What Made You Realize Someone Was Smart? (r/AskReddit)

what have you witnessed someone do that made you realize he/she is really really smart my wife's grandfather he's a retired electrical engineer with a dozen patents to his name and a long list of recognitions I can't be bothered to remember or name I always knew he was brilliant but never realized just how until one day last year we were visiting and he got a phone call keep in mind he's been retired for 20 years and his eighty-six years old the phone call was from an electrical engineering firm from halfway across the globe asking if they could fly him out to a site and have him consult on the energy capture of a hydroelectric dam they were building they'd run into a problem that none of them all electrical engineers could solve they had consulted three of the top related university departments in the US on the issue and the last one had referred them to him 20 minutes on the phone and he agreed to think about it two days later he had solved their issue and written the solution on a single 8 X 11 sheet of paper which he scanned and emailed to the company he said he took so long to write it up because he didn't want to have to file the way there at his age his explanation was so clear I was able to understand and follow it with no relevant higher education one time my drunk uncle was in jail and needed bail money and being that my dad was the only one in the family with any real savings they all look to him to fork up 100 percent the cash having been asked he realized this situation had two possible outcomes one pay for his bail and never get the money back to not pay for the bail and the whole family blame him for it so my dad decided to throw them a curve ball he told them that whatever the rest of the family raised for the bail he'll not only match it he'll offer double whatever they raised together nobody offered one cent blame averted poured Rundle I had a teacher in high school that using both hands could write a sentence starting from the beginning and end simultaneously he even split the middle word of the sentence he also spoke around five languages what the Frick I was playing the card game Egyptian rats Cree with some friends and then all of us noticed that one of our friends were slapping a bit too fast to be believed it turns out he was counting all of our cards and had each of our decks memorized which is just insane til it's not Egyptian rat screw older brother always was terrible at school I can remember him straight up asking why he needed to graduate high school and then again in college he then accepted a low-level job after graduation in marketing that ultimately fell apart due to the company executives screwing up big time during all of it he somehow was able to keep a small client and within 7 months of working was promoted to their executive marketing director making six figures now he has multiple clients on the side and is always scheming something up duties as hard-headed as they come but nonetheless a dang marketing genius blows my mind how far he has come I was once in Chinatown and I saw this old Chinese guy with a bunch of groceries he had tied the bags together by the handle and slung then over his shoulder he looked ridiculous the next week I was struggling with a lot of groceries and I remembered the old Chinese guy stopped on the sidewalk titled my bags together and walked home like the unencumbered dork I became that day not a person but my parents old dog my mom would get bones from the butcher shop for their dog they were long enough that the dog couldn't get all the marrow out of the center the dog figured out that only my stepdads truck was heavy enough to break them after experimenting with the other vehicles at the house there was usually a bone in the same spot on the driveway every time I went home reminds me of crows dropping nuts on crosswalks in high school I had a friend who we made fun of all the time for being dumb but he would have the wackiest ideas that would somehow work one time around Christmas of myself a more year a few of us decided to buy a 30-pack and then later decided we didn't feel like drinking it that night I couldn't keep it at my house but one of my friends parents was coming to pick all my buddies up nobody knew how they were going to get the xxx out of my house into one of their house then my friend came up with a genius idea he went upstairs in my house and wrapped the thirty and wrapping paper he then proceeded to carry it right out to the car with our friend's mom waiting and say it was a gift for his girlfriend who he was going to be seeing later that night I realized that not being great at school doesn't mean someone isn't ingenious I knew two guys in undergraduate he would play mental chess as they'd passed in the hall one guy would say Knight to Queen three or whatever the other guy would roll back his eyes for a second and then not to acknowledge the move both guys then kept walking in opposite directions later that day when they passed again the second guy would declare his counter move a game could last days and they never forgot where any of the pieces were each had a mental image of the board sure they might have been faking but these guys were always first and second on the deans on a list for all four years of my undergraduate I knew them pretty well I think the mental chess was legit most really good players can do this once someone becomes familiar enough with the game it becomes a lot easier to recognize patterns of course intelligence is required advantageous to get good luck chess sitting in a best friend's apartment on the East Coast in the mid-1980s he's working on some code on a prototype UNIX workstation lips had given him he runs his program and it produces an answer then runs it again and produces a different answer thinks about it for a minute and pronounces the CPU is broken right the CPU is broken never heard that one before has it occurred to you that yes it had occurred to him went through three or four scenarios then he pulled out the machine level debugger and started stepping through the code look right here the flags weren't updated right in this instruction yet whatever sends email on the brand-new Internet to me UPS gets a response the next day oh you have that CPU we have verified your issue we will put a replacement in the mail promptly his CPU was broken 30 minutes from diagnosis to request to repair anybody who can explain highly complex things very simply it takes an intelligent person to understand it but it takes a brilliant person to grasp it