We all know beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But perhaps intelligence is too? After all, there are plenty of different ways to be smart. We can probably all agree that aerospace engineers are brilliant. But you don’t have to be a scientist or have a PhD to be intelligent. Maybe your brain really shines when it comes to emotional intelligence, or perhaps you know how to play over a dozen instruments.
Netizens have recently been discussing the most unusual and bizarre displays of intelligence they’ve ever seen, so we’ve gathered their stories below. From people sharing unsettling observations to being able to memorize anything, there are clearly plenty of ways to show off your smarts. Enjoy scrolling through this list, and be sure to upvote the displays of intelligence that would have shocked you too!
#21
A guy i was in college with didnt speak one word of english and didnt use a calculator he was from china.. he did everything in his head including logarithms. He got 100 percent on everything…. Insane intelligence.
39points
#22
My exgirlfriend's boyfriend (poly relationship) was amazing at chess. Nationally ranked master. She would laugh when I said I was going to beat him eventually. We called him a robot. For a promotion once, a local ice cream shop hired him to play against customers and anyone who beat him got free ice cream.
There was no free ice cream given on that day.
There was no free ice cream given on that day.
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38points
#23
I met a guy at a research conference in September. Lets just say he got two PhD's at the same time (geology and oceanography) and started writing books immediately. The sheer volume of work he has done is staggering. If he isn't one of the ten smartest people alive today I'll donate a testicle.
He was also smart enough to convince the US Army to blow up a delta to see what happens. He also advises the Pentagon on climate change.
He was also smart enough to convince the US Army to blow up a delta to see what happens. He also advises the Pentagon on climate change.
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38points
#24
I knew a guy that could remember everyone's phone number, name, and employer. He was in sales and was a living database.
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33points
#25
My dads boss has an idedic memory or whatever it’s called where she remembers absolutely literally everything she’s ever seen or heard etc.
during meetings apparently they’ll be discussing strategies for what machines to use and how (it’s a tech manufacturing plant) and their reasoning and someone might be saying “well machine #2 was having this issue three or four times in the last month…” and she will interject and cite the exact numbers for all of machine 2’s reports in the last three years and extrapolate trends in her head from the multi-page long data reports on hundreds of machines daily from the past year.
And when one of the people under her tries to lie or whatever she catches them every single time because she just has to LOOK at the data once and she just…knows it forever. Like if someone says “yeah I cleaned that machine two weeks ago. I’m 100% sure of it”, if she’s seen the logs for it she will reply, “no, you signed off in blue pen on this date at this time that the machine was cleaned and it has not been cleaned since. Two weeks ago you cleaned machine #8 and John cleaned machine 12, and last week you took a long lunch from 12:31 to 1:45. Pull up the logs and you’ll see.”.
during meetings apparently they’ll be discussing strategies for what machines to use and how (it’s a tech manufacturing plant) and their reasoning and someone might be saying “well machine #2 was having this issue three or four times in the last month…” and she will interject and cite the exact numbers for all of machine 2’s reports in the last three years and extrapolate trends in her head from the multi-page long data reports on hundreds of machines daily from the past year.
And when one of the people under her tries to lie or whatever she catches them every single time because she just has to LOOK at the data once and she just…knows it forever. Like if someone says “yeah I cleaned that machine two weeks ago. I’m 100% sure of it”, if she’s seen the logs for it she will reply, “no, you signed off in blue pen on this date at this time that the machine was cleaned and it has not been cleaned since. Two weeks ago you cleaned machine #8 and John cleaned machine 12, and last week you took a long lunch from 12:31 to 1:45. Pull up the logs and you’ll see.”.
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31points
#26
One of the Professors at my college is a world expert on gibbons and he's used his vast intellect and knowledge of gibbons to also be the world's best gibbon impersonator.
Tl;dr The most impressive display of intelligence I've witnessed in person is a pretend gibbon call.
Tl;dr The most impressive display of intelligence I've witnessed in person is a pretend gibbon call.
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27points
#27
The little sister of a friend of mine was one of those kids who develop language at a freakishly early age. She was younger than two, I was eating dinner at their place, and she knocked her sippy cup off her high chair table. She shrugged and said "a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.".
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25points
#28
My grandfather could apparently add a large column of money in his head.
Impressive on it's own, but this was predecimal Australia, so he'd be mentally converting every 12 pennies to a shilling, and every 20 shillings to a pound.
Impressive on it's own, but this was predecimal Australia, so he'd be mentally converting every 12 pennies to a shilling, and every 20 shillings to a pound.
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24points
#29
One of my colleagues mentioned a few years ago that he'd gotten an offer from his bank for a credit card with 0% interest for a year and a max of $10000. So he took the offer and opened a saving certificate *at the same bank* for $10000 at 12 months and something like 5% interest, paying for it with his credit card. So he got $500 from the bank for free. Fits the bill of smart but strange pretty well. .
