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Do You Hide Your Intelligence When You Meet "Normal" People?

Sportster said:
"Do you hide your intelligence when you meet "normal" people?" Define "normal people." On this site, I think everyone is normal. I work at a place that is inundated with Ph.D.'s; they do train rocket scientists. I don't think they're normal.
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I work as well on a place full of nerds and Ph.D.'s. In high school, I thought I was pretty damn inteligent. But after I started university, my skills were put to the test. Then I learned that labeling intelligence is a big waste of time, intelligence is very subjective, hard to measure. Ironically, my grades and work started to get better after I was being less arrogant. Perhaps I learned a humbling lesson.

It's so easy to try to feel superior, specially if a conversation went wrong and rationalize "Well, I'm too intelligent for him/her".

It's easy to label people, the intelligents and the dummies. Or think "Now I'm dumbing myself down because this one can't understand a thing".

And for the most of my conversations, it's about the difference of experiences rather of difference of intelligence. I would rarely talk about differential equations, brain-computer interfaces, RPG's, the von Mises criteria for static failure, or Fourier Fast Transform with people who never experienced these things. That doesn't mean they're dumb, just different of me.

I've made the mistake of judging people by their appearance, status, education. Many times my judgment was wrong, and other times some people surprised me. Many people use masks on their daily lives, so do I.

Sportster said:
I'm not a genius, but I'm not a moron either. However, I do not feel it necessary to act superior.
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I completely agree. Although I wouldn't have agreed 1 year ago.
 
I hide my intelligence...unintentionally. Basically, if I get involved in a conversation with normal people, I have nothing to say, thus no one learns anything about my intelligence. :D
 
I'm not even sure if "normal" people see me as intelligent. I'm under the impression they think I'm some crazy person living in his own world...

And that might be true, lol... but that doesn't mean I can't sit them down and educated them.

I don't hide my "true self" in that sense. I'm just me... people can make out of it whatever they want.
 
Most of the time I do, because I don't think anything will come of the interaction. I figure if people aren't going to become friends of mine, there's no point in bothering to show it, so I act normal to get it over with. I'm very careful about who I show my true self to these days because most people don't seem to value such things and I only want to reveal myself to those who do.
However, if they ask about something pointless like what it's like to have a lot of siblings, especially if they're just looking for a laugh, I will "get smart" with them.
 
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Intelligence comes in many different forms and, arguably, includes things not measured on standard IQ tests. For some, abilities are consistent across the spectrum, but for many, it's erratic.

For those of us with a more erratic set of gifts, deficiencies and interests, things become problematic in that our behavior and responses seem odd, uneven, unpredictable and a bit unsettling to others.

In my situation, I can't afford to be myself. I manage and coordinate groups of people who depend on me to direct their work to achieve specific objectives. My preferred bluntness in exerting my strengths often comes across as arrogance and insensitivity. Bumbling through my weaknesses and inadequacies is seen as incompetence and inability.

For me, I've found that being too demonstrative of either superior or inferior abilities has negative consequences that make it worthwhile to wear a mask, of sorts, that provides cover and strategic advantages that I would lose by simply being myself. It's an act that's become habit, yet I don't feel at all comfortable with it. However, managing others and their activities requires a range of social finesse that doesn't come naturally to me, like it does to so many others.

Spontaneous small talk totally eludes me. But I've learned the cues on when to smile, laugh, defer to others, and politely consider the opinions of co-workers even when I know they're wrong or failing to understand the bigger picture. I'm also fortunate enough to work closely with two or three people who understand me well enough to kick me under the table when I'm not picking up on something, failing to properly respond to the social interactions or becoming too excited about things that others care little about. When that happens, I'll shut up and regroup while I try to figure out the dynamics of what's taking place around me.

All in all, it's stressful having to constantly modify my behavior to conform to a template that I've memorized, and I'm looking forward to the day when the reasons for doing so aren't outweighed by the consequences of doing otherwise. Someday becoming the eccentric old geezer down the street holds a certain appeal.
 
I think its important to recognize A) what your talking about B) who your talking to. If I'm talking to someone about a subject I'm far more knowledgeable then them on but also is trivial in the long runI won't see the point in arguing with them and will just nod and agree. I don't think you can hide your intelligence level thats just who you are and even if you think you are hiding it ppl will notice if your intelligent or dumb. I moreso concern myself with my knowledge of specific topics compared to their importance in the moment.
 
