Memes @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Being “gifted”, only makes you wish you weren’t sometimes

200 comments

You're gifted enough to cruise through the first few stages of your education without trying, so you forge an identity as "the smart kid" but never build up skills in learning or studying, so when you finally get to a level where your natural intelligence can't carry you anymore you can't keep up with the people who did learn those skills and you start to fail and lose your identity as the smart kid which causes you to break down because that'd how you defined yourself for so long..... or so I've heard.
- That's the cost of designing education for the worst students.
  
  This is actually the reason. Because there is no such thing as "natural intelligence". Not more than there is "natural strength". There are natural predispositions, yes, but what you get is function of what training effort you put in. Whether you realise, and/or like, putting effort into training your intelligence, is is another thing. So people who are "above average" were in a favorable environment that fostered their development without it feeling forced, or unnatural. And then, when the environment was replaced by the school's, it sadly didn't foster personal development anymore. I would argue we would need to redesign education, now that we have internet. We don't have to design courses around physical limits.
- I feel like you watched me grow up. For a long time I was smart enough to pick things up naturally, I was even offered to skip grades.
  Then the math got complicated and I didn't know how to learn it. I went from being the smart kid to being the stupid one in remedial math. Being smart was all I had at that point, so when I "lost" that, I lost everything in my eyes. I was stupid and I was never going to be anything because of it.
  I ended up getting my GED as an adult and I now have a promising career in insurance- so I didn't really lose everything, but when I was 15 it sure felt like I had.
  
  More or less the same, except I ran out of steam somewhere in the calc 2 to calc 3 area...so instead of becoming an engineer, I became someone who works for them.
  In some ways it ain't bad. I'm "skilled technical staff" whose work makes my position "salary non-exempt", which means that at most companies/employers, my work gets guaranteed salary pay, but if I am asked to go over 40h in any given week, they're legally obligated to pay me 1.5x OT pay.
  
  I am crossing this divide now. I have secondary education but no university and I am working to get to med school now (In Finland it is a combined undergrad and med school). I think I can do it but I don't really know how to study. I know how to learn but learning in schedule is the issue. I was too ill to go to university when I should have and I could have gone to easier courses I could have gone to without an entrance exam and done OK but I always wanted medicine. Or well, I not easier but easier to get into like maths. After I got better I ended up in aid work, and stopping that is really hard. But I still want to become a doctor so I am trying now in my thirties. Having what looks like undiagnosed ADHD that is now under investigation and crappy childhood might explain part of why I never became what people felt I should have but the fact that I never had to learn to study because I didn't need to get through is up there.
  I try to remember that our education does not mean anything for our value, but it seems hard when it comes to you.
- Excuse me, I resent being attacked at 5am on a Friday, tyvm.
- Wow, that's exactly what I've... heard... too!
- First half describes me, second part does not. Never struggled in school or university (although I did fail lectures because I was too lazy to show up for exams).
  But I also never defined myself about being "the smart kid", I always rejected that notion. Society didn't and still projected it onto me. That's why I'm breaking down crying every other day. I always tried to help people that do struggle, I always tried to keep my "gift" as far away from conversation as possible. It didn't matter, I'm a failure.
- That stang...
  Also, when you see it happen and you actually start trying and do better but some teachers always give you a lower mark to "motivate" you so you'll "try even harder".
  
  some teachers always give you a lower mark to "motivate" you so you'll "try even harder".
  Do people actually do this? I know one thing for sure: someone who does that is not "gifted"
- Why did you have to remind me of my higher education failures

I am good with knowing my deficiencies. What sucks is being told that they are my fault because I should be "smart enough to overcome them".
- Agreed 100%, being a specialist in something always has led to someone taking a pot shot at your deficiencies.
  
  Or being a jack of all trades and getting potshots for not being an expert in everything just because you pick up the basics quickly.
- It's actually insane how many teachers and other education professionals waved me off with 'you're smart enough, just try harder' while I was obviously suicidally depressed and extremely dysfunctional. Having undiagnosed autism because I was a teenage girl in the '00s was fun.
  
  Girls, undiagnosed autism, and suicidal tendencies? Name me a more iconic trio!
- People who say that are just trying to be a dick to you. Say something soul-searing to them in response and they'll stop.
  
