How smart is too smart ?

When it impedes their ability to socialize with others and be content. Otherwise, I don’t think there is a “too smart.”

When they believe that their intelligence makes them superior to others. Then it’s not only a nuisance, but a detriment.

@GoldieAV16 There are a lot of people like that….and for the most part, they’re of about average intelligence.

I don’t believe the intelligence creates a problem, it’s the other human qualities, arrogance, ego, envy etc that cause problems. A wise man always knows what he doesn’t know.

I don’t think there is such a thing as “too smart”, but there are people who are very intelligent, but lack other emotional or social intelligentsia and they rely too much on their intellect for their self worth. I have met people who were only slightly above average who acted as if they were superior to others because of their vast intellect. I have also met people who were incredibly brilliant who did NOT ever flaunt it. You’d only know how smart they were when it accidentally came up in conversation and they had to say things like “No..that happened back when I was getting my FIRST doctoral degree.”—but otherwise they can stay “human”.

Awww I got beaten to the punch!

No such thing as “too smart”.

Better too smart than too stupid. I agree, unless one is extremely arrogant or socially inept, there is no such thing as too smart.

@Adirondackwannabe Exactly! True intelligence is not knowing a lot of facts, but knowing the limitations of one’s own knowledge.

If you’re arrogant and think you know everything, you are not intelligent!

But of course I don’t know this!

I used to be highly anxious about being smart, but not as intelligent as people assumed I was. My family placed a VERY high value on intellect and weren’t too concerned about other things – like warmth, kindness, empathy or even basic social skills. I hung on to my brains for dear life and assumed that nothing else mattered. If anyone made fun of me or rejected my attempts at friendship, it was because they were intimidated by my “vast intellect.”

Also, because my parents valued intelligence over everything else, any lack of knowledge or trouble problem solving was a sign of weakness and possibly disappointing my family. If I were in a situation that confused me, I HAD to fake it. Showing any sign of weakness in intelligence was very dangerous to me. So I turned into one of those pompous know it all windbags people hate. And while I could “fake it” in many situations, it was hard to fake knowledge in a subject that the other person was an expert in—but I’d still try it and look like one of those idiots who was more full of bull than brains.

Things got better for me once I came to the realization that while I may be somewhat smart, I lacked many basic social skills and had other shortcomings. And these things WERE just as important as being intelligent. I worked hard on this and life improved.

I also learnd that instead of trying to hide the fact that I didn’t understand or know something, it was totally fine to say “I’m lost. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” People respect you more when you’re willing to do that. Even the brightest people can fumble up and get confused now and then. It’s not a sign that you’re secretly an idiot.

One who has the hubris to believe he’s smarter than others might well tend to have a closed mind to new and different knowledge and perspectives… neither of which can ever be in short supply.

^^^ Well said!
I have an ex friend who was like that, trying to coax her into seeing a different perspective was like drilling for oil in bedrock. Her well came up woefully dry but she was convinced she held the ultimate “truth” refusing to see how dull her drill really was. haha

All I can tell you is I’ve never gotten smart enough to even know if there is such a limit.

I try very hard to be humble and to focus more on my weaknesses than my intellectual strength. That said, I think that people find me unapproachable and I am deeply bothered by that. I am bored so easily. Shortly after becoming competent at a job, I lose interest.

I would gladly trade a few IQ points for a greater capacity for and interest in human connection.

Moderation in all things, even intelligence.

@keobooks Wow. That was a perfect example of what I was talking about in this question a couple of weeks ago.

I am awed by the realizations you came to about yourself, and your self acceptance of it! Kudos.

I wish Albert was a jelly…...

There really is no such thing.

@janbb There are normal people and those of below-average IQ that have worse social skills than some super geniuses. However, since a lot of intelligent people are Aspies, it may seem that high IQ and poor social skills go hand-in-hand when that simply isn’t so.

@GoldieAV16 I have to go with @Adirondackwannabe here since there are egotistical idiots and humble MENSA members. Like poor social skills, the relationship between ego and intelligence is more coincidental than causal.

Of course, there are those who fit the stereotype; I’m egotistical and have sub-par social skills…

I wish Stephan was a jelly.

Huh!!!

The intelligence of a human is never too much though other skills may not go along with the intelligence package.

Remember, very high intelligence may be isolating. May be, not always isolating.

People with very high I.Q,s may have no common sense. They can’t find their way with a map or remember where they left their car keys. Their mental functioning is elsewhere.

I have found that to be true too!

