Not being afraid of saying “I don’t know”, asking really good questions, being able to admit mistakes—these are just a few examples of what people think is characteristic of an intelligent person. And while signs that indicate that someone is highly intelligent might differ from person to person, you’ll know one when you meet them by the way they carry themselves.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community have recently discussed such signs after the user ‘Occyz’ started a thread about it. If you’re curious about what kind of person might make you feel like Pinky next to The Brain, scroll down to find the redditors’ thoughts on the list below and feel free to upvote the signs you believe are indicative of intelligence as well.
#1
How often they are confident in saying “I don’t know”.
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#2
They’re very good at problem solving. Even if it’s something they have no experience with they always approach the problem from the right angle.
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#3
They struggle with imposter syndrome. Dumb people always think they’re the tits.
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#4
They can adapt their communication style — vocabulary, tone, content, etc — to fit the situation and people they’re talking to, and it seems completely natural.
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#5
Understanding/appreciating nuance.
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#6
When being taught to do something new, they care just as much, if not more, about why it should be done a certain way as they do about what needs to be done.
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#7
They’re storytellers. They craft narratives for themselves and for others that are compelling, that make the world make sense, that invigorate and install a goal, a mission.
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#8
They are ok with being perceived as “stupid” by asking questions – if we hold back in fear, we’ll never truly learn. Plus it’s a good way to show others it’s ok to question things if you don’t understand – better off if we’re on the same page instead of hoping things work out without being informed.
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#9
They don’t continually need to tell people how intelligent they are.
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#10
They ask really good questions and listen more than they talk.
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#11
I usually find that creativity, humor, and verbal acuity are good signs of intelligence
I generally see lack of empathy, low open-ness, and seeing the world in absolutes as signs of low intelligence
Also, I notice many socially inept people tend to consider themselves intelligent almost just because they’re socially inept and/or not good at sports. It’s as if their ego needs something to value themselves on so they assume they must be smart
It’s entirely possible that the “other” guy in your life who makes you insecure is taller, stronger, more charismatic, AND smarter. Such is life
Lastly, people (especially tech people) will often conflate technical/domain knowledge with intelligence which is absolutely not always the case. Yes there is a bare minimum intelligence required to be an engineer etc, but being an awkward senior engineer doesn’t mean you’re just too smart for normies to understand and lack of a specific domain knowledge has f**k all to do with intelligence.
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#12
They feel challenged rather than threatened by new things, problems, ideas…
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#13
They talk only when they have something to say.
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#14
Giant head.
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#15
They’re very observant, sometimes reserved.
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#16
I have met several off the charts intelligent people. One thing I noticed that they have in common was low self esteem. They had an actual low self esteem club at the science fiction club I belonged to. The guy who did a lot of the calculations that allowed the Voyager probes to make the Grand Tour of our solar system was a member of the club. All he could think about were what he didn’t know or what he physically couldn’t do. The common issue I observed from these bright folks was relentless school bullying. We lose so many of these geniuses to depression, suicide, self medication, or just flat out self inflicted mediocrity—society in the US does a s****y job of nurturing intelligence, it makes me incredibly angry how many of these people’s potential were wasted. (I don’t include myself in that club—My intelligence is dead average.) Frank Zappa said it best when he said that intelligence is treated like a hideous deformity by American society.
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#17
Someone who can understand someone’s opposing view without having to agree with it or get angry over it.
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#18
Honestly, after reading their work, debates, talks, podcasts, discussions, arguing, etc, I noticed they often use conditions in their sentences that’s not absolute. There’s also this saying “only a fool talks in absolute”.
Tgey use: I think, many times, often times, usually, it’s possible, it could be IF …
So it appears they talk as if “I can be wrong” or “based on what we know”.
If you compare sentences so known unintelligent people they lack these conditions and voices absolutes only.
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#19
Really funny and depressed.
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#20
I consider someone intelligent if they’re able to explain something incredibly complicated in simpler and more readily understood terms.
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#21
My freshman college roommate was a mechanical engineer. One of the first nights we were in the dorms, we had pizza delivered. We didn’t eat it all, but the pizza box didn’t fit inside the dorm fridge. He went all out origami and transformed the box into a smaller, perfectly square box that did fit inside the fridge…in about 12 seconds.
I’m pretty good at math, but not necessarily geometry. My mind was blown.
I spent 35 years in academia between my student/teacher years and he’s still one of the three smartest people I’ve ever met. His ability to “just do it” is dumbfounding to me. His retirement project is transforming his father’s 1963 Mercedes convertible into a “hybrid” that has a small diesel engine that runs on vegetable oil along with a totaled Tesla Model S battery pack.
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#22
When someone can admit a mistake and they know they don’t know everything.
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#23
Being able to read people very well. Adjust communication style to communicate most effectively. Also be able to read the room. Sense of humor is in there too.
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#24
I have a friend who is a genius.
One thing where it is very clear is when we were learning automation software. (Siemens stuff. Tia Portal, etc.)
Dude taught himself pretty much the entire program in three days just by using the inbuild wiki.
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#25
They mispronounce less common words.
It means they probably haven’t heard those words spoken much, and they learned the words by reading. They’re curious and self-educated.
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#26
They explain complex topics by using metaphors and analogies.
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#27
They don’t argue with stupid people.
