How to react when you meet someone smarter than you?

Only person I met who's smarter than me was almost 3 when I first met her. My reaction to her was to test her on Piagetian conservation. (She passed - scoring like a 5 year old!)

But she's my second cousin, so I can brag that her and I share some genes.

Keep in mind that dumb and uneducated are entirely separate things. I know some very smart people who never got past grade 3. On my Dad's side of the family, only my Dad and one cousin of his went to college, with a pile of other cousins dropping out to be farmers. I can tell you, the cousins who dropped out are just as smart as my Dad and his university-educated cousin are. (Many probably have undiagnosed learning disabilities, but they're still really bright.) Sadly, a lot of them don't believe it, and call themselves dumb.

Intelligence isn't what you know. It's how quickly you learn new things.

 

There's always someone smarter than you. Who cares? It's about what you do with your life and whether you enjoy it. Just because someone is more intelligent than you doesn't mean they have more to offer than you.

 

I try to learn from them lol

 

Remember, they're not smarter than you in everything, right? No reason to be insecure, since they lack something that you have. I just know that when I meet someone who is smarter, more intelligent, better than me= I have a goal to strive for and work towards.

 

Looking at the 'How to react when you meet someone smarter than you?' thread, there's quite a fair few people that mention they've never met anyone smarter than themselves.

Every time a thread like that is made, on any forum, there will always be people saying they've never met anyone smarter.

 

Define what it means to you when you say someone is "smarter than you'?"

 

I react with envy. Always. I generally also tend to dislike that person, and I wish that I could be better than them.

 

Also in the above 140 range. We disguise it. Play dumb my son was telling me how her went one lecture submitted for the final and got 29/30 for something he didn't think was that great. But everyone- Everyone has something going which is why I swap languages and cultures etc because even in the most 'primitive' 'stone age' there is brilliant stuff going on. If you are the dummy- just love the smarter person to bits. Our Australian channel has a program where they put Nerd boys with empty headed girls- and it words a treat!

 

Similar is 'Beauty and the Geek.' I saw it on TV here. One of the girls accidentally (?) said a monkey has two brains. Mein Gott xD

 

I don't care how smart anyone is. They're still dumb enough.

 

Haha it's very rare since I feel like I am surrounded by stupid people all the time. :eusa_droo

But of course when I'm around someone really intelligent, like a professor with a PhD lecturing on an advanced subject, I feel really stupid, like why can't my brain grasp these concepts that seem to come so easily to them. :***:

So yeah I feel intimidated by being around people who are smarter than I am. Of course there are so many different ways to measure intelligence, and what constitutes being "smart" is such a subjective measure. For example my stepfather would always tell me I may have "book smarts" but not "street smarts". (Which is BS, I've been mugged on the city streets, I've navigated big cities, even foreign cities, all on my own, I got more 'street smarts' than he does, being afraid to even ride a damn subway train)

Some people might be more intelligent than I am in some ways, while I might be more intelligent than they are in other ways.

And anyone who claims that (s)he has never met someone smarter than her/him is forgetting the famous words of Socrates: "The only true knowledge is in knowing you know nothing." :icon_wink