Intelligence, Social skills, Cynicism, Self importance

[poblequadrat]

You sound like I've accused you of something.

 

And which people... do you want me to make a complete list or something?

 

There was this one guy in my class, to use an example, who on a regular basis would remind people of his IQ score, it was kind of pathetic tbh. But it's more the idea of these tests that rubs me in the wrong the way, and the reason I might sound a bit annoyed.

 

I'm not attacking people with high IQ scores, just the ones who brag about it.

 

i'm sorry i got a bit too aggressive. i mean you're talking about the purpose of iq tests. and the purpose of iq tests is mainly to deal with troublesome kids and to check whether you are going to get into the army. not to tell the bright people apart from the dumb people. people usually don't take iq tests at all, not here anyway. maybe it's different in denmark.

[Npoess]

I feel like I've heard a lot of people genuinely use it as a tool prove their actual intelligence

 

I actually also remember seeing something on TV, about some reality star who was tried of being called stupid by everybody. So she decided to take a IQ test and post it on her Facebook feed to prove people wrong (she didn't get a very high tho, haha).

 

It generally seems accepted that the IQ test has that sort of function, to show people how clever you are (where I'm from at least).

[poblequadrat]

I feel like I've heard a lot of people, genuinely use it as a tool prove their actual intelligence

 

I actually also remember seeing something on TV, about some reality star who was tried of being called stupid by everybody. So she decided to take a IQ test and post it on her Facebook feed to prove people wrong (she didn't get a very high tho, haha).

 

It generally seems accepted that the IQ test has that sort of function, to show people how clever you are (where I'm from at least).

 

dunno, here everyone knows what iq is but it's not something you deal with in everyday life. if anything people use it against you. when i was a kid i had to take loads of shit from other kid's parents and from the teachers themselves. people assume that if the psychologist shows up and says you have a high iq then you must think you're better or something. the shit i've had to put up with because of this is fucking unbelievable and rather extreme at times. when you're growing up having a high iq is more of a problem than anything else, basically because people won't accept that you have different needs, and they somehow seem to be offended by these needs for some reason i can't understand. cause you know, at school and stuff everyone should just do the same and who you are shouldn't matter at all, but what's the problem when at home you do something else? and yes i skipped from 1st to 3rd grade, but, you know, deal with it. what happened was i became an untouchable, nobody would deal with me. once the headmaster had the chutzpah to tell my dad i was a "hot potato" and that they had the misfortune to be holding the hot potato at that moment and that they wanted to pass me on. another headmistress from a different school lifted me up from the collar and told me i was going to become a very bad thing. all this came usually together with all the bollocks, similar to what you were saying, about how supposedly i was arrogant and i never understood why. in fact i was a mess and i got beaten up often, sometimes pretty violently, and then i spent most of the time wandering around the corridors waiting for the expulsion paperwork to get done. one time they even kept me for i think it was 3 months completely isolated from the other kids, studying on my own without any teachers. they couldn't send me home for some bureaucratic reason but they didn't want me there either so they came up with that. when they allowed me to come back what happens is i open the door and there's this spastic kid and she has a seizure because i'm the devil or something. whatever.

[xox]

someone would say that iq scores means nothing... really? no_thing? it's more than a 100 yrs of research behind it.

 

i do agree that an iq score can't give the whole picture but expecting from a forrest gump level guy to be a brilliant quantum physicist is almost the same thing as expecting from him to score >130 on a professionally made iq test. that's why we aren't very surprised with charts like these:

 

 

the source

 

also, as i said before, it has been found that above an iq score of 130 creativity is starting to be much more important.

 

second, usually pro iq tests are not very good in measuring absolute depth of thoughts but rather such relative dimensions measured in time. only the hardest questions in them, that measure >140 levels look for a rough power. imo tests like these which are not limited by time would be much better in that but it 'd be hard to implement them in daily psychologist's work. although they're very good in intelligence testing they still suck in testing of creativity. when ever they develop a test for measuring creativity and the they end up measuring so called general intelligence (that's related with every other dimensions of intelligence. high score means probably good in everything). that really show that either intelligence is more important that we thought it is of that it's really hard to measure creativity and other dimensions of us. i thing it's both.

