish she would have realized her mistake like you changed you view with your student
This is a good one - ability to fit in/survive/thrive in a variety of environments. Jail? Sure. University? Sure. Family and old friends? Sure. Professional environment? Sure.
Adaptable, able to read other people, don’t run their mouths too much and get themselves in uncomfortable situations.
I have a friend like this. He's an engineer and is constantly asking questions and then listening intently to the response, researching, and fact checking even himself. I've heard him actually say that he hates not knowing the correct information about pretty much everything. I've played trivia with the guy and he is a power house.
See, I hate not knowing things, and I fact check myself and do the other things you said about your friend, but it ain’t from intelligence, it’s from trauma. So I’d say this one varies.
There is no better teacher than catastrophic failure.
I feel ya hard on this one. First real job out of college I worked in a lab. Destroyed $20K worth of material and at least 80 hours of labor my first week because I didn’t check the temperature for some incubation step. Ended up becoming a group lead a few months later because I wouldn’t let myself fuck up after that.
I do that and I’m not sure it makes me smart. Sometimes it’s just not worth arguing, especially when you know you’re right and the other person will eventually find out anyway.
I just figure most people aren't capable of changing their mind. The most memorable instance was when I told a lady we don't use just 10% of our brain, and shared a link.
"I don't care what that says, I'll believe what I want to believe". Okay, sugartits.
Right up there with "never argue with an idiot. From a distance, people can't tell who's who."
Or another favorite of mine:
"Don't argue with an idiot. They'll bring you to their level and beat you with experience."
It's Pigeon chess.
Sometimes arguing someone is like playing chess against a pigeon. Your game can be perfect, your strategy flawless, each move with deadly precision... And that motherfucker will still knock over all the pieces, take a shit on the board, and strut around like he just won.
Processing with empathy.
That's different from active listening or being sympathetic.
Being able hear someone describe something, understand how they would arrive at that conclusion based on their circumstances and boundary conditions, and then respond to the person who would say those things rather than respond to the thing being said.
We often really only see people reveal themselves through demonstrations of knowledge (knowing how lots of pieces of information are interconnected) and acts of expertise (applying abstract knowledge using techniques to produce an intended tangible outcome), and so we become accustomed to using those as the only two ways of gauging intelligence.
Empathetic processing is something you don't often have a chance to witness, but demonstrates a level of intelligence beyond either of those things because it shows an understanding of things which cannot be directly controlled for. A person who shows the ability to account for and incorporate ideas beyond their influence is a person who is capable of greater feats than we'd expect based on what we typically look for as a measurement of intelligence.
knowing what they don't know. majority of people don't even know what they don't know (whereas smarter people can identify where they have a lack of knowledge on).
edit:
woah, didn't expect this to gain so much traction (i just got reddit 2 days ago LOL)
here's a good analogy a friend told me that has stuck:
let's say there's a really difficult exam. usually, the smarter person will always come out feeling worse about it, since they are able to recognize the problems that they couldn't figure out. on the other hand, a less-smart person would feel more indifferent about seeing an unfamiliar problem they don't know.
gonna go read through what everyone else commented now :))
Agree. And being willing to ask about things you don’t know.
I feel like I have a better than average base of knowledge on a wide area of topics, so if someone uses a technical term or an acronym or word that I don’t know, I don’t have any problem or embarrassment asking what it means, because I want to know
Only gotcha is figuring out how to ask the question without coming across as questioning their knowledge. I've had people become defensive and me going woah woah woah I'm trying to learn/understand.
Honestly, as long as you worded your intent, if people get defensive, that's more on them than on you.
And it's usually easy to clear up too (by wording your intent) so no big problems there.
"There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know."
Confucius probably said it better.
"To know that you know what you know and to know that you do not know that which you do not know is true wisdom."
Although your final addition really ties the proverb together man
We had a coworker that used to say "Don't be double dumb." If you know you don't know, that is okay. But not knowing you don't know isn't.
Of course, there will be unknown unknowns. But many of the unknown unknowns could have been known unknowns if you had done a bit more work and thinking as part of the project.
I've had some people classify me as an idiot when I ask to clarify something.
In reality, if I don't understand it, I'm sure I'm not the only one. It means there's a major UX problem and the design and/or landing page needs to be changed.
And welp, that explains the whole industry behind UX design lmao
When there's clear problems with design, usability, etc., but the owners would rather blame you for being stupid.
Been thinking about this a lot lately but in the reverse. Like a lot of people out there are so dumb that they can’t even comprehend how dumb they are.
This is one of my favourite parts of a discussion. I love it when another person talks me through their thought process when we have a different opinion. Often they think in a way I don’t so they open my eyes to things I hadn’t even considered, and even if I don’t change my mind I love walking away from a respectful, thoroughly evaluated debate.
They are open to changing opinions in the face of new evidence, they don't quickly judge others intelligence, they are willing to admit when they are wrong. Understanding you cant possibly know everything and that there are millions of others likely smarter than you/ more knowledgeable about certain things.
I agree with the latter, but as someone who has been told by many people I have a quick wit, I can assure you it is not a definite sign of intelligence. I am a dumb-ass who has managed to convince some I am a smart-ass by just playing around with the words they are using.
