Forget Obama - Are YOU smart?

Happy Friday, all. I’m getting tired of reading about why we think Obama’s smart, or stupid, or whatever, and I wanted to pose another question. Study after study has been done showing that most people will judge themselves to be in the top half of the bell curve for skill at almost ANYTHING. You can ask a group of soon-to-be MBAs where they think they fall in management skills, a group of veteran drivers where they rank as far as driving skill, ask a group of married couples if they expect their marriage to last longer than the national average, and so on. The results are overwhelmingly consistent: most people estimate or predict themselves as being far, far more competent/successful than the “average” person practicing any given skill. Obviously, this is folly - you can’t have 60% of people who all fall in the top 15% of the bell curve at anything, but that won’t stop people from mentally placing themselves there. So, my questions to you: 1. Do you consider yourself in the top half of the standard intelligence curve (the type of crap that the SAT or GMAT measures)? Top third? Bottom fourth? Get as specific or as vague as you like. 2. What things do you consider yourself to be in the top decile for? Be as specific or vague as you like, but there’s a catch. For every “positive” you list where you claim to be above average, you must list a category or skill set where you consider yourself to be below average. Curious to hear how honestly people assess themselves. I’m thinking mine over and promise to respond honestly, but I’ll give it a couple of responses before I post.

I take pride in being exceedingly average in most respects. I’m definitely in the top 10% of golfers in the US but that’s just because the vast majority of golfers are freaking god-awful. I don’t understand how some people can play the game their whole life and just not get any better.

Be humble: All I know is that I know nothing. The key is to actually be smart but not think you are.

does p0rn count?

i’m in the top 99% of most things, statistics included.

Definitely in left tail of the golfer distribution. I’m worse than Tiger these days. Obama > me

Obama> average L3 CFA Candidate > Me > Bush = Average intelligence person > Donald Trump > Jersey shore cast > Retarded Monkey > Paris Hilton

Basically the way I see it I know so little about everything in the world.

^ knowledge is different than intelligence

I used to think I was very intelligent, then I got married and discovered that I am never correct.

Scored between 134-142 IQ on a number of tests, despite this I spent many years of my life mainly using my ‘lizard brain’ and as a consequence my poor judgement and impulsive behaviour has resulted in a lot of suffering and wasted potential. Guys like me pretty much illustrate the fact that intelligence isn’t everything.

I think whoever has the most fun and the best sex is the most intelligent person in my books.

I smile in the top percentile of smilers. I am the best open mic comedian at the work lunch table. I guess you can say I take the cake.

According to Experian, my credit rating ranks higher than 99.10% of U.S. consumers.

higgmond Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I used to think I was very intelligent, then I got > married and discovered that I am never correct. With a credit score better than 99.10% of U.S. consumers? Good sir, I would use this as a trump card in debates with your better half. Heck, I would use it to get out of speeding tickets, on my campaign posters if I run for mayor, and as a pick-up line in singles bars. Nothing says ‘sexy’ like fiscal responsibility.

Top 5 of AFOT posters for sure

ChickenTikka Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think whoever has the most fun and the best sex > is the most intelligent person in my books. So, baboons?

Bump. Because it’s kinda relevant to a recent discussion. I’ll answer this when I have time.

Oh nice thread, and great bump!

Yes, people perform unrealistically high self-appraisals, especially of their own intelligence, while making unrealistically low appraisals of other’s intelligence. You’ll almost never hear anyone admitting there exist homo sapiens with vastly greater intelligence than their own, even though this is fact. Yet you will always hear them talking about the idiots. Of course in reality most people are of average intelligence, or in the +/- 1SD range. I guess this really gets into culture. Modern people have unrealistic expectations; basically everyone has been trained that they are a special flower, and the next Bill Gates, Einstein, or Steve Jobs. The fact is, it’s okay to be average, and even if it’s not, most people are.

bumping a 4yr old thread lol

what were you searching for to even come up with this ?