so fully they can dumb it down to explain it to anybody I think it was fine man who tried to write an introductory textbook on some obscure topic and concluded that more research was needed because he was unable to explain the topic simply enough I was at my desk waiting to make a purchase over the phone and I mentioned to a co-worker that I always have to pull my credit card out I should have this number memorized by now another co-worker overheard that and said I know your visa number and spit it right out after I got off the phone I asked him WTF and he said he heard me say at a couple weeks earlier the numbers just stick with him that way I already knew he was a bright guy but that took it up a notch I'd ask him very politely to not ruin your life when you sit down in a meeting for work where you're trying to solve a big problem and someone can say that's the wrong question you need to be asking people who can do that generally understand the bigger picture and all of the various variables and factors in play and how everything fits together it's some next-level action to watch the entire room go wow we are looking at trees and that guy's looking at the forest my responses are limited you must ask the right question lazy people are the best at this I witnessed a kindergartener who couldn't draw straight lines keep his pencil still and drag the paper around to draw a triangle you'll never be as lazy as the person who named the fireplace a kid in second grade already knew algebra everyone knew he was smart for April Fool's Day that year our teacher decided to be cute and give us a pop quiz so she went to the 8th grade class and asked for an algebra test made copies and handed them out to us some of the kids were freaking out and the teacher assured us that we already went over this so she left the room and some of the kids started crying she came back in after a few minutes and said that it was just a joke but she graded the tests anyways the smart kid scored an 18 stroke 20 my stepfather used to teach me math that was several years beyond what I was learning in second grade Diamond Information sponge and he fed me brain anything that I asked for one day my parents got a call from my teacher the teacher told them that I was teaching my classmates fourth fifth grade math in my spare time at school and to make me knock it off I never saw it myself because I was about two years old but when my older sister was around four years old she used to go grocery shopping with my mom she my sister would keep a running tally for all the items in my mom's cart as my mom took something off the shelf my sister would ask the price and then would add it to the total in her head if my mom put something back she would subtract it my sister was right every time when they got to check out she's a doctor now my sister also used to read the bedtime stories to my parents when she was around two years old goddamn genius meanwhile I'm the kid who ate play-doh my dad had a business trip in Seattle that I tagged along on so I could see a soccer match and explore the city he invited me to go to the Research Hospital within one day and I agreed they were working on testing some type of cardiovascular tool on a cadaver that they would stimulate blood flow into tests seeing my dad who didn't go to college barely graduated from high school lived on welfare with a single mom and who knocked up a teenage girl when he was a teenager himself performed surgery on a cadaver using a tool he invented that could potentially save thousands of lives blew my mind he had hundreds of patents on devices I got surgery three years ago and my shoulder surgeon used a tool he invented in the 90s he's an incredibly smart and hardworking man who got just the right amount of luck to get him where he is today I like it when you meet someone whose English is imperfect but you realize they are very intelligent and are able to explain their thoughts I remember once meeting a Japanese archeologist who wasn't the best English speaker but when he explained his research to me it was absolutely fascinating go to plug my dad in here had some friends over and just to mess around we asked him the definition of random words in the dictionary we opened it to the eyes and asked the definition of 10-12 letter 3-4 syllable words not only did he nail all of them but most definitions who have obeyed him when we got to the 10th word he goes the verb or the noun and we lost our crap it was seriously ridiculous we were freshmen in high school and could hardly pronounce the words we picked turns out he read the whole dictionary over the summer when he was 16 and aboard guy is still the smartest person I've ever met I'm not even a dad but if I found out my son said this about to me I'd probably cry my older brother has really bad a DD and always did terrible in school I never realized how smart he was until a few years ago we were watching jeopardy together and he knew most of the answers to the most obscure crap I was blown away I swear it was like the scene from Groundhog Day when my dad just decided to add an addition to the house like he'd be out there 70 80 hours a week adding three extra floors to the house with running water up to the third floor he would rent excavators and large moving equipment and only like three or four times he would hire an extra hand that was amazing lot soft dad decide to do that but it sounds like he was actually completed it which is absolutely amazing wife is smart like six languages fluently smart without breaking a sweat has never not done well in school always gets promoted et Cie etc but no one in my family saw this because she's an introvert and tries to keep herself dumb so people get her and like her my family and I are smart she's next level up salut after we got engaged family had get together as in cousins friends lots of people as usual we played some group games she was reluctant but I pulled her aside and asked her to try and fit in she obliged but was annoyed with me started with pictionary she schooled the room moved to a bunch of card games with a single deck counted cards knew everyone's decks etc quiz board game knew all the answers over and over again she was dominant to the point of silencing my family it was unnerving even for me a few weeks later when we visited her family we don't play games with soon-to-be mrs. B frog douche she plays to decimate the competition Oh found out my little brother aged 12 has a legit photographic memory he's a big lotr fan and knows an abnormal amount about the series whenever he answers questions