@Sunny2 There is a reason for that, though I’m not sure how to put it into words. Suffice it to say, many of the dumbest people I ever met were classmates when I was studying nuclear propulsion in the Navy. It should also be noted that many “coners” view nukes with derision due to a tendency to over-analyze (“nuke it out”).

When you are 12 years old on a visit to the ocean. Your mom hands you a sea shell and says “You can hear the sound of the waves”. You say “All I can hear is the wind blowing through”. Then you see her face and you are sorry you said it.

….? Whut? That’s something my Aden would probably say to me. He’s a very literal kid. I’d say, “Use your imagination! Pretend you can hear the ocean and you can hear it!” Sometimes we have to damn near force him to use his imagination and he’s 8 years old!

<— Exactly this smart.

The guy from the movie Pi.

When someone thinks they are more knowledgable about a topic over someone who has 20 years field experience, all because they did a google search.

^^^ LOL…now THAT is funny!
Those armchair experts. haha

@Paradox25 May I point out that throughout all of human history we have had people who not only had 20 years of “field experience” but had a lifetime of it, leveraged on the teachings of their master who had a lifetime of study leveraged on his master regressively retreating into the forgotten mist of time; and they were all full of baloney.

The scientific method may be sloppy and at times confining, but it has produced all the technological marvels of today. They actually work. It has given us theories that predict a whole slew of things never before observed, but obviously true if the theory is right; and testing, even by scientists determined to prove the theory wrong, has confirmed the predictions. What is working today thanks to Woowoo?

@ETpro You lost me after ‘field experience’ since my previous post was not addressing science, but home repairs and electricity questions. I’m sorry but I’d take a mechanic with 20 years experience over a google mechanic anyday to fix my car.

People who think that because they have 20 years of field experience there is nothing new anyone else can teach them. They already know it all.

@Dutchess_III I’ve been around those types of guys, but regardless I’d learnt a great deal from even those folks. Also that wasn’t even my point, but if you want a dentist to tell you how to troubleshoot a complicated car problem then go for it. < That was my point.

Did you know that once upon a time, in the 50’s (or maybe early 60’s) there was one particular fighter jet that come off of the assembly line that consistently crashed and burned, killing pilot after pilot. They finally put Chuck Yeager in one to find out what the hell was going on. He took the plane up, and put it in a roll….and lost control. It went into a flat spin and the engines cut off due to no air. Some how, the man managed to put it in a dive, while inverted and was able to restart the engines…then it went into a flat spit again. He knew he was going to lose it. He was able to eject, but he lost the plane.
Since he lived he was able to tell the sequence of events that led to the crash. They traced it back and back and back, to the assembly line, and back to one man whose job it was to install a series of bolts. There was one bolt that the man claimed the blueprints had wrong. He said the plans called for it to be installed “upside down,” and by God, he’d installing bolts in airplanes for 30 years and he knew which way a bolt was supposed to go in.
Putting that one bolt in the way he thought it should be put in killed, I think, 5 pilots not to mention millions of dollars worth of jets.

I got ya @Paradox25. :) I knew what you meant but my most recent boss is on my mind. She was older, and she couldn’t bring herself into the 21st century. By God, this is how she’d been doing it sine 1969 so that’s how it’s going to be done.

@Paradox25 Oops. Mea Culpa. You’d think I’d have already had enough field experience in reading the responses above before firing off a wrong-headed reply. But obviously, I haven’t learned that lesson well enough yet. :-)

came. Came off of the assembly line.

Thinking that you are smart enough to think you can pass a university philosophy course without having to give the professor pot.

@talljasperman I’ve never attended a traditional college, but I never thought of university professors being potheads.

It only becomes a nuisance if their intelligence makes them feel like they can get away with, or are entitled to be rude and arrogant.

@Sunny2

Sometimes, yes…I have common sense but, am also scattered at times. Hence, this is why, one of the descriptives for my personality type ENTP is “The absent minded professor”. I always laugh that the original “F” word for me is FOCUS!
ENTPs often get pegged as ADD but in reality we have an incredible ability to bounce from subject to subject making disparate connections that evade most others.

Our intuition rocks but the perceiving part of our brain makes us a bit ditzy. haha
I am half brilliant and half completely scattered. I always joke that I am going to die sailing off a cliff in my car exclaiming ” Ooooh, look at that beautiful tree, bird, feather floating across the road, squirrel, horse in a field…” You get the idea. I am easily distracted but when fully engaged in something I am passionate about my focus is remarkable.