 

thirdly, how else to explain iq score of 124 of richard feynman or 135 of garry kasparov but that there's definitely much more going on than our todays iq tests can measure. but to say there's no correlation between an iq score and a mental power or world success is a pure nonsense and saying this makes you a moron in my book. yes, i also have a book. lol jk jk

 

btw... if i knew that i'll be the only one mentioning personal numbers i wouldn't. it feels really awkward now. i'd delete it if i can. the op asked and i replied but it still feels awkward.

 

p.s. forget about iq. it's more important for us to be moral and creative as much as we can. we can improve both of them.

[Npoess]

 

I feel like I've heard a lot of people, genuinely use it as a tool prove their actual intelligence

 

I actually also remember seeing something on TV, about some reality star who was tried of being called stupid by everybody. So she decided to take a IQ test and post it on her Facebook feed to prove people wrong (she didn't get a very high tho, haha).

 

It generally seems accepted that the IQ test has that sort of function, to show people how clever you are (where I'm from at least).

 

dunno, here everyone knows what iq is but it's not something you deal with in everyday life. if anything people use it against you. when i was a kid i had to take loads of shit from other kid's parents and from the teachers themselves. people assume that if the psychologist shows up and says you have a high iq then you must think you're better or something. the shit i've had to put up with because of this is fucking unbelievable and rather extreme at times. when you're growing up having a high iq is more of a problem than anything else, basically because people won't accept that you have different needs, and they somehow seem to be offended by these needs for some reason i can't understand. cause you know, at school and stuff everyone should just do the same and who you are shouldn't matter at all, but what's the problem when at home you do something else? and yes i skipped from 1st to 3rd grade, but, you know, deal with it. what happened was i became an untouchable, nobody would deal with me. once the headmaster had the chutzpah to tell my dad i was a "hot potato" and that they had the misfortune to be holding the hot potato at that moment and that they wanted to pass me on. another headmistress from a different school lifted me up from the collar and told me i was going to become a very bad thing. all this came usually together with all the bollocks, similar to what you were saying, about how supposedly i was arrogant and i never understood why. in fact i was a mess and i got beaten up often, sometimes pretty violently, and then i spent most of the time wandering around the corridors waiting for the expulsion paperwork to get done. one time they even kept me for i think it was 3 months completely isolated from the other kids, studying on my own without any teachers. they couldn't send me home for some bureaucratic reason but they didn't want me there either so they came up with that. when they allowed me to come back what happens is i open the door and there's this spastic kid and she has a seizure because i'm the devil or something. whatever.

 

 

Well I can somewhat relate to this, except I never really got into trouble.

 

But I always got good grades back in school, and that kind of led to a small group of people to think I was a bit odd. But that's was their problem really, so I kind of just shrug it off.

 

And just to clarify again, it's just the people who use it to brag, I have problem with. That guy I mentioned earlier, he spend so energy trying to make people believe he was clever, the funny thing was that he was such a moron to listen to most of the time. So I guess it's people with inferiority complexes or somebody who has something to prove something that brags about it.

[poblequadrat]

 

I feel like I've heard a lot of people, genuinely use it as a tool prove their actual intelligence

 

I actually also remember seeing something on TV, about some reality star who was tried of being called stupid by everybody. So she decided to take a IQ test and post it on her Facebook feed to prove people wrong (she didn't get a very high tho, haha).

 

It generally seems accepted that the IQ test has that sort of function, to show people how clever you are (where I'm from at least).

