This “intelligent reputation” discussion is interesting.
I had kind of an odd situation as a kid growing up. I went to a supposedly excellent Silicon Valley area elementary school and was generally one of the smartest 2-4 kids in my class. But I didn’t think of myself as being very smart: I brushed off all the praise I got from teachers (because the villains and buffoons in the fiction I read were all arrogant, and I was afraid of becoming arrogant myself). Additionally, my younger brother is a good bit smarter than me, which was obvious even at that age. So I never strongly identified as being “smart”.
When I was older I attended a supposedly elite university. At first I thought there was no way I would get in, but when I was accepted and got in I was astonished by how stupid and intellectually incurious everyone was. I only found one guy in my entire dorm building who actually seemed to like thinking about science/math/etc. for its own sake. At first I thought that the university admissions department was doing a terrible job, but I gradually came to realize that the world was just way stupider than I thought it was, and assuming that I was anything close to normal was not an accurate model. (Which sounds really arrogant; I’m almost afraid to type that.)
I wonder how else being raised among those who are smarter/stupider than you impacts someone’s intellectual development?
generally one of the smartest 2-4 kids in my class
This is interesting. Do you think your aversion to what you saw as arrogance, but which turned out to be (at least partially) accuracy, might have been overcome earlier if, for example, you’d been the clear leader, rather than having even a small group you could consider intellectual peers? Was that how you saw them?
It’s possible. Although for me to have been the “clear leader” you probably would’ve had to remove a number of people who weren’t in the top 2-4 as well. And even then I might have just thought of my family as unusually great, because there’d still be my terrifyingly smart younger brother.
Silicon Valley could be an odd place. I actually grew up in a neighborhood where most of the kids were of Indian descent (we played cricket and a game from India that I just found on Wikipedia called Kabaddi (I can’t believe this is played professionally) in addition to standard US games). I didn’t think to ask then, but I guess they were mostly children of immigrant software engineers? I haven’t really lived anywhere other than the SF bay area yet, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Right now I’m thinking I should prepare myself for way more stupidity and racial homogeneity.
Silicon Valley could be an odd place. I actually grew up in a neighborhood where most of the kids were of Indian descent (we played cricket and a game from India that I just found on Wikipedia called Kabaddi (I can’t believe this is played professionally) in addition to standard US games).
It took me a few seconds pondering the playing of cricket as ‘odd’ to realize that I need to identify with the Indians in this story.
This “intelligent reputation” discussion is interesting.
I had kind of an odd situation as a kid growing up. I went to a supposedly excellent Silicon Valley area elementary school and was generally one of the smartest 2-4 kids in my class. But I didn’t think of myself as being very smart: I brushed off all the praise I got from teachers (because the villains and buffoons in the fiction I read were all arrogant, and I was afraid of becoming arrogant myself). Additionally, my younger brother is a good bit smarter than me, which was obvious even at that age. So I never strongly identified as being “smart”.
When I was older I attended a supposedly elite university. At first I thought there was no way I would get in, but when I was accepted and got in I was astonished by how stupid and intellectually incurious everyone was. I only found one guy in my entire dorm building who actually seemed to like thinking about science/math/etc. for its own sake. At first I thought that the university admissions department was doing a terrible job, but I gradually came to realize that the world was just way stupider than I thought it was, and assuming that I was anything close to normal was not an accurate model. (Which sounds really arrogant; I’m almost afraid to type that.)
I wonder how else being raised among those who are smarter/stupider than you impacts someone’s intellectual development?
This is interesting. Do you think your aversion to what you saw as arrogance, but which turned out to be (at least partially) accuracy, might have been overcome earlier if, for example, you’d been the clear leader, rather than having even a small group you could consider intellectual peers? Was that how you saw them?
It’s possible. Although for me to have been the “clear leader” you probably would’ve had to remove a number of people who weren’t in the top 2-4 as well. And even then I might have just thought of my family as unusually great, because there’d still be my terrifyingly smart younger brother.
Silicon Valley could be an odd place. I actually grew up in a neighborhood where most of the kids were of Indian descent (we played cricket and a game from India that I just found on Wikipedia called Kabaddi (I can’t believe this is played professionally) in addition to standard US games). I didn’t think to ask then, but I guess they were mostly children of immigrant software engineers? I haven’t really lived anywhere other than the SF bay area yet, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Right now I’m thinking I should prepare myself for way more stupidity and racial homogeneity.
It took me a few seconds pondering the playing of cricket as ‘odd’ to realize that I need to identify with the Indians in this story.
Even as a native Aussie I sometimes find playing cricket to be odd.