Am I Really That Stupid?

Tonight I was asked what I viewed to be the most astonishing question that made me rethink some things I have thought or even felt myself. My coworker asked me very blatantly "Am I stupid?".  My jaw dropped out of surprise as my mind quickly raced realizing I have uttered those same exact words.

First of all, the sentence itself it completely vague and subjective, yet society understands all too well.  To answer properly, what does stupid  mean?  What does smart mean?  What is? and then, Is intelligence universal or is it specified?  

Second, I have asked this question to a friend of mine who I once thought was intelligent, which I defined by "a person who has a lot of knowledge in diverse areas and a lot of experience."  This person brought to my attention the vagueness in the sentence also, giving me some perspective.  A person may be intelligent in an area or on a specific topic, but actually being smart is knowing how to apply that knowledge you have accumulated.  In this case, the friend, whom I put on this intelligent/smart pedestal, has since fallen.  The friend is intelligent in that this person can probably read a book and remember the content with ease or remember events with a "date stamp," but applying this information to what could be identified as "common sense" reflects the defined term of stupidity.  Yes, I said it and I have said this to the friend before.  This friend is the dumbest smart person I know.  Confused yet? Let me explain.  No matter how much information this person obtains in the brain, the person does not seem to know how to apply this knowledge to life and, in my humble opinion, screws up.  It is like the person got the wiring mixed up with all that knowledge and it short circuited.  Some of you may think I am mean or heartless for saying this, but I have told the friend this stuff directly and it is actually constructive criticism.  Now whether any lesson is learned is an understatement.

So now we have the information to analyze the concept of "Am I stupid?".  The term stupid and "smart" are truly antonyms defining the speed at which a person can process information and apply it whether quickly or, well, not so quickly.  Intelligence involves the information you have learned or have been taught.  Generally, stupid is thought to be the opposite of our defined term of intelligence, but the opposite of intelligence is closer related to being "inept" or even ignorant.  So stupid is a lack of keenness of the mind while smart is the presence of keenness of the mind.  Whereas intelligence is obtaining knowledge, ignorance is lacking the knowledge, inept is without the skill set for that knowledge, and yet commonly the opposite of intelligence is referred to as stupidity, which is the condition of stupid and not the true opposite of intelligence.

So now we see where our confusion lies through all this misinterpretation or misunderstanding based on the limited knowledge of our personal experiences, but my friend was correct in that intelligence itself depends on the topic.  For example, I may have decent, if not significant amount of knowledge on English (because I freakin’ over analyze what everyone around me is ACTUALLY saying), but I do not know a lot of information about the detailed workings of computers.  Now, am I stupid?  No, because I utilize other concepts that transfer from one topic to the next and can apply them to my limited knowledge in such cases and the details of computers.  This is true for any and EVERY topic in the world.  You cannot be a genius about everything and if you ask me, you cannot be a genius or expert on anything because there is always more to learn.  Information does not just die or end, so how can a genius or expert exist?  That is a whole different topic, but still!

For fun, and because I am in a bit of an inspired mood, let’s do some intricate word play:

Ignorantly smart: (conundrum?) A person who lacks knowledge, but has a keen mind- Question: Can a keen mind exist without knowledge? 

           Question: Can concepts and logic be applied without knowledge? (knowledge is probably too general in this instance)

Stupidly smart: (I have actually heard this used and it is funny because how can a person reflect both the existence and lack of a keen mind?)

Intelligently ignorant: (Again, I have heard it used, but we are talking about acquiring knowledge while we yet lack knowledge?-Lack the ability to acquire knowledge?- Acquire the lack of knowledge?)

Stupidly inept: a person who lacks a keen mind and any skill (Ouch! Double whammy on that one.)

Intelligently smart: a person who can acquire knowledge and apply it (Um, hello? Yeah, I’m right here. Look at me…. Just kidding)

Ok, so I had some fun of how I view words while yet probably annoying anyone who just read this. : P  So the question remained, “Am I stupid?”.  Taking in consideration all of the above:

-vague defined terms

-personal experience

-personal knowledge

-maybe a bit of empathy

-mixing pot with some salt and pepper. Do not forget the mixing spoon because this gets messy mixing with your hands and Voila!

Answer: Are you nuts?  You are just having a bad day :D

I should soooo be Sherlock Holmes through that deduction and KEEN wit of an answer.  (I crack myself up sometimes).  None of that matters though.  The thing that matters most is my interpretation and how I utilized it to show the coworker that the person’s conception of the sentence was complete in the analyzation of the question itself.  In short: My coworker smiled and continued on with her work with a bit more confidence.<---That’s all that ever counted anyway.

