Appearing Intelligent?

[prplchknz]

I hate people who get the highest grade and are like I'm so smart blah blah blah blah blah look I memorized the text book I must be smart! maybe I'm jealous maybe I'm not. I get told by friends I'm smart, I don't really think I'm any smarter then most people. Or I see the world in a different way (not really[as in a don't think so]).

 

[ygolo]

Excellent question.

As a preface, the people I am speaking of I've know for my entire life.

The poet, was anything but poetic when he was younger. Until his late teens he was very shy then he became very outgoing then made a 90 degree turn and became both outgoing and sensitive. I don't laugh at the fact that he is sensitive, I a laugh at thee fact that he consciously tries to act sensitive.

As for the thugs. The ones I know (also happen to be my friends) are a bunch of frauds. Most come from affluent families and were coddled all their lives. Then sometime around high school they decided that they were "rough". But I know that beneath that thin exterior is daddy's little prince.

There is no way to fake your background.

But how can we distinguish between "trying" and "acting?"

I am sure if I tried to be poetic, I would be very poor at it. I wonder if I tried to be more sensitive, if I would be "acting."

Nobody is born knowing how to do many of the things people do. There may be a role for natural talent (but it is hard to discern talent from prior relevant experience).

I am not sure what the people acting "rough" may be aspiring to. Maybe some modern day "code of the samurai" or something?

 

[JustDave]

Yah, I know a kid like that. His dad is a doctor, he has great parents, he's really really smart. He acts like a thug and sells cocaine (or he used to, at least). Its actually kind of sad, he was one of my best friends when we were younger.

And for the record, given that I have a name taken from a Wu-Tang Clan member, I would like to say for the record that I do not dress like a thug

Unfortunately it happens. Hopefully he comes to his sense before it's too late. Coke carries heavy jail time.

 

[JustDave]

There is no way to fake your background.

But how can we distinguish between "trying" and "acting?"

I am sure if I tried to be poetic, I would be very poor at it. I wonder if I tried to be more sensitive, if I would be "acting."

Nobody is born knowing how to do many of the things people do. There may be a role for natural talent (but it is hard to discern talent from prior relevant experience).

I am not sure what the people acting "rough" may be aspiring to. Maybe some modern day "code of the samurai" or something?

Rough is simply the term many of these alleged thugs use to describe their behavior.

In this instance we probably couldn't distringusih between trying and acting. In any event their personalities are a mostly a fabrication.

 

[ygolo]

Rough is simply the term many of these alleged thugs use to describe their behavior.

In this instance we probably couldn't distringusih between trying and acting. In any event their personalities are a mostly a fabrication.

Is trying a fabrication of sorts?

 

[JustDave]

Is trying a fabrication of sorts?

It depends. Trying to pass a test isn't a fabrication but trying to act like a thug is. It's difficult for me to explain.

 

[ygolo]

What about trying to be more poetic, sensitive, outgoing, energetic, organized, or professional?

Just trying to tease out the pattern with more examples.

 

[GZA]

Its bassically just a stupid "I'm the fucking man!" attitude. I don't know where they get it, but obviously if they don't snap out of it they will get owned when their parents kick them out. Luckily, the kid I know... his older brother went through the same phase, but he's going to university now so he's out of it, or at least he's more smart about it. I mean, this guy actually is the man, so gets away with it to some degree.

 

[disregard]

Eh, people can see through most pretense. I wouldn't let it get under your skin. You're probably not the only one driven nuts by it.

 

[JustDave]

What about trying to be more poetic, sensitive, outgoing, energetic, organized, or professional?

Just trying to tease out the pattern with more examples.

Now I understand.

For arguments sake let us assume that some things are negative and others are positive.

Trying to act like a thug is a negative thing that not good for the individual or his friends and family.

Trying to become more organized is generally a positive thing.

Trying to be more poetic is a hysterical thing.

 

[lastrailway]

I've made a conscious effort to appear intelligent in several periods of my life.
The first was during high-school. Now I didn't use any of the tricks mentioned in the OP, but there's the cultural gap there: I always had an excellent eyesight, so no reason to wear glasses, I'd never heard in my life about Shakespeare or classical music, or liberal politics, and actually hadn't read a non-school book before going to college. Still, I was studying hard and developed by that time a dismissive attitude that later in life I found very hard to give up. I weren't too willing to answer teachers' questions either, but I made a point of leaving as clear as possible to classmates and teachers that I did know the answer. The point of all these was to have the teachers talking to my parents into letting me go to the university.
Then at the uni I needed also gain good impressions so to have good references in the case I needed those later. I had to somehow balance the first impression I gave when I showed up to the uni, of the shy, introverted child from a village, clueless to most social situations and without any "intellectual" background, so I used a couple of similar tricks: studying very hard, being sure I totally understood the processes before doing anything and only talking about stuff I was 100% sure about. By that time, I also had discovered books and started to slowly became an obsessive reader, which would add to the "intelligent" look I tried to have.
Finally, when I moved in the country I'm currently residing, I fell immediately in the defence, since I had to deal with very competitive people. So, especially the first months, I was deliberately trying to look smart and intelligent and also I started looking very serious, another attitude that I got so used to it that I cannot give up by now.
Never used the poetic stuff, however, it would be too much off-character.

