Smarter Than Others

[bodafuko]

Have you ever met someone who is not just convinced, but believes and embraces with every ounce of his being that he is smarter than you? This "belief" (for lack of a better word) becomes so deeply engrained that it moves from the conscious to the unconscious. As time passes, it morphs away from being a belief and morphs toward a "premise-for-everything". Essentially, it evolves. Once it becomes fully subconscious, this person's every interaction with you will be one premised upon him being smarter than you. It's not meant to offend. Hell, it isn't even intentional. It just ... is.

These people are not all that common, but common enough. I used to let interactions with these types of folks offend or even upset me. Now I just try to let it go. What I have observed is that along with this deeply-entrenched overconfidence comes an undeserved arrogance or superiority which usually lends itself to outward foolishness. Their own overestimation of themselves combined with their underestimation of you sets the stage perfectly for errors and failures. If, or when, those failures come they seem appalled that somehow The Universe subverted their perfection in a plot to harm them.

 

[Lilianna]

Sounds like a narcissist. Run, don't walk, from someone like that the second you realize that's what they are.

 

[aspalas]

I've known a guy who was like this in high school. He was in no way attractive or very charismatic, but he was arrogant and always thought he knew best. Over the years he changed in a narcissist and a pathological liar. The joke is on him because he has no friends left and plays computer games all day.

The way to bring these people down is to prove they're wrong. This guy always thought he was right unless he saw absolute proof, but the worst things were his lies. He lied about his life and about others, just to make himself better. It all began with little lies, but eventually he ended up convincing people all kinds of weird stuff. He told everyone he inherited millions from his granddad, he told everyone he was a pro gamer, and he literally did everything he could to make people believe this. Obviously people found out because these kind of lies are unsustainable.

I'd just ignore those people. Eventually the joke's on them.

 

[Tiina63]

Yes, I have met such people. Although I am probably as intelligent as they are, my lack of confidence makes me come across sometimes as not very smart, so these sort of people do talk down to me. I wouldn't want one as a friend.

 

[mountainvista]

Yes, I have. You just can't reason with people like that because they're 100% convinced of their superiority and of the validity of their take on things. Anyone else is just delusional or lying or what have you, am I right?

You're just pointlessly banging your head against a brick wall dealing with them. SMH.

 

[perfanoff]

Having an IQ that's off most charts hasn't helped me but to feel smarter than others. I struggle with a feeling of superiority often even though I know for every smart act, there's another incredibly dumb thing I do.

I don't know if I'm like those guys you speak of. But people like me love discussing and arguing about stuff and never take it personally. I feel that an argument always enriches me by being open to new possibilities. In these cases, I'm just an agent, an advocate for a random idea.

 

[SophiaGrace]

People can have a high IQ and be socially and emotionally as dumb as a rock.

Also, believing you know everything prevents you from learning anything new.

 

[Tiina63]

People can have a high IQ and be socially and emotionally as dumb as a rock.


Some of the lecturers I had at university would fall into this category.

 

[bodafuko]

Some of the lecturers I had at university would fall into this category.

Some of the stupidest people I've ever encountered - and, for the record, I've encountered a damned large lot of people - were in the college setting. Just total and utter stupidity of the highest order. Sometimes I wonder how anybody can tolerate that environment at all. It's supposed to be about preparing people for the workforce and in many instances it's about warping people's minds ideologically.

---

People can have a high IQ and be socially and emotionally as dumb as a rock.

Also, believing you know everything prevents you from learning anything new.

True

 

[ladyforsaken]

Some of the stupidest people I've ever encountered - and, for the record, I've encountered a damned large lot of people - were in the college setting. Just total and utter stupidity of the highest order. Sometimes I wonder how anybody can tolerate that environment at all. It's supposed to be about preparing people for the workforce and in many instances it's about warping people's minds ideologically.

Can't agree more.

Also, with regard to your original post, yes - I am currently working with one exactly. It was getting to me, but now I really don't give a honeysuckle anymore.

 

[9006]

I've met people like this.

But in most of my cases they're not that smart, just arrogant. I don't know weather it's passed down or something they develop, but I think the ignorance and relaxed attitude toords it by other people causes it to develop to another level - it becomes part of their personality and onwards. I myself have been guilty of this, you just get to a "yeah OK your right" stage, but I'm lazy in some ways.

 

[kindster]

Behavior you described is narcissistic behavior, i also know a guy from my school that is like that for ages. As far as i know myself i behave like that maybe 2-3 days a year and i find that natural in a way ^^. People behaving like this constantly arent really smarter than others, example i've seen lots of smarties get destroyed in 10 seconds by really smart people when they challenge theirs int.