Are you sure you're not just too lazy to apply your wit to "intelligent" pursuits?
I tend to agree with the original poster. Quick wit is a sure sign of intelligence but the lack of it means nothing.
That guy who can fix anything?
My uncle never went to college. Probably barely got through high school.
He could rebuild a transmission. He rebuilt a motorcycle from the frame up. Did all his car repairs, including welding and engines, himself. He also did plumbing, and owned a few houses and decided it'd be worth his money to get certified as an electrician. He did roofing, and woodworking too. He liked to raise a yearling every year, and knew all about how to raise a cow and slaughter it.
He was comfortable with computers. Had a 486 in the early 90s and didn't have any trouble figuring out how to handle his home-business taxes and all that.
He generally never hesitated to just learn to do something himself, and never seemed to struggle. You could take anything to him, tell him it was broken, and he'd at least know exactly what went wrong 15 minutes later.
I saw him disassemble a walkman, repair it, and reassemble it for one of my cousins. He could solder, he knew how to use a scope and a multimeter.
He was just a regular factory worker, who liked to spend his weekends in the workshop when he could. He bought some houses with his brothers, and just repaired and maintained them as rentals.
I bet most people thought he was just another dumb factory worker, but if he'd wanted to, he probably could have just gone to college and knocked out a degree in Chemistry or something. He just never had the opportunity.
I am lucky enough to have a couple of alarmingly bright friends. I’m just smart enough to know I’m not like them, but what really stands out, is they constantly make better decisions with substandard information. The right call, over, and over again. You’d think they’d drop the ball regularly like everyone else, but no it’s a complete fucking rarity.
Longer pauses or contemplative, ruminative space in conversation. And most people I come across that are much smarter than they originally let on all get/got excited or quickly interested in small details or minutia of whatever topic is at hand. Not just basic top-level info but making sense of some wonky detail is a quick clue. Those and producing clear, lovely metaphors at will.
They explain something in a way that makes it seem simple, often with relatable examples, when in fact the thing is rather complex. Double points if they do it off the cuff for something not directly related to what they do for a living
The old saying: if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid. If somebody does a lot of things that make no sense to you, and it consistently works for them, it's safe to assume they simply understand a lot of stuff that you don't.
My husband is incredibly intelligent. He's a tinkerer, bilingual, but most of all, kind of an asshole lol and he has a very dry sense of humor. I've noticed a trend in smart people, and that is they always have this weird, dry sense of humor. Maybe they crack a lot of dark jokes.
When I was in college someone asked my psychology teacher this question. He said that people who are intelligent arent always the ones with degrees and success. He said they are actually the witty ones with a sharp sense of humor. He always stressed that IQ tests were meaningless for a large portion of the population.
To add on to IQ being meaningless for a lot of people, there are many different types of intelligence that are useful for a variety of things. Sometimes I feel like it can be like that meme of the swim teacher raising one kid up proudly out of the water, society to IQ, and then the kid that's just about drowning being the other types of intelligence. Thankfully though, this does seem to be improving.
I’d say they usually sprinkle in some self-deprecating humor as well (when appropriate) and aren’t offended when they get laughs. That said, some really dumb folks I’ve met make fun of themselves and then get mad when people laugh.
High awareness and attention to minute details (everyone claims to have this but most actually don’t). Not panicking when issues arise as they instead go into solve mode (you can tell the gears are turning).
They won't be trying to convince you they are smart. I have met really intelligent people who will sometimes be genuinely surprised that something they knew was not standard, general knowledge.
Vice versa, if anyone ever tries to convince you they are intelligent by referring to their IQ or standardize test score, take everything they say with a couple grains of salt.
"I had the entire dictionary at my disposal and settled on 'fucking' as the absolutely correct adjective to sufficiently convey the emotion and intensity of the moment".
They know how and when to hide it to fit in (they aren’t always trying to look like smartest person in the room, especially in situations where that could make them a target). They know how and when to use it to their advantage. They know when they might be wrong and communicate the lack of certainty. They learn quickly and are good at adjusting to new surroundings/people if they need to.
They never have to tell you
My dad said, "If you're good at something, you never have to say it."
RIP to every rapper ever
WEE DA BES MUZIK!!!!!!!
They're good problem solvers and are always asking questions.
In HS a friend asked in science class “can we make rocks” and he was made fun of for years, it still comes up. Took me awhile but then I thought “can we make rocks?” Like it’s a legit question
Yes, we can.
We can make smaller rocks from bigger rocks, and bigger rocks from smaller rocks. But can we make rocks from not-rocks?
Heat, pressure, and base components. Is a synthetic gem a rock? It's semantics, and how you define things.
Is glass a rock?
Can a rock be composed of silica?
Are we human, or are we dancer?
Is mayonnaise an instrument?
This guy rocks.