 

dunno, here everyone knows what iq is but it's not something you deal with in everyday life. if anything people use it against you. when i was a kid i had to take loads of shit from other kid's parents and from the teachers themselves. people assume that if the psychologist shows up and says you have a high iq then you must think you're better or something. the shit i've had to put up with because of this is fucking unbelievable and rather extreme at times. when you're growing up having a high iq is more of a problem than anything else, basically because people won't accept that you have different needs, and they somehow seem to be offended by these needs for some reason i can't understand. cause you know, at school and stuff everyone should just do the same and who you are shouldn't matter at all, but what's the problem when at home you do something else? and yes i skipped from 1st to 3rd grade, but, you know, deal with it. what happened was i became an untouchable, nobody would deal with me. once the headmaster had the chutzpah to tell my dad i was a "hot potato" and that they had the misfortune to be holding the hot potato at that moment and that they wanted to pass me on. another headmistress from a different school lifted me up from the collar and told me i was going to become a very bad thing. all this came usually together with all the bollocks, similar to what you were saying, about how supposedly i was arrogant and i never understood why. in fact i was a mess and i got beaten up often, sometimes pretty violently, and then i spent most of the time wandering around the corridors waiting for the expulsion paperwork to get done. one time they even kept me for i think it was 3 months completely isolated from the other kids, studying on my own without any teachers. they couldn't send me home for some bureaucratic reason but they didn't want me there either so they came up with that. when they allowed me to come back what happens is i open the door and there's this spastic kid and she has a seizure because i'm the devil or something. whatever.

 

 

by the way, this is unrelated but worth a lol or two: the headmistress at the school where i was quarantined was very progressive according to herself and was talking about africa and about how black people are so amazed that water comes out of the tap (really, she did say that). what a fucking joke, all this in a neighbourhood where everyone was working class anyway. so yeah, she stared into the horizon poetically talking about tap water and the surprised eyes of black people but then she quarantined the untouchable kid and denied him his right to public education. she had a lot of contempt for me because amongst other things having a high iq and a traditional working class accent instead of the one associated with the sons of the workers that came from the countryside in the 60's means you're haughty and dangerous and devoid of humanitarian charity. ngo nazis, pretty lol.

 

it's ok npoess, I'm sorry i got angry at you. bragging and bigdickism in general is pretty cringey, i agree. but you know, i've found that when people realise you have a high iq they tend to assume you're an arrogant idiot automatically. so i jumped. i'm sorry.

[poblequadrat]

i really am a cunt ain't i

i'm sorry npo

[Npoess]

It's cool dude

 

Well.. people are always quick to judge, but that's just life. Just stay humble and prove people wrong, that's the only thing you can do really.

[xox]

Personally I've never taken a IQ test, nor do I ever wan't to.

 

 

http://www.iqtest.dk/main.swf

[hoggy]

I used to believe that I was better than everyone else when I was little but that wore off by the time I got to college. My social skills are still terrible and I have a hard time communicating with people in general. I can communicate with my family and my boyfriend just fine, but I sometimes feel like I'm walking on eggshells when I'm talking with friends or people that I've known for a while but haven't spoken to in ages. I do find it generally easy to get along with people, just smile and nod a lot. I've learned how to make several expressions to match certain situations when someone's talking like 'surprise' and 'sympathy'. Even if I do genuinely feel particular emotions, I still feel like I have to contort my face into the matching expression. But yeah, getting along with people is easy. I just don't like doing it that often.

 

I think having social skills basically means having a self awareness of people around you and knowing how to react to a given situation, whether you're faking it or not. I work in retail so I have to pretend to be sociable even when I don't feel like it. Small talk is my worst nightmare and I easily stumble over words but I smile and power through it until I can go home and collapse into a spent husk of a human being.

 

Do I still think I'm better or smarter than anyone else? Nope. I outgrew that after I got out of college. Parent's used to reinforce the notion that I was a 'special, intelligent, and capable of doing anything with my life' growing up and now I have cripplingly low self esteem and stunted social skills. But that's just me. I know it's different for everyone else but that's my two cents.

