Pros and cons of intelligence.

[ashitaria]

The pros and cons of intelligence.

Pros:

Less effort needed than most in academics.
When put to use, highly useful in society.
More potential for greatness.
More potential for reputation.


Cons:

Intelligence isn't everything. If you don't try, if you don't work (hard), intelligence is pretty
useless.

Happiness in an intellectual is as rare as sadness in a bumblebee.

Worrying and intelligence go hand, it's so difficult to find peace. Doubt follows you like the
plaugue.

Are not immune to low self-esteem.Doubt of an intelligent person of his intelligence is not
uncommon.

More likely to have conflicts with people, traditions, and rules set upon society. Can be
isolated.

Wisdom and Intelligence do not go hand-in-hand.

Not immune to bad results.

Higher expectations are set for more intelligent people= more work.

Never exactly sure.

In constant regret about past actions, always brooding over what could have been.


Keep in mind that these are my own evaluations. There are the exceptions who are intelligent,
happy, beautiful, sociable and well-rounded.

 

[Cogito]

Happiness in an intellectual is as rare as sadness in a bumblebee.

I beg to differ.

 

[ashitaria]

I beg to differ.

I hate happy people.

 

[Cognisant]

What definition of intelligence are we using?

 

[Agent Intellect]

I wouldn't consider myself intelligent, as I don't relate to the pros, yet many of the cons illustrate many of my flaws.

I am curious as to why a lot of people on this forum seem to take it a priori that they must be intelligent. I don't mean to be insulting, but it seems a bit unjustified a lot of the time (keeping in mind I wouldn't consider myself neither highly intelligent nor superior to everyone here in that regard).

 

[Adymus]

The pros and cons of intelligence.
Cons:

Intelligence isn't everything. If you don't try, if you don't work (hard), intelligence is pretty
useless.

That's not a con to intelligence, that's a con to life.

 

[Sparrow]

So you're intelligent?

 

[Dormouse]

I'm going to ignore the pros for now, I don't have any real issues with them, though there are certainly some that could be added.

Cons:

Intelligence isn't everything. If you don't try, if you don't work (hard), intelligence is pretty
useless.

That's not a con, that's a fact. You could be the most naturally gifted bricklayer in the world, but no luck if you don't apply yourself.

Happiness in an intellectual is as rare as sadness in a bumblebee.

Not necessarily. Happiness may be affected by intelligence, but there are numerous other factors that contribute to it, or to it's disappearance.

Worrying and intelligence go hand, it's so difficult to find peace. Doubt follows you like the
plaugue.

A bit of an exageration, depends on the individual. Worrying can be replaced by idle day dreaming, by creativity and wild plans, by detached puzzlement. I'll concede that there's more likely to be something going on in their heads at all times.

Are not immune to low self-esteem.Doubt of an intelligent person of his intelligence is not
uncommon.

Again, a fact, not a con. Many beautiful people are crippled by shyness over their appearances. Many are not, and choose to flaunt them. Same goes for the intelligent.

More likely to have conflicts with people, traditions, and rules set upon society. Can be
isolated.

Conflict is a strong word, as is isolation. Depends in what area they are intelligent. If they are a skillful manipulator they can easily integrate themselves in society, or get parts of society to change/make allowances for them. A feeling of being different may remain, though, so I'll concede.

Wisdom and Intelligence do not go hand-in-hand.

Again, a fact, not a con. I'd rephrase this as 'The intelligent have an easier time rationalizing stoopid plans of action.'

Not immune to bad results.

Fact.

Higher expectations are set for more intelligent people= more work.

Really? Not that I know of. If they seek out a more demanding job then the workload will be more difficult, certainly. An engineer has a bit more (mental) work to do than the aforementioned bricklayer, but that's a given.
If you meet generalized expectations most people will be pleased... It's stupid to hold higher standards for someone because of an IQ test.

I believe this is more of a self-esteem issue, as in the feeling of letting oneself down, or the fear of the spotlight.

Never exactly sure.

In constant regret about past actions, always brooding over what could have been.