  Most people just don't understand that being really good at something doesn't mean you can't be terrible at something else. Like, I can problem solve a wide variety of things, but there are a few things that I just have no success at even if I know the problem and the likely solution.
  The most infuriating one for me is that if I can't see something then I cannot line it up right. A screw or bolt out of view means I have a 50/50 chance of ever getting it started even though I know how I can move it to fit in. Like I know to tilt and whatever, but without a visual frame it becomes impossible. A ton of people just yell me I am not trying hard enough, even though attempting to learn for decades hasn't worked out for me.
  But with even the slightest view I can get it started no problem. Being told I am not trying hard enough is infuriating when I am just being honest that it is my limitation.
- Ah, the ol' "here's the test here's exactly what you need to do to be successful" followed by "lol that was never the real test."

The guilt that "you could have done more with your life", despite being a successful engineer with a happy family.
- "Gurtaj is a principle software engineer at Google you know! You used to be the same grade in school. What happened?"
  "Dad, I'm running a multimillion dollar startup right now"
  "Tsk tsk"
  
  "with all that million dollar you still can't be a doctor, did you know your nephew could play violins blindfolded while performing a surgery when he was still 3 years old. What a disappointment"
  
  Meanwhile,
  "Osrs is running a multimilion dollar startup you know! You used to be the same grade at school. What happened?"
  "Dad, I'm a principle software engineer at Google right now!"
  "Tsk tsk"
- Dude...fuck...are you me?

There's that joke about wearing regular clothes on Halloween to go as the "gifted kid", and when people ask what you're supposed to be you sigh and say you were supposed to be a lot of things.
- "I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else."
  
  Was this from Dexter? I feel like this is from Dexter.

I'm in this picture and it makes me keenly aware of what I could accomplish if I didn't just coast by
- Go with what makes you happiest, most often more effort can lead to less rewards. Ultimately you have to find your comfort zone.
  
  wise words. I started just playing to my strengths a few years ago, instead of overachieving for the nebulous award of being "the best", and my life has gotten immensely more fulfilling.
  my current employer isn't asking me to be the best in my field, just good at what I do, and that feels great. I get shit done, and don't feel the need to constantly reinvent the wheel. or feel the stress of failure when something is over my head.
- We all think we are there, it's not a good mentality. No judgement, I am with you
- AscendedMeme.jpg: Being Dumb | Being Gifted | Being Just Smart Enough to Coast by Easily in life while enjoying it.
- I'm in this picture too, but the red part

Let's be honest, most of us think we're in the blue zone, when we are probably in the red zone
- No, people in the red zone think they're in the green zone.
  
  FB proved this
  
  And everyone believing they're in the blue zone is statistically speaking very likely in the yellow zone.
- Sometimes we wish that our impostors syndrome was true
  
  I just wish I didn't know that whatever is true none of it matters anyway.
- I had to do an official test along with a psychological examination for reasons when I was almost 18 years old, so I know at some point I was in the blue zone or above, but it doesn't really fucking matter when you have autism, a mood disorder and have been neglected by your parents so you never learned things like determination or frustration tolerance. I think I shaved a solid 10 IQ points off anyway from almost a decade of substance abuse issues, so now I'm just autistic and dysfunctional without the gifted part.
  
  Serious question: what kind of drug abuse does it take to shave off 10 IQ points? I've done my fair share and would prefer not to have that happen to me - if it hasn't already.
- Most likely most of us would be in the yellow zone
  
  Look at the mathematician here
  
  In order to bother with something like lemmy, you're probably above average intelligence (specifically to do with computers)
- How many of us were put in the blue zone because we liked The Magic School Bus and turned up to second grade already knowing what an esophagus is?
- I'm cleanly in the green 👑
  
