How can you tell if a person is smart? Do you judge them based on their level of education or the impressive vocabulary they use in conversation? Maybe you decide that someone’s intelligent after watching them solve a seemingly impossible problem. Or perhaps you’re blown away after watching them recall exactly what day of the week March 14, 2012, was.
One thing’s for sure: there are plenty of ways to be a genius. Redditors have recently been sharing stories about the “uneducated geniuses” in their own lives, so we’ve gathered their most fascinating tales below. These stories just go to show that anyone can be brilliant, regardless of the opportunities (or lack thereof) that they’ve had in life. Enjoy reading through this list, and be sure to upvote the replies that inspire you!
Discover more in “Almost Frightening”: 47 People With Little To No Education Who Redefined Intelligence
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#41
My dad had a guy from his small hometown of 4,000 people drive down to our city to do handyman work and landscaping.
Guy lived in his parents’ basement in his 30s, couldn’t hold down steady work. He never went to college. He studied languages and physics on his own. Self-taught plumber, electrician, mechanic, carpenter. Built computers and had general tech knowledge, self-taught programming, etc. He wasn’t a Good Will Hunting genius that could’ve shocked you. He was just an intelligent autodidact who read and understood everything.
He was diagnosed bipolar later in life. It really ruined his life. He certainly had the aptitude to be an engineer or physician. His brain and body got in his way.
Guy lived in his parents’ basement in his 30s, couldn’t hold down steady work. He never went to college. He studied languages and physics on his own. Self-taught plumber, electrician, mechanic, carpenter. Built computers and had general tech knowledge, self-taught programming, etc. He wasn’t a Good Will Hunting genius that could’ve shocked you. He was just an intelligent autodidact who read and understood everything.
He was diagnosed bipolar later in life. It really ruined his life. He certainly had the aptitude to be an engineer or physician. His brain and body got in his way.
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#42
Generally they turn out to be people that dropped out of prestigious philisophy phd programs, but yes.
I worked in academic bookstores in NYC in the early aughts, though.
i have a cousin that was supposed to be a bmw repairman but got too many points on his license and couldn't work at a dealership. randomly took up carpentry, mastered it, worked on a bunch of lloyd wright houses because he was good with curved wood but otherwise just sits in a cabin in the woods reading books like crazy. smart people are weird.
he can't walk into a room without telling you everything wrong about it's construction, but I don't think he ever had any formal training and is still isn't in a union (although our grandfather was a union electrician).
I worked in academic bookstores in NYC in the early aughts, though.
i have a cousin that was supposed to be a bmw repairman but got too many points on his license and couldn't work at a dealership. randomly took up carpentry, mastered it, worked on a bunch of lloyd wright houses because he was good with curved wood but otherwise just sits in a cabin in the woods reading books like crazy. smart people are weird.
he can't walk into a room without telling you everything wrong about it's construction, but I don't think he ever had any formal training and is still isn't in a union (although our grandfather was a union electrician).
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#43
My father's family has several people who are very high IQ, but also high poverty and neurodivergent (ADHD and autism is pretty common on that side). They all live in WV, so access to higher ed and a lot of other things hasn't been a given. One thing I've noticed is a very, very strong tendency to be swept up in conspiracy theories, sometimes extreme ones. The more educated someone is on that side of the family, the more they fall into the "voice of reason" role with the rest them, trying to debunk the insanity. I think the intellect gives them a high level of curiosity and mistrust, while the lack of education takes away the best tools of skepticism.
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#44
My great grandpa didn't graduate highschool and worked his way up to being a design engineer at lockheed martin. Even when he was in his late 80s with severe dementia, he was a math wiz. He could calculate the taxes on anything in about a second.
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#45
My granddad. He was an apprentice for a global brand aged 16 and they put him in a room and gave him a piece of metal and told him to break it. They didn’t tell him what it was and left him to it. He was the first person to break titanium. I learned this from his eulogy earlier this year.
Alzheimer’s took his words, his body and his memories. But it never took the engineer from him. He was problem solving right til the end with anything he could get his hands on.
Alzheimer’s took his words, his body and his memories. But it never took the engineer from him. He was problem solving right til the end with anything he could get his hands on.
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#46
In the Army, there was a guy in the motor pool who had a weird symbiotic relationship with anything that had a combustion engine — diesel-powered trains in particular. He was otherwise really dense, rude, and lazy. But if something broke down, you could reliably bring the guy into the garage, leave him alone for a few hours, and presto! Problem fixed.
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