 

[9006]

I've felt smarter than most other people I'm around, not 'number' or 'common knowledge' smart, but that I can comprehend better and think of things on another level.

My interests differ so much and I love to learn how something operates, I have a lot of knowledge about the mechanics of things I've learned, but if I offer an explanation to what or why something is the way it is, I've always felt that I have to "dumb it down", and even when I do that, I feel they think I'm making it up; that someone "like me" can't know such things.

 

[perfanoff]

People can have a high IQ and be socially and emotionally as dumb as a rock.

Also, believing you know everything prevents you from learning anything new.

I'd like to further that, people with high IQ tend to not be very well emotionally developed.

 

[Gondwanaland]

This "belief" (for lack of a better word) becomes so deeply engrained that it moves from the conscious to the unconscious. As time passes, it morphs away from being a belief and morphs toward a "premise-for-everything". Essentially, it evolves. Once it becomes fully subconscious, this person's every interaction with you will be one premised upon him being smarter than you. It's not meant to offend. Hell, it isn't even intentional. It just ... is.

What I have observed is that along with this deeply-entrenched overconfidence comes an undeserved arrogance or superiority which usually lends itself to outward foolishness. Their own overestimation of themselves combined with their underestimation of you sets the stage perfectly for errors and failures

"Inferiority complex". Sometimes, when people act this way, it's because they feel they're less than others. It's one of the ways to hide this weakness. Also, it can be insecurity. They put others down in order to look better and stronger than others.

Deep inside, they're fragile, weak and insecure...

 

[nerdygirl]

The thing people must realize is that there are various sorts of intelligence. I read at a college level in preschool and did algebra in kindergarten. However, my bathroom sink leaks, my plants keep dying, and I don't know how to get the dent out of my car from when a branch fell on it. Each of those are things other people could handle with ease. If you're dealing with an insufferable know-it-all, just remember that you know things he or she does not know, and do the smile and nod.

 

[Lilianna]

The thing people must realize is that there are various sorts of intelligence. I read at a college level in preschool and did algebra in kindergarten. However, my bathroom sink leaks, my plants keep dying, and I don't know how to get the dent out of my car from when a branch fell on it. Each of those are things other people could handle with ease. If you're dealing with an insufferable know-it-all, just remember that you know things he or she does not know, and do the smile and nod.

LOL @ "do the smile and nod."! Hard to do when you want to strangle them...

 

[bodafuko]

These types of people don't really bother me anymore, it's just that I don't want to interact with them. The world is big enough for them and me. Just not my world.

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

With people like this I find it's a 50/50 thing.

They're either extremely intelligent yet (as others have said) emotionally undeveloped, and so have some basis for their arrogance (yet are still loathsome individuals).

Or they're nowhere near as amazingly fantastic at everything as they believe they are and cover everything in pseudo-sophisticated junk to try and look superior to others all the time.

One of my pet hates, actually, is people from both camps who write the simplest possible ideas in the most obtuse and verbose fashion just to try and display "smarts".

You know the sort of thing: stuff like usage of crazy vocabulary from the 18th Century that may or may not just be copy-pasted from an online dictionary all over the place in every sentence.

Ultimately though, I just ignore people like that. If they're so self-absorbed that they believe themselves intellectually perfect that just goes to show how ignorant they really are.

---

Edit - Funny story, I know a guy at the moment doing a humanities degree. He once told me he "couldn't do" the work I do (scientific studies), yet every time I see him these days he always makes out that the work I'm doing is something a monkey could do with a blindfold on. Usually with company around, to try and score academic points.

It's really quite amusing, in a sad way XD

 

[ThisSideOfTheRainbow]

I meet know-it-alls all the time. ALL THE TIME. They think they are some expert at whatever given topic because they saw two or three documentaries and read two or three books on it. And now they know everything, and have to announce to the world what a genius they are.

I try to have a humble approach to knowledge. I tell myself that even if I read a million books, watch a thousand documentaries on a given subject, or even have a ton of first hand experience, that I still am not an expert. In fact, chances are I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the topic. When I converse with people about politics, conspiracy, philosophy, science, current events, etc, my intention is not to come off as a know it all. I realized a long time ago the more I learn, the less I realize I know. So when I speak about things, I do it in a sense of speculation, such as "well, this theory may or may not be true," or "some researchers say this" or in alot of cases respond by saying, "well that may be true"

It's never that egotistical jargon people throw out, the metaphorical puffed out chest with the acclaimed bragging rights. Frankly, i do not care if someone is smarter than me. Hey, I may learn alot from them. The same with fools. There's alot to learn from them, too.

We are all teachers and students, in my own opinion. And I believe the minute we claim to be some sort of expert or genius, that's the minute we shut ourselves off to the flow of knowledge, because we walk around thinking our cup is full.