Depends on the individual, would be grouped in with the worrying. And I don't believe this applies only to the intelligent.

Keep in mind that these are my own evaluations. There are the exceptions who are intelligent,
happy, beautiful, sociable and well-rounded.

Why did I bother answering...

Though I don't believe these happy people are the exceptions.

Also,

What definition of intelligence are we using?

What he said.

 

[ashitaria]

So you're intelligent?

No. I'm just trying to see it from the intellectuals point of view.

Frankly speaking, I've already found many flaws in my concepts. Ugh, I must be really bored to do this.

 

[Da Blob]

Intelligence is a rare coin with two sides. One one side is the image of success having abilities to adapt and succeed when and where others cannot. The other side is the image of failure, for because intelligence is so rare, the intelligent have always been treated by the vast majority of unintelligent people as strange/different and therefore are made outcasts.

There are a few that collect such rare and therefore valuable coins though...

 

[Cogito]

I am curious as to why a lot of people on this forum seem to take it a priori that they must be intelligent. I don't mean to be insulting, but it seems a bit unjustified a lot of the time.

How do you suggest one justifies their self-assessed intelligence?

 

[ashitaria]

Intelligence is a rare coin with two sides. One one side is the image of success having abilities to adapt and succeed when and where others cannot. The other side is the image of failure, for because intelligence is so rare, the intelligent have always been treated by the vast majority of unintelligent people as strange/different and therefore are made outcasts.

There are a few that collect such rare and therefore valuable coins though...

Then who would you consider to be such coins in this jar that we commute in?

 

[Jesin]

Happiness in an intellectual is as rare as sadness in a bumblebee.

This makes a rather interesting assumption about bumblebees.

 

[Cognisant]

We're all intelligent, perhaps not particularly intelligent, but after much research and personal experimentation with AI I've come to appreciate how even the mentally handicapped perform incredible feats of informational processing every day of their lives, so lets not be too stingy with the word intelligent, heck stupidity is mostly the result of people underestimating their intellectual abilities... mostly.

 

[Da Blob]

Then who would you consider to be such coins in this jar that we commute in?

LOL, the Ones that do not cast me out!

 

[Marbas]

An actual con of significantly unusual intelligence. Not just high. Low too:

Genuinely connecting with people is more difficult.

How do you suggest one justifies their self-assessed intelligence?

The obvious answer is to obtain an achievement or succesfully perform actions that are considered to be the province of "intellectuals". Of course, such activities are subjected to a heavy cultural bias. Others say that you should use standardized testing and school performance.

Standardized testing makes me kind of angry. Never really liked iq for example. The fact that intpcentral has a "High iq" subforum is what drove me away from registering for it and posting there.

Honestly, someone's intelligence has always struck me as hard to gauge. Smarts always seemed like something you just kind of knew someone had. Like some people obviously have it, some people are obviously morons, and everyone else has this gray area.

 

[snafupants]

You seem to imply that intelligence and wisdom are somewhat mutually exclusive, but from my experience intelligent people tend to be slightly more wise. All wise people are smart, but not all smart people are wise. Certainly, I have met many moronic smart people: intelligent folk who hurt others emotionally, subscribe to degenerate activities, and so forth. The most pervasive blunder in intelligent people (and disproportionately in INTPs) is self-aggrandizing and minimizing the importance of another person. Cliche but: put yourself in their shoes! Who wants to be put down 24/7?

Dealing with the pros (above) and the potential for greatness and reputation, I actively shun both of these so as to avoid an ego-scene - if yall are hep to my jive. One can ease the plight of joe everyman without bolstering one's own name and reputation. Why would you want to anyway: you and everyone you know will be dead and, presumably, forgotten in 200 years. Help, but not for personal benefit.

Peace

 

[I'mProbablyanINTP]

Con: Everybody wants you to demonstrate your intelligence, and if you choose not to, to them it is akin to you misrepresenting yourself as an intelligent person.

Nobody expects anything of you until you show them what you can do, and then they want that and then more, and then more, and ultimately they are never satisfied with what you do because they always expect more from you than from most other people.

