Undercurrent

It's because the arrogant acadaemic whose plans get shot down by the "little guy" is one of the great mondern storylines. It's Antonio vs. Shylock or Ferris Beuler vs. the Principal or the 15-year-old hanker vs. the big corporation or the little guy with not much book-learnin' but a lot of "wisdom" vs. the pompous acadaemic. Nobody identifies with the jewish moneylender or the principal or the corporation or the scholar.

Athius

I want to challenge this argument. See just like you I was and still am a very "smart" kid. I got straight As in all classes until my senior year even though I was ESL, I worked really hard for SATs and such and got really good grades, and I got accepted into Columbia Univesity (an IV) which I will attend to next year. But this life of all books and no social life (which I had to live) made me a very depressed person, I was very shy and depressed and even suicidal for so many years, but after my college acceptance, I decided I couldn't live like this and decided to change myself completely and become like one of those "cool kids". I'll tell you now I'm so much happier, I'm no longer shy, I got so much self-confident in myself, and I even have a girl friend (something which I never dreamed of before ), noone makes fun of me or teases me anymore, and I'm friend with people of the highest social rank in our school. Although I'm getting straight Fs now (lol), I absolutly don't regret it. This change that I made upgraded me to a new level and taught me the skills that I need in life, and also I consider myself very unique cause I had the experience of living as "cool" and as "nerd" and I understand the psychology of both groups completely, that's why I never criticize people for what they choose to be.

However, I know that I shouldn't continue this during college, so I'm only doing this until college starts, and I hope I can get back to the hardcore studier I was before, but this time I have both skills in the bank instead of just one.

P.s. I'm really bad writer, so sorry if it's hard to understand what I'm saying

Mecha_Dude

I think Anachronix is correct here. I "suffer" from asperger's syndrome. This simply means that basic social skills are not preprogrammed in me and must be taight. Many people seem to think of me as an intelligient person. (though i'm not that smart IMO...)

Acinom

For me I find that it's not so much social unease because of academics that makes me stumble, but more because of my "morals," if you can really call it that.

I'm very picky about what jokes I like to hear. I like the raunchy stuff every now and then, but racial/sexist jokes absolutely make me cringe, and not just when it's applied to me either.

For example, I recently heard my boyfriend's roommate call his girlfriend stupid to her face. While I don't really like the girl in question, I hate hearing guys put down girls that way. This guy has also said some other nasty stuff about women. Respect for other people of all colors, sexes, and socio-economic classes is very important to me.

Since the "cool" people of this school usually like to distinguish their coolness by putting down other people, and since a lot of college humor targets those who are not middle-class, white and male, socially sometimes I don't do as well as I could.

Sorry I got off topic.

Jagged

This has been my experience.

I strongly object to the suggestion that intelligent people generally have poorer social skills than non-intelligent ones. First, there are different kinds of intelligence. Second, there are plenty of smart people who can carry on conversations. Smart/Social is a false dichotomy imposed on us by a stupid culture who would like to believe it to be true.

I used to top out those skills tests in high school, and I love people, and talking to them. But I did not develop social confidence until long after my high school graduation. In fact I spent most of my life to that point believing myself to be anti-social, simply because people were telling me I was. People assumed that since I was intelligent I was not sociable, and for awhile I believed them. Bull, bull, bullshit.

Another thought; some people find intelligent people quite intimidating but do not like to admit this. But they blame the other person's intelligence rather than their own insecurity.

beoba

I've often wondered if #2 is actually what leads to #1.

mongrel

I don't see how you've challeged my POV(it wasn't an "argument")- I think you've just added you're own to the thread.

Getting to my point(see my emphasis to your post). My problem was, once I headed down the track of doing badly(well, just scraping by) at school, it became too easy to continue like that. Once one gets into that mindset, I think it's extremely hard to get back to applying oneself again. I hope you can. I've don't seem to have enough mental discipline to.

mabel

In my own experience with the general public, I don't think intelligent people have poor social skills. I think they just don't have much to say when it comes to interacting with the general public.
I have noticed that people react to someone based upon how they perceive that person affects their own ego or psyche. So if they think your're smarter than them, they are wary and quickly develop negative feelings for you.
Over the years I have become more aware of how people react to me based upon how intelligent I come accross, and so nowadays I make a conscience effort to limit my input when I sense the other person may feel threatened by me. I hate having to bite my tongue, but it keeps the peace at work.

meritocrat

I think in most schools, intelligent kids are viewed as being 'geeky'.

I feel it's a shame that society is anti-intellectual.

Feather

It's a vicious circle. A small degree of intelligence leads to exclusion from the "main" social group, and consequently, because of the exclusion, the excluded seeks "refuge" in the only other thing he knows: knowledge/"intellectual" activities. Thus he exercises his brain more, and becomes "more intelligent." Repeat ad nauseum.

I got out of the circle quite a while ago. Or, rather, I simply found a few others who were also in the circle, and we're all good friends now.