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!
#21
"If it weren't for the people who are way, way smarter than me inventing, discovering, and teaching stuff I never even imagined could make my life better, my life would be so much worse.
I had a friend in college whose roommate was a graduate student in physics. He later went to medical school and is now a neuroscience researcher after spending a decade as a neurologist. When I had a brain tumor diagnosed last year he was the first person I reached out to. He became an advocate and translated what the surgical team was about to do to my head into a language I could comprehend. I was, and am, so grateful.
Model those qualities your professor had. People like her make the world a better place."
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20points
#22
"People who get excited when they're wrong. Like, smart people get disappointed too (especially if their misunderstandings are the cause of larger problems), but there's also a kind of underlying excitement of, 'wait, woah, this works differently than I thought?! Interesting!'"
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20points
#23
"Favorite line I got from a professor, that made me genuinely realize I can have my own thought, was, “that’s a great question that I don’t know but we need to talk about.”
Conveyed immediate interest, but kept her same professional knowledge base which allowed me to explore my ideas with her. It really showed me what discourse is all about."
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19points
#24
"Humor. I think that truly funny people are often very smart and cognizant of the different ways an idea can be humorous on several levels. They also know their audience. I think the difference between say Jeff Foxworthy and Dave Chappell and Bo Burnham is their audience and their interests."
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19points
#25
"They say they love learning and they learn something new every day. Then they listen more than talk."
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19points
#28
"Always tries to see the bigger picture, and considers multiple perspectives in the story.
Not overcompensating with flowery words in their speech/ can explain a point concisely."
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18points
#29
"My paternal grandma is really intelligent, I think. She went to secretarial school in the 1950s but never really worked, so I wouldn't call her highly educated or anything. But I think she could have gone far in higher education if she'd attempted it.
I'll explain something to her, and ask her if I'm making sense. She's 90 years old - I wouldn't be at all surprised if I said something that went over her head from time to time. But she doesn't miss a step. Whenever I describe a situation or concept to her and ask her if I'm making sense, she will repeat the thing I said back to me, using different wording and her own examples to prove she absolutely understood. I don't know many other people who do that.
She also is happy to change her stance on anything when presented with new information. And a lot of times she'll bring it up again months later and thank you for showing her a new perspective. (She isn't just swayed by me because I'm her granddaughter, she's the same way with everyone else I've ever seen her interact with.)."
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18points
#30
"They surround themselves with those who are more intelligent than they are. If you're the smartest person in a room, you know well to find a better room."
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18points
#31
"Sometimes you can tell when a person is smart if they are the type who doesn’t say much but sits back and observes."
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18points
#32
"They also admit when they are wrong and use that opportunity to correct their own thinking."
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17points
#33
"There is such a thing as social intelligence (as opposed to learned social skills).
I think the short version is that we perceive people with both to be highly intelligent because they have both: 1) high logical intelligence; and 2) the ability to communicate in a way that makes their logical intelligence apparent to other people."
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16points
#34
"They apply knowledge from one realm into a new and relevant situation.
For instance, one person described a situation (might have been on Reddit) where they were a new assistant in an academic research lab and fixed a snag that stumped all the senior researchers including the professor. The team was trying to video record their project using a strobe light and their footage wasn't working as planned.
When no one else made progress at diagnosing or solving the problem, the most junior individual spoke up and suggested that the strobe could be out of phase. They remembered that video typically records at a rate of 24 frames a minute second (thanks for the correction), and explained that along with suggesting a change to the strobe's flash rate so it would coincide with the recording.
This worked. And it really raised that individual's reputation within the group.
Inwardly they were almost embarrassed about the source of this knowledge. They had a gaming hobby back in high school, had taken some video footage of that, and discovered the standard frame rate while playing around with editing software.
But they remembered that detail years later and realized it made a difference in a completely different context.
That is intelligence."
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15points
#35
"They understand what you’re saying before you’re even done with your explanation."
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15points
#36
"I have a brother who is a genius. I’d say being thoughtful before speaking. He uses words carefully. Doesn’t ramble when he talks. Doesn’t just start talking and hope the point comes to him. TBH it can be frustrating because there can be a lack of rhythm to conversations with him. His house is filled with books. Everywhere you look there is a book. If I talk about something that interests me but he doesn’t know the next week there is a book on the subject at his house. He will read up on your interests so he can share a conversation about them. It’s a kindness I appreciate."
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15points
#37
"No joke. The smartest professor I had in engineering school was also the most humble. She was an astounding human being.
By week 2, she knew everyone's names by heart in the intro engineering course. In College. With like 180 students. Later, in upper-division classes, people would occasionally ask some really stupid questions. Like, it happens... you get so deep into some fluid mechanics derivation or something you forget something really basic. People would ask a question like this and everyone would be thinking; "Wow, how did you even make it this far?" but then... it's like she would spot the flaw in their understanding so perfectly, and then respond with such clarity and wisdom that the person asking the question would look less stupid and the whole class would be enlightened.
And here's the thing... I pride myself on being really good at that exact skill. I tutored a lot of people. I was easily one of the brightest among my peers. But that woman was on another level. It was mind-blowing. And it wasn't just her intelligence, but her organizational skills, discipline, consistency...
And yet... she was so humble. She was quiet and physically quite small. But she just exuded competence and immediately commanded every room she walked into. I've never seen anything quite like it."
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14points
#38
"I've always told people that there is knowledge and intelligence. I've met a lot of people that are dumb as a post, but know a whole lot of random facts. Anyone can be knowledgeable, intelligence is different.
Knowledge is what you know.
Intelligence is that ability to synthesize what you know and apply it elsewhere effectively and accurately."
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14points
#39
"Eight years of math class and I barely understood anything! We got a new teacher and within two hours she explained a complex math problem so well that even I understood it. She saved my grades in math, was the first time I ever got A‘s in math. So I would say a subtle sign is, that they can explain the most complex problems so that everyone can understand it."
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14points
