Can someone be smart and stupid at the same time?

[Mucman]

At his deathbed Newton was asked what he thought his greatest accomplishment was... He said "That I am going to die a virgin."

 

[ManSnake]

I have a friend, his friend's friend's friend can be smart and stupid at the same time, go figure

 

[Isla]

Ah....

My mother taught gifted students for years and she always said that the smartest kids were always the weirdest.

I was double promoted (I went from the 2nd to the 4th grade) and was completely rejected by my peers. I was among the most gifted in my school, and yes, we were the odd crowd. I actually tried to 'dumb down' in junior high so I would fit in better. My strategy did not work very well. All I managed to do was to blow my GPA and end up having to go through the 'school of hard knocks' for a while.

My oldest child is very bright/gifted and does very well socially. My middle child is more on the genius level and I have had to work harder with her in achieving social skills. Fortunately, she is doing well. It just takes more work... the other kids sense that she is not like they are--- and she's not.

My youngest seems to have the best of both worlds so far!

I recommend reading a book called Emotional Intelligence by someone whose name I cannot think of right now.

More power to us smart, weird freaks!

 

[focusyn]

u can be stupid and a smart ass, does that count?

 

[novon]

This quarter I pretended to be dumb and by the end of the quarter I "improved" so much that my grades went up and I'm the top of the class, and on top of it I hardly did any hard work. So you can be smart, pretend to be stupid, and use it to be lazy. Of course I feel bad that I was being dishonest, but everytime I excell at the begining of a quarter, the teacher expects too much.

 

[novon]

But I rather be wise than book smart, people smart is cool too. Sometimes thinking too much or too deep can decrease quality of life, hence the saying "ignorance is bliss"

 

[Looney]

<< my high school program didn't pass on anything. it's from my own observation on the &quot;really&quot; smart kids. true that if a smart person do something dumb, it will be remembered more. but i think we're talking about behaviors that deviate from the norm and not just something dumb. for example if you come to school with poor hygiene and you sneeze on the person's neck who sits in front of you, regardless if you're smart or known to be dumb, people will still look at you funny. >>



You're taking one personal example and generalizing it. I have seen the research on this, and there's no correlation.



<< i don't want to go into biology since i admit i know jacksh!t. but from a sociological standpoint if you spend most of your time studying, you are giving away social time. i want to bring something up. don't you notice most, if not all, of the smart scientist and mathematicians in the past have some sort of weird behavior? if i recall newton was an outcast and einstein was very weird himself. >>



So two examples there and you consider all smart people as being socially deficient? And Newton was an outcast because he wanted to hide away from the plague... i don't really blame him for that.

Einstein was borderline autistic from what i've read.

So who else in history was 'dumb'? What about Galileo, Fermi, Watson, Bell, Darwin, Freud, Piaget, Shakespear,... or present time, Hawking, Alan Greene, David Ho (1996 Time's man of the year). Out of my 4 years in University, i've yet to meet one professor that was dumb (different than eccentric), and i would consider them above intelligent.





<< I also look at it in terms of evolution and the term fitness. Do your skills improve your fitness? Does the lack of social skills affect your fitness? >>



In terms of evolution in our society, who is more likely to be at the top of the 'chain'... a 180lb well muscled man who can fix his car, plumbing, roof, etc, or the technocrat who doesn't know how to change the tire but has a PhD in computer science?

Skills and intelligent is arbitrary.

And how many people are really that socially retarded that they cna't function in society? Social skills and limitation of skills are different things... he might not have an interest in being a 'jack of all trades'... he might value a singlemindedness in mathematics or computer science more pleasurable for him.





<< Of course, if you are talking about supergeniuses in a certain field (top 0.00001%) then I may tend to agree. This is because, often, a brain abnormality (not necessarily a bad thing) causes both the problem and the super-ability in a certain area (human calculators). >>



What you're describing is Savant Syndrome, and less than 1% of austistic people have it... and it's not mathematical, it could be in music, art, or any other skill. I think you've watched Rainman once too often.

