Does Fluther ever make you feel like you're not as smart as you thought you were?

I already knew I had lots to learn. The funny thing is that the older I get the more I realize how little I know. I learn that from lots of places. My children and grand children, social media, friends and acquaintances and yes, here too.
Good thing I love to learn.

I think I’ve been realistic about how smart I am, but Fluther makes me realize over and over that other people are a lot smarter than I. It’s humbling.

@Judi and @Sunny2 You’re both very smart. I’ve read a lot of answers from both of you.

When downtide asked about drabbling my knee jerk response was what pretentious horseshit! But then I recalled this culture thing my wife keeps telling me about, and I simmered down.
I got a double sting when I typed Drabble into the the search box, certain my iPad would autocorrect it, but it loved it. F’ing pretentious apple product

Just the opposite.

Yes, I have certainly learned some things because of terms or ideas that were introduced to me on Fluther.

However, many of the questions on Fluther (particularly in General) are things that I already knew, which makes me feel that I have a good bit of situational literacy.

@Katniss That’s very nice of you to say. My answer stands.

For me, Fluther is more about sharing personal experience and perspective than comparing smarts.

It makes me realize how inarticulate I am. I am incapable of writing beyond a third grade level.

No. I had started feeling like I was getting dumber and dumber, and fluther reminded me I know a lot about a lot of things. It also definitely reinforces I don’t know a lot about a lot of things, but I don’t think that is an indication of whether someone is smart or not. Smart to me is wanting to learn, incorporating new knowledge with old, asking questions, and being willing to question your own ideas. Specific knowledge on topics is different than smart or intelligent. Pretty much that makes a lot of jellies smart in my book.

I have learned an incredible amount here. I sometimes do feel like some jellies are much smarter than me, and have an incredible amount of knowledge. It doesn’t bother me for a second. I never felt like I was always the smartest person in the room, nor did I worry about it. I like being around people who know a lot about a lot of things.

Yes and no. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and something new to learn.
I might not be able to debate hardcore quantum physics or discuss how to build a computer or a carburator but I hold my own quite well, thank you very much. lol
I am a firm believer we should never compare ourselves to to others, be happy and embrace who you are as you are.

My biggest strength is being a creative thinker and offering different, if not at times, unpopular, new perspectives. That and my offbeat humor. Good enough, my self esteem is not threatened by not knowing something.

I wouldn’t say that. I have had to increase my knowledge by looking things up because of Fluther and I have gone to many places on the web that I did not know existed because of links provided by other members. Ignorance is not bad if you know that you are and are willing to counter it by learning more.

No, I suspect there are more than a few fake smart (fart) people here.

@tom_g “It makes me realize how inarticulate I am. I am incapable of writing beyond a third grade level.”

Pfft. This makes me realize what a liar you are. But I’ll choose to believe this is less a consequence of grossly missjudging yourself and rather a measure for your appreciation for the caliber of writing of your fellow jellies.

Oh yes. I’m fairly well-read so when I see a post and I’m unfamiliar with the terminology, I either google or wait until someone translates. Silly eggheads.

I usually feel woefully inadequate when I read political debate. I’m just not smart enough to construct a solid argument to support my beliefs, even beliefs I hold very strongly, and I am sincerely envious of people who can do that.

@downtide I feel the same, to a degree. I’m just a private person and don’t share my innermost feelings with many people, so I’m not used to open debate and really don’t enjoy it much, or having my opinions dissected to the nth degree. :)

Example, please.

@Neodarwinian
What came first, the chicken or the egg? lol

@Coloma
Evolutionarily speaking and taking into account that populations evolve makes this question ill posed.

@Neodarwinian I see, in other words you don’t know. lol
Hey…birds evolved from reptiles, and maybe it was the goose that came before the chicken. ;-) My goose is highly evolved.

Aaaaaaand there ya go. Perfect example.

Who came 1st @rojo or @Coloma ?

@Coloma

Ill posed means you question make no sense and it is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. I suggest a HS primer on evolution.

@Neodarwinian Ya know, a well developed sense of humor is a sign of intelligent life. lol

Smartarse

@Coloma

Yes, well developed. In your case, not so much!

To me “smart” is the ability to know and accept when you are wrong and move on from there.

Based on that criteria, no.

@Blondesjon Ditto- lol

I never came in with a notion I was so smart or not. I know what I know and I know what I don’t know, so running into “smart person” guestions had no affect because I never assumed I would know them. However there have been questions, too many, that redacted I actually felt like a near genius.

Yes. There are people that are so smart here that I have absolutely no idea what they are saying. The worst part is when they try talking to me.

Yes, especially in the beginning. I didn’t know many highly intelligent people in my day-to-day life. In my circle, I was always considered ‘the smart one’, so it was pretty humbling to realize I was just in the middle of the pack around here. Very glad to have learned so much from the brilliant among us, though!

@tom_g Psh. You write very well!

@Neodarwinian

Aaah, a cocky one….well welcome.

Ooooops! See? I can’t even post a question in the right section. lol

I’ve learned quite a bit in the short time I’ve been here, but there are still a lot of questions that I won’t even attempt to tackle.
There are a lot of great answers here. I’m really glad that I’m not the only one who isn’t a genius.

No.

@Katniss I never had any illusions of being the brightest bulb on the tree. But I learned a very disturbing fact recently. I’m not the dimmest, either.

Did you realize that fully 50% of Americans are below average intelligence? Something has to be done about that, right?

Well..I’m hardly Einstein but shit…that explains why I have such a hard time meeting bright, quality people that have anything of substance to talk about other than their boring daily routine. Gah..I do not care to listen to your list of chores and family drama…just shoot me!

@ETpro Fully 50%? Hmmm.

@glacial So you’re on to my little trick. Dang. And here I was hoping to launch a charity I would head that would work to better that statistic.

A charity, like food for the thoughtless? lol

It often makes me realize I have a lot to learn and not enough time to learn it !

The more people know, the more people realize what they don’t know. So getting this feeling is actually a good sign. It shows that you are well educated and capable of self reflection and self improvement.

Take the night sky as an example. If you know little about it (“bunch of stars”) you don’t get the feeling of missing a lot. The more you learn about what’s out there, the more you realize what’s also happening out there you know little or nothing about. Helium flash? Quasars? Dark matter? And it makes you wonder…

@mattbrowne Excellent point. There is a four point scale from unconcious incompetence, where you stink so bad you’re used to the stench to unconcious competence, where you are so good at something you don’t even think about how to do it, you just act. Here’s the scale.

@ETpro – A very large majority of male drivers describe themselves as someone who has above average driving skills. But how can more than 50% of people be above average?

@mattbrowne – only male drivers? Well the old yarn about female drivers might be spun in here…

@drhat77 It is that: an old yarn. Insurance rates are typically higher for males than for their female counterparts. That speaks for itself.

@drhat77 – I read that only a slight majority of female drivers describe themselves as someone who has above average driving skills. But I’m sure there’s statistics out there for other subjects where women overestimate their skills compared to others.

@All – I was being facetious. The old yarn about female drivers may be why men consider themselves above average – because they think that females fill out the bottom end of the curve.
It could just as easily be on the consious competence scale that @ETPro mentioned. Males might think themselves good because they are unconciously incompetent, whereas women think they are bad because they are consiously competent

@drhat77 – In terms of not causing accidents, females are above average compared to men.