about it he looks up and squints a bit I asked him about it and it turns out that he is actually reading from the book in his head he can even jump to random page numbers he also knows a ridiculous amount of world history I go to him when I need help with that sadly he is adopted and we don't share the same games I'd like to be friends with your little brother I'd take him to parties with me just for the lotta trivia so I don't have to pull out the complete guide to middle-earth just kidding I don't get invited to parties put hardly any time into studying and do better on an exam than me after I spend days studying for those of you who are like this and didn't develop any study habits I was in the same boat but I didn't have to study all through high school but once I got to college it bit me in the butt here's probably my favorite study tactic that got me out of that rut you ever had a test where professors will let you bring 180 X 11 sheet or even a nautical with anything you want to put on it formulas etc well I found that even if I didn't study anything else just taking the time to fill one of these out was very useful realistically you will use about 5-10 percent of what's on the sheet during the test but filling it out will make you navigate through your notes and/or class material and make you really think about what's important to be there due to the limited space while doing this you are subconsciously learning the material so even if it's an open book or closed notes test it is always useful to do something like this or at least it was for me I was a kid but I wish I wasn't by the time I got to university I had no idea how to properly study and my grades took a huge hit and never really recovered growing up your dad is always that nut at least mine was always thought of him as a joker who liked to invent stuff around the house long story short when I was around 12 he made a basic hydrogen engine he was on track to making it practical for his van and was so stoked claiming he would get up to four - five more miles to the gallon he was able to make a small hydrogen cell and a housing for it and set it in his van it was so complicated I can't even explain it properly he got 3-4 more miles to the gallon so his prediction was pretty close he was then stuck on how to get more out of it make it cheaper and you know maybe pitch his idea to get it on the markets one day he was googling new ideas and came across a Norse uni that basically did the same thing before him idk the details that had crushed him he stopped working on it kinda stopped making stuff a few years ago I was home visiting and was walking through his workshop and found the cell tucked away old dusty it dawned on me then that I will never come close to being as smart and intuitive as my father I told him before I left - my old man cried I cried it was great one of my best friends from high school was like a real-life Good Will Hunting story we came from a small blue-collar town his parents were relatively poor he was pretty much unheard of and unpopular but not nerdy or geeky more so hung out with the druggies and rock band types until he got to high school he started becoming fascinated with math and physics he would spend hours at the library just reading books upon books on the topics apparently he scored perfect or close to it on his AP exams in calculus and physics as a sophomore in high school our physics teacher at the school immediately took him under his wing and before his sophomore year was over he was teaching college math classes he went on to get his doctorate from an Ivy League school and of course as a professor now but he is definitely the smartest person I know we used to sit at coffee shops in high school and he would just start doodling long complex math problems on his napkin it was way beyond anything I could understand and I had taken all the same AP type classes he did holy crap I've always wondered how people just get good at that stuff it's like they have a giant vault only for that kid I knew in high school bet his friends who were in the class that he could get a 5 top score on the AP chemistry test even though he didn't take the class he did someone who doesn't engage with overdramatic argumentative people how's the saying go an idiot will bring you down to their level and win smart people just avoid it and know how and when to keep their mouth closed lawyer arguing in front of the Supreme Court he cites something in a law book stating it can be found on page 84 and one of the justices motions to a clerk to get the book the Justice receives the book and tells the lawyer that no such thing as found on page 84 the lawyer responds perhaps your honors addition is incorrectly paginate it it was my dad's friend Mitch I've only met him a few times but when I saw him a few months ago at my parents anniversary party he remembered my birthday I thought it was just weird until he pointed around the room and told me everyone else's birthday too it was surreal my younger brother unfortunately has severe ADHD and other mental disorders he was kicked out of a couple of schools and has extreme social anxiety he gets really annoying and argumentative the dange I have seen that boy observed something for a few minutes be it a sport a dance move an equation something tech related an instrument and execute to near perfection after maybe three tries he sat down with my girlfriend to study algebra while he was in school and understood the whole chapter in few minutes he just needed someone to motivate him use their native language in fun and original ways like making conversations very colorful fun adjectives nice metaphors etc you have been visited by the holy fruit boy if you comment tiny turtle he will birth you with unlimited holy fruits if you are new to the channel you can subscribe I publish new videos every day until then check out another video or don't either way have a great day you magnificent people

Channel: Updoot

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Keywords: #updootst, updoot, updoot reddit, updoot everything, reddit on tap, toadfilms, pewdiepie, reddit, askreddit, funny reddit, reddit stories, top posts, reddit top posts, reddit cringe, comedy, reddit compilation, /r, r/, r/askreddit, top posts of r/, askreddit reading, best reddit posts, top posts of all time, people of reddit, askreddit question, ask reddit, subreddit, sub, reddit smartest person, reddit smartest students, reddit smart student, reddit smartest, reddit smart

Id: CgrWNhb7nHU

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2019