A lot of us are on a constant journey to improve our minds. We read books, watch films, study and otherwise educate and better ourselves so that we can become more intelligent in various ways. However, some people are just born smart and talented in some ways, requiring less effort to achieve certain things that others might struggle with. Contrary to what some might believe, being smart is not always a blessing.
Someone created a thread on the r/AskReddit subreddit, asking about the hardships smart people have to live with, exactly because of their high intelligence, and folks delivered plenty of observations, most of which are quite heavy. Scroll down to see the whole list of things people online shared and consider upvoting the entries you relate to the most, as well as leaving a comment.
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#22
We waste them. Our entirely social structure from schools to mortgages are design for people with very average intellectually abilities. Smart people have to deal with the daily stress of living in a system that isn’t built for them and loose a lot of their productivity and take a real hit to their mental health as a result. If we stopped subjecting them to standardised systems designed against them just imagine how much further we would have advanced as a species.
EDIT: Just a small edit to clear up some confusion. I’m not advocating for redesigning our social structure to suit only the smartest x percent of our population. For those who aren’t familiar with inclusive design (mostly talked about when talking about designing digital systems but the principle is cross applicable) the basic idea is to design systems that provide room for different people to be able to use/fit into the system equally well despite their differences. There is absolutely no reason why we all have to live the same way or why we should be forcing people to live in a world that doesn’t have room for people like them.
75points
#23
Many are just suffering from the Dunning Kruger effect and don’t know it
74points
#24
smart does not automatically mean:
- ethical
- empathic
- conscientious
- realistic
- creative
- prosocial
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67points
#25
A lot of the “smart kids” in high school are being forced by their parents to succeed. When they become adults they have all the academic skills but little life skills and they struggle to succeed.
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65points
#26
Lots of people will be jealous of them and resent them, including family members.
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64points
#27
I think truly smart people, those genuinely rare geniuses, are so smart that the rest of us can’t even comprehend it.
It must be a very strange feeling going through life knowing that most people just can’t see and understand the things you do.
62points
#28
Intelligent people can't state that they're intelligent because people view that as a sign of not being intelligent. But also if you lord yourself around for being intelligent, there's the implication that you're belittling everyone around you by saying you're better than them. And people don't like that. If other people recognize a person as intelligent and respect that then there are no problems, but a lot of the times people won't do that because it gets in the way of their own pride (and if they do, then I find they're more likely to have more insecurities/less self-esteem). Then there's also the fact that intelligence is often conflated with success. Basically, people suck at gauging other people's intelligence, and that causes problems.
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57points
#29
Feel they cant have fun because they analyze everything
53points
#30
Plenty of smart people will live their whole lives never realizing they're smart.
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53points
