Asklemmy

I'm as oblivious as a brick, but people around me say I'm intelligent, and I get good grades in school, so I must be good at pretending to be smart at least. I can't say if I am actually intelligent in any way. It is kind of hard to tell without being someone's too, if that makes sense.

Both. Years of evidence. I'm probably autistic, extremely impulsive and have substance abuse issues. So, no matter how intelligent I can be I make a lot of bad decisions. Also, being hungover or high really lowers your ability to be smart and make good decisions.

I think I'm smart. Not because I have an internal metric, but because others will say that I'm smart.

I appear incredibly smart when I get to flash my surface level knowledge about a, quite frankly, impressively broad spectrum of topics. But I always feel dumb as hell when people who really know their stuff about some stuff talk about the stuff they know so much about.

Uninteresting average

Don't look very handsome or ugly. Just regular
White and screen tan
Work in IT
20 y/o
Not many hobbies. Tech like homelab, biking and ski. That's it.
Not wealthy.

My school IQ tested me. I'm a 90. So not that smart.

I have a typical smart people career, and my coworkers are pretty smart too. I therefore like to believe that I'm at least somewhat smart... but there's too much evidence to the contrary.

I'm smart in some ways and dumb in others. I'm not gonna say I'm smart with my qualifications because I have one of the worse social senses I have ever met and there are some topics I am abysmal at

I'm average. Because that's most likely

I feel like there are too many types of intelligence for words like "smart" to have much meaning. I must be pretty smart is some areas being that people are willing to pay me plenty for what I know how to do, but I've been around people that make me feel dumb, and I know my brain sucks at certain things. Like that toy where you put the shape into the correct shape whole? that is not so easy for me and I make mistakes.

I perform well in areas I have interests in. Thus, by coincidence, I can appear capable in those areas. I'm also shockingly stupid in other areas. I've noticed a few things about how I learn: it has to be practical. Nothing theoretical will stick, unless put into practice. Thus, school was hell. I am also a devilish combination of a very slow learner who thinks differently about things. When a teacher taught things to the class, everyone got it immediately and I always somehow managed to come up with my own, weird, wrong interpretation of things. Once I have finally learned something, I am very accurate and precise, which is fairly useful in the fields I've worked in. I also have a flexible mind, which is great. I can usually reason outside of the confines most people think within. Which, see school, can be a blessing or a curse.

I've met truly intelligent people. Like, real freaks of nature types. PhDs in aerospace engineering, that sort of thing. Their universal intelligence is something else. It has shown and demonstrated to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are levels of comprehension, both in the uptake and subsequent processing of almost any information, that I will never reach.

But don't for a minute think that these were happy people.

That's always been a tough thing for me to define personally. To me, trying to determine whether you're "really smart" (or not) vs average requires context, I'd need a definition of who I'm comparing to, what subject/fields (or "types" of knowledge), etc.

As others have mentioned, I'm generally good at sensing what I don't know and determining that I need to read up on more about a subject rather than just blindly assuming that I do know it and trying to fix the wiring in my house for example (probably an extreme example, because there's no way I'm ever going to try to do that on my own - even with an infinite time of "research").

I'm a software developer, and my friends claim that this makes me really smart - but when I compare myself to other developers it doesn't feel like that. And yet for being "smart" I am terrible at math.

Maybe its not the simple answer you're looking for, but I guess I feel smart at some things, average in others, and not so smart in certain subjects/fields. I couldn't place myself in a "one-size fits all" answer.

I'd say I'm kinda smart sometimes, but kinda dumb sometimes. Supposedly I'm above average but I think it's a wash.

I'm incredibly stupid. Stupendously stupid. I've managed to take all the advantages a white dude from a lower middle class could have and squander them. I'm stuck as a worthless blue collar p.o.s in an open air ~~sweatshop~~ factory on the far end of an expensive island.

If I were smart I'd be making 100k+ working from home with literally all my friends from highschool that went on to study computer science.

Dumb. Pretty dumb.

First, I often don't get jokes and sarcasm (/j and /s are here for me)
But most importantly, I don't know anything. I don't even know how to start learning any subject. There's so much information out there, and I know basically nothing. I can't even program, which everyone seems to be able to do.