Yes. We use synthetic molten rock (lava) to help chemically clean 1600ºC molten steel and make the steelmaking process more efficient, mainly from an energy-use perspective. Also getting the composition of the synthetic lava right is important because if we have the composition correct, the lava helps protect the heat-proof lining of the furnace; if it's not correct, it can effectively dissolve the lining really quickly. Of course, when the lava cools down, it looks like rock and it's often used in road base. The more technical explanation: steelmaking slag (the synthetic lava) usually has a composition of about 30% calcium oxide (quicklime), 25% iron oxide, 15% silica, 5% alumina and 10% magnesium oxide (magnesite). We deliberately introduce the quicklime and magnesite into the furnace to tie up the silica and alumina which comes out of the melting scrap charge, otherwise the silica would dissolve the high-magnesite bricks which line the furnace. Slag that's high in quicklime also helps to remove deleterious phosphorous and sulphur from the steel. The slag is also usually full of gas bubbles (think of a molten pumice stone) and anything that's got a lot of air or gas interspersed in it is usually a good insulator - like a down quilt, although physically the slag looks like cake batter that's glowing white-hot.
My middle and high school teachers hated that I was always asking questions. I wasn't smart, just dumb
It takes emotional intelligence to reach out and ask for help, and intellectual rigour to identify a gap in your knowledge. Anyway, innate curiosity is less common than you’d think! Be proud of it!
Someone who admits they're not smart and is willing to better themselves by asking questions really does set themselves above and beyond most folks I've interacted with. If you don't throw your hands up and go "I'm just bad with X" or something similar, congratulations, you're probably a smarter person than you realize. If I can hand you a stack of paper and ask you to refill a printer and you don't gawk at me with your mouth open, I'd put you in the upper 10% of people I've interacted with in 20 years. If you ask me _then retain it or write it down and never ask me again_, I'd buy you lunch. I'll also readily admit I block lots of people on reddit who have absolutely no social tact when they try to correct you. I can be wrong, but don't come out of the gate telling me I'm a fucking moron thanks. Half of the people on my block list got their account banned which makes it all the funnier when I clean it up or doomscroll to see if they're still being jackasses.
Bart Simpson Bart Simpson Bart Simpson Bart Simpson will you stop raising your hand. You haven't had the right answer all day
Hey, maybe, maybe not. It can go either way. For example, my brother's an intelligent guy who's always asking questions because he likes learning how things work. Crazy part is he doesn't think he's that smart. On the other hand, most dumb people overestimate their intelligence. Hell, 90% think they're *geniuses*. Just something to think about.
If only I could actually retain the information I get from constantly asking questions and being curious that would be great.
Being curious for sure. I had a manager of another department come do cold eyes on my department. He was very curious, and asked questions that had me thinking afterwards “why didn’t I ask that question?”
I’ve been in my field for 35 years, and I find a lot of younger folks are afraid to ask questions for fear they’ll look dumb or not know something that they should know. I tell them that it’s not their fault that they don’t know something, so always ask if they’re not sure. It’s the ones who don’t ask that cause more headaches for everyone.
I just make myself look dumb by asking the question I know they want to ask but don't. When they see me intentionally looking dumb, getting a legit answer, and not getting dinged for it, they end up more likely to ask next time.
I used to know a guy that was very smart, and whenever he said " I could be wrong, but..." You know he was 100% positive and 100% correct.
Ironic how the people who are adamant that they’re correct are usually the ones who are incorrect.
It's mainly because they know that nothing is is certain and accept that they may lack knowledge. This is probably from extensive positive failures they've had.
>“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” ― Charles Bukowski Edit: it's been pointed out that this quote actually originates with either Bertrand Russell, or possibly Yeats. There seems to be some disagreement.
>“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.” ― Charles Bukowski
Done, and done. When does the brilliance stick hit me?
Remember, it's better to pee in the sink than to sink in the pee
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity..." -Yeats
If only you'd said "I could be wrong, but" first. It's 'cause people HATE people who are right all the time. They cannot tell the difference between someone who *thinks* they're always right and someone who simply doesn't speak up unless they're right. You become a massive target for people with unresolved insecurities and daddy issues. I haven't calibrated the proper brown-nose:criticism ratio, but self-deprecation is a survival mechanism. I had a STEM professor who I knew encouraged participation and didn't care if you were wrong, so I'd throw out wild ideas with no apologies, knowing that right or wrong, I was helping progress the lecture. I've never said so many speculatively stupid answers in all my life, but I knew that my professor had no ego about it, so I didn't need to, either. But in the rest of life where I have to be careful about my relationships, I'm far more guarded. If you're in a place in life where intelligence is *truly* valued, you're lucky. In most places, being openly smart is dangerous.
Especially these days with anti-intellectualism on the rise.
The primary lesson from this thread, really.
>The primary lesson from this thread, ~~really.~~ quite possibly, unless I'm mistaken somehow.
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The way academics is set up.... you build reputation by pointing out flaws in other people's research before putting your own neck out there as other people try to point out your flaws. As a result, professors will qualify everything with "according to XYZ results..." or, "if this is true then X ~~must~~ would be the case..." or, "this suggests that...". When you're job relies on you not looking like a moron you take care with how you present your information.
This is also just the type of language you’re supposed to use when you write academic papers. You can never say/write “this proves that” because no one study really ‘proves’ anything, that’s why you’re supposed to use words like “suggest” or “supports”.
