A lot of us are on a constant journey to improve our minds. We read books, watch films, study and otherwise educate and better ourselves so that we can become more intelligent in various ways. However, some people are just born smart and talented in some ways, requiring less effort to achieve certain things that others might struggle with. Contrary to what some might believe, being smart is not always a blessing. 

Someone created a thread on the r/AskReddit subreddit, asking about the hardships smart people have to live with, exactly because of their high intelligence, and folks delivered plenty of observations, most of which are quite heavy. Scroll down to see the whole list of things people online shared and consider upvoting the entries you relate to the most, as well as leaving a comment.

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#1

Being smart enough to know you’re right while dealing with people too stupid to know they’re wrong is soul crushing.

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#2

There are different types of intelligence. Being good at physics doesn’t mean that you should manage people.

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#3

They are full of doubt compared to people who are not smart

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#4

Sad_But_Realistic said:

Expectations…

Sownd_Rum replied:

This is the killer. If you are “gifted”, having an average life is seen as a failure.

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#5

A lot of them are depressed

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#6

Our school system (Australia) isn’t built to deal with them. It crushes bright kids down to everyone else’s level.

The usual solution is just to give them extra work to do on top of the assigned work, when they finish that too fast. But to a kid, that’s a punishment. In this way achieving beyond a certain accepted parameter is quietly discouraged.

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#7

They have no effect on dumb people’s opinions

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#8

They are often miserable, and able to thoroughly understand their misery and failures.

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#9

Not being inherently competitive but able to be crushed instantly by failure.

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#10

YourFatherHere1 said:

Intelligence doesn’t always mean wisdom.

Therandomfox replied:

Intelligence is knowing how to bring back dinosaurs from the dead.

Wisdom is knowing that that’s a bad idea.

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#11

Common sense is not a gift, it is a punishment. Because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.

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#12

It can be very lonely

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#13

All the “smart kids” that turned into smart adults are severely burnt out and need a break for everything

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#14

Expectations

Never learning to study until it is too late

Being forced to learn outside of your age related interests

Being terrified of failure

Not being able to balance ambition and said fear of failure

Once again, expectations. My mother put so much pressure on me at such a young age I couldn’t handle it. I have done well for myself as an adult, but will never be able to live up to those expectations set by her and others. I should probably go back to therapy.

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#15

They don’t always find ways of living up to their potential.

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#16

Many very intelligent young people are poorly stimulated and challenged. Without the proper mental exercise they’re unlikely to live up to their potential.

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#17

Hard to find other people who think and/or feel as deeply as you do.

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#18

There’s different levels of “smartness” and different smart people go about life in different ways. But, i think universally young prodigies are typically isolated. They are at a level far above children their age, but are far younger than the people that match intellectually with (lacking life experience). Either way, a young prodigy can’t connect with either group.

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#19

It’s sad to see dumb people making a dumb decision in front of your eyes and not be able to do anything but only give them advice. Most helpful advice are a waste.

Most dumb people argue a lot instead of reflecting as well using critical thinking. So you will never win an arguement against a dump or bias person. So just walk away and tell them they are right.

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#20

The sad truth is that being smart isn’t even a particuarly good indicator in living a happy and fulfilling life. You could be extremely smart and intelectually capable, but if you got beat up as a kid, your parents died, you developed some personality disorder etc., you’re way worse off than someone well adjusted with a below average intelligence

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#21

A lot of the “smart kids” in high school are being forced by their parents to succeed. When they become adults they have all the academic skills but little life skills and they struggle to succeed.

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#22

We waste them. Our entirely social structure from schools to mortgages are design for people with very average intellectually abilities. Smart people have to deal with the daily stress of living in a system that isn’t built for them and loose a lot of their productivity and take a real hit to their mental health as a result. If we stopped subjecting them to standardised systems designed against them just imagine how much further we would have advanced as a species.

EDIT: Just a small edit to clear up some confusion. I’m not advocating for redesigning our social structure to suit only the smartest x percent of our population. For those who aren’t familiar with inclusive design (mostly talked about when talking about designing digital systems but the principle is cross applicable) the basic idea is to design systems that provide room for different people to be able to use/fit into the system equally well despite their differences. There is absolutely no reason why we all have to live the same way or why we should be forcing people to live in a world that doesn’t have room for people like them.

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#23

Feel they cant have fun because they analyze everything

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#24

Mental illness rates are dramatically higher -_-

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#25

smart does not automatically mean:

– ethical

– empathic

– conscientious

– realistic

– creative

– prosocial

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#26

Plenty of smart people will live their whole lives never realizing they’re smart.

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#27

I think truly smart people, those genuinely rare geniuses, are so smart that the rest of us can’t even comprehend it.

It must be a very strange feeling going through life knowing that most people just can’t see and understand the things you do.

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#28

Many are just suffering from the Dunning Kruger effect and don’t know it

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#29

Intelligent people can’t state that they’re intelligent because people view that as a sign of not being intelligent. But also if you lord yourself around for being intelligent, there’s the implication that you’re belittling everyone around you by saying you’re better than them. And people don’t like that. If other people recognize a person as intelligent and respect that then there are no problems, but a lot of the times people won’t do that because it gets in the way of their own pride (and if they do, then I find they’re more likely to have more insecurities/less self-esteem). Then there’s also the fact that intelligence is often conflated with success. Basically, people suck at gauging other people’s intelligence, and that causes problems.

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#30

Lots of people will be jealous of them and resent them, including family members.

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