Yahoo Lifestyle 22 Subtle Signs That Someone Is Much, Much Smarter Than They're Letting On
Have you ever heard this quote? "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
It's most commonly attributed to Albert Einstein (though, apparently, that's not true). But regardless of who initially said it, I think it's a great sentiment because it succinctly expresses the idea that intelligence comes in many different forms.
And on the topic of intelligence, Reddit user u/Mysterious-Ad5451 recently asked, "What’s a sign that someone is way smarter than they let on?" on r/AskReddit. The post has since received over 3,000 responses, many of which are really thought-provoking.
So, here are 22 ways that you can tell someone is much, much more intelligent than they are letting on.
1."People who meet you on your wavelength are smarter than most."
"They can talk about pretty much anything with anyone. They’ll shoot the sh*t with some people and discuss politics with others."
2."People who can admit when they’re wrong. People who reconsider their positions based on new evidence."
"When people take a moment to contemplate an argument they disagree with rather than just reflectively dismissing it. Smart people are willing to have their assumptions challenged and reevaluate them."
3."Endless curiosity."
4."Good comedy. There are so many great comedians who play dumb and make jokes about how stupid they are, but I think you have to be above average intelligence to be a great comedian."
"Humor is the highest form of language. Robin Williams was a great comedian, and he was brilliant."
"I use Conan O'Brian as my example. The guy plays it up that he's a clutz but graduated Harvard and knows how to make a joke about anything."
"Tina Fey said that you could tell which people in a crowd were smart by what they laughed at. I've found that to be true."
5."People who ask perceptive questions which show a deep and considered comprehension of what's being said and meant, and how the information interacts with the wider picture."
"During my PhD, I noticed that really smart people could listen to a lecture on a topic that was tangential to their research and still ask insightful questions."
"My next-door neighbor's 4-year-old son would ask me what I was doing then why. I'd explain what I was doing, and he'd continue to ask, 'Why?' I'd continue to answer until he got the reason into his head.
The next-door neighbor apologized, but I told him that his son was just showing intelligence by getting to the root cause of his curiosity."
6."They talk to themselves a lot but not in a weird way. More like they’re processing stuff to remember and later on apply it."
7."The fact that they're not letting on how smart they are."
8."They're kinder. Kindness is just smart."
9."The sharpest guy I ever worked with once said, 'A trained monkey could do my job,' as he was converting my measured values to hexadecimal in his head as he input adjusted CNC parameters."
10."Very quick wit. You have to be smart to process and deliver."
11."Emotionally smart people can share information that reassures other people before the other person even brings it up."
12."Someone who can explain a very complex topic to a room full of lay-people is usually pretty good at what they do."
13."I subscribe to the idea that there are multiple types of intelligence. I have a mate who didn't finish high school, but he can fix and build anything. Engines just run better if he's around them. He has total mastery of the physical world. You'll never convince me that he's not brilliant, even though he hasn't read a book since he was a kid."
"My husband is like this. He bunked school so often and barely passed, but he can diagnose a problem with an engine in a two-minute video call. I don't think he's met an engine and steering wheel combo he hasn't mastered. I'm not biased cause I'm married to him; we have friends who have their own auto shops who ask him for advice. His grandmother always says he was born with a steering wheel in his hands. But don't put him in front of a book."
14."The more you know, the more aware you are of the things you don't know."
15."Really smart people tend to be interested in many different topics. They are naturally curious about many different things."
16."Rather than getting frustrated when they don't know something, they get excited. I had a chemistry professor in college who was SO smart, and when somebody asked a question she couldn't answer, her eyes lit up as she said, 'I don't know. Let's find out!' To her, not knowing something was just an opportunity to learn something new."
17."If they begin their answer to most questions with something like, 'I don’t really know...' or 'I don’t have all the details...' or 'I’m sure someone more knowledgeable can enlighten you on this…'"
"I used to know a very smart guy, and whenever he said, 'I could be wrong, but...' you know he was 100% positive and 100% correct."
18."Shakespeare wrote, 'The fool considers himself to be wise, while the wise man considers himself to be a fool.' Somebody who knows and understands that is smart."
19."They seem lucky."
"Skill is sometimes disguised as luck."
20."A person who makes decisions that are perceived by many as 'strange' (taking unconventional paths, seemingly descending the career ladder, and so on)."
21."The biggest thing for me is speed of learning and automatically is able to draw connections from one seemingly distant discipline to another unrelated discipline. Being able to extrapolate wide and deep."
22.And finally, "All of the above and also: depression."
"It’s not that everyone with depression has a high IQ, or that everyone with a high IQ has depression, but there is empirical evidence suggesting that intelligent people are more prone to depression than people of average or low intelligence."
So, what do you think? Did these ring true to you? Are there any other signs that someone is way smarter than they let on that you didn't see on this list?
Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
