December 3, 2022 at 6:53 pm

What’s Incorrectly Perceived as a Sign of Intelligence? People Shared Their Thoughts.

by Matthew Gilligan

I know my answer to this question!

And it goes a little something like this: just because you talk all the time over other people doesn’t mean that you’re smart.

Not even close!

But some people out there think this is a sign of intelligence.

Let’s see what folks on AskReddit had to say about this.

1. So annoying.

“Talking fast even if you’re saying the dumbest s**t

The trick is to say enough dumb things that the person you’re talking to gets confused as to where to even begin.”

2. True.

“Being emotionally stunted.

High IQ does not equal low EQ, you can be a d**k and stupid and you can be smart and charismatic.

It’s not one or the other.”

3. Stop talking.

“Having an opinion on literally everything.

Especially having the need to share the opinions with everyone they encounter.”

4. Doesn’t mean much.

“Being able to memorize.

Having a good memory is definitely helpful and often shows intelligence but just being able to spout facts does not mean you understand them or can think about things critically.”

5. Not necessarily…

“I was surprised when I learned that knowledge isn’t necessarily correlated to intelligence.

I met a lifelong academic who knew damn near everything about her topic …. but just the facts. It’s like, she was a walking encyclopedia, could cough up any info about her field, but she couldn’t really process it that well, or draw conclusions, or apply it to a different topic.

It’s hard to explain. She had a nice 2TB SSD drive full of info in her head but she had a substandard CPU. Since then I’ve met several people like that. All academics, but I’m not sure that has anything to do with it.”

6. Rich doesn’t equal smart.

“People seem to think if you are rich with a good job you must be smart.

Generally speaking I’ve only met one rich person I would consider smart.

The rest? Ooooooof. I seriously wonder how some of them passed grade school.”

7. Silence is golden.

“Silence.

I’ve been told so many times that I’m thoughtful and a deep thinker but really I can’t figure out what to say.”

8. Large and in charge.

“Being in charge.

Always maintain a healthy skepticism for anyone claiming to be authority, at least till they prove themselves capable.”

9. Hmmm…

“I’m living in China right now and everyone keeps calling me intelligent because I’m bald and left handed.”

10. They know big words!

“Using big words or complicated language when trying to explain something or talking about a difficult subject.

The smartest people can actually make it sound simple.”

11. Good one.

“Age.

Older people not listening to younger people and younger people not listening to older people because ‘they just don’t get it’.”

12. Not cool.

“Arrogance portrayed as confidence.

A truly intelligent person knows that there’s things they don’t know, and keeps trying to learn.

An idiot refuses to acknowledge that there’s anything they don’t know, and fears doing anything that might prove it.”

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