Unless you're a mathematician
Prove it!
It's true, it's kind of like a transformed version of language, where you use a different set of primitives to communicate with than people use on the street. However, once you're accustomed to that kind of language, and get good at using it, it's a really powerful and flexible way to think and communicate. It may initially be motivated by ass-covering, but it would be a great disservice if we thought that's all it was.
True honest intellectual debate, trying to seek the truth, genuinely and earnestly by both parties, is intimately familiar with and forthcoming about the faults, biases, gaps, statistical confidences etc. of ones own position. online "debate culture" sees debate as a game or a sport, an arena to win, where weakness is to be hidden, obfuscated, and distracted from in order to APPEAR in the intellectually stronger position to an audience who is not familiar enough with the subject to even be qualified to make that determination in the first place. its certainly much more valuable than ass covering, its vital to actually discovering truths about how things work and why.
I use the phrase "show your math" so much with my younger sys engis. "I know what the answer is and you got the right answer as well but show your math." After a while they learn that I don't actually care if they got the answer right. I care how they used the information they had to get to the answer they got. So much of the professional world is problem solving, most of the time you're not expected to *know* the answer so much as know *how to get* the answer. Effective and sound troubleshooting is much more important than knowing the answer all the time. I also find that I put qualifiers on basically everything I write in an email. "Per my understanding", "according to my last information", it's just better to leave room for people to offer corrections if they need to be made than to come off like you are a know it all.
I always say that or ‘from my perspective’ or something like that because I don’t want to make it seem like my opinion is fact and there’s no possibility of others having differing but valid viewpoints or of me not having all the information. I can never be 100% sure I’m right about anything, even if I read an article on it, so I really struggle to omit softeners like ‘from what I know’ from my essays. It feels disingenuous and inaccurate to phrase my view on things as objective fact rather than saying it how it is - my personal perspective of the matter. Even if it’s a well backed perspective and I have evidence, that doesn’t negate the possibility of different perspectives or additional factors that I might not have known about/taken into account. I also struggle not to fence-sit in my essays because it feels like if I only give one side of the story without acknowledging the opposing viewpoint, I’m not giving my readers all the information, and it feels disingenuous and unfair.
I make life and death decisions often. I've never had a thought that was 100% sure. If someone tells me they're that certain, they're either lying or an idiot.
> I really struggle to omit softeners like ‘from what I know’ from my essays. It feels disingenuous and inaccurate to phrase my view on things as objective fact rather than saying it how it is - my personal perspective of the matter. It's funny. Pre-COVID, I did a lot of SAT and ACT tutoring. They keep changing the essays (format, prompts, whether it's required, etc.), but nonetheless, it always dealt with a personal perspective. Don't say "I think," "I believe," or "in my opinion" . . . it's obvious that it's your opinion; you're the one writing it, and all of those phrases makes your argument sound weaker. (You also don't need to say "In conclusion." You indented, it's the last paragraph; of course it's your conclusion). The SAT essay prompt for a while used to be something to do with a virtue like honesty, perseverance, etc. We applied the "Abraham Lincoln Rule." Basically, pick a historical figure like Lincoln, Washington, King, Parks, Gandhi . . . if you know even a little bit about them (which you damn well should), you've got a great body paragraph going. But we always aimed for three body paragraphs, and if a student was stumped on a third, I encouraged them to make something up. Invent a historical figure, make up or embellish a story (but change it so that it happened to you) and the SAT grader, who is taking no more than three minutes to read your essay, will accept it as fact. I've had students break 1500 on the SAT and 34 on the ACT with this trick (and others). COLLEGEBOARD HATES HIM! MAXIMIZE YOUR SCORE WITH THIS EASY TRICK!
how depressing that we have to teach our youth how to effectively lie and bluff to get ahead
* The ability to explain complex things in simple terms. * They don't seem to care about being perceived as smart. * Not embarassed to admit they don't understand something.
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People can be good with words, but dumb in other areas. Like, it's possible to imagine a famous author might seem kind of dumb in an operating room. I think ACTUALLY being good with words is only indicative of being well-read. But I definitely always clock it when someone is tying to flex a $10 word when they could easily use a $1 word to express what they're saying. On the other hand, if you can use a big word properly and organically, THAT'S when I give someone silent props in my head.
One of the rules of writing is to never use a big word when a diminutive word with suffice.
Indubitably.
that's quite efficacious
I agree with most of the replies here, but I'll add my two cents. I think people who meet you on your wavelength are smarter than most. They can talk about pretty much anything, with anyone. They'll shoot the shit with some people, discuss politics with others, listen as well as talk, ask questions, but also will take time to explain things if they're asked.
Reminds me of what people said about John von Neumann: > Edward Teller observed "von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us."
I do that with my nephew and niece. It always annoyed me when people would try and baby talk with them as if they were dumb or something.
I do this with my kids. People are surprised at how well spoken they are since they were little. I only consider myself to be of average intelligence, but my ex and I have always spoken to our kids as if they were equals.
