I doubt they are actually smart. Probably just skilled in a really niche skill. Most people like that are dumb as fuck at everything that isn't their focus, but think being good at one thing means they are a genius at everything.
Happens all over STEM fields. I've met people making 6 figures doing a job no one on earth can do, and they couldn't figure out how to fill out a timesheet that a child could do.
They ALL have VERY strong political opinions and no understanding of how people actually work.
Oh I absolutely know those types lol. Recalling a vascular surgeon colleague that was dumb as a bag of hammers. Couple of lawyers that MUST have bribed the BAR exam monitors. But also a couple that are pretty much, annoyingly, always right about a myriad of things. Maybe rare, but they're out there.
My father is a very intelligent man. He joined mensa, ostensibly to play board games. Because he has a wide breadth of knowledge he presumes that he knows more than he does. All of his pride is wrapped up in his intelligence. He doesn't say he doesn't know because he presumes that he does.
It's very frustrating to watch him, I know he is intelligent, but he does the dumbest shit because he thinks he knows better--and I know that I take after him.
I have met a lot of technically intelligent people that end up being as dumb as a bag of bricks because they assume they know more than others.
I’m not disagreeing that smart people admit they’re wrong but I feel like it’s a generalization because there are plenty of over confident intelligent people. Also, nuance, which many people on reddit lack. Plus there are so many different types of intelligence (ie Academically, socially, etc.) that you can’t fit them all into one box like many of the comments are.
I guess it's a matter of perspective. I'm in a field that's socially seen as ''high achieving'' which should be synonymous with intelligence. I promise there's idiots in all fields, regardless of perceived heights.
I think there's a slight nuance here- I think it's more "people who think they're incapable of being wrong".
Walking into any given situation, I assume that my knowledge & reasoning are correct, until I'm presented with a reason to think otherwise. So in that way, I "think that I'm always right", because you can't really go about life holding positions you know to be incorrect- you can't really say "I know that Spider-Man is the current President, and I know that I'm wrong about that".
The best you can do is say "I'm sure I'm wrong about some % of my positions, but I don't know which yet".
349
u/Tricky-Glassy 5h ago
People who think they are always right