 

[ygolo]

Now I understand.

I wish I did too. I'm still not sure I get the difference between acting and trying.

For arguments sake let us assume that some things are negative and others are positive.

Trying to act like a thug is a negative thing that not good for the individual or his friends and family.

Trying to become more organized is generally a positive thing.

Trying to be more poetic is a hysterical thing.

So "acting" is something that we would not aspire to but still want to give an appearance of, and "trying" is something we would aspire to and want to give an appearance of?

Pretense is something I get accused of a lot. But I don't believe I am being pretentious...striving maybe, but faking something?

I was just trying to gain a better understanding of the other view.

 

[Mole]

Secrets

I was thinking recently about how people kind of alter their behaviour to appear a certain way (by dress or the way they talk or whatever).

Are there things some people do to appear more intelligent?

A guy at my school does everything he can to look intelligent. Apparently people who know him well say he is indeed intelligent, but not any moreso than any of the other kids in the gifted program. He gets the best grades in the grade and everything, too. Some people noted that he seems to do a lot of things to make himself look smart and then brags about his intelligence rather than actually being smart. He plays violin and talks about how much he loves classical music, he answers every question the teachers ask, and he studies as hard as possible to garuntee the best mark on every test.

This has me thinking, what are some of the things people may do to do this?

Here are some things I think people seem to associate (unaccurately) with intelligence. Some of these are things I've noticed, some of these are things I've heard from satirical websites like StuffWhitePeopleLike (so some of them are a bit more on the satirical side -but remember that satire always comments on reality to some degree).

-Glasses
-Quotes Shakespeare
-Studying in a european country
-Playing an obscure instrument no one has heard of from another country
-Wine connesuir
-Classic music connesuir
-Liberal politics
-Foreign film collection
-Quotes John Keats

Do you think this really happens? Do you think it is desireable to be seen as an intelligent person, or an "intellectual" (I hate that word!)

And no, this is not my subtle way of asking advice so I can look smarter than that fool at my school

And, just for fun, how about other things... like how to be seen as a leader. What are some things someone would do/wear if they wanted to seem like a strong leader?

Gosh, this sounds just like me.

And I was hated and ostracised at a boy's boarding school.

I knew I was hated, but as a little boy, I couldn't understand why.

It was only when I went to University that I found my first peer group. And what a revelation that was.

I found my first girlfriend and started to feel I was normal for the first time.

But still, in this friendly environment, I still felt a bit different, so a lecturer suggested I have my IQ independently measured.

So I had it measured twice by two, professional, independent psychometricians.

And it turned out to be 160. And this level is called highly gifted.

And it is important to say that IQ is not a measure of quantity of intelligence. All it tells is how common you are in the population. For instance most are round about 100 but those with 40 or 160 are so rare, you could go through life without meeting one.

And it is also important to say that the highly gifted are not only different intellectually but they are different emotionally. They are described as Over-Excitabe (OE).

So for the highly gifted it is important to learn not only to accept your intellect but to also to accept your high emotional excitability or lability.

Fortunately at boarding school, I was a boxer so it only took a few bleeding noses for the bullies to leave me alone. But if they couldn't beat me, they would ostracise me. Ostracism was very effective because it made me doubt myself.

And although fighting at school saved me from the bullies, I couldn't go through life fighting. So I joined an encounter group at the University of NSW and learnt how to belong to a normal group without hiding myself.

In the group I found that many hide themselves and pretend to be what they are not. And that hiding and faking it are are very damaging psychologically. In fact, in the group, I learnt that secrets are not worth keeping.

So I share my secret with you.

Victor.

 

[Hellbourn3]

To preface everything I really hate jumping onto threads that are more than two pages in, and to make matters even a little bit more awkward this is my first post on this forum in quite awhile, so yeah, this is rather strange for me, but I simply could not pass up adding something to this particular discussion ha ha.

I think I do actually put a vested interest in having myself come off intelligent when I'm around virtually anyone. Though I'd say in essence I am more scholarly than I am pedantic, I often question how intellectual I actually am when I think of my faults regarding math, or more practical application of intellect (in terms of actual technical education or practical simply on a general level such as me reasoning things out at my job [I work in a deli]).

While I do view myself as maybe slightly pedantic, as touched upon before, I do feel that I am not within the leagues of the true pedants that I'd experienced within high school; the ones who all vied to make sure they could have a place within as many AP courses as possible to actually make themselves seem smart. Granted, they achieved quite a bit on an objective scale, but when there came a time for them to actually reflect on anything that wouldn't really give them any bit of instant gratification they either couldn't and/or had no interest in doing such. Even if I am myself not that greatly intelligent I think that I can at least pride myself in taking a true interest in learning; there is nothing fraudulent about that. I'm INFJ btw in regards to the lack of intelligence within math or more practical application if that makes things seem a bit more clear or maybe even archetypal (ha ha).