 

I like to believe that it's possible to relate to people without having to pretend - maybe that's just wishful thinking? I do have that kind of friendship with a few people I think though, but it would be nice to find a way to work in a retail job and still be yourself - maybe it's not possible without being willing to risk getting fired? Maybe my problem is not committing to the work of being nice enough. Always being a little skeptical and uncommitted.

 

Yeah my parents led me to believe I had infinite potential too... what is potential really though? Maybe what you want to do is more important than just what you're supposedly capable of.

 

It's interesting to read your experience - I can feel how much hard work it must be - I feel sympathy both for you and the people who believe that it's a matter of duty to smile and be nice to people. But maybe it's not necessary - maybe being attentive and polite is enough?

 

The only people worth bothering with are those who you can sit in silence with and not feel awkward.

 

I wonder how to be someone people don't mind being quiet with?

 

...i can be reckless, reckless to ones i love too. the reckless part of me is the one i hate the most! i'm trying to eradicate it more and more by each day...

 

.. i chose to be a procrastination freak instead. be smarter if you can!

 

...sometimes feel so stupid and i say and do such stupid things every day that i'm ashamed for...

 

...what can protect us from arrogance is acknowledging our own weakness and mistakes. in that way we can stay in equilibrium...

 

...read about empathy, everyone should. empathy is the only thing that can save this world.

 

Can you recommend any books about empathy?

 

Something I found about procrastination was that it is more complex than I thought - it doesn't solve it to guilt trip myself over it, in fact the guilt tripping is one of the causes, along with poor planning and organisation, not thinking things through that are on your mind...

 

Acknowledging weakness and mistakes I would agree can help avoid arrogance, unless you become sanctimonious?

 

Can you give an example of your recklessness, and what makes you feel stupid?

 

I am extremely self-critical and have really bad self-image issues.. at this point in my life I by default assume most people I meet are in some way better, more successful, more attractive, or interesting than I am. I know it isn't rational, but often feel defective and inferior anyway. I'm just sick of suffering like this. I don't enjoy conflicting with other people, and as best I can just try to be gentle and understanding with everyone. I don't expect much out of people and want to be friendly but often am struck with anxieties, paranoia, and insecurities that make me come across as shy, distant, aloof even.. It's impossible not to feel like there's some seriously terrible, shitty people on this planet but most are okay.

 

Don't let others make you feel poorly about yourself to make themselves happy - realising that what people think doesn't matter at all is something that really helped me. The whole status game is total bullshit - many people's fun and happiness depends on having someone to look down on - even if it's not put into words, sometimes people do it by ignoring, sometimes with laughter...

 

There are lovely people out there who aren't like that

 

Some of the things which have helped me getting out of my egomaniac hole:

- other people can worry about this stuff as well, and perhaps even more than i do

- the way i measure up people says just as much about me, as it says about those people. Possibly more about me. The act of doing so is most of all a product of my emotions and experiences at that point in time.

- never blame others for your own emotions. I'm responsible for my own emotional state in the first place

- if people tend to be boring, it's probably because i'm bored. Which says more about my personal emotional state. And being bored can be a pretty useless state of mind (unless you're alone, dreaming away in nothingness. That's the only good sense of boredom i've experienced)

- i tend to be amazed about all the stuff that's different in other people and similar at the same time

- intelligence is highly overrated. It's one of these things people tend to worry about. Stop wasting your time about intelligence. The neural network between your ears isn't that much different to the one in other peoples heads. Just make sure to improve yourself at any point in time.

- rationality without emotional intelligence is useless

- my personal worries are essentially all about myself and whether or not i will be loved. Just like everybody else worrying. It's the situations where people don't worry which should be worrying!

.... Also, if you don't feel stupid, odds are you really are.

 

And emotional life hack #1: always be able to think the opposite of what you're thinking

 

These are great, the concept of a 'life hack' seems a bit weird though, you know? Maybe the mechanical nature of my own thinking at times and my self-consciousness about that is what makes it seem off putting to me

 

...being weird is not necessarily antithetical to having social skills...

