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?

One of dh's clients is seriously bright - he just cuts through every problem is such a simple way it's breathtaking. But it comes at the expense of his relationships - he has a massive deficit in patience for the normal brain.

My DH. Easily passed the Oxford Open Exam for maths but turned down a place because the course wasn't quite what he wanted. Graduated with a First from another top university. He never stops learning, always has some sort of text book on the go and is a phenomenal chess player. It's incredibly sexy to watch him zero focus in on something, you can almost hear his brain whirring.

Looks like DD is taking after him. Currently debating between Oxbridge or LSE.

IME people who "coast" through school and University without doing any work are usually lying about how little work they're doing.
I slacked my way through Grammar School and Uni and got a 2:1 in a credible subject. I'm not remotely intelligent. Sometimes I wonder what I could have achieved if I'd actually applied myself though.

I Googled an old classmate years ago. She had always been incredibly bright (4 A* at A Level including Latin, and a first from Cambridge) and has gone on to do amazing things; she has passed the bar, worked for the UN, worked as a British Government Consultant in the Middle East, and is now a successful author. Her CV is astonishing. She wasn't a particularly nice person at school so it peeves me slightly, although she's certainly very bright and has clearly worked hard.

girl in my form at school.

was too good at maths ever to study with the plebs [got her A level when she was about 12 I think], when she was c 17 entered & won some sort of international maths competition whose field included the girl who'd eventually become the only woman ever to win a Fields Medal [a maths thing, sorta like a Nobel prize].

I'm not totally sure what happened to her in the end. i could believe she wasn't professionally that successful [by the standards of her IQ], even in academia, her social skills were bottom tier, e.g. I'd imagine that part of the path to becoming a top professor or whatever involves networking & being savvy in terns of working with the best collobarators etc.

A girl I went to primary school with. She came from a very rough family. We were friends, but she was hardly at school as her mum kept her off to look after her younger brother. But whenever she did turn up she would catch up so quickly and be top of the class. I think about her still and wonder what happened to her.

A boy I know, who is 13 years old, and globally gifted. Poor kid. Far too bright for any school to be able to accommodate him. I think he started university last year, studying maths, philosophy and computer science.

A friend of mine I met whilst studying abroad. He could pick up languages fluently, and in depth, just by reading or hearing it once or twice. He could speak fluent Mandarin plus a few subsets, fluent Japanese, knew decent Thai, MAIN European language etc. I was sorely envious of him :)

@ymf117 I was thinking the exact same thing! 😂

This is so far removed from my social circle!....

My DS. I’m no slow-coach but he could speak fluently at 1, spent his time at nursery solving engineering problems and has beaten me every time every strategy games since he was about 5. He’s phenomenally bright and also very good at every sport he’s tried. He could do anything he wants but wants to be a footballer or an architect.

His sister has far more emotional intelligence. She’s not daft either but isn’t as academically brilliant as DS. Hopefully that won’t ever be a problem.

Friend is genius at languages. Speaks NINE fluently and learing more for FUN. Can't do simple maths.

Husband can fix anything and has problem solving skills off the scale. Isn't academic at all.

Colleague is doing PhD in linguistics while working full-time. Struggles to do up shoe laces.

Had a student would could memorize anything and do ridiculously complex multiplication in his head. But was functionally illiterate.

Einstein is famous for his awful memory - couldn't remember his own phone number seemingly. And had no emotional intelligence at all (read up about his poor wife!)

Had a friend who could paint perfection, but found reading difficult.

Genius is relative!

Colleague of mine who stood out among bright civil servants. No surprise to see him chairing a team on University Challenge which won the competition. He ended up chairing the secretariat to the Privy Council which was very reassuring to know he was making sure Her Maj had explained everything he needed to know. Lovely guy, too.

A friend of mine has done a degree and PhD in maths for fun in her spare time, as well as learning 5 languages and having an incredibly fast mind. It's particularly fun watching her smack down men who underestimate her, assuming her Glasgow accent and large breasts preclude intelligence.

The above two both have great social skills too - most other exceptionally bright people I know have had ASD and/or mental health problems as well. DH thinks I'm incredibly bright but I've just got a good memory for facts and words - I'm not good at actual thinking especially in 3D. He has spent hours trying to explain how a car engine works, for example. When it comes to widgets, he's a genius.

My DH has a friend who is incredibly bright, speaks about 5 languages fluently, and is also a naturally gifted sportsman and is very witty and interesting conversationalist. He's never had any impressive jobs and mainly does low paid temp work. We all think its a waste of his intellect but hes happy with his lot.
Dd is at school with 2 sisters who seem to be incredibly bright and good at everything (sport, music, arts, all academic subjects etc). You'd want to hate them but they are very lovely and down to earth!!

