Oh, you're so smart...

[smileyeagle1021]

I absolutely hate when people say that to me. It is patronizing beyond belief. I know I'm not stupid, but I also know I'm not smart, I know that I am only average intelligence. I don't like the variations on that, "I wish I was as smart as you"... um, no you don't, you wish you were as smart as Steven Hawking or Niel Degrasse Tyson (I probably messed that up). I'm just smart enough to realize how not smart I am... I'm not smart, I'm hard working and put forth effort.
I know it's meant as a compliment, but it just gets under my skin. It's kind of like telling the girl who is slightly overweight that she has the body of a supermodel, she knows she doesn't and she knows that you're full of shit, and she may not see it as a compliment (a more realistic "you look great to me" is more of a compliment if you ask me).
I know I'm probably weird, but it just rubs me wrong when people compliment me with things I know aren't really true.

[Hyena Dandy]

Well, they may not just be patronizing you. There's other reasons they could say that

1) You just told them how to do something.
2) They just aren't very smart at all, or feel that way
3) You're a lot smarter than you think
4) You're not as smart as THEY think

You do seem fairly intelligent, if perhaps a little over-emotional at times. If you carry yourself intelligently, I can see people think that you're really smart. I mean, if they said "You're a genius" that'd go a bit far, I think, but they aren't necessarily patronizing you.

[DrFaroohk]

I see where you're coming from. Sometimes people give me compliments that I personally know are not true. That bugs me because I feel like they're "tricking" me or something. Maybe they're buttering me up, maybe they're just full of shit.

On the other hand, knowing your intellectual limitations probably makes you smarter than someone with greater brainpower but who doesn't know they're not god.

[bara]

On the other hand, knowing your intellectual limitations probably makes you smarter than someone with greater brainpower but who doesn't know they're not god.

This is an excellent point.

Im certain a lot of our tech support gurus can agree that just because you know how to do something with a computer, doesnt mean you should do it.

I know how to overclock a computer. I have never done it as its generally a bad idea.

I also know that while the CD tray might resemble a cup holder, I know it is in fact not a cup holder. For that matter I am also aware that there is in fact not a key that has 'any' written on it.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

How's this for patronizing?

(Upon realizing I'm dyscalculic, which is akin to being dyslexic) "But you seemed so smart!" or "but you're too smart to have that!" or even "but I always thought you were smart!"




Oh, so, what? I'm abysmally stupid now all of a sudden? There was a grievous mistake made in your perception and now you realize I'm a drooling idiot?

People SAY this stuff!

It's like they are going "oh, well, I have all this evidence that suggests you're intelligent, but now that I find out you have slightly different wiring in your gray matter, I'm going to go on the assumption that you are can barely function without a handler!"



And while we're having this conversation, how the blazing blue fuck can my mom (I love you, Mom, but sheesh!) simultaneously think I'm a super genius while at the same ask me questions that suggest she thinks I am so stupid I need to be in restraints????

Can you tell this is a hot button issue for me????

[blas87]

No one ever calls me smart except for my boyfriend, so I don't have to deal with that problem.

[DrFaroohk]

Im certain a lot of our tech support gurus can agree that just because you know how to do something with a computer, doesnt mean you should do it.

.

Or worse, the ones who know just enough to be dangerous.

I don't know a whole hell of a lot about computers. Operating, yes I'm pretty good, and I can install some basic hardware and spend enough time on the net figuring out how to make it work. Beyond that, I don't knbow that much about TCIP and TPS reports and RAM data trees and positronic networks.

But I will admit when I'm out of my league and I won't do something stupid like remove your motherboard to see what makes it tick.

Other guys i know are really into a lot of the complicated shit. They might even have some sort of certificate that says they're computer gurus. But they're also arrogant to the point that they will do anything they feel like to a computer and fuck it up.

I consider myself better with computers than they are.

[smileyeagle1021]

The thing that has brought this up is in one of my classes we are working with MS Access, and my classmates keep on telling me how smart I am for knowing how to use Access...
Umm, no, that's not smart, that's having taken classes that require Access three times before this one and having worked damn hard to be able to get it down.
I had the same thing happen in calculus, "oh you're so smart, you actually get this stuff"
Yeah, well, when it's your fourth time taking the course then you'd better actually get that stuff... that isn't a quality of being smart, that's a quality of not being dumb enough to be a ward of the state.

[jackfaire]

I hate that compliment but for different reasons. I am a smart guy. I know I don't know everything but I know I am fairly intelligent. That being said I used to hate that I was smarter than my peers because of the fact that's why they hated me.

No I didn't think that was why they hated me they told me that was why. In my school it turned out intelligence was equated with being a goody two shoes and that was bad.

If you got good grades it meant you were worth an ass kicking if the teachers praised you then boom you were lame.

That's why I hated it.