  Excellent at being below average

I still suffer from this. Promising early start, intense self-confidence issues and depression by the end.
- The secret is we're all gifted and talented in our own ways. Our society is structured to benefit and work for a specific kind of gifted and talented. You got to an early start, and then when it was determined your talents weren't profitable, the problem was framed as you wasting them instead or the system failing you.
  Not to mention our current identification of gifted and talented is basically just "So you know how that one kid has ADHD and his lack of structure in their home life results in poor grades? Well we put them in the remedial class. There we will teach them coping and organization skills. Meanwhile, this other kid? They also have ADHD but we don't realize it because their grades are fantastic. Turns out their home life is stressful in a specific way that means they get good grades, but they don't really know why or what structure is helping them. I school we will put them in the gifted and talented class. There, they'll be in an unstructured environment where they can learn and explore at their own pace and OH NO NOW THEY'RE ANXIOUS AND UPSET BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO BECAUSE THEY WERE THRIVING IN THE STRUCTURE OF A REGULAR CLASSROOM"
  Our education system is not based on individual need and instead on assuming everyone is basically the same, just more or less advanced
  
  I definitely identify with the second kid. Being tossed around so much because they tried to figure me out and failed definitely doesn't help. "You're good! But not good enough."
- Doubt is a sign of intelligence. Which can sometimes lead to confidence issues. Just try to keep things in perspective and not let doubt keep you from taking calculated risks. It's when we allow ourselves to become paralyzed that things regress. A lot of it is environment as well so there's no simple answer but I can assure you thet you're not alone.
  
  I think I needed to hear this, thank you
- Many such cases!

Fun fact: programs for gifted kids have historically been far more underfunded than programs for other exceptional students.
By the way, the euphemism of "exceptional children" pleases my autistic brain way more than any other word for Special Education students. It has all the compliment-sounding qualities of "Special Needs" but is even more literal than any previous euphemism. It literally means "kids that teachers need to make exceptions for"
- "Gifted" programs royally screwed my education. I had huge gaps in my knowledge because they decided that being top percentile in reading/writing (and being the weird kid) meant I could just skip out on classes for special little weird classes or sit with higher grade classes. I just had ADHD btw and really liked to read. Anyway, I would LOVE to know wtf they thought they were doing moving a kid around that much in 3rd-5th. I suffered the hardest with math. I was missing bits and pieces, which is pretty gd important in math, and I'd still somehow get the answers right but talked to about my overly complicated or ✨creative✨ solutions lol. Even now I hide my work if I need to solve something because I'm probably doing it weird... Then later it was really fun finding out that I couldn't really live up to being "gifted". 0/10 being special made me less educated.
  
  Skipping classes as a "gifted" kid always seemed like a very weird concept to me, you're making the child lose a lot of interaction with their peers for dubious reasons. It seems to me like it should only be reserved for the most bulging hyperwrinkled brains, like those kids that finish college by the time they're 16 or whatever that would obviously be extremely understimulated when going the normal pace. Even then you could argue the gigabrain kid would probably benefit greatly from socializing with their peers, I mean where's the rush really? They're young, they can always learn more later.
- "well if those kids are so smart surely they can do more with less right?"
  -average conversation at an budgetary meeting for education, probably
- Truth. When I was in the gifted reading program us dweebs had to temporarily be relocated to the teachers break room.
  I'm sure the teachers that shared that break time with us didn't enjoy it.

This is funny, but even the most intelligent people are inflicted with this. Don't let it keep you down, we cannot be good at everything.
Its been consistently self-reported by Harvard students. And another effect is present, too - excellence leads to being placed in competitive environments, where everyone else is just as excellent. And this can make brilliant people feel stupid.
- Intelligence also doesn't necessarily translate to actual success. I've been through numerous assessments as a child that confirmed I am comfortably in the "green zone" (if measured by IQ, that is), but I also have pretty severe ADHD so I can only really make use of my brain for short periods of time.
  I can get a week's worth of work done in a day, but only once a week, and I spend the rest of the week wondering where I'd be if only I could work like that every day. I was also a decent student in school/uni but never near the top of the class, because I couldn't bring myself to study for anything more than a few days before the exam.
- No we're not, you're just in the blue zone. Us greens are quite happy.
  
  Found the red
- Well, there necessarily need to also exist below average Harvard students. Its probably more of a shock to have the one thing you might have been proud of, being rather smart, be taken away once you get there and realize you are probably at most average and have to find a new identity
  
  But its just an illusion.

