We gotta stop calling people "geniuses" or "gifted". It ruins them. They destroy themselves finding out the hard way they arent indeed good at everything or finding out being smart aint enough to acquire or even sustain success or even being happy.
Replies
not sure I'm getting this take. Kids know when they're running circles around everyone else in the classroom--they don't need someone to tell them. Maybe just impress upon them that standard IQ isn't a measure of merit, there are lots of different talents, & it is no guarantee of success.
jul 8, 2025, 11:44 am • 7 0 • view
True enough, but kids also know what they need to do to get adult approval and being sharp is one of them. Schools also love sharp kids bc they make the school look effective. Those dynamics alone probably already gives the impression to kids that non-academic intelligence is not as important
jul 8, 2025, 2:15 pm • 2 0 • view
schools are also a bad metric for real life. shining in school does NOT translate to success in life
jul 8, 2025, 3:33 pm • 2 0 • view
You make a good point. If we instead focused on the effort and curiosity and ideas people put forth even when they don't 'achieve,' people would have a much healthier way to live life.
jul 8, 2025, 4:29 pm • 1 0 • view
It makes it so much easier to disappoint your parents. Now the only way I'll get into medical school is by giving my body to science.
jul 8, 2025, 1:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Amen, I can attest
jul 8, 2025, 4:45 am • 0 0 • view
The smartest, most knowledgeable people will readily tell you they don't know a damn thing.
jul 8, 2025, 4:33 pm • 3 0 • view
Except for Melania. She's gifted. She got that special visa to prove it.
jul 8, 2025, 3:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Maybe stop glorifying people who are not that interesting intelligent or contributing to something that values our collective society. Not talking heads not influencers not self indulgent billionaires no psychopaths. Cut off the talking heads We were better before
jul 8, 2025, 4:52 am • 2 0 • view
Truth. Unrelated but I gotta follow you by virtue of your username alone.
jul 7, 2025, 11:02 pm • 2 0 • view
Also terrible: people with the ability to outshine “genius” through tenacity may give up if they’re not obviously gifted
jul 8, 2025, 1:38 pm • 8 0 • view
I once had my sister call me that. I immediately told her to cut that shit out!! I'm no genius. A lot of people who are classified that way are what I'd call educated idiots.
jul 8, 2025, 4:17 pm • 0 0 • view
This is soooo true!!!
jul 8, 2025, 2:09 pm • 0 0 • view
Being gifted is not a synonym for or guarantee of riches and public accolades. Perhaps suggesting it is may be the only real mistake.
jul 8, 2025, 9:58 am • 1 0 • view
Playing well with others helps in succeeding in jobs and life.
jul 8, 2025, 5:31 pm • 1 0 • view
I propose reserving the "genius" accolade for obituaries or later.
jul 8, 2025, 9:40 am • 7 0 • view
I think the rise of maga coincides with the decline of the word retard
jul 8, 2025, 5:07 pm • 0 0 • view
In fact they need to resume holding students back when they cannot meeet the basic skills of the grade. I understand it hurts their self esteem but I cannot imagine finishing school and not having basic language & math skills. I'd rather upset a child than permanently cripple an adult.
jul 8, 2025, 5:44 pm • 0 0 • view
It doesn't come from inside us. It's the pressure of expectations from the outside. Intellectual precocity is not a "gift".
jul 8, 2025, 3:59 pm • 0 0 • view
What really ruins them is the constructs of society that are determined to kill curiosity. The more people are forced to mask and assimilate, the less they get to use their talents at least from my perspective
jul 8, 2025, 1:40 pm • 2 0 • view
I found that some of the supposed smartest people are also the dumbest. They may be book smart, but lack common sense. They may be school smart, but lack basic manners, empathy & humanity. Being extremely smart doesn't make them decent human beings.
jul 8, 2025, 5:12 pm • 0 0 • view
I agree with this 100%! Best decision made was NOT enroll my daughter in a gifted program. I believe in a well-rounded, humble individual. I had 2 kids, understanding their personality/strengths supported our decision. Don’t lift one at the possible expense of the other.
jul 8, 2025, 4:47 pm • 1 0 • view
My son is now a middle aged example of this.
jul 8, 2025, 6:45 am • 0 0 • view
So true. In 4th grade, back in the 80's, I tested in the 99th percentile, 140 IQ, admission to the "gifted" program. All that nonsense. What did I do with it? Well, I'm ashamed to say, not much.
jul 8, 2025, 4:23 pm • 0 0 • view
True. It is also a false narrative in many cases.
jul 8, 2025, 1:45 pm • 1 0 • view
truth... I was told I was smart and "gifted" but realized early on (luckily) that I wasn't any better than anyone else. Yeah I was a bit smarter but others were more knowledgeable in other things
jul 8, 2025, 4:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Okay, genius.
jul 8, 2025, 5:18 pm • 0 0 • view
And yet, so called geniuses think they're entitled.
jul 8, 2025, 3:51 pm • 1 0 • view
Worse, you get so good at answering questions and solving problems that you get into the real world and nobody cares abou what's actually right you just gotta turn off your brain and entire identity as a 'formerly gifted kid' to work for someone with money and no sense about how the world works.