They forget that putting their wants and desires on someone else is not fair, and they harass you if you dont live upto their expectations of who you could be.

You could satisfy everyone, but in reality you can never satisfy anyone.

Hardly anyone understands you, and the ones that do are usually loners who you wouldnt want to share time with anyway. Youre well respected and well liked but youre treated like a different species and people often judge you behind your back.

People cheer when you fail because you succeed to often and too easily. People demand more from you than from anyone else, they dont ask, they demand, and when they demand, it makes you feel like a slave.

You resent your intelligence and begin to act dumber and dumber until everybody leaves you alone. Then you feel disconnected and want to demonstrate to the world who you are, but even if you did, no more than 5% would be capable of understanding.

Most people will only want to use your brain to make them money, and because of your hatred of greed and being used you resent them the more for asking for advice on stocks and markets and the world around them.

You constantly feel alone, and hold onto the moments when you arent.

You know how to make the world a better place, but you understand that most people dont like change and wont support it.

Pros: Its easy to make money, to win arguments, to impress others, to solve problems quickly, to make good decisions, to help others understand their problems and work towards solutions.

Cons: You help people and get nothing in return, which is fine, but sometimes people turn on you and you ask yourself why you ever fucking bothered to care in the first place.

There is a tendancy for people to call deluded or paranoid because you dont trust everything you hear or read, whether it be in a history book or the news. Questioning the status quo makes you a freak.

If you dont have a degree by 30 then noone will believe youre intelligent, theyll just assume youre a snake charmer with a good deal of background knowledge.

Women in your life will be attracted to your success, but you want a woman who is attracted to your soul, so you downplay yourself and dress like a lower class person to reduce the likelyhood of attracting gold-diggers.

Finally, what I came to realise a year ago was when you have seemingly unlimited potential - you can never reach your potential. There is no end, so no matter what you do someone will be telling you to do more.

You cant find peace very easily, because you understand theres so many things to worry about, so you either disconnect and stop worrying and let them go on, or you involve yourself and take on the burden of many peoples worries.

Youre good at arts and writing and math and everything else, but you dont find enjoyment from getting your work graded or read.

You write poems that noone will ever read, you draw things that noone will ever see, and you go through life acting like a guy who has moderate intelligence and occasionally exhibits extraordinary intelligence.

You dont want to stand out, ever, you dont want to be different, you didnt choose it and its not as fun as its made out to be.

 

[KazeCraven]

^That sounds like specifically the life of a loner with high self-expectations.

I don't get the expectation thing much, and I was "smart" enough to get accepted to top universities (also requires diligence, obviously, but that's the quickest measure I can give).

 

[snafupants]

The social reality an intelligent person faces is having to consume upwards of two pints of malty beer to tolerate the ineptness of the masses and lack of humor from female counterparts.

 

[Philosophyking87]

The pros and cons of intelligence.

Pros:

Less effort needed than most in academics.
When put to use, highly useful in society.
More potential for greatness.
More potential for reputation.

That sounds accurate enough.

Cons:

Intelligence isn't everything. If you don't try, if you don't work (hard), intelligence is pretty useless.

Happiness in an intellectual is as rare as sadness in a bumblebee.

Worrying and intelligence go hand, it's so difficult to find peace. Doubt follows you like the plaugue.

Are not immune to low self-esteem.Doubt of an intelligent person of his intelligence is not uncommon.

More likely to have conflicts with people, traditions, and rules set upon society. Can be isolated.

Wisdom and Intelligence do not go hand-in-hand.

Not immune to bad results.

Higher expectations are set for more intelligent people= more work.

Never exactly sure.

In constant regret about past actions, always brooding over what could have been.

Some of this seems very accurate, while some of it may be a bit off.
But overall, this mostly wraps up the pros and cons of having higher intellect.
I would add a few to the cons, though, in terms of INTP's.
Such as: lazy, unmotivated, apathetic, cynical, pessimistic, impractical, lack of work ethic, ect. It seems, for all our intellectual majesty, we are partly doomed to suffer of life's most basic tasks.