Do you often feel intellectually superior to others?

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I have difficulty interacting with people and relating to them to begin with, however my largest problem is finding people I feel match me on an intellectual level. How often do you feel this way?

Every time I log in, Pipster ... every time I log in ...

It could be that you have a narrow view of intellectual ability. I'm probably dumb as a box of rocks compared to you but if you were to define intellectual ability solely as skill in arithmetic I'd probably make you look pretty average. What about people who flunk out of highschool but achieve great social success because they can identify social behavior and produce the correct responses. Isn't that an intellectual ability? You will always feel smarter than everyone esle if you define intellectual ability by only your strengths. People who can't keep up with you in trivial pursuit can still have something to teach you.

<--- Dumb as a box of bricks.

Well at least you're refined compared to a box of rocks

Never.

I know a whole lot of random facts, I can spell some words that some people cannot, and I'm all right at working out mathematical equations in my head, but that does not make me superior.

If anything, I feel intellectually inferior to other people.

I guess, statistically, it depends on where you are in the bell curve. If you are far enough to the right, theoretically only a small portion of the population will be your "intellectual equal" in the quantifiable sense. I have a hard time developing strong relationships with those who are more toward the top of the bell curve (ie, of average intelligence), but I have managed to find several friends who have roughly equivalent intelligence, who "get" me and all that. I develop the closest relationships with people who I feel are slightly smarter than me, those are the types I never get bored with.

Yeah but you have an awesome puppy and that makes you intellectually superior in my book.

Sometimes on certin topics when dealing with certin people, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I used to feel this way a lot but in my case I think it was partly the arrogance of youth. I am personally not totally sold on how useful IQ is as a tool for testing intelligence but I am in roughly the top 1.5% percent by that measure. I really don't think about it much though. I'm probably the most intelligent member of my family although I'm lucky enough to have family who are mostly at least moderately intelligent so I can usually explain what I am thinking or reading about to them and have it be understood.

Despite having a small friendship group my friends are (almost) all of very comparable levels of intelligence to me so I get a decent quality of dialog from them. I think that is a big part of the reason we are friends. I have one friend in particular with whom I often discuss biology (one of my enduring special interests and something I studied before I dropped out due to mental illness); I always enjoy those conversations.

My small group of friends and my family are the only people I spend time with (because until recently I actively avoided spending time with anybody else) and so, because they are all of reasonable intelligence and can communicate at my level, at this stage in my life the question of how intelligent I am relative to others does not often arise in my mind. However, five minutes reading any online newspaper comments section will rapidly restore a combined sense of both smug intellectual superiority and utter despair at the state of the human race. The former usually isn't worth the latter.

The one time these kind of thoughts have been a concern for me in recent years has been when it came to dating. There were at least two women who I met who were interested in me and were potential candidates for taking it further but they were both noticeably less clever than me by any measure. For me there is no bigger turn off than trying to explain a moderately (just moderately) complex topic to a potential partner and having them completely fail to understand it. As such, in both cases, I just couldn't take it further despite being physically attracted to each woman and getting on well with each woman. In fact when it comes to women intelligence is probably my biggest deal breaker/maker. Ability to outwit me=most attractive feature of a woman by far.

edit: Also as I have gotten older I have learned to be able to more easily communicate meaningfully with people who - on the face of things - are much less intelligent than me. It's just much less of a "thing" for me now. If you drop your preconceptions about people and approach them with an open mind you may often be suprised and find a gem of intellect or wit in a place you didn't expect.

invisiblesilent I do recognize that my impression of others may be due to some youthful arrogance. Or perhaps I am just spending my time with the wrong people. I've gradually begun to spend more time with my family as I feel I can speak to them without having to explain myself constantly. Also, I have experienced similar struggles when it comes to relationships of an intimate sort. I have tried maintain relationships with two neurotypical young men and neither attempt was successful. I could not enjoy their company. Despite being attracted to them, I realized that I found conversing with them completely disinteresting.

I know that I am intellectually above average, and that some people are intellectually subordinate to me and some are intellectually superior. I sometimes find dealing with people who are intellectually subordinate to me to be tedious. This does not mean that they are not cool people, or that I dislike them based on their intellectual capabilities. Also, many people who are intellectually subordinate to me are by far my superiors socially, so I feel like an idiot in comparision to them in this area.

I'd like to be able to say that I'm able to learn something from everyone and that I never get frustrated with others, but I do sometimes get irritated by people significantly less intelligent than I am. It's not something I'm proud of. It's not so much feeling intellectually superior as feeling frustration at not being able to make myself understood. I don't think it's specific to autism either.

What annoys me more than low intelligence is a lack of intellectual curiosity and a lack of openness to new ideas and concepts. I know people of average or higher intelligence who are not open to challenging their ideas and discussing the complexities of concepts. I also know people of below average intelligence who are interested in questioning their ideas and finding nuances. I find the latter far more rewarding to talk to.

The fact that you are even able to consider that is a positive thing; some people never reach the point where they are able to recognise that they are capable of such emotions as arrogance and conceit.



This is a distinct possiblity. When I was 17-21 I had a lot of superficial friendships that were based on things such as one or two mutual shared interests. While the frequency of my social interaction has decreased a lot as I have aged the quality of the interactions I have has also increased. I isolated myself too much though and now have fewer meaningful and satisfying social interactions than I would like.



I think the physical side of attraction has to be there for something to work but equally for me it is the meeting of minds that creates all the sparks and tension which actually make somebody interesting rather than just attractive. If that doesn't happen they could be the most beautiful person I ever met and I would still get bored very quickly. It feels like it narrows your options down a lot doesn't it? :/ Nevertheless I've arrived at a point where I would sooner wait until I meet somebody who ticks all the boxes rather than engage in awkward and unfulfilling attempts at dating just for the sake of it.

RE: your new avatar:- Have you developed a messiah complex to go with your superiority complex as exhibited in this post? (<--- sticky tongue out face to indicate that this is intended as a joke and not a snide personal attack).

i have been told i am intelligent but i've never felt like it.