Current Events > CE, think about the most intelligent person you've ever known personally.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is that person successful by the world's standards?

Personally, the guy who I feel like was the smartest person I know has yet to really do anything with his life. He has the potential to do anything he wants with his life, but has accomplished little by the world's standards because he'd rather spend his time playing video games and shit.

I also consider myself to be a pretty intelligent guy, and I see myself sort of following the same path as the aforementioned guy. So I'm wondering how common it is for intelligent people to not live up to their potential. Like, whoever the person you thought of is, would anyone who doesn't know them personally have guessed they were as intelligent as they are? Do they have a career or lifestyle that you might expect someone of their impeccable wit to have? Or do they leave much to be desired in those aspects?

yeah, he's successful
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The most intelligent people I know are either locked up in perpetual academia and broke, or psychopath CEOs that pretend to be dumb.

So I guess...one or the other?
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I mean, he got his PhD at 24 and has worked for Amazon, Apple, and a few other companies since he doesn't seem to be worried about job security given his abilities so I would say he is successful

Also he has seen all of the Rick and Morty episodes after I told him about it
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yes, he's married to a tenure track professor at McGill and well on his way to tenure track himself
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He was killed in a drive by shooting years ago when the shooter was trying to kill someone else at a music festival. What a damn tragedy. He was brilliant.
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eh, it is hard for me to pick one smartest person
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People I know that were honour students and stuff have amounted to less than guys that graduated barely or late. It's pretty funny.
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I dont really know, there isnt anyone that smart in my life.
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Not smartest but most surprising was a dude I work with getting a 30 on the Wonderlic. I was very surprised.
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If I'm going by highest confirmed intelligence

No

If I'm going by highest general display of intelligence with regards to how they present and carry themselves

Not presently

If I'm going by social intelligence

Yes but they're like Cao Cao and you have to assume they'll betray everyone around them not wholly loyal to them at some point, even if there's no rational benefit to be had from the betrayal
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Yes. Great job with wife and one-year-old son.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

People I know that were honour students and stuff have amounted to less than guys that graduated barely or late. It's pretty funny.

Because society values social skills more than pure book smarts. Lots of smart people, especially nowadays, lack adequate social skills. They are socially unintelligent, which is why there are many ways to measure intelligence.
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Also, I would say the most sure fire way of success is appropriate perception management. Its sadly the only thing that matters.
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Unemployed basement dweller atm. Used to be a lawyer. Not sure what happened. Hopefully just some bad luck. Should have had more emergency funds but you know.
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HydraSlayer82 posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

People I know that were honour students and stuff have amounted to less than guys that graduated barely or late. It's pretty funny.

Because society values social skills more than pure book smarts. Lots of smart people, especially nowadays, lack adequate social skills. They are socially unintelligent, which is why there are many ways to measure intelligence.

While I agree, most of the guys I know who are successful are socially more reserved, but excellent at trades.
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I had never thought about it before but I narrowed it down to three people.

One is a bilingual nurse who plans to move abroad and practice nursing in a country that speaks his second language

Another is essentially trilingual. I forget exactlt what his job is as its been a while since I spoke with him but I think it was advertising. Anyway he lives in a country that speaks one of his two non native languages and is doing well.

The final of the three is also bilingual and he is involved in programming and networking. He will continue to live in his home country.

I suppose all three are successful to some degree as they all have careers in their fields of study and have acquired practical use of a second language ot even a third.
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The first one that popped into my head moved back to India after his Visa expired while working as a software engineer, I haven't been able to keep in contact with him.

Comparing lot of friends of mine back at home to myself, intelligence can only carry you so far. It can never be used as a substitute for genuine motivation and interest. I have a friend in a CS Ph.D. program and is absolutely killing it and he joked around like crazy in undergrad, to the point where he failed a class because he was so lazy, he forgot to drop the class. What kept his head above the water is a legitimate interest in research, constantly doing programming projects as a hobby, and constantly taking any opportunities that came his way. And I have another close friend who's the epitome of success. Got a $100K worth of scholarships to go to undergrad, a guaranteed job out of college, and he worked hard all the way through because he genuinely wanted to be a Mechanical engineer. And I had an old classmate that knocked out an MD/PhD program in 7 years when it's usually a 10 year program. She's a super diligent and hardworker.
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One guy I knew had an idedic memory, he dropped out of college and was living with his parents last I knew. A friend of mine who is much better at academia than me has is master's in math and does grad research for nuclear power and runs an open source discreet math project. My cousin supposedly has a really high IQ but he's useless, has never done any work and just mooches off people. Not sure if I qualify as one of the smartest people I know but my smart friends seem to think so. I've had my ups and downs.
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