Smart Guys/Gals - People who try way too hard to look smart

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Cosmos said:
View attachment 419973

A 107 IQ?‽ Does it even go that high???

I at least have to give this asshole props for being the only person in this thread so far to post his actual IQ score.
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OK, Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was depressed because he was with so much intelligence but gave him nothing to do with it. However, here's the thing. Douglass Adams. Was. Friggin'. Joking.
 
vertexwindi said:
The average IQ is 100 and IQ tests are updated over the years to keep it at that number, I believe. It's only very slightly above average.
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So slightly that it's not even worth measuring.
 
This is somewhat related but I once had a psych professor give some very valuable advice to people who think they can analyze people just because they took his class : "don't".
 
As a physicist (...okay, physics major), whenever I see people rambling on and on with pseudointellectual blather about quantum physics, namedropping the word "quantum" a lot and operating with only surface-level (or even misconceived) understandings of things like the uncertainty principle, I can't help but cringe. Like, I don't even think a lot of these people know a single thing about eigenstates, Hermitian operators, or commutators, which are concepts a clear understanding of which is vital to be able to interpret quantum mechanics. But they don't want to do the math, they don't want to try to understand what's going on under the hood. (A real shame, too, the math that goes into quantum mechanics is often very cool and interesting.) They want to pluck the most sexy, "mystical" concepts from quantum mechanics, shoehorn them into their personal Theory of Everything, and operate (no pun intended) as if they are the next Einstein, Heisenberg, or Sommerfeld. I barely have a basic foundation in quantum mechanics, myself, and even I can smell the obvious bullshit emanating from their posts.

The same can be said of critical theory "intellectuals" and their adjacents who crib concepts from mathematics--ideas like isomorphisms which are laden with technicality in their original fields, but even things like complex numbers which are pretty much high school level--completely uprooting them and plugging them into hazy arguments in an attempt to impart mathematical street cred to their work. These people don't want to understand any of the ideas they tote around, they just thumb through popular physics stuff, find the shiniest ideas, and throw them at other people like Pokemon. And they're doing this while criticizing "normal" people for being superficial. Talk about hypocrisy. You'd think if they loved science they'd try to understand it as much as they claim to.

Cyanide and Happiness had a good comic on this, which right about sums up Very Smart(TM) people's M.O.:
same.png
 
Hey guys my IQ is so high that I pay $70 a year in membership fees to a certified society that gives me bumper stickers and discounts on rental cars.
 
MormonofID said:
From the top of /r/iamverysmart:
View attachment 416882
A lot of the comments are from actual brits saying they hear the word "gotten" used all the time.
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This reminds me of the time I was watching The Prisoner on youtube and I saw comments saying "They don't make shows like this anymore, Murricans aren't smart enough to get it". It's pretty fucking ignorant because Patrick McGoohan is American himself (born in New York, lived in Ireland and the UK, lived the rest of his life back in the States) and had American audiences in mind. I'll agree that it's a fantastic show that stood the test of time but you don't have to be British or a genius to get the show, you just need to pay attention.
 
John Titor said:
This reminds me of the time I was watching The Prisoner on youtube and I saw comments saying "They don't make shows like this anymore, Murricans aren't smart enough to get it". It's pretty fucking ignorant because Patrick McGoohan is American himself (born in New York, lived in Ireland and the UK, lived the rest of his life back in the States) and had American audiences in mind. I'll agree that it's a fantastic show that stood the test of time but you don't have to be British or a genius to get the show, you just need to pay attention.
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Not to mention the fact that the highly symbolic last episode was the subject of the first TV fan meltdown. It was really a sign of fandoms to come, rather than a representative of an intellectual past.

When the last episode came out in England, it had one of the largest viewing audiences, they tell me, ever over there, because everyone wanted to know who Number One was, because they thought it would be a ‘James Bond’ type of Number One. When they did finally see it, there was a near-riot, and I was going to be lynched. And I had to go into hiding in the mountains for two weeks, until things calmed down.
-McGoohan

To say that British audiences "got it" is a gross exaggeration.

I wonder if this is part of why McGoohan loved being on Columbo so much. No one goes on a rampage when the killer you saw at the beginning of the episode is revealed.
 
John Titor said:
This reminds me of the time I was watching The Prisoner on youtube and I saw comments saying "They don't make shows like this anymore, Murricans aren't smart enough to get it". It's pretty fucking ignorant because Patrick McGoohan is American himself (born in New York, lived in Ireland and the UK, lived the rest of his life back in the States) and had American audiences in mind. I'll agree that it's a fantastic show that stood the test of time but you don't have to be British or a genius to get the show, you just need to pay attention.
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I remember an old interview with McGoohan I saw once, with a panel of people asking various questions.
One of the ones I remember was about one of the later episodes, 'Living in Harmony'. He was asked about the significance and symbolism of that episode, the questioner obviously expecting a deep, meaningful, mind-blowing answer.

His response? "Well, I'd always wanted to do a western."

I'll have to see if I can find the footage again...
 
On the first page of r/iamverysmart:
scienceofcourse.jpg
It's worth noting that you can google things in science homework as well.
 
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