You’re So Smart!

Posted on 13 November 2009

These are three words I hate.  In particular, I hate hearing them said to me.  Now, perhaps I’m a little strange for this.  Most people like to be complemented, and typically these words are meant as such.  If a person means to call me an insufferable know-it-all, they do so in much more colorful or less flattering ways.  Yet, even when being praised of my mental aptitude in a genuine way, it irritates me to no end.  Why, oh why, you ask?  Well, that’s what breaks are for.

Now then, why do I hate being called smart?  Well, honestly, I don’t think I am.  Yes, I do well on standardized tests.  Yes I am a whiz with computers, and yes I have a huge vocabulary.  Yes, I am even socially capable in most situations.  But, in my opinion, that does not make me “so smart.”  Heck, if I had a Nobel Prize in Physics, had cured cancer, and founds the Higgs Bosun under my bed, I would not consider myself “so smart”.

See, in my opinion, I am not smarter than anyone else.  Conversely, I don’t think anyone else is really all that smarter than me.  Yes, there are varying levels.  If birth defects can completely mentally cripple people, then I am sure regular variation grants for levels of raw mental capability, but in my mind, it’s a very steep bell curve, and raw potential doesn’t take you near as far as effort and gumption do.

So, yeah, when someone calls attention to a perceived difference in my mental prowess verse their own, I feel bad.  I feel like I have been unjustly placed above them in some way, and that bothers me.  It especially bothers me since usually after such an exclamation, the person stops talking to me like I’m just some other person and as if they’ve just met Einstein.

All I want to do is drink a beer and talk.  Is that so much to ask?  Sorry for this more LJ-type post instead of my normal writing type bloggery, but, well, my website, my rules.  Deal.  I just needed to vent from my soapbox with a blind fold on.  I feel better.  Hopefully will have a steam-punk short ready for all y’all on Monday, then a special Birthday Edition blog Tuesday.