In regards to that whole initial list, I've never truly preconceived or equated the ideas mentioned there with being intellectual, aside from taking an interest within classical music marginally. Even that's a bit far-off though as I'm more impressed with people who have at least some knowledge regarding the mechanics behind music as opposed to simply liking something that's deemed "classy" (my mom falls within that latter category and she's a bit pedantic in my view; she essentially views and equates general knowledge with true intellect on a general scale, which is highly pretentious and ridiculous in my view, and in anyone else's who's taken an IQ test I assume with that said). I haven't been exposed to too many people who consciously or ostensibly hold those thoughts either, though as I've already mentioned I was never one to be interested in associating with people I viewed as pedants, maybe I just found a greater circle of people and thusly have just not been exposed within the absolute sense of the term. Really though, based on my experience and knowledge, I really can't believe that those kinds of stereotypes still exist even today.

 

[Grayscale]

it's easier to appear stupid

 

[Mole]

Mrs Briggs and her daughter

But what is fascinating is that this group, MBTI, is based on psychometrics.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was created by Mrs Briggs and her daughter. And neither Mrs Briggs or her daughter had any qualifications. In fact they had no training in psychometrics.

And psychometricians today regard the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to be Unreliable and Invalid. The words, "Unreliable and Invalid", are used by psychometrians to describe a test that has no worth. In fact they describe MBTI has having the same truth value as astrology. And as you know, all astronomers regard astrology as untrue. So it is fair to say that MBTI is untrue.

So the interesting question is why is this group based on MBTI ?

And to answer it you need to look at the history of MBTI.

MBTI was lifted holus-bolus from the book, "Personality Types", by Carl Jung who started out as a strong and committed supporter of the German National Socialist Workers' Party but when they lost WW II, he transformed himself as a guru of the New Age.

So MBTI is essentially part of the New Age religion. This makes sense as MBTI is based on no evidence whatsoever. MBTI is taken entirely on faith.

And when you believe on faith, you are not only flying blind, but you find 'evidence' all around you. Gosh, you find 'evidence' in your personal life and in the personal life of your friends. But it is merely self delusion.

But MBTI is more insidious than that. It is a way of manipulating yourself and your friends, as a way of controlling them.

Is this any way to treat your friends?

Victor.

 

[LostInNerSpace]

I do this all the time. I try to craft my image very carefully. There is always room for improvement. Observe other people, read books, and experiment. If you want to do this you need to read a lot about psychology. I can recommend good books if you like.

I've only been a member of this forum for a month or two, but I've learned so much already.

If you want to look smarter you need to make yourself the "goto guy" when people have questions. That means learning everything you possibly can about whatever it is you want to be smart about. Answering other peoples questions will actually make you smarter because it forces you to crystalize your thinking in such a way that other people can understand it. You'll find the other people see things differently, and that the different perspectives will often cause you to look at things in a new light thereby increasing your overall understanding.

But try to avoid bragging. Sometimes bragging can help when you are trying to sell something; could be that you are trying to sell yourself for a postition, or sell and idea, but you should generally avoid unnecessary bragging.

 

[heart]

I sincerely like some of the things you list, classical music, Keats, literature, some foreign movies but I know I am not exceptionally intelligent. I just consider these things to be interesting and beautiful. I get tired of people like in-laws accusing me of being interested in those things just to "look" smart. I guess what I am saying is I don't like the idea that people are only interested in these things to "look smart."

I am not saying that is what you mean here, but I have come up against this type of mind set enough to know it is out there.

I also hate that finding others who want to have *real* discussions about these issues without a lot of fake posturing and snobbishness about who is more intelligent or who does not belong there. I am not that quick minded and I would like to find more pedestrian discussions of these topics without being looked down on as not as smart as some or trying to be smarter than I am.

It is like I have a closet love of literature and classical music because of these twin aspects.

Anyway, best way to appear smart is to become Rocket Scientist.

 

[Hellbourn3]

I sincerely like some of the things you list, classical music, Keats, literature, some foreign movies but I know I am not exceptionally intelligent. I just consider these things to be interesting and beautiful. I get tired of people like in-laws accusing me of being interested in those things just to "look" smart. I guess what I am saying is I don't like the idea that people are only interested in these things to "look smart."

I am not saying that is what you mean here, but I have come up against this type of mind set enough to know it is out there.

I also hate that finding others who want to have *real* discussions about these issues without a lot of fake posturing and snobbishness about who is more intelligent or who does not belong there. I am not that quick minded and I would like to find more pedestrian discussions of these topics without being looked down on as not as smart as some or trying to be smarter than I am.

It is like I have a closet love of literature and classical music because of these twin aspects.

Anyway, best way to appear smart is to become Rocket Scientist.

I could totally tell you were INFP there by reading that post ha ha. That didn't have much precedent over the overall topic but I felt I had to mention that.

 

[mippus]

This may be personal, but I tend to be impressed with silent types that listen and think and actually don't say too much...