What makes someone intelligent? It may sound like an easy question, but people always seem to give different answers about what could be considered signs of genius. Is it the ability to solve complex problems quickly? Knowing tons of facts about various topics? Being among those high-IQ people who supposedly have what it takes to change the world? Or maybe it’s having a strong work ethic and excellent communication skills? These are all things that can influence how successful someone will be in their career or personal life, but they aren’t necessarily what makes an individual objectively smart.
First of all, what does “intelligent” mean? The Cambridge Dictionary, among other sources, defines an intelligent person as someone who is able to learn and understand things easily. As soon as we read this, a picture of Albert Einstein’s face inevitably popped into our minds. One of the most brilliant people to ever walk this planet was a late talker and couldn’t form full sentences until he was 5 years old. Does this mean the one and only Albert Einstein, who struggled to learn how to talk correctly, could be considered unintelligent? Honestly, we don’t have the skills and knowledge to answer this question. The only sure thing is that we love looking for people’s opinions about different topics and sharing them to spark meaningful and thought-provoking conversations.
That’s what we did today. We recently found an AskReddit thread where people posted which, in their own personal opinion, are the subtle signs that someone is intelligent. Some of the results are things you might have expected, but others honestly surprised us! So if you’ve ever wondered, “Am I smart?”, this might be the moment of truth. Check out what people consider signs of intelligence and find out if you have a chance to be the smart person in your group of friends!
#1
"I was in a convo with a guy who has a Ph.D. in infectious diseases this summer and asking him about Covid etc. While all of us speculate and regurgitate crap we see online he was so upfront about saying “Well I haven’t seen the data on that so I can’t speak on it.” Or “That’s not my area of study, so I’m not sure.”
It was eye-opening. Out of all of my friends who could give a coherent and educated opinion about this he was the first to take himself out of the convo because he knew what he didn’t know."
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64points
#2
"I think intelligent people are more willing to calmly debate/discuss, rather than argue. Like, you explain to them why you disagree, and they listen to you and ask further questions about your viewpoint before offering a different perspective; as opposed to an unintelligent person, who would just resort to insults when other people disagree with them."
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53points
#3
"They can switch up the way they talk to match the person they're talking to without sounding condescending. They listen to how others learn and explain it in that person's language of understanding."
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46points
#5
"I've got a bone or two to pick with Aristotle, but I can vibe with his misquoted 'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought and not accept it.'"
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40points
#6
"I feel like there are also very intelligent people who do have social skills, but overthink interactions so much that they are afraid of doing something wrong or hurting someone by asking a too personal question and therefore act out more awkward."
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37points
#8
"My father-in-law is very smart, went to MIT & Cal Tech, founded and sold several businesses, published books that are still in circulation, holds several patents, and now is working in the immunotherapy space.
Anyway, I’m just a typical Midwestern State College grad, and the things I’ve learned about cancer and the various treatments from him are amazing. These are technical, medical, and biological concepts that I could learn if I read 100 books. But he can somehow explain them in such simple and relatable terms I feel like I really understand. It’s a gift of genius."
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34points
#9
"Explaining something complex is simple terms. Knowledge is so vast that they can talk about in the easiest way for someone else to understand."
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34points
#11
"Smart people never bother showing off that they are smarter. Instead, they end up pulling up the IQ of everyone around them in the room a few notches and doing it in a manner that no one feels belittled."
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28points
#12
"You can memorize a bunch of random facts and repeat them, that’s knowledge. But knowing what to do with that knowledge, how to apply it, how to make sense of it, is what I think real intelligence is. Richard Feynman captured that mindset perfectly in his book."
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27points
#16
"They're logical, and they find out more information rather than believing something right away."
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23points
#17
"Lateral thinking. Seeing connections between disparate subjects, concepts, whatever, that most people can't or won't."
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23points
#19
"Intelligent people often go against the trends and immediately point out when something doesn't make sense even if it's supported by a large crowd of people. They often read things they disagree with in order to challenge themselves."
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22points
#20
"John Von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us." - Edward Teller
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21points