I was discussing this last night with my intelligent misfit friends (and some of my intelligent normal friends too). We came to the conclusion that if you have a high IQ, far from saving you work, it actually causes you work. You are unable to be contented with repetitive work without talking to yourself, spreading malicious gossip or keeping Gin in your pocket, and getting away from boring work takes EFFORT at a young age, when many people (especially very intelligent ones) may not be emotionally mature enough to realise that they will not be 15 for ever and need to pull their finger out.
I came to this conclusion after realising that NOBODY who was a particularly high flier in my classes (which were some top sets) is both happy and successful. The two people who have been successful in their chosen careers (archeologist and hedge fund manager) were, I know, bullied systematically by their parents, one had a nervous breakdown and the other is anorexic. Then there's the scores who never got that far, three bar staff, 2 factory workers, 2 care assistants. All going quietly nuts, drinking too much, staying up into the small hours bickering about the nature of intelligence when they have a 6 am start on a Sunday morning, drugs, ohhhh the drugs these clever people take.
And then there's the people I know who were bright, but not in the top top sets. They almost all "succeeded", or are at least happy with what they're doing. They are living happy, calm, cheerful normal lives, without the screaming angsts of 3am and no sleep and 6am start and your head won't SHUT UP. They are running offices, and going to the gym, and managing pubs, and working as nurses, and vet nurses, or depo managers ... they all have good jobs, and seem mostly really happy (these are the people I know from the classes I was in that were middle ability classes).
There seems to be a much higher degree of conventional success from the people who were not in the top 5% for everything, is what I am saying. And there seems to be a greater degree of happiness too, and fewer social and mental health problems. SO why?
Is it a failure on the part of the education system? Is it an inbuilt neurological imbalance? Is it because the very very clever never really have to work at school, and coast until they hit the real world where coasting doesn't cut the mustard? Any other ideas? Criticisms?