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

[Nitro]

School bored me and as I sat in a class and heard someone struggle with basic education. It wasted the rest of the class time of those who were there to advance an education...no child left behind also no child gets ahead either...just like life,there should be winners and losers in school,not everyone is equal BS...the sports and caste system needs eliminated in schools,not education

 

[Selectivemute122]

Not really. Then again how often do I meet random people? I usually just do the greeting thing and stop talking to them.

 

[StephF]

It probably sounds pretty arrogant but to me, most NT's are just mundanes. It is a strain to try and relate to them as a very large proportion of them are way below my intellectual level. I find it very hard to relate to the every day ******** that seems to be important to them.
I find that in most cases, they & I have no common ground.

P.S. If you don't know what a "mundane" is, then you are not a B5 fan.

 

[Flower44590]

Yes, I have always done this. People are often shocked once they get me talking and they find out that underneath all my fitting in, I mostly want to converse about very intense, detailed subjects. I don't just want to discuss them, I want to know more, analyze and think with that person about that subject. This throws people off. I usually wait for a prompt before I let this part of me come to life. (Luckily my friends Are mostly activists, so I get lots of prompts.)

 

[Thea]

I don't dumb myself down but people do react negatively sometimes. I get a lot of people I know telling me to stop using big words.

 

[Raggerty]

Intelligence is such a broad term.
By some definitions i utterly fail but with others i excel.
As far as controlling how i present myself to the public,if i tried to portray something i wouldn't succeed.
I am me and that is it.
Simples.

 

[Nanda]

I don't think i am a average above average bright people, so i dont have to hide much.
I do try to speak in a way that i dont use long words or confuse terms so i don't have people thinking i am pedantic or make them uncomfortable.

 

[xio]

Well, I *should* dumb down a little more. I'm extremely verbally capable, which often does more bad than good with most people of my age (I'm 20). Too bad I often notice it too late =/

However, when talking with other "intelectuals" (no ego here) about philosophy, I often have amazing and very enjoyable conversations.

I agree with the first post: dumbing down a little is a good way to get less on most people's nerves, but when talking to intellectual equals, don't hold back
;-)

 

[Arcturus]

On many social occasions/interactions I've found it better to hide my intelligence and just go along with the social flow. Unless I'm with a college Professor/Doctor or other intelligent being, I find it more beneficial to "dumb" myself down. Perhaps it might be because of the location I'm in. Like I said when I meet intelligent people I can be myself.

What about you?

I noticed it gets me further if I do. And people get annoyed if I don't. Not that my intelligence is outstanding, but I have seen it have negative effects. So I've started playing dumb from time to time, going "oh, really? yea? oh, lovely" while having intense philosophical thoughts on the subject. Ugh.

 

[Easter]

Haha, it isn't clever to be clever any more... might get a lynch mob after you.
I often hear myself trying to sound less clever in order to relax around people...
Lets face it , the masses of NT humans are getting more stupid by the day due to this huge global dumbing down of everyone.

I read a book about social coding once and I gather that language is the basis of its foundation, how we describe things to others reveals as much about ourselves and in environments of 'higher' social statuses people are much more likely to detect a person from outside there group due to the 'lesser' language they used. I suppose it was once believed that only the rich would be well educated and intelligent enough to use proper language ... but it didn't work out quite right. And maybe because of this, intelligence has developed a social stigma and made it seem safer to be stupid amongst the masses. The upper classes have always had access to the languages of the classes beneath them and can use the right words to remain undetected in social groups they consider beneath them, I believe it was designed this way and this is partly a contribution to the english language being so variable.. An example from the book I read explained how a boy from the lowest class would say to his mother "I read a book today mum ' and a boy from the upper class would say "today mother, I read Keats'(something like that) It is very subtle and I probably got the example quite wrong but I hope I got my point across . Probably didn't Best to be a Chameleon when ever possible.

 

[Easter]

Could be worse to , imagine if you had to pretend to be clever because everyone was a genius.

 

[DylanKP]

I never hide it because if they spout a fact that is completely wrong (umm... someone said that polar bears couldn't swim to me this week) I feel that it is necessary to correct their ignorance, because ignorance is always the precursor to servitude, and, as a patriot, I find it my duty to abolish all forms of slavery/servitude that is within my grasp.

 

[Arcturus]

I never hide it because if they spout a fact that is completely wrong (umm... someone said that polar bears couldn't swim to me this week) I feel that it is necessary to correct their ignorance, because ignorance is always the precursor to servitude, and, as a patriot, I find it my duty to abolish all forms of slavery/servitude that is within my grasp.

I also feel the need to correct (or argue, ahem) a lot of the time...but I know it's not always the best way to go if you know you are talking to a sensitive person (e.g. like me). Especially language, it hurts me physically when people mispronounce stuff in other languages. It's like an electroshock that lasts for some time. In case with the polar bears - really? someone thinks they can't swim??? That's so cute.

 

[paloftoon]

After re-reading this thread at random, and reading more posts since I last posted, I got a better perspective on what this thread is really asking. I answered a minute point to the OP, but now I will give a much better answer from my perspective. It is ultimately best to be yourself and not to hide your intelligence for the sake of hiding it. If you feel the crowd you're with will be threatened by it, or if you're afraid of this possibility and can't tell if they would disrespect you in a manner you could not handle, then your reaction is understandable. However, if you know others won't disregard you, you shouldn't specifically hide or not hide yourself to be a certain thing that is not you.

Also, keep in mind that some of these people who may be "dumb as rocks" to you may be excellent socially or in something else where you are "dumb as rocks."

Also, if you're a person who likes to correct everything, do your best to consider the emotions in the situation. (I know that's hard for many of us, but it's not impossible.) A person could be offended for you to correct something that might not be important, or not important to them. You could be seen as a "nagging mother".

With the mispronunciations, try not to get offended. Not everyone is good with language pronunciations. Just feel free to correct politely a million times. If they are doing it on purpose to annoy you, then that's a different story.

 

[paloftoon]

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

They could only let one of you go to state finals? That's crazy. You should have fought to the bitter end or forced them to do a coin toss if necessary :/

 

[Nitro]

They could only let one of you go to state finals? That's crazy. You should have fought to the bitter end or forced them to do a coin toss if necessary :/

That was 42 years ago...I considered it a life lesson about good guys finishing last

 

[skippy 18]

LOL tyical aspies believing they are superior to NTS

 

[Ylva]

LOL tyical aspies believing they are superior to NTS

…

Notwithstanding what is "superior" about intelligence, is this a typical response for you? It can be wearisome to be around NTs because of all their primate dominance games, yeah… but nothing gets them to push us away as fast as coming up with an original, non-scripted observation.

 

[Axeman52]

I don't believe my intelligence is anything remarkable - I am just very patient and persistent in learning to do stuff that I want to do, and that enables me to have the appearance of being a "genius" by some people's standards, when discussing certain subjects.

I have nothing to hide though, if people ask me questions about things I know about, they should expect a thorough and in depth answer.

 

[clg114]

When I'm working, I do not try to hide my intelligence. My customers hire me for what I know and what I can do. In social situations, yes. I've been like this for 68 years. When I'm in these situations, I have learned to keep quiet and try to act as "NT" as I can. That way people don't think I'm so weird. In a social setting I am almost always with my wife ( a "NT" ) and she guides me.