 

...i don't mind being arrogant, i think it's funny, and i think egotism is kind of inevitable, so why not make it lush and entertaining. do i really think im better than people? no. if i was someone else, i would be that person. if someone else were me, they would be me. i give credence to the idea that free will is, maybe not a farce, but misunderstood. do i think i have more strengths than other people? no. i think i have some cool strengths, but i'd like to have some strengths i dont have.

 

By 'being weird' I mean deliberately acting wrong - people find it very off putting I think - I think they sense hostility in it

 

I like what you said about arrogance - that sounds like fun, making it 'lush and entertaining'

[Bechuga]

They say I got brains / but they ain't doin me no good / I wish they would

[xox]

Can you recommend any books about empathy?

 

Something I found about procrastination was that it is more complex than I thought - it doesn't solve it to guilt trip myself over it, in fact the guilt tripping is one of the causes, along with poor planning and organisation, not thinking things through that are on your mind...

 

Acknowledging weakness and mistakes I would agree can help avoid arrogance, unless you become sanctimonious?

 

Can you give an example of your recklessness, and what makes you feel stupid?

 

 

- The Power of Empathy + youtube and googling about the subject

 

- not about empathy per se but really REALLY great book on how to more objectively see life, self and others, a must read. changed my life: The Road Less Traveled

 

- procrastination is such a complex problem that one must go through yrs of psychotherapy to really get rid of, of at least majority of it

 

- maybe we haven't understood each other... acknowledging our own weakness and mistakes to ourself can make us sanctimonious? maybe, only if we have completely weak and underdeveloped ego strengths and if we're fooling ourself to overcome the painful truth

 

- example of my recklessness? if i feel any kind of aggression, no matter how small or insignificant it can be i respond with a nuclear weapon first and only latter ask what the person meant really by that or how i deserved the aggression. to be honest i can't remember the last time i did that but it was my modus operandi when i was much younger. also, i can forget that not everybody can understand or feel everything and sometimes i can expect much more from ppl than they can give, mentally or emotionally, and if they fail i blame them at first, and until i come to my senses i can say things i later regret

 

- what makes me feel stupid? the newest inducer of the feeling is programming. i'm a programming n00b and my brain just refuses to learn it as fast as i've learned other things. i'm just too much of a 'right brained' person for programming, thinking more in 'random' than 'linear' ways/terms.

[Jur]

I thought the idea of being better or worse than anyone else was irrelevant to my interests. Since you asked me, I just assume that everyone else is better than me to keep my ego, or lack there of, in check.

I have average social skills. I often times start conversations with people at stores, without effort. I can be funny, I'm not afraid of interacting with people, it's become easy within the last few years. I know how to read body language, I know how to listen to what someone is saying and not, "wait for my turn to talk", I don't interrupt people if they're speaking.

 

I have a reasonable amount of confidence when it comes to social interaction with strangers.

 

One thing I noticed about myself is that, I'm not quick to disagree with someone just because I do, I just nod my head and say, "I can understand that". I'm a huge fence sitter, and maybe this makes me less assertive than I would like to be. On the internet, people are extremely quick to argue just because they can, I don't think arguing is worth my time or energy unless there is going to be a worthwhile outcome.

[hoggy]

just looked up farce, guess i didnt know what it meant. to clarify what i was saying about free will since i cant edit my post above... i see why we need to act like free will exists... but i cant say i absolutely believe it exists. it kinda seems like an old monkey trick that was so good it got perpetuated to the extent that it's now part of the architecture of the mind and society. do choices exist and should they be thought about? of couse. but once made, could a choice have been made any other way? maybe not. i think invoking quantum uncertainty into this is kind of grasping at straws. sure, maybe quantum physics counteracts psychological deteriminism, but is there any evidence to indicate that it does?

 

so, how this ties into the question of being better than people, idk if you can really judge people. if you lived the exact life to the last iota and had the same body and brain of some shitty scumbag, you would make those scumbag choices. yet i completely see the need to treat scumbags like shit for making bad choices. maybe i should make a thread about this.