Did you know that 80% of people think they're above average intelligence?
- I think a good part of that is because 'average human' is not a good way to represent who we are individually. I'm probably above average at specific things but in many other respects I'm average or below or wherever I'm supposed to be. Maybe most people are above average even though on average most of us are average.
  Fully above average people IMO are like astronauts and stuff. We all live in the shadow of that former navy seal/doctor/astronaut who is like 45 or some crazy shit.
- This really depends on the distribution. If some or all of the people in that bottom 20% are very, very stupid it could actually work out that 80% are above average, because the average is being pulled down by the people at the bottom.
  This is why we have different averages like mean, median, mode, and RMS because they each give you different interpretations of the raw data. For example the mean electro motive force of the grid is around 0 volts because it spends as much time in the negative as the positive. We use RMS here because negative numbers become positive when squared.
  
  Just the fact that you’re thinking about this in terms of a distribution that’s non-normal indicates that you’re on the right side of that distribution.
- Flat earthers and anti vaxxers bring the average down far enough to make that possible.
- I'm definitely average
  Maybe a little stupid sometimes

There is no green region. It's blue all the way up.

Ah, I see the stereotype of everyone thinking of themselves as "lazy genius" is something we've carried over from Reddit. We're all above average intelligent and could really achieve something if we just bothered to work hard and apply ourselves!
lol
- Yeah, one of the most important epiphanies I've ever had is realizing I'm not a lazy genius, I'm just lazy. It was a rude awakening to realize that I need to work twice as hard to keep up. But it was probably the best thing to happen to me!

I wish my iq was 20 higher or lower, idk just gimme out of the blue zone
- The older I get the more I profoundly identify with Cypher. Ignorance truly is bliss.
  
  I say it regularly, I would prefer to be ignorant… At least then I wouldn’t be hyper aware our species stinks.
  
  Seriously, sweet ignorance and the woman in the red dress, every day.
- I get what you mean… though, I feel like an IQ test is a biased test, I took one as a teenager and scored high. Which was a morale boost at the time, but a few months later I had medical problems and ended up having a stroke and had to basically start all over with speech, motor and memory.
  Sure, I survived. But I went through every therapy, started back up and realized I wasn’t close to what I was before. Which was crushing, sure I knew it wouldn’t be the same and I’m still above average, but the latent memories of my capabilities before constantly haunt me.
  I didn’t mean to depress anyone, just enjoy the blue zone if at all possible. I constantly try remembering, it can get worse. /hug
  
  though, I feel like an IQ test is a biased test
  IQ as used by worm-brained US citizens daily (that is, to measure intelligence) is pseudoscience
  
  Cool name. Are the new ones as enormous as they say?

I like the term “twice exceptional”. All of my biggest strengths are aspects of myself that come with tradeoffs. For 20 years straight, I was praised for the strengths and scolded for the tradeoffs. Motherfucker, you can’t enjoy how quickly I learn things I’m interested in and also treat me like I’m lazy when you expect me to sustain equal amounts of interest in 10 different things that bore me and I fail. You can’t enjoy all the art and tech I make and then get annoyed when it’s difficult to break me out of a hyperfixation.
I firmly believe that the tortured artist stereotype is bullshit. There’s nothing about being an artist that requires you to be miserable. But we sure do treat people like shit when their brains work differently.
- The later half is so true, early on when you’re a statistical anomaly you can get special treatment, but once you become a small problem or the skill backfires they blow up as if it couldn’t have been seen coming. They expect 100% efficiency like you’re a battery to sap and don’t care how it affects you mentally.

Being gifted only refers to intelligence most of the time. But intelligence alone won't make a person excel at their field. You can be among the most intelligent people but still stay in the blue zone.
I think excellence comes to be when intelligence meets motivation, purpose, creativity, social skills or other factors.
And when it comes to the blue zone resilience would be a key factor. If one is intelligent of course you realize your faults quicker as well. However it takes resilience to keep going in the face of your own doubt.
That's why in the real world people who are very convinced of themselves and their own ideas will get far even if not gifted at all.
- Agreed with most of your post but uhhhhhhh
  That’s why in the real world people who are very convinced of themselves and their own ideas will get far even if not gifted at all
  Confidence isn't as good for finding the truth or good solutions as it is for tricking other people's brains into thinking that you're a reputable source of information. If you mean "will get very far" as in "capable of raising through the ranks of a hierarchy, regardless of what they actually do with their position later" or "capable of establishing their own little flat-earth cult", then sure, a confident dumb person can achieve that. Not sure that's something to be celebrated though.
  