When I was in school it was much easier to express my intelligence. I was schooling my college professors at some points.

But since I've left school I am incredibly surprised how many people think I'm stupid. Which is about 99% of people. The combination of my horrid social skills and the fact that I'm never really in a context where I can show it off lead to this I suppose. "Wow, you're smarter than you look" or "wow, you're smarter than I though" is something I hear quite a bit.
 
Fox said:
When I was in school it was much easier to express my intelligence. I was schooling my college professors at some points.

But since I've left school I am incredibly surprised how many people think I'm stupid. Which is about 99% of people. The combination of my horrid social skills and the fact that I'm never really in a context where I can show it off lead to this I suppose. "Wow, you're smarter than you look" or "wow, you're smarter than I though" is something I hear quite a bit.
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Ha yea I've gotten that as well from ppl that don't know me well. I remember a year ago i was at a social work function and the secretaries told me that my superiors thought I was a "secret genius" because when they talk to me they think I'm slow but my work output indicates the total opposite. Can be frustrating but still ultimately intelligence couldn't be hidden as hard as I apparently was trying to..
 
My main labelling system includes the terms "PC" and "NPC" and nothing else. It sorts people quite efficiently, and I don't have to worry about getting upset with the ones who don't understand anything.
 
I live in a town where the collective IQ is about that of a box of rocks...I can smell stupidity and do not like the odor...I compensate for that in varying degrees to make my world work,either by dumbing myself to their level,or ignoring the really stinky ones...hiding? not really sure...think stupid people are a waste of time? mostly...give a hoot what others think? no...
 
I don't tend to talk to many people outside of school so people don't get to see my intelligence on certain subjects but in my science classes I don't hide it and I usually ask my teachers about higher level concepts
 
In school I usually hide my intelligence a little, so if a teacher asks the students a question I let others answer it most of the time, but suppressing the need to answer is sometimes quite hard.
But in normal conversations I can't hide my intelligence, when I talk to others I see patterns that others don't see, of course I don't realize that and than they are like: "what are you talking about, I don't get it." and than I'm like "never mind" because it is to hard to explain that to them.

But I'd love to talk to someone with the same interests and intelligence I have.
(sorry about talking in that way, like I'm really smart or the best, because I'm not.)
 
Most people don't even care about the answers to their questions. They'll just nod along sagely. Feels like a total waste of time to me.
 
I think I may hide my intelligence in front of the non-autistic ones without noticing. Often teachers at local school underestimate me at the very beginning just by looking at me, thinking I'm going to achieve lower than an E. But that's not true.
 
I'm pretty much the youngest but I beat both my Dad's and his girlfriend's IQ. I get snipped at for talking to my Dad about something from my interests when he's busy making money online and I guess this is why I prefer talking to people online .
 
When the teacher would ask a question in primary school, I sometimes purposefully didn't put my hand up, even though I knew the answer to the question. Didn't want to look like a know it all, lol. ;) Sometimes the teacher would look at me and I would be like "Don't look at me miss. I got no idea. Hum de hum hum.:kissing:"

There have been a few times where kids were scratching their heads and I was thinking "come on now. I can't be the ONLY one who knows the answer to this! Oh all right then, I'll answer it..."
Lol. :D
 
I once had a week long spelling bee with other classmates...a girl and I spent the final day spelling and neither of us missed a single word,I stood down and let her go to the state finals...she missed her second word...we had a book of all the words...I had all the images of each page inside my head to look at...I know i could have won it...I hate Kathleen Tater :p
 
At school, if I knew the answer, I saw it as being too easy and demeaning to answer. If I didn't know, what's the point in giving a wrong answer. So I very seldom put my hand up.

Now, my impression is that most people see me as either being clever or stupid. I don't think many see me as just average. I tend to quickly judge their level of interest in my opinion and respond to that.
 
Hi yes I do in fact all through school I acted as if I was dumb got moved down classes and sets and then in the 6 weeks before the exam my teacher said "you might not pass the exam" I said "not only that I can pass the higher level maths" she gave me the test and instead of the lowest score I got an A highest score her face just dropped I wasnt known for answering questions and mostly doodled apparently to the teacher this made me look dumb anyone else have this experience
 
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