Some people aren’t as intelligent as they seem?

[Justnowwondering]

Prefacing this with I’m not intending to be bitchy in any way. Just wondering if any one has similar experiences.

Ive had a few experiences recently where I have questioned my opinion on people I know. For example a friend who is degree level educated and an assistant manager of a team of people, I always thought as clever yet a lot of the times they get confused over basic sentences I say to them. Really clear statements followed by a ‘huh?’
or someone else I know who fails to see blatant attempts from a third party trying to manipulate situations. I can see it plain as fat as they are really obvious but they seem oblivious. I thought this person clever enough to see it too.

Is it lack of common sense or intelligence or do they go hand in hand? I really don’t want to sound pretentious but I find myself understanding/being able to see things better than other people a lot even when I thought them very clever. Can anyone relate or AIBU?

Whatever form*

It could be that you don't see the ambiguity in what you have said

It could be they have slightly dodgy hearing

It could be their mind was elsewhere and the missed the start of your sentence

( I am often guilt of those last 2!)

But a person with a degree in astronomy is good at astronomy- why expect they are good all rounders?

It could be that you don't see the ambiguity in what you have said

Exactly.

It's for that reason that in some functions in some industries there's a requirement to use absolutely standard vocabulary and standard phraseology when carrying out some safety critical tasks.

You may know what you mean but you may not be communicating it as clearly as you think you are.

I think this answers me best. I was struggling to articulate the differences but I suppose everyone is different and has different traits of each.

I am neurodivergent so happy to accept this is what is making me feel out of touch with people.

Just to clarify also I don’t have a degree. So I don’t think that’s the bench mark for ‘clever’

There's another yardstick I find quite interesting. An indication of real intelligence is to take highly complex, difficult ideas and make them sound simple and accessible. The mark of a good lecturer or teacher is the ability to do this.

In reverse, the definition of stupidity is to take simple, no-brainer ideas and make them into a convoluted, garbled mass few people could follow even if they could be arsed.

My employers are a champion of the latter. Endless regulations, stupid acronyms that change every five minutes just in case anyone's in danger of learning what they mean, ridiculous administrative protocol that requires following impermeable rules and silly requirements.

My employers? A university.

There are many different forms of 'intelligence.' I am academic especially in subjects relating to verbal reasoning and understanding vast quantities of information such as history and law. However I have no spatial ability or hand eye coordination at all: cannot park or reverse a car, cannot even understand how pulleys and levers are meant to work and would get hit in the head by a flying ball before I had worked out I had to move or duck.

This is a really interesting thread. A complete opposite from the normal replies on my DP doesn't do a, b or c type threads and the answers are always if they can do their paid employment properly they can do anything properly. It is really refreshing to see people admitting they are not always as good at every day things as they are at more complicated work matters

I don't think it's even a case of book smart vs street smart usually. It's just that all of us, no matter how clever, make silly mistakes all the time. The best example of this could be IT help desks servicing businesses, who take calls from doctors, lawyers, CEOs, professors, the smartest people out there... Only to have to let them know the problem is the cord is pulled out, it isn't turned on, etc.

The cleverest people I know (oxbridge, PHDs) have zero common sense.

This just about sums it all up as far as I can see.

Firstly, everyone sees the world in a different way. So walking down the street someone might focus on faces and people, patterns and buildings, they might be overwhelmed by noises and sensation, they might just be lost in their own thoughts... If we see the world differently we will respond differently. No one is right or wrong but rather responding accordingly to their own lived experience.
Secondly there are multiple types of intelligence. Being clever in an academic sense doesn't necessarily coincide with being socially aware, practical etc. But this is the hand we are dealt. Judging someone for it is just the same as judging someone for how they look.

I tend to think intelligent people are able to see nuance rather than black and white. That allows them to make more connections between things and arrive at creative solutions.

I don't have innate respect for those who hold PhDs, because I know a fair few people who hold them, and their single unifying characteristic was "wanting to continue academic study".

Some of them are brilliant. Some of them are just persistent, and/or singularly uninterested in the wider world. And I know a lot of brilliant people who went into industry from their BA or MA who are at least as capable, and often more.

If I had the opportunity, I'd continue doing a lot of BAs across different subjects.

Tell me about it.

My nephew is a maths lecturer at a highly regarded university.
He tried to catch our whippet by running after her.

I do think the worst trap to fall into though is to make sweeping statements and judgements about someone else, in terms of who they are or how we perceive them to be. We can never truly know. I think the sign of the truly wise is that they understand whole heartedly that they can never really know anything. Especially when it concerns another sentient being.

This is brilliant.

Shades of Fenton!

I’ve worked with many people with uni degrees that have absolutely no common sense or any clue as to how to treat customers politely.
Academia isn’t the only way of being clever.

But some people do get unhealthy joy at pointing out a weakness in a graduate even if the weakness has nothing at all to do with the degree

Just because you can learn and regurgitate stuff in the right order doesn't = intelligence. Some of most highly educated people I know are almost totally lacking in any common sense and vice versa, some of the people I know with the least formal education have bags of it. There are many different kinds of intelligence and learning.

Very true @midgetastic . Whether a person is compassionate or kindhearted is another question altogether. Probably totally unrelated to intelligence.

I think when someone takes glee in another persons (perceived) lack of intelligence based on something they say or do, it says more about them than the person they are judging!

It's application of criticality, as derived from this knowledge and transferable to any comparable situation, theoretical school, social issue, etc., that is so woefully lacking. Universities are struggling with this at present, for two key reasons: the humanities are in decline because prospective students are being told any degree other than a STEM one is worthless; and, amid the student body they do recruit, active, actual criticality is strongly discouraged. For evidence of what happens to academics who do attempt to maintain this and refuse to compromise their teaching values and ethics, look no further than the fate of Kathleen Stock.

There used to be an air of healthy rebellion around universities 20 years ago, when I graduated with my first degree. Now, we've had the VC contact all staff to tell them where they can receive mental health support in these emotional, traumatic times (cf. the death of the Queen). Because we all have such fragile mental health, and are so delicate and not at all emotionally robust. Personally I wish they'd just fuck off with the performative grieving and trying to condition us all into learned helplessness. At this rate it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if it hasn't already.

In addition, there's the suck up to the establishment, flying of flags at half-mast and warning staff to be respectful of the dire national trauma in all our public dealings. That's all happened since Blair sold out education to capitalism. Our anti-establishment predecessors, the lecturers who taught me in my day, must be laughing at us.

I wouldn't say a BA and being an assistant manager are that impressive per se!

There is probably quite a difference between those who graduate with a 2:1 and those who get a first, I would think. I am sure there have been some very intelligent high achievers who had neither, but I also think intelligent people usually enjoy learning and are likely to pursue higher ed. Einstein seemed to think imagination was more important than knowledge and this seems to be borne out by great female writers of the past and others who may have been barred from higher education. Nobody would call Jane Austen unintelligent.