  Absolutely agree. I meant exactly what you said.
- This just reads like a post about how you should be a good little capitalist slave.
  
  They don't mention a job once. "Field" can refer to study, or anything else.
  Imagine how mediocre you'd have to be to reply like that.
  You don't think weren't "gifted, motivated" people in Soviet communist Russia?
  
  Or you could read it as critical of capitalism.
  "motivation, purpose, social skills, creativity" arguably all valued more under socialism/communism (admittedly there's a lot of semantics going on under the hood here). Which is why so much tallent goes to waste as grist in the capitalist mill.
  
  Holy shit guys, I get the anti work rhetoric, but you're essentially saying "don't work hard for anything, just live by coasting". I really hope this pendulum stops swinging and finds a happy medium

The creator of this comic is a self-described pro-sweatshop neoliberal, which explains the "woe is me, I'm too smart for my own good" delusions.
- Sure, because something so egregious would definitely show up in a Google search for "Zach Weinersmith sweatshop", right?
  Unless...you're exaggerating on the Internet to stir up outrage?
- Yeah the comic reeks of PMC brainworms. I say that as someone with PMC brainworms. “You’re special enough to make decisions, but make sure you cultivate too much self-doubt to make true change.”
- Do you have a source for that? I cannot find anything about it online in Google, Wiki or even in ChatGPT delusions.
- I don't think he's ever come out in favor of sweatshops? Maybe you're think of Matt ygelsia from vox.
- That doesn't fit with anything I know about Weinersmith. You got any source?

Fun fact about being in that green region: Don't! It's like being in the blue region, but green!
- You have the downside of having to shoehorn being in the green region to every conversation. A real burden

I don't mind being aware of everything, but I do mind that nobody else is
- As you get older, you sort of get used to the fact that the majority of your fellow passengers are oblivious to the fact we’re on a bus speeding towards a cliff, driven by depravity and delusions of grandeur. And you realize short of a miracle, nothing is going to change it. It’s either that or you go mad. ¯(ツ)/¯

Who wants to bet that most commenters will place themselves in the blue zone?
Thankfully I can look down on everyone as I’m firmly at the top of that curve.
- Is it surprising that people like that gravitate to a place like this?
  
  No it's not and it's also weird to treat that percentile as if people in it are extremely rare. People who fall in the blue area (noticably higher than average intelligence, but not exceptional) are about 15% of the population. The problem is that people somehow feel attacked if someone claims themself to be clever and it's accepted to shame them for that.
- A lack of self-awareness does come with its perks.

Getting mature early is a curse
Cuz you are left with a wee little tolerance for biased thoughts and advices

on the topic of iq, i have a lot of problems with the way people seem to interact with the concept. there's a bunch of assumptions all baked into it:
iq is a variable that actually exists in nature
people's iq is static and follows a standard distribution
iq tests are capable of objectively measuring or at least approximating this variable
this variable is a good stand-in or even synonymous with cognitive ability
cognitive ability is univariate or single-faceted, able to be described with a single number
cognitive ability equates to or correlates with usefulness, happiness, sociability, success, whatever
finally, that any of this really matters, like in a materially impactful way, or is something that we should focus on
it's not that each of these statements is 100% wrong, it's that each shouldn't be assumed to be true. but the way i usually see iq invoked kinda just uncritically runs with all of them, contained within a neat little ideological package.
- also a pet theory i like (that isn't actually true or provable) is that gifted programs are meant to remove children deemed smarter from their communities and funnel them into middle management and academia, so they don't become agitators for change in their communities and workplaces
  
  That could be true, but I think only if there's a systemic effort to diagnose and put those children into specialized establishments. Where I'm from, it doesn't appear to be the case.
- Get back to your green region you smart guy, we're having a moment of melancholy over arbitrary metric here.
- IQ is like the difference between a CPU and a GPU expressed in one number. You should rather care for your strengths and weaknesses.

Awareness of your own weaknesses is the first step to make them your strengths.
- Yes, this is funny, but anyone worth knowing in a PhD program will quote Hawkings at you if you take the green part too seriously.
  "Only losers brag about their IQ."
  Or Thomas Edison (and yes, he was actually a decent engineer before he realized how much easier it is to just own a company)
  "Great accomplishments depend not so much on ingenuity as on hard work."