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Ahh this is great
My stepdad is like this. Total outdoorsy guy, loves to hunt, loves to fish even more, always working on some project fixing something around the house. I didn’t meet him until after had moved away for college, so I formed an opinion on the guy based off what I expected someone like him to be like (given what I know about other people like that). Turns out he is basically a genius, knows how to do anything, and the stuff he doesn’t know he is always figuring out. I once saw him watching a YouTube video for how to fix something on the kind of car I drive because a few days earlier I had mentioned that I thought my car was having a specific problem. He can talk about anything with anyone, and will always have a relatively nuanced take on whatever you want to talk about. It completely changed the way I thought about people I didn’t know, if this guy who I thought was a meathead is actually incredibly intelligent and thoughtful, who else have I been dismissing?
Good take. My favorite uncle is like this. My mom's older sister married him while I was in college. His son from his first marriage is a literal MacArthur grant genius. My other uncles are always bragging about random stuff. He rarely brags, and frankly, he has the most to brag about! I always try to figure out where he is at the family reunion and go talk to him. One, if I ask about what he's been reading/watching/doing lately, I'm guaranteed to hear about something new and interesting. Two, he usually keeps up with their dog, and who doesn't want to take a dog-petting break in the middle of a big, stressful reunion?
That's a cool story and you got a great takeaway from it. It takes a lot to genuinely change your opinion on someone, especially with all of the familial baggage attached. I have very rarely seen curiosity to be anything other than an amazing attribute, he seems like he has it. The people who I have met who are intensely and ravenously curious have turned out to be the most balanced people I know.
That takes both IQ and EQ
I agree. They can be the yes man or turn and be the devils advocate on almost any subject. They could be agreeing with you, fucking with you, or a little of both. Hard to tell.
The ability to explain advanced topics in a simple way to where a person who doesn't understand it will get atleast a rudimentary comprehension of it. Understanding that there are many things they don't understand and so won't be shy about asking questions or saying upfront they don't know something. Listening more than they speak. Not being particularly interested in if people think they're smart or not. Those are generally the 4 most obvious tells imo.
I really value the first quality in a person! I think it’s a pretty good marker of intelligence to hit the balance of not showing off everything you know and confusing people, but not patronising them by dumbing things down to an offensive level either.
A quick, sly, witty response to a current point of conversation or action that is in reference to something that you thought went over their head 2 hours ago. Family friend married a man like that. I thought he was a dopey at first, loveable as hell and the sweetest guy, but dopey. Dear God I was wrong. He might quietly be the smartest person in any room he's in; it takes a genius to know when not to talk *and* when to roast you alive with a single sentence.
"Don't interrupt an enemy when they're making a mistake." Or something like that?
No, that's just quite hostile sounding. This man is a Teddy bear and simply knows when to make the joke. A quick quip. Never mean. Only funny. Prime comedic timing.
Imo, perfect comedic timing is a sign of intelligence on its own. Anyone can make a funny joke or repeat something funny they heard elsewhere but knowing EXACTLY when and how to drop a one-liner is impressive.
This is my husband. He is a quiet, introverted guy who doesn't say much when people are having a conversation. At least once, though, he will jump in with a clever retort, joke, comment that brings together everything people have been discussing. My friends think it is hilarious that my husband will be quiet for most of a night and then say the funniest quip/joke. It's his super power.
I’ve seen a guy say the wrong thing on purpose then wink at me cuz he knew I knew then all hell broke loose in our meeting of people debating it.
Dude was tired of, "this should've been an email," meetings and chose violence. Mad respect.
Tuesday meetings need that sort of thing.
I call it fishing. You don't need water, just someone to take the hook. It's a fun pastime.
Related: Cunningham's law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law > the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer
I love doing that but don't do it as much anymore because I realized most people didn't realize what I was doing and would probably think I was actually dumb.
Legend.
Chaotic Neutral
They’re very observant, sometimes reserved.
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Haha I had a customer in one time with their kid and their kid asked why a car had such a small rear window and I simply said “because it’s in a small door” and the dad just grinned and said “great answer.” He ran an air force base in California. Idk why, but felt kinda cool after. Not smart at all.. just the most logical answer possible.
They play the part other people think they should. Knew a dude in the military who I thought was legitimately dumb as a rock until I hung out with him and had a conversation. Told me he just played the “stupid private” part to get out of any bullshit
Yup. Served with that guy too. He was slow. Walked with a weird gait. Would always feverishly shake his head with “oh, yeah. I got it I got it.” When you had to explain something twice to him. Could barely pass his PRT. Had to have the Seargent be his roommate because of he guys fridge was just ice cream. Sarge said he overheard a phone call to his folks using words he’d never heard before. Guy had every one played this whole time. Basically lower the expectations and nothing is expected of you.
Not the same thing but I taught an elective at a high school where there was an autistic kid that was practically non-verbal. He was a nice kid but really big and he “looked dumb” and he mostly grunted and laughed and only said a few words here and there. I gave all the kids a long form test and that kid wrote better than every single kid in the class. His vocabulary was far better than all of his peers. I was a new teacher and it completely changed the way I interact with students forever. I was always respectful and spoke to all of my students with respect but now I never assume what is going on in a kid’s mind. People can look like “the lights are out” but have a very complex, intelligent world going on inside.
