Ever feel like you were smarter when you were younger?

[KingGheedora]

I'm 26 years old. When I was a kid I was pretty smart. Not a child prodigy, but most adults who met me thought I was precocious. I also really felt like I was much smarter than others my age, was skipped a grade. But now that I'm older, I feel like I have a much harder time concentrating on things.

But now I don't feel as sharp. It's mostly focus, or concentration that I have a hard time maintaining. When I am (on pretty rare occasions) able to concentrate I feel like my old self again.

I'm successful in my work and my job does take intelligence, but that feeling of prowess -- that I can run laps around others mentally -- is gone.

Anyone else feel like that? I'm guessing it's just laziness, I don't exercise as much as I should, stay up way too late and hit snooze for at least an hour every morning, don't have the healthiest diet. I was much more active as a kid and probably ate more junk, but also ate healthier meals overall due to my mom's cooking.

 

[FoBoT]

no

 

[Alone]

Only because I was ignorant.

 

[KLin]

I'm very smart...

The video...

 

[Ruger22C]

Yes.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Me too. I blame it on my incessant alcohol consumption, but getting older could be a factor.

Edit: Seriously, I get shocked sometimes when I read my old college and high school papers. I like to think that I've advanced as as I got older, but some of the things I thought when I was young seem pretty insightful when viewed with a fresh eye. I'm not sure I could write as well now as I did in some of those papers...

 

[alkemyst]

when you are young adults tend to say things productive rather than true.

If you don't live up to the expectation, c'est la vie.

 

[Jeff7]

I think of myself as being incredibly ignorant when I was younger.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

 

[IGBT]

..stay away from booze and dope and you'll keep your memories.

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I think of myself as being incredibly ignorant when I was younger.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

..yup. very humbling. atleast it should be.

 

[Trevelyan]

I've actually been dealing with pretty much the same thing recently. Really sucks, actually, and it has the effect of reminding me that I too will get old.

 

[Bibble]

I definitely knew more trivia when I was a kid that I have since forgotten. However, I am infinitely wiser now than I was then. I voted yes, though, because I have forgotten so much information that I collected during my early years, and it makes me feel dumb.

 

[Rastus]

My memory is much worse now than when I was younger. I used to not even keep any kind of list of phone numbers, if I was told it once it was always there for me. Now I have to take notes to get through the day.

 

[jagec]

Well, in terms of knowledge and understanding, I was certainly further past my age group then than I am now. They've caught up to me

Then again, maybe the reason why we think that is that in high school, we're surrounded by a more even slice of society, whereas when we're older we tend to hang out with people in our specialty, and therefore more knowledgeable in the fields we're good at. There are still plenty of complete numbskulls out there, you just don't see them as much on a day-to-day basis (except on the roads).

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I had this happen to me, but will be a bit hard to make it understandable. I honestly feel that I peaked in my understanding of things around 5th-7th grade. That's when I was diving into lots of programming, website design, math, etc. Basically, all things related to logic and math.

Could I write very well or present myself well at the time? Not at all.

I've learned a lot since then obviously, but always felt at the time like I was understanding everything I did at a much deeper level than most. This was very likely something just in my head and maybe not something you can put down in numbers, but that's how I felt. I was able to pick up on things much more easily, link things very easily, etc. My mind felt a lot sharper because of all the things I was doing, and now it feels like I'm just trying to become as productive as I used to be. I didn't have all the tools back then that I do now, and so maybe that just affects how I view it?

I'm sure a psychologist could make much more sense of this than me, but I honestly feel like my mind was sharpest back at that point. There was one other thing going on at the time though, that probably had an effect. Somehow, I always knew what my brother was thinking about. He's 6 years younger, and at the time he must have been 6 or 7, I was 12 or 13. In the car, I'd often say out loud what he was thinking about, and he would begin to cry. Everytime it happened, he'd start crying. My dad forced me to stop and my "ability" to do this stopped.

I don't think there was anything out of the ordinary going on though, I was simply going back to what I would have been thinking if I was him, and since we were both young and brothers, it was much more likely for me to be able to guess what he was thinking about.

Through all these things, I really felt that I was much smarter at that age. Most will just ignore this and I don't think much of it myself, it's not something I think about on a daily, or even yearly basis, but it's just something in my past.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Let me guess, you have done some drinking in the last several years?

I think that explains it.

Edit typo

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I think of myself as being incredibly ignorant when I was younger.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

Very true, this is probably one of the best statements in the thread. I think this could apply to me 100%.

 

[Special K]

I think part of it is that as you grow older, you become exposed to a much greater pool of people to compare yourself against. When you are a kid, the only people you really know are the other kids you see in grade school each day, and perhaps some friends around the neighborhood.

With each successive step, you are exposed to a greater number of people, and you gain a better sense of where you stand on the bell curve of intelligence. Grade schools feed into high schools, high schools feed into colleges, colleges feed into jobs and grad/professional schools (which eventually feed into jobs). Assuming one strives to reach a level better than the previous step (better school, better job), chances are you are going to be exposed to an overall more skilled group of people, which may make you feel like you aren't as intelligent as you used to be.

That has been my experience, anyway.

 

[dighn]

Try getting more sleep and cutting other bad habits. These days I often don't enough sleep and that makes me feel sluggish. When I get quality rest, my thoughts are so clear that it's exhilarating. I even notice a difference in the perception of time.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
I'm 26 years old. When I was a kid I was pretty smart. Not a child prodigy, but most adults who met me thought I was precocious. I also really felt like I was much smarter than others my age, was skipped a grade. But now that I'm older, I feel like I have a much harder time concentrating on things.

But now I don't feel as sharp. It's mostly focus, or concentration that I have a hard time maintaining. When I am (on pretty rare occasions) able to concentrate I feel like my old self again.

I'm successful in my work and my job does take intelligence, but that feeling of prowess -- that I can run laps around others mentally -- is gone.

Anyone else feel like that? I'm guessing it's just laziness, I don't exercise as much as I should, stay up way too late and hit snooze for at least an hour every morning, don't have the healthiest diet. I was much more active as a kid and probably ate more junk, but also ate healthier meals overall due to my mom's cooking.

are you me? am I somehow losing control and have to handles...

 

[eLiu]

I felt like I was smarter when I was younger because everyone around me was comparatively stupid. Now I know I'm not that smart because I've met people who are REALLY smart... professors, IMO kids, etc. I'm certainly of above average intelligence but compared to those folks, I'm a nobody.

 

[KingGheedora]

Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
Let me guess, you have done some drinking in the last several years?

I think that explains it.

Edit typo

Hahahaha. As a matter of fact, yes. Stupid college binge drinking. If I stop altogether will I regain any of my old self?

 

[Kadarin]

In some ways, yes, I feel like I was smarter when I was younger. In others, I feel like I was pretty damned stupid... So I'd guess it's a toss up.

 

[jackace]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I think of myself as being incredibly ignorant when I was younger.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

Ding ding ding we have the winner. When your young you only know things in a certain way, but as you get older you see more and more things and more and more options become available to you. This in-turn leaves you second guessing a lot of your original beliefs.

 

[iamaelephant]

Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
Let me guess, you have done some drinking in the last several years?

I think that explains it.

Edit typo

Give me f'n break. I drink like a fish and still maintain A's in all of my classes.