There's so much I'd like to get into, but where do I even start with each thing?
I'll try to list some things. Sorry if they'll sound stupid, I am stupid.:
I'd like to better understand GNU+Linux. Get into networking. Currently that's only partially satisfied via CCNA courses provided by school, but Cisco != networking. Programming. C++ looks like a nice option. Learn Morse code. Currently I am doing that via cracked MorseMania app. Get some understanding in computer security by which I mean pen-testing area, and not by using existing scripts. RF electronics. Wouldn't it be cool to design my own RF filters, upconverters, downconverters, amplifiers, etc.? Antenna modeling. I don't want to remain stuck with a dipole forever. Learn using GNURadio. At least graphically using GRC, but C++ would be useful here. Digital Signal Processing. No idea where to start with that. I'd also love to actually understand various modern digital modulation techniques, not just acknowledge their existence. Math. For almost all of the above (and more) I need some better background in math. It should be easier if I could see the actual real world use cases.

But I have no idea where to start with anything. And lastly, there's the constraints of time. (And my smooth brain, of course.)

And lastly, social anxiety. I am afraid to speak with people my age. Especially women 💀. But, let's be honest, that definitely saved me from embarrassing scenarios a lot of times.

People say I'm really smart but I think I'm just average tbh. I think I just know how to learn things and I try to keep an open mind to everything.

Technically I have a high IQ, but that is just a number. Besides that I consider myself decently, if not quite, smart. I recognize that I can come up with creative solutions to problems, but most importantly people come to me to ask for help for certain things, which feels great and I think is good a measure of how someone is "smart". I learn less from books and more from association and observation. I also generaly reach high in what I do, but that is more thanks to determination and ambition than pure skills. Of course I also lack in many other things, staying around and understanding people is difficult and making friends is incredibly challenging

Smack dab average, honestly. Within my carreer and special interests I'm knowledgeable, and I speak three (four if you're generous) languages, i've learnt complex skills by myself as well, but give me anything numerical and I will choke. I'm also horrible at reading the room or social cues. I've also done some real stupid decisions before out of pride/stubbornness, and if that ain't stupid I dunno what is.

I know two things. I really like to be right about stuff and if we’re going by the usual tests a majority of people are going to be near average intelligence.

So I’m most likely average and real smug about it.

I'm alright at written arguments when I can take my time and rewrite and make different multidimensional bullet-point lists and tables, but I can't organize ideas or comprehend let alone create arguments verbally. This has led me to believe I'm far below average in terms of verbal sparring. Maybe 25th percentile at most.

I don't do too wonderful remembering things people are saying either, especially in emotionally charged situations like arguments with loved ones. I have to write things to mention down beforehand and write specific actionable items to consider them resolved. I do well in academic lectures only because I take very good notes (not exhaustive; I paraphrase and use inside jokes to remember). I think I'm far below average there too, so for auditory processing maybe. I do my best to practice this by listening to podcasts and YouTubers without subtitles. I often have to rewind 5 or 10 seconds, but I'm getting better, I think. I'm probably around 40th percentile here.

I think I'm better than average at putting ideas into words, maybe 60th or 70th percentile. Unfortunately, that skill is made obsolete by ChatGPT and similar. (I'm not an "AI" evangelist; I just recognize that it is better than me at the common task of using English grammar patterns to make something that sounds plausible out of a list of bullet points and fragmented ideas.)

I think I'm maybe better than average at using search engines and reading manuals to figure out how things work. I learned everything I know about credit cards, CDs, stocks, 401ks, and Roth IRAs from various sources on the interwebs as well as from reading the fine print on the contracts I signed. Maybe 70th percentile.

As a bonus, I'm pretty good at inventing harmony lines to songs. That comes in helpful for songs I cover/write.

I definitly dont think I am smart. Other people can get new friends, find love-life , can afford proper apartments, knows how to plan social events, are wellrounded enough in knowledge that they can do trivia quizzes, and can do small-talk about real life stuff, or remember each others names, faces, and what they talked about last time they met. I got so little clue about any of that. Feel seriously dumb sometimes.

I can google very well. I'm a self-learned developer without university education. I can do okay on pop film-music trivia quiz. Can read out a good fiction novel in a single night. So I am above average smart in some VERY narrow fields.

But at least I dont think I know stuff I dont. I know my limits. I defer to people who have more experience than me. So I trust doctors and teachers about vaccinations, I trust that scientists are right about the coming climate changes, and I dont trust in people who have been caught lying before, no matter how much money or power they got. Im not THAT dumb. Sometimes it feels like just that alone puts me above average. But that cant be right, right?

I’m smart enough to know, that there are loads of smarter people than me, and a lot of them are worth listening to, and by doing that, I’ve become pretty smart myself.