 

About free will or determinism - I mean, the discussion goes back centuries in science, philosophy, religion - I don't know nearly enough about it - Zizek has some interesting ideas about it, like "I am determined to become free" or "I freely choose my destiny" (he goes into it in much more depth, but that gives you some idea about how he turns the question around)

 

In junior high and high school I had crippling social anxiety and now I can make friends with pretty much anyone. These are some of the new ways of thinking that helped me adjust to being a social person:

1. Project confidence and you'll feel it. Smile and it will make you happy. Don't rule out activities as "things I don't do" (unless they're too dangerous).
2. When worried about something bad happening, flip it around in your brain and ask yourself, "If I was trying to make this happen, would this be a good strategy?" If the probability of success in the second thought experiment drops below the probability of failure in your original worry, then it's just a hyperactive amygdala seeing threats where none exist.
3. Compare yourself to others, but only so you can be inspired by them. No sense in beating yourself up about other people's advantages. Instead, carve out time to create your own advantages.
4. You often need to humor other people's flawed thinking or misconceptions, but then those people will give you the same leniency. At the right moments, you can drop knowledge on people and then you'll be seen as "the smart one."
5. Some might ostracize you for being different or smarter, but who cares? If you have a better grasp on how the world works, you have a big advantage! Other people will run into walls that you see from miles away.
6. You might feel like everybody's looking at you, but they don't really care. Even if they laugh at you or talk about you, don't let it get to you. It's irrelevant. We're just gene-replicating robots, all of us dead eventually... no need to be hard on yourself.

 

1. I like to believe that you can become confident by being yourself, rather than by pretending to be confident. And as far as "things I don't do" - sometimes I find something really endearing about people who are stuck in their ways

2. Seems like it could be useful tool - lately I've wanted to be less fearful in general, because people who are fearless in many different ways (not always extroverts) - are the people I find I most admire

3. I agree - I think the whole game of comparing everyone's status is something people use to keep other people down - and ultimately it makes you miserable and not yourself

4. I try to humour people as much as I can - but part of me wonders if maybe it might be better to just be honest, but not too serious about criticism - it's only an opinion after all. Then again, if someone is wrong in a way that is harmful, like bigotry - shouldn't you fight those people? Lastly, I don't think I want to be seen as "the smart one"!

5. I don't think being intelligent stops me from being blind or closed minded. I don't think people ostracize me for being smart as much as being different and maybe seeming aloof or stuck up.

6. I love the logic of 'we're all dead in the end, so don't worry', there's something pleasingly absurd about thinking that way. It's probably true that people care/are watching me less that I might think - I'll try to remember that

[coax]

Good thread, lots of nice posts. Though I don't know where to begin. I can answer "yes" to all the original questions, but it depends on the situation, and it used to be much worse 10 years ago. Ironically I find it a lot more difficult online than offline to talk to people. In real conversations I can hide or save things said with body language and sort of looking at and "controlling" the feel of the conversation, while online it's just text, and text is so revealing. So many times of backspacing text on replies, never being able to find the right words.

 

In any case, I have always had a bit of an ego, but I also know many other people can do many things well. We all feed off each others ideas and accomplishments. But I do have hopes inside that someone out there will read something I wrote, or listen to something I made, or hell look at an image, and get something out of it. I have had those experiences all the time with other peoples creations, so it's nice if others have them for what I do.

I'm really bad with "normal talk", online or offline, I'm a lot more interested in topic discussion, politics, philosophy or even analyzing movies and stuff. Also I feel like I was really bad at admitting mistakes before, but it's much better now when I can admit them, and say them out loud, it helps me get over them and squaring the situation.