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#28
Choosing not to argue with someone who’s wrong and choosing their own peace of mind over being right.
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#29
They get excited sharing their knowledge and talk to people instead of at them.
This probably isn’t a 100% guarantee that someone is intelligent but it’s something I’ve noticed more often in intelligent people than in people who are just knowledgeable.
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#30
When they take the time to filter through any possible misunderstandings in an argument by asking questions to help them better understand the idea that’s being presented, instead of immediately assuming their first interpretation of the argument is the correct one.
Something that’s always bugged me is when my argument gets misunderstood, and then attacked from angles where supposed “errors” exist, when those errors rose out of the listeners own misinterpretation.
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#31
They have a nuanced perspective and are able to articulate it well. They understand that things tend not to be black-and-white, but shades of gray, and they listen intently to others during a conversation.
#32
They understand that as you begin to learn more about a subject, you enter in to this situation where you believe you know far more than you really do. You realize that you know so much more than those who know nothing about that subject, but not that everything you are learning probably has 100 types of nuance and requires deeper understanding.
It’s kind of related to the Dunning-Kruger effect – the less you know about a subject, the more you THINK you know, because you don’t realize *how much there is to know that you don’t.*
It’s how you can get people who spend a few minutes on youtube or google, spout a bit of lingo they just learned, and don’t realize that *there’s a reason it takes 4 years just to get a bachelors in most topics, and many more to become a specialist*.
It’s infuriating to those who actually HAVE put in the time of study and experience.
So yeah, a person who can show that they have *some* knowledge of a topic, yet remain humble because they realize that there is always more to know. The more you learn about a topic, eventually you realize just *how much MORE there is to know* and it’s important to get through that initial arrogance.
I fell into this myself when I was in my late teens. I became fairly well read on sustainable horticulture and botany in general. I got a job that was pretty advanced, and I was pretty good at it. Yet after a while I realized that my boss… he was like a f*****g *plant wizard*. He could tell you what the weather was like – at night – a week ago – by looking at the way the flowers presented on the tomatoes we grew.
I learned some amazing s**t from him once I got over my ego.
#33
Humility in their knowledge.
And when I say that I really mean three key things, first a willingness to not be right, second a lack of judgment when someone else is wrong, and third a willingness to sound dumb.
You’ll very often see people get something wrong (or something that isn’t wrong but other people think it is) or say something that sounds dumb and then get s**t on by other people for being wrong and then something like fight or flight kicks in and they either double down or just leave. Social media is the worst for this cause it’s so easy to nit pick the smallest detail of something or invoke one of the scary logical fallacies on some rando, but the proper response when talking to someone should never be to put them down, and genuinely intelligent people are like this. Instead, they’ll hand you the information you’re missing so you can get to the right answer.
#34
I worked with a lad who was very like this. He could make any conversation really intriguing and thought provoking, often causing people to reconsider their perspective and position. He was a HR manager that could defuse any situation, helping people mend bridges and resolving issues because he could get both parties to compromise and put aside resentment.
He had IQ and EQ to go a lot further than the role he was in but he was happy and maybe that is another little tid bit of intelligence.
#35
Half of intelligence is critical/lateral thinking and the other half is comprehension. You need to identify what you already know, determine what you need to know, and then how to get there. Identifying the path to knowledge requires you to be attentive and ask the important questions. There is a desired outcome, whether or not you get there, you have intention which focuses your efforts.
With this in mind, I find a subtle sign someone’s is very intelligent is when they ask questions and either specify why they are asking or word the question in a way that shows intent. You can clearly tell where they are going with their questions, or if they happen to be asking irrelevant questions, you both figure it out much faster. It helps them get the information they want, but also helps the person answering understand their train of thought and focus their answers.
#36
Dry humor. Pulling it off requires an observant, quick wit with a nonchalant delivery that almost downplays its own cleverness.
Like it means their immediate passing thoughts are often profound enough to be very funny without any real effort.
#37
I find that highly intelligent people have the ability to think in complex hypotheticals while being nuanced.
I find that Wise people have enough patience and forethought to consider longer term things and be considerate in ways that are hard to take into account.
#38
They pause to think about a novel question instead of instantly blurting out an answer. Sometimes people think it means they’ve been “stumped” and claim victory. No, they’re thinking, analyzing, and formulating a reply.
#39
One thing I’ve noticed is that really intelligent people tend to be empathetic. They’ve quietly analyzed many situations and have thought critically about them.
#40
The ability to break things down simply.
#41
If someone is actually intelligent, they don’t put down the intelligence of others or make others’ accomplishments seem small. I’ve never met a genuinely intelligent person who feels the need to directly (or even indirectly) hint that someone else is “not so smart.”.
#42
Efficiency and elegance in tasks. Other people are walking and the genius is doing ballet.
#43
The ability to ask questions. They know what they know and are aware of what they don’t. But they are not threatened by knowledge they don’t have but rather excited about learning the new thing.
#44
I was going to use my vast vast intelligence to form the perfect answer but forgot what we’re talking about.
#45
VERY quick wit.
Not at all interested in proving how smart they are.
#46
If they have a fedora and say mlady.
#47
Curiosity.
#48
They are funny and can talk about a range of topics.
#49
They ask good questions. .
#50
I’m scrolling through here to see how many of these I match with lol .
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