Who is the smartest person you know?

BDI wrote: »

I know a Russian laborer that speaks about 4 languages. Needs a smarter fella with him at all times to read drawings and solve problems. Will drill all day though.

Yes BDI. I know lots like that too, and it reinforces the point that I am making..here you speak about a Russian labourer, right? How many Irish people can speak 4 Languages,? any Irishman, labourer or not? As an Island, we did not have any real need to learn other Languages, but some one in say central Europe, Russia etc. would need to learn the language of their neighbour's. So in that sense, language-wise, they are ahead of us. But it's not an invincible measure of Intelligence...intelligence is far too complicated to be pinned down by only one definition. But I take my hat off to anyone, who speak's more than one language. Fair play to them.

jmreire wrote: »

Oh, you Lucky Lucky Man, you !!!!!!:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

I do pinch myself in the mornings.

I know a few. By pure chance, what high school you go to depends strongly on grades in primary school. I was good in primary school, went to one of better schools and was probably under average there. However there were other kids there who were very smart. Some directed their academic abilities in less productive stuff. One of the smartest kids in the school put something in school lunches when he was in primary school and made the whole class sick (his mother was a gp so God knows what he borrowed from her). He almost got expelled. Last thing I know of him is that he was taking his time studying law and writing for online football publications. Another one is comedian and translator (He translated George RR Martin). One was winning state competitions in maths and computer science between training for Olympics, World and European Championships in swimming. Her sister was in my class and better swimmer, older sister was better academically, she is now some sort of statistician in university. There were some in my class and at university too. One of the girls studied law got PhD and last time I knew she worked as a researcher for national supreme court. But while she was the best student in our class I don't think she was the smartest, that was either a lovely guy who is now a judge in district court and likes to write poetry, the other one is a sales rep or a sales manager somewhere. All three of them were my good friends in high school and years later but then we gradually lost contact. There are some very smart people among my husbands relatives too. My husband is a good bit smarter than me but in reality we are both underachievers. Not that I particularly care, I've been to plenty of parties where there is someone who works very hard at proving how smart they are and they are usually the most tedious person around.

meeeeh wrote: »

I know a few. By pure chance, what high school you go to depends strongly on grades in primary school. I was good in primary school, went to one of better schools and was probably under average there. However there were other kids there who were very smart. Some directed their academic abilities in less productive stuff. One of the smartest kids in the school put something in school lunches when he was in primary school and made the whole class sick (his mother was a gp so God knows what he borrowed from her). He almost got expelled. Last thing I know of him is that he was taking his time studying law and writing for online football publications. Another one is comedian and translator (He translated George RR Martin). One was winning state competitions in maths and computer science between training for Olympics, World and European Championships in swimming. Her sister was in my class and better swimmer, older sister was better academically, she is now some sort of statistician in university. There were some in my class and at university too. One of the girls studied law got PhD and last time I knew she worked as a researcher for national supreme court. But while she was the best student in our class I don't think she was the smartest, that was either a lovely guy who is now a judge in district court and likes to write poetry, the other one is a sales rep or a sales manager somewhere. All three of them were my good friends in high school and years later but then we gradually lost contact. There are some very smart people among my husbands relatives too. My husband is a good bit smarter than me but in reality we are both underachievers. Not that I particularly care, I've been to plenty of parties where there is someone who works very hard at proving how smart they are and they are usually the most tedious person around.

It's a strange old world...you can have people who are academically gifted, as your friend's undoubtedly are, and have people who do not have anything like the same level of achievement's, yet they manage quite well in the world of business..ending up at the top of whatever they decide to do, and ending up very wealthy in the process. It's a different kind of intelligence, I guess.

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

That's just hard work at whatever they do. You can be smart and get things fast etc or not have to study in a way that made me lazy. I had to realize that and cop on.

Hard work will win over being smart most of the time eventually.

It takes good luck to make it to the top too, plenty of hard workers out there who never catch a break and don't rise to the top.

Of all the smartest people I have met, I can't think of any of them that ever became wildly successful or massively wealthy, it makes me feel much better about my own underachievement

meeeeh wrote: »

Group of people with different knowledge will be better at finding solutions than one person no matter how smart they are. Ambition and ability to find and connect people who can offer something is more important in business than intelligence. Some very smart people will never be overly successful in their work because they can't connect with others. Especially in business where networking, interaction, people skills and similar are very important.

Intelligence gives people some tools but really it's only one of the personality aspects and people are so much more than their IQ.

True, and that's why you cannot measure intelligence by a "Yardstick".

ME!

jmreire wrote: »

It's a strange old world...you can have people who are academically gifted, as your friend's undoubtedly are, and have people who do not have anything like the same level of achievement's, yet they manage quite well in the world of business..ending up at the top of whatever they decide to do, and ending up very wealthy in the process. It's a different kind of intelligence, I guess.

There’s an interesting correlation between entrepreneurship and dyslexia actually. I say correlation because that’s exactly what it is, but interesting nonetheless. Successful entrepreneurs who are dyslexic include Richard Branson as the most obvious one, and Chris Dawson (has learned to read, but still can’t write). Caitlyn Jenner is another who attributes their athletic success to their dyslexia (academically struggled, found their niche in athletics), also very successful as an entrepreneur. There are a few more that I can’t think of off the top of my head right now but in making the correlation itself, one has to ignore the number of people with dyslexia who aren’t entrepreneurs, or the number of entrepreneurs who aren’t dyslexic. It’s a bit like associating a condition with famous people who are assumed to have a condition, and ignoring the millions of people with a condition who aren’t famous or successful, or ignoring the number of famous or successful people who don’t have the condition -


New Research Reveals Many Entrepreneurs Are Dyslexic


I’m biased though -

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=98001802&postcount=6

But I rather think it was in spite of, rather than because of being dyslexic, that I’ve gotten to where I have in life. I think when people are critical of the education system in Ireland and claim it’s failing students with learning difficulties, they’re ignoring the fact that formal education is designed to give students a basic education. Anyone who has shown themselves to be exceptional has been exceptional - they go beyond just the basic education they’ve received.

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Like the Kardashians. None of the daughter's are anything special but Kris sure has managed to market them into multi-millionaires.

To be fair to her but when Kylie isn’t showing her arse on Instagram, she’s a fairly shrewd businesswoman in her own right who learned how to market herself and her brand from both her parents (didn’t lick it off the stones as they say ), which led to her becoming what Forbes took a lot of flak for describing as set to be the youngest self-made billionaire. Her family’s wealth gave her a head start certainly, but 90% of their success has to come from within an individual themselves IMO, that’s what makes a person smart.