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20points
#30
A guy in high school could basically do any addition, subtraction, multiplication or division in his head and give an answer quicker than you could type it on a calculator. I can't remember how far we pushed it with number size but could instantly do a three digit number by another three digit number.
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19points
#31
I know two chemistry professors in different countries who can do the same trick.
Advances in chemistry are published in papers, and retrieving the paper involves knowing the journal, year, and page number (with some journals you may also need volume and issue numbers, but it's usually just those three). Both these profs can remember the entire reference for any paper they recall. They'll just be like, "oh yeah I remember in Tetrahedron Letters 1995, page 4857 someone oxidized an alcohol with hypervalent iodine for the first time.
Advances in chemistry are published in papers, and retrieving the paper involves knowing the journal, year, and page number (with some journals you may also need volume and issue numbers, but it's usually just those three). Both these profs can remember the entire reference for any paper they recall. They'll just be like, "oh yeah I remember in Tetrahedron Letters 1995, page 4857 someone oxidized an alcohol with hypervalent iodine for the first time.
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18points
#32
I was involved in a real fracas from my company. It got litigious, and both sides were lawyered up - all men.
After months of legal negotiating I hired this very senior female partner to get it over the line. On a call with her and their lawyers, they threatened it was my last chance to agree before they fired me. There was a lot of testosterone flowing.
She paused, and then said “well, if you do that tomorrow morning we shall certainly be in court by the afternoon. And clearly no one benefits from that. So let’s agree not to do that so we can agree on a deal and end this sooner rather than later.” My employer’s lawyers completely caved, and caved to my final objections in a few days.
What I am not conveying yet is her tone. When she said it, she sounded like she was a mom telling her thing boy and his friend s from doing whatever they were up to she disapproved of. Every guy lost his testosterone buzz quickly after being scolded.
I’ve been involved in a lot of corporate litigation, and some personal. She did this for a flat rate (a lot of money). Even I would be shocked at what I paid per hour. But it’s the most effective legal spending I have ever seen.
This was a lot of EQ, but she was also an unbelievable lawyer. So she could back up her threats.
I’m sure I’ll get questions about this so I’ll explain why they didn’t just fire me. This typically happens when you are senior employee, but due to politics they want to get rid of you. But they don’t want you to go to certain competitors and have the headline “joe smith has surprisingly moved from company ABC to company XYZ.” It happens a lot in entertainment.
It may be one reason they did not just fire Jimmy Kimmel. He undoubtedly has a contract but things change: ten years down the road competitors, you may have new competitors they never thought of.
There is a lesson here. If you ever have legal problems, hire the most expensive lawyer you can find. Other lawyers know their reputation and tend to want to not go to court against that lawyer. Most people hire the cheapest. You can always change lawyers later, but you’d be surprised how fast things get settled when tho other side starts worrying about losing in court.
After months of legal negotiating I hired this very senior female partner to get it over the line. On a call with her and their lawyers, they threatened it was my last chance to agree before they fired me. There was a lot of testosterone flowing.
She paused, and then said “well, if you do that tomorrow morning we shall certainly be in court by the afternoon. And clearly no one benefits from that. So let’s agree not to do that so we can agree on a deal and end this sooner rather than later.” My employer’s lawyers completely caved, and caved to my final objections in a few days.
What I am not conveying yet is her tone. When she said it, she sounded like she was a mom telling her thing boy and his friend s from doing whatever they were up to she disapproved of. Every guy lost his testosterone buzz quickly after being scolded.
I’ve been involved in a lot of corporate litigation, and some personal. She did this for a flat rate (a lot of money). Even I would be shocked at what I paid per hour. But it’s the most effective legal spending I have ever seen.
This was a lot of EQ, but she was also an unbelievable lawyer. So she could back up her threats.
I’m sure I’ll get questions about this so I’ll explain why they didn’t just fire me. This typically happens when you are senior employee, but due to politics they want to get rid of you. But they don’t want you to go to certain competitors and have the headline “joe smith has surprisingly moved from company ABC to company XYZ.” It happens a lot in entertainment.
It may be one reason they did not just fire Jimmy Kimmel. He undoubtedly has a contract but things change: ten years down the road competitors, you may have new competitors they never thought of.
There is a lesson here. If you ever have legal problems, hire the most expensive lawyer you can find. Other lawyers know their reputation and tend to want to not go to court against that lawyer. Most people hire the cheapest. You can always change lawyers later, but you’d be surprised how fast things get settled when tho other side starts worrying about losing in court.
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18points
#33
I went to a NJ Giants football game. My wife and I were wearing somewhat monochromatic clothing while everyone else there was decked out in team regalia. The Jersey girl in front of us (think London Essex girl for those who get the reference) was great fun and drunk as hell and while she was high-fiving us after the Giants scored she looked at us and with a completely straight face said, "You two look like an Ansel Adams photograph." We were stunned.
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6points