I See You: Introverted Language

School recently tied me down, more like handcuffed to a chair by my own personal choice, but I have this need to write something beyond my scholastic mind that still penetrates the desire of thought and yet continues to be the inevitable...verbal vomit. LoL However, do not think that I forgot about this quest of mine to examine the awkwardness of being an introvert.

As I had addressed before in a previous post, I wanted to observe the language of introverts and not necessarily just mine considering I would be extremely conscious of my actions and inadvertently tampering or corrupting information. Lucky for me, I recognize other introverts who have confirmed with me to do the same things that I do and react the same way I do to certain events or situations.

Story time!!

If you keep up with my blog you will know that I just relocated and started a new job, this means sitting in a class for training.  My class was built up of five individuals besides me that slowly dwindled down, but the behavior of the class intrigued me as we progressed throughout our two weeks.  

Each student/coworker/peer sat at his or her own table which seemingly reflected the uncomfortable nervousness of the needed personal space or inevitable bubble.  I personally could have used the whole room as my bubble, but that is beside the point :P  With this distance, it was easy to observe each other and get to know one another.  I sometimes laugh at this description because it sounds like a lion observing prey except that the term 'prey' is viewed negatively considering the outcome of the situation.  For us, it was a way of building trust to get confirmation and understanding who you could depend on.  We also learned who to go to for clarity in the understanding of information concern the tasks of our employment positions.  Guaranteed, once out of class things tend to change, but the foundation of understanding still remains.  My favorite moment is when my classmates and I had a specific lesson that included other senior member employees and we were all able to have a discussion without any verbal conversation.  The senior member would ask questions about scenarios we knew nothing about and were completely out of context or order of the lesson plan.  This in itself confused my hired class and irritated us.  One, we did not have the foundation that the senior member did, so going off on a tangent does not offer new hires a stable understanding of their job description, which does not help a company.  Two, with the tangent in action, scowls became more visible, eyebrows and mouths frowned, and lips pierced with grinding teeth out of irritation.  This my friends, is how to piss off an introvert.  I must say I was a bit disappointed that the trainer did not notice how many scowls were aimed in her direction as if lasers were coming out of our eyes, but then again, you cannot expect everyone to understand everything…even reading people.

Now I am a person whose looks can be loud or give a clear indication of how I am feeling, but it still surprises me when someone is able to pick up or understand a particular expression.  One of my coworkers was assisting me on a project and after some time the individual simply asked the question, “Are you okay?”.  I hate to admit it, but due to my very deeply embedded independence I will 99.9% of the time reply with “I’m fine” whether I am or not.  Yes, I had a scowl on my face.  Yes, I pierced my lips together and muttered insane vulgarities under my breath.  Yes, I slither away into my own little world to be left alone until the world made sense again and I felt safe.  YES, SOMETHING IS WRONG, but I can handle it as I am self-aware.  Now I know how I respond to certain situations, but to have a stranger or at least someone who barely knows me recognize this and simply ask if I was okay still surprises me because I want to ask “Why do you care?”.  My actions and reactions are my own issue that do not necessarily involve someone else and yet they do because once my coworker uttered those three words the weight of my frustration was immediately lifted.  I am sure my face reflected this too as the scrunched forehead, curved eyebrows, and gritted teeth slowly disappear.  For me to accept that my co-worker saw me was a little intimidating, but it was a bit comforting to have this person indirectly say "I see you."

As I continue on and get to know my co-workers better I also find that I am more fluent in my own body language when I receive confirmation on another’s personality.  Given the right topic, and introvert can talk as much as any extrovert.  Quiet does not always indicate shy or the idea of being better than others, but it can simply be the fact that “This is my area and right now I need to concentrate” or “I am a deep pondering type with a million thoughts going through my head.”  I love being able to understand a bit about a person by reading body language.  You can pick up on someone’s personality by the books they read, the food they eat, the items they surround themselves with, etc.  Based on looks alone I can usually determine topics of discussion, commonly understood jokes, intelligence, dependability or things that give some indication of a potential, if not, type of connection.  I can also tell if a person is worth the investment of time by how many other people they spend their time with, who is important to that person, what kind of drama does that person have in his/her life, and allowing me to decide “Even though this person and I could be good friends, is now truly a good time for that.”

For now, there is nothing extremely special about body language, unless you have the confusing resting bitch face that actually translates into “I’m deep in thought” or “I AM actually relaxed,” but I think some people miss taking a moment to observe when they instead decide to jump to conclusions.  I like to sit back and watch a person for a while and not in the creepy stalker way but with the intent there is something more to this moment between two people than just silence.  I guess I try to “listen” to what people do not say which is more of how an introvert speaks.  We are like flowers…we do not want to draw attention to ourselves, we just simply want to be pretty.