I was in the "gifted and talented" program as a kid and all it meant was I got more homework lmao. Good thing I loved reading and actually enjoyed being assigned novel chapters
- I think I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that I was effectively being punished for understanding the normal material more easily than my classmates, and I didn't get why my "gifted and talented" work was necessary, since it was, to me, bonus material, and not even interesting bonus material.
  A core memory of mine is after showing up one time without an assignment done, my teacher decided to go around the room asking what everyone wanted to be when they grew up. All my G&T classmates said standard kid answers like doctor, lawyer, firefighter, whatever. Not being a smartass, I gave the genuine answer that, because I really liked Taco Bell, and there was a taco bell in walking distance, I'd be happy to work there and get some free Taco Bell.
  Teacher called my parents.
  How the fuck was I supposed to know giving a real, and in hindsight significantly more attainable answer was unacceptable? We were in elementary school, so why the hell would I know at that point that basic food service is basically non-viable in America?
  
  They basically fucked me over for life in math.
  At first, us "academically gifted" kids were only separated from the general population for language arts, but later in middle school they expanded the program for math, and the way they implemented that was we skipped 7th grade math entirely and took the normal 8th grade curriculum, "pre-algebra." So that as a freshman in high school, I would take 10th grade math, etc.
  I think I took less time than the average 6th grader to "get it." I didn't need 50 practice problems for homework to become proficient in long division, 30 would do. I think a 7th grade math class that included a little less plug and chug practice and more word problems and practical application, ie reinforcing what this math we're learning is for and how to really use it, would have helped me a lot.
  Instead, I was just thrown forward a year and expected to just handle it, and even taking a course called "advanced math topics" which amounted to "algebra 3" rather than taking pre-calculus my senior year of high school, I never caught back up.

I reject uniform distribution theory and only recognize the graph that looks like a pair of torpedo titties.
- I can’t unsee it now.

was just joking around with a sibling about how some of the most intensely "being highly intelligent is my identity" people from high school with supportive families grew up to be dumb as hell.
the gifted valedictorian became a nurse, then went full "iraq had WMDs, but it was classified" chud, quit the workforce to have 4 children, is a god-tier horder with rooms full of actual garbage, and now is entangled in several MLMs shoveling a spouse's very high income into a blackhole.
the "actually, i have a 160 IQ" inherited a bunch of $$, bought a bunch of vehicles, had 5 kids, went full blown "dance mom" facebook+social media freakshow, and spends most of their effort trying to cultivate inappropriate relationships and fabricate dramas with other married spouses in their neighborhood.
excellence and success are subjective. a life of curiosity, personal enrichment, family, and friends can be excellent without needing accolades or other features of careerist striving. but i'll be damned if some really "smart" people don't take their potential and, in defiance of the odds, turn it into a shit smoothie.
- You sound bitter and cruel. Nursing is a wonderful profession that requires a lot of intelligence. There's nothing wrong with having children. Hoarding is a fucking mental disorder and one of the most intelligent men I know struggled with it.
  
  you sound like you are entangled in several MLMs.

Like I'm even good enough to have imposter syndrome.

I believe this is called the Salieri zone
- lol i had to look up who that was... very fitting
- Uh... All I see when I Google that is old porn starring some guy named Mario Salieri
- My guy spitting facts over here.

Others have touched on this, but ultimately the most vital trait a person can possess is perseverance and a bias for action. I would gladly work with a mediocre person who works relentlessly at improving their skills and figuring out solutions. I don't enjoy working with "gifted" people who have plenty of ideas and few actions to show for it. Intelligence can make you risk averse, and you're useless if you're too afraid to take any action.
- Which is the curse, built in risk aversion. 🥴
- bias for action
  Bezos intensifies

Had the top conversation in third grade. Have spent the rest of my life in the blue zone.
- I avoided it by coasting, they did testing in kindergarten and I realized fast I didn’t want the attention. Especially being treated like a trophy by my dad.
  Do I regret coasting now, of course. Do it for your self-confidence, later in life you’ll be happier you did.
  