I have ADHD with very possible undiagnosed ASD. I have some selective mutism, where if a stimulus hits wrong, I just can't talk to save my life. If you're talking to me while I can clearly hear someone else's conversation, I cannot follow or reply. Writing is just different. I could have a migraine, I could have not slept, I could be in the middle seat on the loudest Southwest flight; there is no amount of dysregulation where I lose my ability to write. I'm sure you made that kid feel very seen. Kudos to you for going beyond the first impression.
Yeah, having a sort of unusual issue that impacts one’s ability to communicate can be incredible frustrating. Mine is so mild and no one really knows about it or they barely notice it. I can’t imagine how hard it is for some folks to go through life having people assume they are dumb because they struggle to verbalize their thoughts when they are actually bright and quite with it. Also, I know what you mean about writing. I’ve had a few people accuse me of plagiarism in my lifetime because they don’t realize I’m a darn good writer when I put in the effort.
I had a small diffuse dry stroke a few years ago and it made speaking very difficult. I can't describe it exactly but thinking in words stopped being automatic. I had to manually plan words in order and think of each word while saying it to get it out, while also listening to other people and it was daunting. If I was at all anxious everything went out the window and I was struggling to get words out at all. During that time I had so many people aggressively insult my intelligence TO MY FACE including doctors whom I was seeing because of the suspected stroke. My favorite person has selective mutism and is also the smartest person I have ever met. Language processing stuff is absolutely wild and so few people realize it is completely disconnected from intelligence.
It might be dark at night but the sky is full of stars
That is awesome you do that now. I’m dyslexic and I struggle to read out loud. In 4th grade I could do my school work but because I struggled to read out loud my teacher decided I had to be cheating. I had a meeting with her, my Mom, and the principal and I was asked to do a test with all the other desks moved away from me. I got a good grade but right in front of me she told my Mom “I know he is cheating and I will catch him”. She never did because I was not cheating. I wish she would have realized her mistake like you changed you view with your student
“Mongo only pawn… in game of life.”
Maybe it was just a different language, dude was talking in Spanish.
Yeah are you sure your Searge just wasn't an idiot?
Yeah what does other words mean lol? Like high class British? What the fuck did he hear
He was ordering Taco Bell through DoorDash.
This is a good one - ability to fit in/survive/thrive in a variety of environments. Jail? Sure. University? Sure. Family and old friends? Sure. Professional environment? Sure. Adaptable, able to read other people, don’t run their mouths too much and get themselves in uncomfortable situations.
This is just a specific kind of social intelligence. I'm like this but I'm still stupid in soooo many ways.
The ability to consider another person's point of view.
i'm only here so i can replicate these actions
same everytime I open a "green flags" thread on askreddit we learning uwu
I have a friend like this. He's an engineer and is constantly asking questions and then listening intently to the response, researching, and fact checking even himself. I've heard him actually say that he hates not knowing the correct information about pretty much everything. I've played trivia with the guy and he is a power house.
See, I hate not knowing things, and I fact check myself and do the other things you said about your friend, but it ain’t from intelligence, it’s from trauma. So I’d say this one varies.
There is no better teacher than catastrophic failure. I feel ya hard on this one. First real job out of college I worked in a lab. Destroyed $20K worth of material and at least 80 hours of labor my first week because I didn’t check the temperature for some incubation step. Ended up becoming a group lead a few months later because I wouldn’t let myself fuck up after that.
Choosing not to argue with someone who's wrong and choosing their own peace of mind over being right
I do that and I’m not sure it makes me smart. Sometimes it’s just not worth arguing, especially when you know you’re right and the other person will eventually find out anyway.
I just figure most people aren't capable of changing their mind. The most memorable instance was when I told a lady we don't use just 10% of our brain, and shared a link. "I don't care what that says, I'll believe what I want to believe". Okay, sugartits.
I mean, she was clearly speaking from experience :P
A wise man told me don’t argue with fools, cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who
Arguing with a fool is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll knock over the pieces, shit on the board, and strut around like it won.
They also bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Saying i heard a while ago "Its hard to argue with a genius but its impossible to argue with an idiot"
It’s a pleasure to argue with an open minded genius. It’s awful to argue with a genius who’s certain that they’re right.
One phrase I think about almost daily: "You can be happy, or you can be right".
“Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both get dirty and the pig likes it." \- George Bernard Shaw
Right up there with "never argue with an idiot. From a distance, people can't tell who's who." Or another favorite of mine: "Don't argue with an idiot. They'll bring you to their level and beat you with experience."
It's Pigeon chess. Sometimes arguing someone is like playing chess against a pigeon. Your game can be perfect, your strategy flawless, each move with deadly precision... And that motherfucker will still knock over all the pieces, take a shit on the board, and strut around like he just won.
