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?

I honestly wouldn’t know where to start in categorising people. I know many people who attended Oxbridge, (one at 16 years old) are Professors, have PhDs, have run very successful businesses, are very funny, amazing problem solvers, invent useful things, are incredibly creative, have won loads of awards for their use of words, have obtained 6 O’levels in B/C grades, yet scored so highly in IQ tears they joined Mensa. Amongst them all who is the brightest - it seems an impossible question to answer, they all have amazing strengths and without a doubt weaknesses too.

@countfosco I expect so. I have heard so many women say their DPs are extremely handsome when they are perfectly ordinary looking blokes.

"I honestly think it’s a myth that you have to ‘buy’ brilliance by ineptness/failure/unhappiness in some other life sphere."

I think it is a myth too. Both DH and DD are such strong all rounders at everything they turn their hand to. On top of that they're both very popular with busy social lives so you can't even say they're socially inept.

I know this is a strange answer but my DS. He has nonverbal autism and he's so lovely I think his knowledge of being a good person makes him the brightest person on earth! x

My Dad is incredibly bright, he is a scientist and well known in his field. Not so much with the street smarts though...
My DSis has taken after him, 1st in Maths, now extremely successful in her City finance job. Super bright.

I once had the pleasure of working with Lord David Neuberger, who was Master of the Rolls before he retired. He is definitely the brightest person I have ever met. He used to sit in meetings and it would look like he had fallen asleep but it was pure concentration. His mind worked in an unbelievable way.

I used to work with someone at the university. He was signed off for a couple of months with mental health issues, came in for half a day and still managed to achieve more than some of the others had done in the time he was off.

He once tried to join in a conversation about football and was told he didn't know what he was talking about.
That was on the Friday.
He came back on Monday morning and he could tell you anything you ever wanted to know about football: history, rules, games, teams. He could tell you who was 4th in the 3rd division, their wins, draws, defeats, goals scored etc. etc. I remember them standing there, asking him questions and unable to believe it as he got the answers right time and again.
Seriously brilliant, but so mentally unstable they eventually had to let him go.

An ex, who had undiagnosed dyslexia (If he’d been five years younger it would have been picked up I think). Despite this, he studied electrical engineering made a very successful career and business in the technical side of live music tours. He got round his difficulties in ways that meant almost no-one would have any idea.

Me.

My dh. He left school without any qualifications and worked in dead end jobs and was on the dole, but eventually worked in a manual trade.
Because of his crappy abusive childhood he thought he wasn't academic or intelligent enough to do exams.

Now, he's worked his way along gained qualifications and is one of the top in the country in a niche field and is well respected. He also earns big money.

We wonder what he could have been with proper parenting and guidance, however it was that path which led him to what he does now.

He's very intelligent, very quick to learn, process and apply what he's learnt.
He can also do literally everything- washing machine broken? He will fix it. Car doesn't start? He will fix it. Need an extension on the house? He will build it.

A uni friend, she is now a maths lecturer. She never turned up to any lectures but easily got a first, then did a masters and PhD. She knew tons about all sorts of random stuff, was fluent in Irish and was constantly reading.