I agree with a PP that there are an inordinate number of men described here as the smartest people that most of the, in all probability, women on this thread have ever met.

It has reminded me of a conversation I had once with a hospital consultant. We met in a professional context and were chatting on a coach on our way somewhere.....I cannot remember what we were actually talking about but, as part of the conversation, I happened to mention that my boyfriend at the time was very clever, certainly more intelligent than I was. The Dr I was chatting with (a man, significantly older than I was) said to me that, in his experience, he had always found it funny how women often think their partners are more intelligent than they are and he doubted my BF was actually any smarter than I was. It was a great conversation as we discussed how interesting it was that women so often said that.

Slightly off topic, as I'm not entering the exBF (or indeed the Dr) into the smartest person category but I was just reminded of that conversation whilst reading this thread.

NB: naturally, the boyfriend turned out to be an absolute arsehole / sociopath and I often thought afterwards how right that chap was! The BF wasn't all that clever at all, I just thought he was......

I think some posters are enjoying the idea that a brilliant linguist can’t tie up her shoelaces, or that a phenomenally gifted scientist can’t remember his own phone number, or that someone unusually talented and high-achieving is socially inept or has a terrible marriage or poor MH, or that someone brilliantly academically high-achieving has never had a job worthy of their talents.

I’m sure such people exist, but I know more very clever people (and mine are overwhelmingly female) who are also high-achieving professionally, socially apt, have common sense and good MH. I honestly think it’s a myth that you have to ‘buy’ brilliance by ineptness/failure/unhappiness in some other life sphere.

My cousin, he is ludicrously clever, can rewire anything, build engines, calculate math problems, produce ridiculous formulas etc. He was so so talented as a child but his school (back in the 80s) had no idea how to keep him stimulated, he became very disruptive started bunking off school, fell in with a dodgy group and ended up addicted to drugs 😩
He falls off the wagon every couple of years, does odd jobs etc, never came close to realising his full potential, such a waste and very sad.

One of my professors when I was doing a PhD. He had PhDs in both maths and theology and was someone who was clearly thinking at a whole different level from anyone else I've ever met. Definitely on the spectrum. Very sweet but given to awkward pauses in conversation.

One of the greatest compliments I've ever been paid was when he returned a paper I'd written with two tightly written A4 sides of new ideas it had prompted him to think of.

Really interesting thread.

but I know more very clever people (and mine are overwhelmingly female) who are also high-achieving professionally, socially apt, have common sense and good MH. I honestly think it’s a myth that you have to ‘buy’ brilliance by ineptness/failure/unhappiness in some other life sphere

Yes indeed. I'm bright (intellectual high achiever). I'm also pretty competent and/or talented in other areas - I cook, I make most of my own clothes, I run a household, and I'm a pretty good trained dancer.

And you know what? The myth that you have to ‘buy’ brilliance by ineptness/failure/unhappiness in some other life sphere is actually hurtful and harmful to be on the receiving end of.

I was 10 when I started secondary school, and finished A Levels at 16. But throughout my schooling, I heard a constant stream of "Oh is she mature enough? Oh she's clever but she's socially not mature" etc etc etc. All ways to undermine a bright girl. All ways to indicate that somehow - on very little evidence - I must have a deficit in other areas.

^good points Heronry and others. I think it can also be used by men to get out of domestic drudgery. I know several wives who say things like “oh he’s just on another level” when explaining why their husband can’t/won’t eg cook, pick up their dirty socks etc.

And you know what? The myth that you have to ‘buy’ brilliance by ineptness/failure/unhappiness in some other life sphere is actually hurtful and harmful to be on the receiving end of

This x1000. It’s how people console themselves if they don’t feel that clever. (Sadly it’s entirely possible to be very poor at most things too). See also ‘God only takes the best’ when someone under 70 dies.

My PhD supervisor's other student

I think it's rare that someone is good at everything and maybe their brilliance in one or several areas highlight their relative weaknesses. I've never met anyone who was brilliant at everything.

My academic colleagues work in the field of computer science, including AI, cyber security, machine learning and so on.

This is not a language I speak in the slightest, and I am often blown away by the these minds that seem to be the size of small planets.

One of our Profs works at the intersection between biology and computer science. Hearing her bring her work to life with such eloquence is incredibly inspiring. She is brilliant at explaining concepts in a way that non-specialists will 'get it' - I think that's a real skill. (And she was a contemporary of Mary Beard while at university, which gets my vote!)

One in six respondents say their dh/dp is the brightest person they know

One in six respondents say their dh/dp is the brightest person they know

Hoping that's part of the same phenomenon that makes people think their kids are the most beautiful/intelligent/funny/interesting.