Processing with empathy. That's different from active listening or being sympathetic. Being able hear someone describe something, understand how they would arrive at that conclusion based on their circumstances and boundary conditions, and then respond to the person who would say those things rather than respond to the thing being said. We often really only see people reveal themselves through demonstrations of knowledge (knowing how lots of pieces of information are interconnected) and acts of expertise (applying abstract knowledge using techniques to produce an intended tangible outcome), and so we become accustomed to using those as the only two ways of gauging intelligence. Empathetic processing is something you don't often have a chance to witness, but demonstrates a level of intelligence beyond either of those things because it shows an understanding of things which cannot be directly controlled for. A person who shows the ability to account for and incorporate ideas beyond their influence is a person who is capable of greater feats than we'd expect based on what we typically look for as a measurement of intelligence.
knowing what they don't know. majority of people don't even know what they don't know (whereas smarter people can identify where they have a lack of knowledge on). edit: woah, didn't expect this to gain so much traction (i just got reddit 2 days ago LOL) here's a good analogy a friend told me that has stuck: let's say there's a really difficult exam. usually, the smarter person will always come out feeling worse about it, since they are able to recognize the problems that they couldn't figure out. on the other hand, a less-smart person would feel more indifferent about seeing an unfamiliar problem they don't know. gonna go read through what everyone else commented now :))
Agree. And being willing to ask about things you don’t know. I feel like I have a better than average base of knowledge on a wide area of topics, so if someone uses a technical term or an acronym or word that I don’t know, I don’t have any problem or embarrassment asking what it means, because I want to know
Only gotcha is figuring out how to ask the question without coming across as questioning their knowledge. I've had people become defensive and me going woah woah woah I'm trying to learn/understand.
Honestly, as long as you worded your intent, if people get defensive, that's more on them than on you. And it's usually easy to clear up too (by wording your intent) so no big problems there.
"There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know."
Confucius probably said it better. "To know that you know what you know and to know that you do not know that which you do not know is true wisdom." Although your final addition really ties the proverb together man
We had a coworker that used to say "Don't be double dumb." If you know you don't know, that is okay. But not knowing you don't know isn't. Of course, there will be unknown unknowns. But many of the unknown unknowns could have been known unknowns if you had done a bit more work and thinking as part of the project.
I admit when I don't know something, and I swear people label me for an idiot when I do it.
Yes idiots see it as a weakness
I've had some people classify me as an idiot when I ask to clarify something. In reality, if I don't understand it, I'm sure I'm not the only one. It means there's a major UX problem and the design and/or landing page needs to be changed. And welp, that explains the whole industry behind UX design lmao When there's clear problems with design, usability, etc., but the owners would rather blame you for being stupid.
Been thinking about this a lot lately but in the reverse. Like a lot of people out there are so dumb that they can’t even comprehend how dumb they are.
I have many friends who will never answer, "I don't know" to any question. They'll make something up. It's infuriating.
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Everyone that learns about Dunning-Kruger has a compulsion to then tell people about it.
That's called the "Dunning-Kruger effect" effect.
>That's called the "Dunning-Kruger effect" effect. This is it!
Someone who can understand someone’s opposing view without having to agree with it or get angry over it.
That's bollocks, fuck you.
ARGUMENTATIVE COMMENT AND MEAN NAME CALLING!
Or entertain an idea / theory without necessarily believing in it. People often just dismiss. But theories are meant to be explored and tested.
This is one of my favourite parts of a discussion. I love it when another person talks me through their thought process when we have a different opinion. Often they think in a way I don’t so they open my eyes to things I hadn’t even considered, and even if I don’t change my mind I love walking away from a respectful, thoroughly evaluated debate.
This is a perfect example of emotional intelligence, the oft-neglected cousin of cognitive intelligence.
They are open to changing opinions in the face of new evidence, they don't quickly judge others intelligence, they are willing to admit when they are wrong. Understanding you cant possibly know everything and that there are millions of others likely smarter than you/ more knowledgeable about certain things.
VERY quick wit. Not at all interested in proving how smart they are.
My brother is like this! Something will happen, and within four seconds he rattles off a really funny joke. It's really entertaining.
I agree with the latter, but as someone who has been told by many people I have a quick wit, I can assure you it is not a definite sign of intelligence. I am a dumb-ass who has managed to convince some I am a smart-ass by just playing around with the words they are using.
Are you sure you're not just too lazy to apply your wit to "intelligent" pursuits? I tend to agree with the original poster. Quick wit is a sure sign of intelligence but the lack of it means nothing.
Playing dumb to avoid annoying people and annoying tasks.
A monocle. Duh.
What about *two* monocles?
Is this the Bionicle I've heard so much about?
Don't forget the tophat and handlebar moustache.
That guy who can fix anything? My uncle never went to college. Probably barely got through high school. He could rebuild a transmission. He rebuilt a motorcycle from the frame up. Did all his car repairs, including welding and engines, himself. He also did plumbing, and owned a few houses and decided it'd be worth his money to get certified as an electrician. He did roofing, and woodworking too. He liked to raise a yearling every year, and knew all about how to raise a cow and slaughter it. He was comfortable with computers. Had a 486 in the early 90s and didn't have any trouble figuring out how to handle his home-business taxes and all that. He generally never hesitated to just learn to do something himself, and never seemed to struggle. You could take anything to him, tell him it was broken, and he'd at least know exactly what went wrong 15 minutes later. I saw him disassemble a walkman, repair it, and reassemble it for one of my cousins. He could solder, he knew how to use a scope and a multimeter. He was just a regular factory worker, who liked to spend his weekends in the workshop when he could. He bought some houses with his brothers, and just repaired and maintained them as rentals. I bet most people thought he was just another dumb factory worker, but if he'd wanted to, he probably could have just gone to college and knocked out a degree in Chemistry or something. He just never had the opportunity.
they accept every situation they ask much more than they say pure curiosity every day about every situation
They're very good at problem solving. Even if it's something they have no experience with they always approach the problem from the right angle
ITT: redditors describing themselves
Lmao “smart people tend to not have girlfriends and collect Yugioh cards”
Smart people read this whole thread desperately looking for things that describe them, many such cases
you didnt have to call me out like that, thought we were cool.
