how can some people be smart and stupid at the same time?

Question

i have a friend that has a really high i.q. but this guy does the dumbest things, i cant seem to figure it out, i have known him my whole life and the first thing that struck me is when we were in ac class back when we were in school, he could practically write a book on the stuff we were working on but when it came to the actual work he could barely figure out how to undo a bolt and im not kidding, he made straight a's and went to college and got his masters, and he is still doing the same dumb things that a moron could figure out

Answer 1

Well, that's not stupid and smart at the SAME time now is it?

Answer 2

Intelligence can be well balanced, so there is such a thing as the person with a high IQ AND lots of common sense; but some people are smart in one area or another but not across the board.

Most of the time, people tend to enjoy pointing out the people who are known as having a high IQ or people who do well academically (not always the same thing) who do not have an equal amount of the other type of intelligence. Maybe it stands out more when someone is smart in one way but not in others. Maybe the across-the-board/high-IQ person doesn't stand out as much because they don't do things that appear stupid.

Sometimes, though, a very intelligent person just has no interest in things like undoing a bolt and may not WANT to know how to do it.

Either way, people known to have high IQ's are pretty much in the cross hairs of anyone out to prove how stupid the high-IQ person may be sometimes. People enjoy pointing out it, talking about it, and feeling reassured that they, too, have their own type of intellligence.

People who don't have the type of well balanced high IQ that some others do are generally pretty happy with their single type of intelligence and don't mind not being able to undo a bolt. That guy's Master's Degree has probably served him far better than knowing how to undo bolts ever would have.

Answer 3

Very often those with high IQ's have their minds so full of thoughts either complex or abstract that the fine details of things elude them.

I have known many very intelligent people who do not have the common sense god gave a turnip. I have known some really brilliant people when it comes to the basic common sense issues we face in our daily lives but if they were to be tested would perhaps be consider below average.

It is a perceptional thing, The way our brains work and our perceptions of things vary. It is the same reason that some people are brilliant at math but can barely read. Einstein was considered stupid as a child, and backward.

Think back to school, some kids aced their english course but were failing science or math or history, or aced math but failed one of the others. I have even known some kids to fail English course yet pass every language course they ever took, and be able to speak 4 languages fluently.

Answer 4

I guess that some people are smart but don't pay attention to some of the things they do and make people thing their dumb. Smart people tend be serious and hard to be with because you will never know what they I'll do next.

Answer 5

Some people have tons of books smarts but like zero real-life smarts. They could ace ALL of their tests, but can barely open a door without thinking about it first. I'm not sure why, but some people are just like that.

Answer 6

Some people can be so smart, but at the same time, lack common sense...that should come natural to us all.

Answer 7

I used to wonder this too, then it occurred to me. Everyone has more or less the same number of brain cells. If you're going to be proficient in one area, you'll generally have to be less proficient in another. So that's why you have things like absent minded professors, idiot savants, sports prodigies who can't add two and two, etc. Of course, there are some people lucky enough to be good at everything, and those are the ones who get on my nerves.

Answer 8

He probably has a mild form of Autism. There's a condition known as Asperger's Syndrome. Look it up.

He's probably not "dumb" or a "moron". It's probably just that his brain works differently than other people's brains.

And btw, it probably has nothing to do with lacking "common sense". Some people seem to think that you're either booksmart or have common sense. And they think that if you're booksmart you don't have common sense. Well that's bullcrap. Your friend may not know how to undo a bolt, but I bet he's more cautious and has more sense than people who aren't booksmart.

Answer 9

to be or not to be
same question
you can watch me change a transmission
but can you DO it?
I bet a brain surgeon can't hail a cab after work
God gives us all gifts We are all different
My mother is a wizard [almost]
but she can't drive a car
and God help us if she did
perhaps we should pose this question to a psychologist if there's one out there

Answer 10

I know a guy who is an absolute genius, but has no common sense.

Was wondering the same thing myself.