 

In any case, I don't think it's easy. I have like basically 2 people that I'm comfortable with, and anyone else becomes a bit of a balancing game of finding out what to say and how. Plus, I don't really have _anyone_ who I can talk to who are completely clued into the things I'm thinking about. It's mostly random threads online and my dad and brother ;d It's a struggle man, especially if you're the kind of person who thinks a lot about everything.

[hoggy]

One issue i have is that i'm very rarely impressed by others achievements and don't care about impressing anyone (IRL). the thing is, if you don't big yourself up a bit, people will assume you're useless.. and you'll wonder why.

 

I know exactly what you mean and it drives me crazy

 

An example of not being impressed was this guy who said he'd worked on BBC wildlife documentaries in Africa. Everyone was impressed, whereas I was thinking "so what? you're a boring tech guy who carried wires around on a safari park so BBC could edit together random clips of expensively filmed animals to fit a fake made up animal story that twats will enjoy paid for by tv license payers that have unknowingly been paying in to the pedo ring that is the BBC". whereas, ive basically done and achieved nothing,make minimal effort socially,so i should pretend to be impressed in that situation.. if i wanted to impress people by being a nice person.

 

I know what you mean - but the thing that made me think differently about this kind of thinking is this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9GBvmaJOx8

[MadameChaos]

I wanna be a dog

 

http://youtu.be/BJIqnXTqg8I

[hoggy]

Always follow your dreams, and believe in yourself

 

- Coco Chanel

 

Actually, this makes me think of the part that I don't think I covered much - about cynicism...

 

I keep having this question pop into my head - "is cynicism a social skill?" - maybe being able to see through bullshit is something really valuable when it comes to interacting with people..

 

Also, I'm told that i'm too skeptical - like everything anyone says or any kind of idea, my first reaction is "yeah, but.." - is critical thinking sometimes more to do with other things than intelligent, rational thought and more about proving how smart you are by constantly arguing with everyone - what's the alternative? Anyone got any ideas?

[Candiru]

Being cynical without showing your cynicism is the trick. You have to dress it up in manners. Otherwise, you're just a big jerk meanie bully cunt.

 

Circumcision cynicism cinnamon

[Guest mrajh]

Havent read the whole thread but one mistake i see people make that puts them in the situation where theyre over thinking their and other peoples actions is being too self absorbed.

The way i see it this leads you to questioning yourself and the world around you from an absurd egocentric view. People ive met that act this way are always restless with their mind on the dumbest of things.. usually those things without an answer ( how convenient right? ) or things related only to them and their thoughts/views. They usually think of themselves as smarter or superior to those around them because.. really all that time thinking of 'deep' things must ammount to something. right? well...

Really all of this can easily be fixed by finding something to do.. something to put your mind to work. Also reading helps alot and trying to keep at least one balanced person close. There is alot more to say on the subject and i am i may not know what im talking about

[Guest mrajh]

 

Always follow your dreams, and believe in yourself

 

- Coco Chanel

 

Actually, this makes me think of the part that I don't think I covered much - about cynicism...

 

I keep having this question pop into my head - "is cynicism a social skill?" - maybe being able to see through bullshit is something really valuable when it comes to interacting with people..

 

Also, I'm told that i'm too skeptical - like everything anyone says or any kind of idea, my first reaction is "yeah, but.." - is critical thinking sometimes more to do with other things than intelligent, rational thought and more about proving how smart you are by constantly arguing with everyone - what's the alternative? Anyone got any ideas?

 

well it comes down to having a positive impact. are you helping the conversation? are your arguments valid? sometimes rubbing things in someones face, even the right things, makes things even harder since they just want you to be wrong.

as a general note everyone hates a smartass. more so if theyre wrong

[xox]

i just compared avatars in your last two posts and the later one blinks faster. why?!

[Guest mrajh]

pitch knob acceleration theory

[whylessness]

A friend of mine often seems to mention 'social skills', what are they, and do you have good social skills?

 

Be physically attractive. Ask girls questions.

[xox]

.Ask girls questions.

 

yeah, like: hi, can i buy a drink ....or should i just give you the money?