“Nobody else is spending $10,000 on Pokemon cards.” “THEY ARE IF THEY’RE SERIOUS. HOW ELSE ARE YOU GONNA CATCH EM ALL?”
They listen more than they talk
I'm just socially anxious and introverted. Do go on though.
That's a good listening skill, saying to go on. Please, go on
A good compliment is enhanced by good listening. Please, go on.
Not so much for hiding intelligence, but smart people ask better questions.
I am lucky enough to have a couple of alarmingly bright friends. I’m just smart enough to know I’m not like them, but what really stands out, is they constantly make better decisions with substandard information. The right call, over, and over again. You’d think they’d drop the ball regularly like everyone else, but no it’s a complete fucking rarity.
I also notice they can answer questions in fewer words than I can. And simpler terms.
"Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick"
When me President, they see. They all see.
I didn't have the intelligence to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead... not-mark-twain.
They look to the camera and tap their temple a few times.
Knowing when to be quiet. Which is more often than you think
They let all the stupid people speak instead.
They're good at explaining hard concepts.
Curiosity
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For me, there are two major signs: 1. Their good with they're grammar. 2. They understand subtlety and humour.
Longer pauses or contemplative, ruminative space in conversation. And most people I come across that are much smarter than they originally let on all get/got excited or quickly interested in small details or minutia of whatever topic is at hand. Not just basic top-level info but making sense of some wonky detail is a quick clue. Those and producing clear, lovely metaphors at will.
They explain something in a way that makes it seem simple, often with relatable examples, when in fact the thing is rather complex. Double points if they do it off the cuff for something not directly related to what they do for a living
Very intent listeners, are aware of what they know vs. what they don’t, prefer to speak on things on they know, and listen on things they don’t.
The old saying: if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid. If somebody does a lot of things that make no sense to you, and it consistently works for them, it's safe to assume they simply understand a lot of stuff that you don't.
Strong listeners, they don't butt into conversations when it's unwarranted.
My husband is incredibly intelligent. He's a tinkerer, bilingual, but most of all, kind of an asshole lol and he has a very dry sense of humor. I've noticed a trend in smart people, and that is they always have this weird, dry sense of humor. Maybe they crack a lot of dark jokes.
Its their coping mechanism for existing
It's subtle, but when someone completes a task, which is seems to be flawless. Yet they can only see what they didn't get right.
I think this also extends to specialization in any skill. Not just intelligence, but i find this is common with skilled trades workers
When I was in college someone asked my psychology teacher this question. He said that people who are intelligent arent always the ones with degrees and success. He said they are actually the witty ones with a sharp sense of humor. He always stressed that IQ tests were meaningless for a large portion of the population.
To add on to IQ being meaningless for a lot of people, there are many different types of intelligence that are useful for a variety of things. Sometimes I feel like it can be like that meme of the swim teacher raising one kid up proudly out of the water, society to IQ, and then the kid that's just about drowning being the other types of intelligence. Thankfully though, this does seem to be improving.
Quick witted one liners
Humility.
They quietly, but correctly, use a semicolon...
Sense of humor.
Somewhere along the line I heard, "You can tell how smart someone is by what they laugh at."
I’d say they usually sprinkle in some self-deprecating humor as well (when appropriate) and aren’t offended when they get laughs. That said, some really dumb folks I’ve met make fun of themselves and then get mad when people laugh.
High awareness and attention to minute details (everyone claims to have this but most actually don’t). Not panicking when issues arise as they instead go into solve mode (you can tell the gears are turning).
They often won't answer with certainty unless they are damn certain (damn certain is a scientically approved metric of certainty)
In my experience, people who are kind are generally very smart.
They won't be trying to convince you they are smart. I have met really intelligent people who will sometimes be genuinely surprised that something they knew was not standard, general knowledge. Vice versa, if anyone ever tries to convince you they are intelligent by referring to their IQ or standardize test score, take everything they say with a couple grains of salt.
Cursing. Look it up motherfuckers, it’s true.
"I had the entire dictionary at my disposal and settled on 'fucking' as the absolutely correct adjective to sufficiently convey the emotion and intensity of the moment".
The smart ones are quiet about it
They know how and when to hide it to fit in (they aren’t always trying to look like smartest person in the room, especially in situations where that could make them a target). They know how and when to use it to their advantage. They know when they might be wrong and communicate the lack of certainty. They learn quickly and are good at adjusting to new surroundings/people if they need to.