jul 8, 2025, 1:59 am • 12 0 • view
Thankfully I’ve been spared this problem. 😂
jul 8, 2025, 6:11 pm • 0 0 • view
It's just the Icarus thing... learn nothing about flight or your destination, don't learn to do the trial and error thing, believe in yourself and all imagine you have skills you've never developed. Maybe we need to model things differently? Smart is a tool, strength is a tool... just tools.
jul 8, 2025, 6:05 pm • 0 0 • view
👍 Amen!
jul 8, 2025, 3:39 pm • 0 0 • view
I knew the gifted label was bullshit the minute they started letting all the connected wealthy kids in
jul 8, 2025, 4:47 pm • 3 0 • view
It was always that.
jul 8, 2025, 6:53 pm • 1 0 • view
And then the wealthy kids needed tutors and help to stay in the Gifted and Talented classes.
jul 8, 2025, 7:14 pm • 2 0 • view
Hence the reason more youngins' are living in their grandparents' basements hiding from day than ever before. Hopefully they'll check on the grandparents from time to time and assist around the house and getting them to appointments. Then they're gifted the house post their passing and ....genius!!
jul 8, 2025, 4:16 am • 0 0 • view
I found out too late that really what I needed was more help and attention in school. Being distinguished in classes and testing early on gave the impression that I was independent. It made me feel like I had to be able to figure it out on my own and I started to struggle when things got harder.
jul 8, 2025, 3:20 pm • 7 0 • view
Being intelligent is like driving a F1 race car. You must work harder to keep it on the road, or you will hit the wall harder than a Camry.
jul 8, 2025, 12:06 pm • 13 1 • view
I have been lucky to meet genius level people. One man I met was riding a bike to work. It turned out his car had a flat tire and he had no idea what to do about it. He was amazed to find a spare in the trunk and, best of all, was a member of AAA. He thought I was brilliant for changing his tire
jul 8, 2025, 7:16 pm • 0 0 • view
It certainly hasn't affected me adversely. I'd like to hear it. Starting now.
jul 8, 2025, 7:10 pm • 0 0 • view
That’s the cosmic shame
jul 8, 2025, 3:41 am • 1 0 • view
Hear, hear - those folks will either twist themselves into knots making it be true in their minds, or else they will face the music and be enervated, and in both cases you have to feel it is a waste of valuable time
jul 8, 2025, 2:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I dunno. Sir Paul McCartney is considered a musical genius and it hasn't seemed to go to his head.
jul 8, 2025, 3:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Being considered a genius and being told with societal reinforcement that you are a genius are two different things. And at what age you start hearing it and who is telling you this are two other factors. I sense that McCartney wasn't in that kind of a bubble, considering his background.
jul 8, 2025, 3:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Very true. Paul and John had years out of the spotlight where they got MOST of the bad/mediocre songs out of their system.
jul 8, 2025, 8:06 pm • 1 0 • view
Watching the shitheads on CNBC repeatedly calling Musk, "One of the smartest, most brilliant people in history..." is teeth grinding level annoying. based on what? The fact that he has a quazillion dollars? That just means he has a decent tax lawyer and accountant.
jul 8, 2025, 3:16 pm • 10 1 • view
There’s also just a certain degree of randomness in one business becoming successful and another failing. He didn’t found Tesla or come up with any of their original ideas, he just bought it.
jul 8, 2025, 5:30 pm • 1 0 • view
People born and raised rich are inherently smarter than people who are born to regular people, raised with empathy and aware that there are people who are like and different than them. That's a fallacy that only the rich believe because the servants are paid to tell them that; paid to lose to them.
jul 8, 2025, 7:13 pm • 0 0 • view
It's more that he targeted core industries that the rest of the economy depends on: finance (paypal), energy (tesla), transportation (tesla, spacex), data communication (starlink), automation (tesla). Plus an enormous amount of luck being in the right place right time with the necessary capital.
jul 8, 2025, 6:00 pm • 1 0 • view
As someone who was placed in gifted programs through my public schooling, I absolutely freakin' feel this.
jul 8, 2025, 4:09 pm • 0 0 • view
jul 8, 2025, 3:02 am • 9 0 • view
Case in point to the extreme....Musk.
jul 7, 2025, 10:38 pm • 5 0 • view
Hard agree on this one. True polymaths are exceedingly rare. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Dropping that weird burden on someone does them no favors.
jul 7, 2025, 10:37 pm • 5 0 • view
"...achieving a high level of performance in almost any arena depends far more on a devotion to deliberate practice than on innate talent. In case after case of people who look like natural talents, the full story reveals that they have put in many thousands of hours of training or practice..."
jul 8, 2025, 7:53 am • 3 2 • view
Source: spsp.org/news-center/...
jul 8, 2025, 7:54 am • 2 1 • view
God say “You are mine” regardless of anything anyone says about you.
jul 8, 2025, 1:40 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes! I’m raising a teenager, and while I’ve assured her she has the ability to do well, I focus more on her effort than on natural ability. I was in AG programs growing up, but I was a terrible student for years because I lacked motivation and good habits. Wasted potential is so sad.
jul 8, 2025, 4:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Hasn’t affected me that way…
jul 8, 2025, 2:54 pm • 0 0 • view