Ask Lemmy

I'm a designer. I work with engineers.

I'll stay a designer, lol.

I'm smart enough to know that everyone is both smart and stupid.

I'm stupid enough to believe that doesn't apply to me.

I know somebody who is great at chess, but thinks covid was a hoax, vaccines are fake, Musk is a genius and Russia has a right to Ukraine.

We're all capable of being a dumb-ass while having something else we're good at.

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its life believing it’s a failure.

Being bad at chess doesn't mean you aren't smart.

Chill man. There's loads of types of smart. Some people are great at chess, others have an intuitive feel of how a ball moves in the air, or how musical notes harmonize, or how equations collapse into simple forms, or how color or smell evokes emotion, or how ingredients work together to create pleasant texture and flavors, or how materials fold under the strike of a hammer, ...

Point is, while you may not be smart in one area, there's always areas to explore. Who knows, you may be a savant in your field. Enjoy the journey and appreciate the diversity.

Any position I hold is toppled over with the slightest argument unless I have very recently done a ton of research on the topic. I have zero ability to recall whatever evidence I used to come to a conclusion. It's incredibly frustrating because I do try to be informed about things but I just can't defend anything at the pace of a normal conversation.

People smart enough to realize how much they don't know are most likely to think that they aren't smart... and it takes a certain level of intelligence to do that.

Last week I moved the cheesegrater so I could look behind it... for the cheesegrater.

Believing that you are smart, is the first sign of not being it. Even the smartest people will admit that they are mostly good at maybe a few areas, and at best average at everything else.

Doesn’t mean you’re not smart. People’s brains work differently. Some people enjoy thinking five moves ahead, or memorizing standard plays and reactions. Other people are good at math or chemistry. Talents aren’t an “all or nothing” thing.

You don’t. If you’re even entertaining the thought that there is more to learn than what you already know you are displaying intelligence. Stupid people “know” they’re NOT stupid and intelligent people constantly question their own intelligence. This is why a grown adult with the reading age of a 12yr old can spend twenty minutes online and become the world’s foremost authority on… 5G, vaccines, international geo politics, chemtrails, why the Nazi party were “ackshully” socialist etc. etc.

My brain insists on telling me so several times a day so nowadays I just roll with it.

I was tested as a child and had an iq of 164 at 10 years old. For my entire childhood every adult treated me like I was smarter than them and in most cases I was. I was in gifted and accelerated classes and excelled.

I know I'm not smart because from the headstart in life I got I went on to barely graduate from high school, drop out of community college twice, never hold a job for longer than 18 months, and have more gaps on my resume than experience.

What is smart.... I mean, most of us Lemmy tech people are good at computers but completely useless and may even despise other activities such as dancing, singing, acting, psychology, and so on.

Never forget that the school system evaluates how good of a worker you can be, not how good of a human you can be. The entire system is just built for economic growth, not your happiness. In fact, you consume more when you are feeling like shit.

A bit of a side note, I know, but it's all connected to a bigger picture, so...

Calculus III kicked my ass.

On chess, there is a moment in 2001: a Space Odyssey wherein HAL and Frank Poole are playing chess. A more attentive person than me pointed out HAL cheated. I paused and looked at the board forever. I almost gave up. I thought I would never figure it out. Finally figured it out! I have never felt so smart for wasting so much time.

I know I'm not smart because I often need to do the same mistakes several times before i get it

I live on the Earth, home to humans. Every human I've met, heard, or read about has been pretty stupid about something. I can't imagine that I'd be the sole exception, so if I had to guess I'm not smart.

More to the spirit of the question, for me it has to do with programming. I love programming, I went to school for it and learned a ton. It really covers a wide breadth of applications, and you can make anything happen with a computer if you're determined enough. And, like any field, there's general knowledge as well as deeper specializations.

If you're not into programming, know that there's a divide in every application between what's called the Back End and the Front End. The front end is what the user interacts with, and ultimately is an interface for the back end which actually runs the application.

I don't know if it would still be considered accurate, but in school we'd joke about how the back end is more complex (more services to integrate with), and the front end is easier because it's all about look and feel. Generally speaking, people develop an affinity for one or the other and then further specialize based on that.

I can't seem to pick up a front end framework to save my life. The thing that the self-described smart kids called easier is wayyy more complicated than it looks. I have a lot of training, I'm skilled in multiple languages, and I can whisper the secret words that open up the database. But I don't know if I could Hello World my way through a React app if there was a gun to my head.

I'm visiting my elderly father this weekend and he told me last night that he remembers when he and my mom took me to the doctor when I was like 2 or 3 and I tested positive for high amounts of lead (not lead poisoning, just a high amount), and now I'm like damn, maybe that explains why I suck at a few things...

I wouldn't say I'm legit dumb though. I maintained a 4.0 GPA in college and I get by just fine, but now I'm like "do I suck at math because I was exposed to lead as a child?"

Being confused often by people and not being able to apply yourself to simple intellectual tasks would be good hints but they could also indicate other underlying disorders and atypicalities different from intellect.

This is further exasperated by the fact that most people specialize in one or more brainy tasks such as mechanical visualization, language comprehension (spoken and/or written), rhythm, mathematics, etc.

There are also behavioral differences that are judged as more or less smart depending on the person. For example, is selfish self serving actions smart or stupid? Do we prioritize long term satisfaction or short term? Does a smart person care about betraying trust of others?

TLDR: Idk man, its real hard to tell, dude

I'm likely average, middle of the road intelligence. Smart enough to get by and dumb enough not to excel at anything. I know a little about a lot of things and not a lot about one thing.

Many of the things that really matter to us are fundamentally beyond human comprehension. We cannot understand ourselves, society, our place in the world, the consequences of our actions, or the laws of the universe, and we rarely agree or cooperate with each other.

one of the smarter folks of western civilisation history said "i know that i do kot know" so maybe asking yourself whether you are or are not smart is all it takes

Reading a book that explains a book I don't understand and failing to understand either at the end.

Everyone is smart about something but dumb about most things

Because others have gone out if their way not to be reliant on me specifically.

People never let me plan things, people treat me like a child, people always ask other to double check only my work, etc...

The worst thing is its a positive feed back loop. People think you're dumb and don't give you any opportunities, less opportunities means less experience, less experience means you appear less competent, being less competent makes people believe you're dumb.

Oh you think you're smart? Name every chess move

Not really an answer to your question, just wanted to say intelligence isn't a one-dimensional thing. You can practically be a master on any one field but lack basic abilities in accomplishing what other people do every day. Or the other way around, you're not particularly good at one thing that's commonly attributed to intelligence, like chess or maths, but be highly intelligent or skilled in other things. And for me that includes social intelligence, being able to remember a lot of stuff, being handy or having a grasp for music, or anything. I think I'm alright in various things. But I regularly observe people being very good at something. Like scientists and I can barely read what the math even does. Or the lady at the bakery who remembers things about the personal lives of like >200 grandmas and which kind of bread they buy every week. In turn, I know like a 200 facts about Linux networking. But I couldn't do what she does, even if I tried.