 

[xaigi]

moralpanic: >> That's the beauty of this society... people aren't automatically labelled,
judged, and segregated based on biology.

Really? I need to move to your society!

 

[sweetrobin]

kewl Isla ... I know the feeling .. they wanted to skip me a a grade when I was a kid put my parents didn't want to throw that on me ... but I sometimes wish they had .. I always got along with kids older than me and kids younger than me ... kids my own age tended to be unnerved by me ... I had a high IQ but some how lacked in social skills when it came to inner acting with my peer groups ... I'm one of those people who can understand complex concepts but yet has trouble understanding simple things ... if you want to call me stupid ... do so I dont care ... wouldn't be the first time ... I just think I excell in other areas... luckily I have made up for my earlier lack of social skills ... my fiance will tell you I'm one of the most social people he knows .. lol ... too his regrets ... lol ..

 

[Killbat]

America's 99th percentile

 

[Hoeboy]

<< You're taking one personal example and generalizing it. I have seen the research on this, and there's no correlation. >>

I never stated it as a fact thats why I always start out with &quot;from my personal observations&quot;


<<
So two examples there and you consider all smart people as being socially deficient? And Newton was an outcast because he wanted to hide away from the plague... i don't really blame him for that.

Einstein was borderline autistic from what i've read.

So who else in history was 'dumb'? What about Galileo, Fermi, Watson, Bell, Darwin, Freud, Piaget, Shakespear,... or present time, Hawking, Alan Greene, David Ho (1996 Time's man of the year). Out of my 4 years in University, i've yet to meet one professor that was dumb (different than eccentric), and i would consider them above intelligent. >>

Newton was an outcast not just because of the plague but it was just because he felt more comfortable being alone. Especially during the time when he invented calculus. As for Einstein I'm not too sure but I do recall reading that he was &quot;different&quot; than other kids. I'm not sure about all the other people you listed as well but a couple of them do have deviant behaviors. Especially Shakespeare (not just in the homosexual sense ). And you can't really use professors as an example because if you go teach at a university, you tend to have some sort of social understanding on life since you're interacting with people day in and day out. Now go look at those who spend most of their time in a lab or doing research. It's a whole different story.

 

[Looney]

<< Newton was an outcast not just because of the plague but it was just because he felt more comfortable being alone. >>



And that's deviant behavior? That's called introversion.


And what was Shakespeares problem? I wouldn't mind a link to it, that's the first i heard that he may have been 'dumb'. Hell, academics don't even know if Shakespeare was who he is... how could a son of a Shoemaker, who never left his village, write so elaborate stories of Europe and it's people.





<< And you can't really use professors as an example because if you go teach at a university, you tend to have some sort of social understanding on life since you're interacting with people day in and day out. Now go look at those who spend most of their time in a lab or doing research. It's a whole different story. >>



Hm, most of my professors are researchers (Psych and SCI, don't know about my PHIL profs, i've been wondering what they do all day... i've got a friend in optical physics or whatever, he's spent the entire last year lining up laser for some odd reasons.)... if anything, the academic life allows one to become segregated from the rest of society a lot easier than a normal career in the commercial industry doing research... which i've worked at one summer, doing data entry in a pharmaceutical company research lab... which by the way i didn't see any 'dumb' people either.

 

[Bling Bling]

the answer to the topic is yes.

I am a dumbass who happens to be kinda smart (sometimes).

 

[amnesiac]

I tend to consider myself smart, I'm pretty sure I'd have near-genius IQ if I took a test, and I have severe depression problems. I had to drop school this semester and I am taking next semester off b/c I would become a wreck when faced with having to go outside. Not cool.

 

[compuwiz1]

The difference between genius and insane is a very fine line. People of extreme intelligence are sometimes not the best in social situations or in dealing with real life scenarios where common sense is required.
I've had some otherwise very bright individuals ask me some pretty dumb questions, even those required to basically be able to navigate thru life itself.

 

[veryape]

There is really no argument,its all in the statistics.(don't feel like looking for links right now) Most people in the top percentile tend to be eccentric at the least. Not socially inept but challenged,due to inexposure to social situations I guess.