  So I'm curious, how did you end up? Is there anything in your adult life that indicates your capabilities are above average?

Gifted kids aren't necessarily smarter than anyone else. They just develop their adult levels of intelligence faster than normal. So there is no guarantee that the amount they will be able to maintain that performance gap going forward. Indeed, they are likely to do worse as they never had to develop the skills to do well in school. So once school gets hard enough for them to need those skills they don't have them.

The first 3 are the flag of Romania :) 🇹🇩
Edit: (but reversed)
- And Chad.
  
  If I'm not wrong, Andorra too

Yeah, the less stupid you are, the more you realize how stupid you really are.

Boy I sure wish I had a 6 hr video explaining the incredibly racist origins of the Bell curve which has no value at all scientifically speaking, perhaps even by a Liverpudlian narrator of sorts
- a bell curve is just a normal distribution lol
  do you mean the BOOK "The Bell Curve"? the frenology book? yeah i think most of us here get that frenology is racist
  do you mean the racist origins behind IQ?
  
  I meant this video
- You might need to elaborate. I'm confused at the Bell curve (which is a visual representation of the normal distribution) not having any value at all.
  The Central Limit Theorem guarantees that the normal distribution will show up all over the place. To say that it has no value scientifically is simply false.
  
  i am making a joke about the youtuber skullboi shaun and his very longform essay methodology, especially this video on the bell curve book

Ah, the Asperger's Zone

Show this comic to 100 people and almost all will think they’re in the blue zone.
This is like those ADHD memes which just list every one of life’s inconveniences or challenges as some kind of “symptom.”
Everyone has these feelings, it’s not a curse, it’s just life.
- I guess you didn't realize that pretty much every ND diagnostic criteria is something that pretty much every human experiences to some degree or another, but people who experience them to levels where it negatively impacts their life can get diagnosed and treated so that they can attempt to live a "normal" life. It's not some big gotcha you just figured out, it's part of the actual diagnostic criteria for the conditions.
  
  Can't find the source right now, but some tweet compared it to peeing. Everybody has to pee, but when you have to go 30 times a day, there is obviously something different about you.
  
  Sure, and an earache can be nothing or a symptom of a brain tumor. That’s the problem with a bunch of people self diagnosing based on WebMD or memes.
- Everyone has these feelings
  Not me!
- Can you not try to drag ppl with ADHD thru the mud? Odds are you really don't know what you're talking about.
- As demonstrated by the comments in this thread.
- Fully agree. It's strange that people think that being aware of ones deficits is beholden to people of above average intelligence. Being aware of your own limitations is a pretty basic human trait.

Godamnit

IQ is bullshit. The gifted kids were just the kids that had supportive homelives
- This isn't true at all. IQ isn't some magical catch-all measure of a person's intellectual ability, but it's not entirely total quackery either.
  I suspect that academic success would be very strongly correlated with having a supportive home life, but IQ not so much. Maybe the gifted kids you refer to were the academically successful ones and not the high-IQ ones?
  
  They once had me take one of those horoscopes and one part of it was a rorschach test. How is that not quakery.
  Another part was to have me write a short text wich fair enough.
  fill in mulltiple choise questions that were deliveratly obtuse and ambigous.
  The only part that i would expect to corrrelaete with intelligence was when i had to memorize a string of numbers and repeat it after a while. But even then this is an ability you can train.
- Human intelligence definitely varies. People in remedial education are not there just because they have poor home lives.
- I know lots of people that didn't grew up in a supportive environment and have a high IQ. I mean on the level of "my parents/father (it's mostly the father) never cared about me and now I have sevear depression and tried to kill myself" level. And partially they were pregnant at the age of 13/14
  And I did grew up in a supportive environment and am stupid as fuck.
- Maybe on average, but you've got my ass who was put in the gifted program from 2nd grade on, with a single mom who was working two jobs and thus wasn't around much, and who couldn't afford childcare so I had to spend most of my before and after school time with my physically violent and abusive grandmother. Not that being in said program did much good (between the bad home situation and my ADHD, I was constantly in trouble at school), I didn't even finish my bachelor's in the end, but there were a few of us "smart" kids with fucked up home lives in there too.

The smart kid who's just not smart enough to achieve the big goals and should always suffer from what could have been,living an average life.

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