Aibu to ask you about the BRIGHTEST person you have ever known?

[managedmis]

Shameless copying from the tightest thread

I knew someone at uni (a UK uni) whose first language wasn't English, smoked dope for 3 years and did no work who got a first then offered a scholarship to Oxford for a masters. She was pretty clever.

You?

A friend who’s a vicar but used to be a barrister. He has the sharpest mind, can explain anything to anyone, a beautiful turn of phrase and writes with grace and clarity. He’s a joy to converse with.

IME people who "coast" through school and University without doing any work are usually lying about how little work they're doing.

My husband

He seriously knows everything! He works so hard, 7 days a week, and is the most ambitious person ever.

A Russian lecturer in chaos theory at uni. He would believe he had explained a theory to us (a class of five not-too-shoddy undergraduate 3rd years who were committed to pure mathematics) and then sigh at our blank faces as though teaching us was like helping nursery children.

Once he walked us through his research in tiny baby steps I discovered it was amazing.

My hubby’s friend was a barrister have it up, did a maths degree (got a first) was going to go into teaching but was offered a PhD. He is a hugely talented musician and a pretty decent bloke too! I’m not jealous at all!!!

A good friend of mine growing up was unbelievably clever. He taught himself to play the guitar, constantly absorbed material about physics and philosophy, and always held phenomenal conversations about life, music and morality. He was so bright that school bored him, so his grades never reflected his intelligence as he skipped class so frequently.

Sadly, he had a lot of mental health problems and passed away a few years ago. I think of him often; nobody compares!

Probably my mum - she questions everything and comes at things from funny angles and just learns new things so quickly, but really diverse things from a language, to climate change science, to an instrument, to land drainage issues. She was a nurse and spotted a lot of patients with a certain characteristic got a particular cancer - kept on about it to senior doctors and finally a researcher followed it up and that area has better survuval rates now.

I can think of lots of incredibly bright people.
My father in law was exceptionally gifted at languages and learnt both Romanian and Russian through French at the Sorbonne.He hadn’t spoken French until he joined the army at 15. He was spotted as bright, offered education and a commission and went on to do very interesting work post war.
A friend who is an emergency department consultant has an enviable talent for fast decision making based on rapid assessment and calculations. Not only in medicine but in DIY etc and general problem solving.
A well known politician who no longer serves in government. A barrister with a talent to summarise evidence and provide a balanced perspective. I’m not sure whether he or his wife is actually the brightest of the pair though. She is a QC. Both are scary at scrabble.
An ex army doctor friend who works in palliative medicine. Speaks five languages fairly fluently, plays several instruments well. Unbeatable knowledge of ethics and canon law.
My daughters are both pretty bright and have wide abilities coupled with an understanding of people and true compassion. They hold their own.
Too many and too many different ways of demonstrating intelligence.

I met Stephen Fry once and he bought a round of drinks for 28 students - he went round the room once, asking us what he wanted, and then came back with drinks and was all 'that's a pint of bitter for Andy, a vodka and coke for Rachel, a red wine for Gemma....' and got every single one right. It was astonishing. Not bright maybe, but an impressive trick.

A temp I managed last year. She’s now doing a PHD but she was in a league of her own in the intelligence league. She could pick up in minutes what it took the average temp months to master.

I offered to adopt get but she declined 😂

I met a lovely family on holiday once. I wasn't so much struck by their intelligence as their accomplishement. It was an activity holiday and they were just brilliant at everything but at the same time managed to be completely modest and sooo kind, encouraging and helpful to my DCs who were slightly less accomplished They even had a polished X factor finalist quality party piece for Karaoke night and could do ridiculous tricks on skateboards.

They had an unusual surname and on a hunch I googled them when we got home. The "doctor" father was a renowned expert in his field, the "nurse" mother was very senior within the RCN and has an OBE, the son who "did a bit of running" competed in the recent Athletic World champs and the other son who was "at Uni", won prizes for his research at Cambridge.

They were pretty intelligent, so much so they had no need to show off about it

Two girls I was in school with were relentlessly brilliant at everything. Both went into the sciences and now have PhDs . One still in research, the other head of a very large business. At the time, in school I felt very dim in comparison, looking back now though I can see I was just average amongst an extremely bright year group.

Probably my dad. He has won many,many quiz shows over the years, even the Countdown final. He’s just brilliant.

Toss up between my husband and my daughter.

Both have high IQ's. Daughter was eligible to join MENSA but didn't.

I feel really thick besides them and I'm not thick.

I have a friend from uni who is easily the brightest person I know. However, he has Aspergers and only got diagnosed age 27, he really dislikes offices and hasn’t ever been able to hold down a job for long without it impacting his mental health and eventually hi quits. Very upsettingly throughout school (extremely expensive public school) he had absolutely no friends and was only invited to one birthday party ever where he didn’t cope very well with the noise.

His dad is also extremely wealthy and has funded his Mayfair property portfolio meaning he doesnt need to work at all to live a very nice life.

My DH is very smart but not as smart as my friend. Mensa gave him a 152 IQ. He coasted school and uni with top grades and now has a good job in the city.

My DH is incredibly clever (boast I know but it’s true) he’s a Dr in a difficult specialty and understands a level of maths/science I can’t even comprehend.

I have a first class degree so I’m not exactly slow ... but I think there’s a huge difference between ‘educated’ and ‘intelligent’.
DH is genuinely intelligent and sometimes I feel a tiny bit insecure about it. I’m Penny to his Lennard 😂

My eldest stepson, so l can take no credit whatsoever! He got six A* A levels and has a masters in Astrophysics. He's terrifyingly bright. He's currently doing another degree in Quantum Physics "for something to do" while working at a university research post. And learning Japanese, as his fiancée is Japanese and he wants to be able to talk to her family when they visit.
People wouldn't believe it unless they knew him. He's a full on Goth and l'm sure people think he's just a gormless lad when they see him.

My dad's dad.
One of 9 DC, finished highschool but didn't go to university as got conscripted at 18 (WW2) spent the post-war years designing radars in Germany, then Industrial machinary for various factories, and also created a new system of musical notation for fun. In his later years he made sun dials/astronomical thingys and learnt to use computers in his 80s. Told brilliant stories and was great with us grandchildren.

DS is 3.5 and loves machines/space/any kids science documentary. They would have had so much fun together.

DH. Used to joke that we didn’t need google in our house as we had DH. DS seems to be following suit

My boyfriend!

He left school at 16, did his electrical apprenticeship and completed it. And now he owns a very successful car lighting company at the age of 24. I’m so proud of him!

Hoped to read about myself here. What a disappointment. But you keep going, people, I'll sit and watch.

I love the different types of intelligence coming through on this thread already.

A distant cousin, he was a priest. He got double Honours from Cambridge and totally bamboozled me at Scrabble! Ridiculously intelligent.

My OH PHD (sciences) brilliant at maths, has done some very prestigious work since leaving uni

I was doing my masters at 28 and one of the others in the class confessed it was her birthday. Turned out she was turning 21. She'd stopped doing her Phd to do a masters that she thought would be helpful but was going back to the Phd the next year. And she'd stopped training as a professional ballerina when she was 15 because that was interfering with her uni studies. She mentioned this just in passing and the rest of us sat with jaws on the table.