'Sometimes you can be too smart for your own good!'

[Fuzz]

Two questions.

1. Anyone else hear this growing up?

2. Anyone else hear this growing up and think, WTF?

[lapfog_1]

1. I often heard the more affirmative

"You're too smart for your own good!"

Often delivered by my parents.

Mostly it kept me from doing things like my equally smart (OK, I AM smart) best friend in high school.

He put a "Save the whales, boycott Japanese goods" bumper sticker on his car. A Datsun. (Nissan before it was named Nissan).

He was too smart for his own good.

[Ladyhawk]

2. I still hear it.

And sometimes I understand why people say it.

[Fumesucker]

3. Yes, I heard it and hear it still from time to time..

I long ago came to the conclusion that intelligence is overrated as a predictor of financial success.. You have to *care* about money if you are going to make a lot (other than by accident, which does happen from time to time) and a great many of the most intelligent people care about lots things other than money.

To a point I think intelligence is a positive hindrance in achieving financial success, intelligent people are often distracted by their own intelligence and follow a far less than optimum path to financial rewards for that reason.

[Egnever]

7. Wow thats practicaly my lifes mantra

You are the first I have ever seen put it in print.

[RedCappedBandit]

9. Very true

[Random_Australian]

12. Woooooooo! A-1 cares about other stuff than money here.

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree completely with what you're saying there. For example, I care more about trying to choose my honours project (incredibly efficient solar cells, anyone?) than any considerations of making money.

In other words, to put what you are saying on a broader scale than just a single anecdote, as far as I am aware all of my friends and most of my year cares a lot more about brains stuff than money.

And oh man do I intend to stray far from the optimum path for financial rewards. And not to brag overly, but I am reasonably ok at academic stuff. :)

Not that I am typing coherently at the moment because I just got a scholarship to do even more university stuff over the summer (heh, for a fraction of the money that I'd get for part-time work) and I'm still really overexcited about it and thus have lost all grammar skills.

[Fumesucker]

14. Nikola Tesla is a very good example of what I'm talking about..

Tesla was brilliant, IMO much more so than Tom Edison..

But Edison was a far better businessman, he *cared* about money while it's pretty clear that Tesla did not.

Edison died a rich man, Tesla died a pauper.

FWIW, I think highly efficient solar cells are a great field for investigation, Tesla would be proud.

[Karenina]

15. Nail, meet hammer!

:yourock:

[Greyhound]

20. Great intelligence is almost a counter-indication of financial success.

Making money simply requires that making money is the single most important motivating factor in your life, an average intellect is all that's required.

I think that Bertrand Russell summed it up with this quote;
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt."

Look at idiot frat boy, do you think he ever doubted anything in his life?

[Chovexani]

26. I need to print this out and show it to my mother.

So she'll stop hounding me about how I could have a brilliant career in corporate America because I'm so smart.

[cliffordu]

4. When I was in third grade I 'acted out' a little..(LOL!!!!)

The school made my parents take me to a shrink.....

Who proceded to tell them after an hour with me that I was smarter than both of them and they should just stay out of my way, allow me to read all I wanted to and encourage the study of Music....

Things I still enjoy....

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

5. Yes and yes.

I still hear it from time to time.

[Naturyl]

6. Heard it many times.

As the type of guy who was reading encyclopedias in preschool and doing other immodest but interesting things, I got a lot of this while growing up.

And without going into a lot of boring detail, I'd have to agree there is some truth to it. Intelligence thoroughly and consistently applied (particularly in terms of critical thinking) can lead to some very uncomfortable conclusions about the world. I couldn't say for certain, but I have a strong suspicion that the psychological lives of the "less intellectual" are considerably easier in many respects.

This world does not favor intelligence unless it is used in very specific (primarily "economically viable") ways.

[Joe the Liberal]

13. Very true, you read my mind! nt

[Fuzz]

16. My motto is "I'm barely smart enough to realize how stupid I am"

[RedCappedBandit]

8. It's true

I think my intelligence is the primary factor involved in my anxiety / depression issues.

I often wonder what it would be like to be blissfully ignorant.

[Joe the Liberal]

10. Ignorance is bliss.....

This is true indeed.

[4lbs]

11. I've heard it as well. My response was "Did Einstein's parents tell him that too?"

:silly:

[Greyhound]

17. Every damn day. OTOH, I say the same thing to my terrier all the time.

He's smart enough to figure out how to escape from any yard, but too small to survive on the outside.
:kick:

[Vickers]

18. No, I usually heard "You aren't applying yourself" and

"You aren't living up to your potential" and variations thereof.

I gotta admit...they were on to something.

:P

[babydollhead]

19. Whenever I'm reading, my siser-in-law says,

Look at McSmarty McSmarty pants.

I was always accused of being "too sensitive" and to really get me, when I was expressing the dreaded rational point of view, my family would say, "You're hyper!!" as in hyperactive, a new psycho-babble term they had latched onto in the early seventies.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. I Heard It And I Absolutely Agree With It.

Being too smart for one's own good can lead to mental torture the likes of which you will likely never be able to understand. Trust me.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

22. Or - "Too clever by half"

Best said in a cockney accent. Usually used when describing someone smart but conniving.

[Javaman]

23. And just what is a "whipper snapper"? nt

[wildeyed]

24. Yes.

It means you are winning the argument.

[Igel]

25. 1. Yes.

2. I wondered, from time to time.

It makes sense. Smarts can make you cut corners, since a theory says the corner can be cut. They can also, if displayed at the wrong time, put you at a severe social disadvantage and alienate others for no good reason. Moreover, sometimes seeing better ways of doing things just roils the waters and makes getting the job done harder--it doesn't have to be done perfectly, just "good enough". Being too smart in school can also lead to boredom.

Being smart can also lead to irony (in the Kierkegaardian sense), leading to an entirely different set of problems.

Take my brother in law. He's brilliant. (Odd, but brilliant.) He was exasperated at flaws and gaps in his freshman college classes, and the faculty weren't going to take time to explain everything; he couldn't back off from the details or take things as presented. This is a great trait in a grad course (mostly, depending on the dept. politics). He could research things on his own, but they weren't going to take the time necessary to direct him in the right directions or assist him all that much. And many of his teachers weren't tenured faculty, but lecturers and TAs. He finally decided that college was a waste of time, he could learn more, faster, on his own.

Now, this was probably true for the most part, but there were things he could *not* learn on his own, and somethings, like labs, he couldn't do on his own. Moreover, without the piece of parchment certifying that he had at least been exposed to a certain amount of knowledge, and letters of reference vouching for his intelligence, his brilliance depended on dumb luck or incredible chutzpah to be displayed to those who would employ and remunerate it. He lacked the luck, and wasn't able to provide sufficient chutzpah. So now he lives in a house owned by his parents, with his parents picking up most of his (and his family's) bills, making odd money on the side as a handyman or growing and selling (licit) plants. He used to work part-time as a bouncer, but that grew old, fast.

[Karenina]

27. My Godfather told me the boys wouldn't like me.

:-(