All of the above.

In some areas, I’m very smart. Others I am a massive idiot. I think I probably average out to a solid average intelligence.

I’m smart. I work a smart person job with a lot of really smart people, which makes me feel not smart at times because a lot of my coworkers are smarter than me. I’m also insane though.

Was gifted kid, always the smartest, highest test scores. Then I got older. I know I’m above average intelligence in lot of things. But smart enough to know how stupid I can be, that I have lots of faults, limitations. There are many kinds of intelligence, and always more to learn

People always tell me I’m smart. And I definitely have some things I’m good at. But I’m pretty dumb about a lot of stuff, but I think that’s pretty normal.

Honestly, I try not to think about people in terms of smart/stupid. Everyone has a complicated set of strengths and weaknesses that are slowly changing all the time. Just labeling someone as smart or stupid is overly simplistic.

Yeah, very smart. External validation for years since being tested at like 6 and being told my options were staying in public school and skipping to 5th grade or going to private school where my needs could be met within an age appropriate setting.

Then there were all the tests since where I would score in the 98th percentile or higher.

The most impactful was my professional experience where my coworkers were a decade older than me and I found myself being brought in as an expert on stuff for Fortune 500 CEOs, US cabinet nominees, etc.

And yet there are times I’m straight up an idiot. Like not thinking that I can move the silverware off the napkin and lift it up to my face instead of bringing my face to the napkin. Sometimes my SO will do something simple like adding sugar to cereal I find too bland so I don’t eat it, and my brain breaks with the realization that was always an option.

Brains come in a variety, and while I was lucky to get one that aligned in where it excelled with what society measures and values, I’ve generally found that many people are gifted in some aspect of their brains - it’s just unevenly valued by the world around them.

I always felt I was “smarter than the average bear” (I think I just dated myself), but I had no solid evidence growing up, besides my mother insisting that I was very smart for my age. I almost skipped 2 grades in elementary school because I was reading adult books before I even started school, and I could write just as well. But my math knowledge was just average, so they didn’t want me to get behind if I missed a couple grades.

Despite this, I was a solidly C+/B- student for most of my schooling. I aced the tests placed in front of me, but I hated homework, so I just didn’t do it most of the time. I understood the material the first time it was presented to me; I didn’t understand why I needed to continually go over it in my free time. It felt like a waste of time. Plus, I had a hard time learning from the teachers. I did much better if I just read the textbook on my own, rather than sitting through a lecture.

In high school, I was failing a few classes. My mother thought I considered myself stupid and was afraid it was wrecking my confidence. Apparently, when she was a kid, she also thought she was stupid. She was failing a bunch of classes, while her eldest sister was getting straight-A’s. She got her IQ tested and found out she was actually the smartest of all her siblings - her eldest sister actually had the lowest IQ in their family!

So my mother made it her personal mission to prove I was smart. After all, you’re supposed to inherit your intellect from your mother, and my mom had a genius IQ. She hired a psychologist to give me an official IQ test, and to no one’s surprise, I tested in the genius range too. So I finally received validation that I was smart.

It didn’t fix my grades, though. It turns out, I was getting poor grades because A.) I refused to do homework, which lost me half my grade points alone, and B.) I was bored in class and didn’t really pay attention. I would find out 20 years later that I have ADHD, which is why I couldn’t pay attention in class. I have very poor auditory learning skills; when people talk to me, my brain shuts off. So lectures were the absolute death of me.

I joined the US Air Force right after high school, and unfortunately, the military requires you to blindly obey orders and not think too hard about things. Everything is dumbed down so the mission can be accomplished, even in the most stressful of scenarios. The Air Force has the strictest tests to qualify for service, and we tend to have the highest intelligent people in the armed services, but it was still a drag. I spent too many years trying to argue logic and reason with my superiors and coworkers, which fell on deaf ears. So I eventually got complacent and started doing the bare minimum to accomplish the mission and get through my days. By the end of my 2 decades of service, I feel like my brain has been through the blender and I feel much dumber than I used to be. Could also be some added PTSD, too.

Now I’m retired at a young age and living a quiet, relaxing life out in the countryside. I’m not too concerned anymore about being smart or dumb, just as long as I can live in peace.

I watched too many people bitch and moan about vaccines and masks during a pandemic… I dont think I’m smart, the bar is just too low.

Smart enough to:

See the gaps in my knowledge

Know there are gaps I haven’t even found yet

That I have and will continue to do dumb shit

I’m a complete idiot. So probs 30% to 40% smarter than the average American Republican.

I got very good grades at a top university in a stem subject. Most people regard me as smart. My professor who supervised my masters thesis regarded me as smart. I guess I can consider myself smart.

My brain power helps me with my job, otherwise I do the same things as everybody else.

My best life decisions came from equanimity, introspection and honesty with myself, not from being smart.

Int score 18 Wis score 16ish Cha score 8 Motivation score 3 Addiction resistance 2

I’ve been known to be smart since I was 7 or so. It’s awful, because my parents assumed that since I could do math I wouldn’t have any mental health problems. D&D is nice because it demonstrates there is more to the brain than a single spectrum, but even that falls short.

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I would say overall I’m below average. Fairly dumb. Bottom 30% of society.

I don’t mind it too much. I know a lot about cinema and film history so I’m happy with that.

I thought I was smart. And I took a class in college called Critical Theory Since Plato. It was philosophy, although I was dumb enough not to know that. Every class there would be lively discussion on the reading material where everyone was involved. Except me. I had read the material, but it was beyond my understanding. I dare not open my mouth. I just listened to people who were obviously a number of levels more intelligent than I was discuss the assignments.

It was then that I realized that there were people in the world who had a quality of intelligence so much higher than mine that we might not even seem like the same species.

Just like a tall person can see above the heads of everyone in a crowd, they could see things that were impossible for me to see. And those were the “ordinary” smart people.

It gave me a new respect for not only intelligent people, who were very kind to me, but also for those who are on the other end of this spectrum, who through no choice of theirs struggle with daily tasks. And for myself, slightly above average, and happy.

My self-perception of my intelligence goes up the more I spend my time online, and down the more I spent it IRL. I should probably stop spending so much time online.