Years of observing the behavior of highly intelligent people has led me to develop the following list of seven mistakes, which only very intelligent and/or very educated people are guilty of:

1, Hardness of listening: The more intelligent you are, the more likely it is that you will not hear most of what other people are saying. The operative theory here seems to be "I already know what you are going to say, so I don't need to actually hear you say it before I disagree with you." To paraphrase an old-time program, I believe that "I can name that thought" after hearing three words or less of what you have to say.

2, Mental telepathy: Intelligent people are so used to talking to themselves that they often forget to actually say their part of conversation out loud. Later on, of course, they distinctly remember expressing an idea, but they have forgotten that they only thought of saying it to the other person. This leads to many interesting "instant replays" of imaginary conversations, since this type of person can always recall the exact words, not only of what they said, but especially of what they intended to say.

3, Verbal paranoia: This disease is characterized by feeling persecuted whenever someone disagrees with you. Since it is obvious that you are so smart, the thinking goes, no reasonable person could disagree with you unless they were deliberately and maliciously trying to get you angry and hurt your feelings. This habit becomes especially interesting when two highly intelligent people are arguing, since both feel that the other person should bow o their (obviously superior) intelligence.

4, Rampant cross-confidence: This is the automatic assumption that expertise in one field automatically makes you an expert in any other subject that comes up in a conversation. This habit can also take a form of asserting that education is not really necessary, since "any intelligent person" can understand anything instantly, if they just put their mind into it. I once heard a Mensa member state categorically that he could become an expert in atomic physics just by reading a couple of books, and the only reason he knew nothing about the subject was that he didn't happen to have the time to spare just then.

5, Omnilogomania: This severe malady begins with a wide-ranging interest and curiosity about everything, but turns into the idea that a really intelligent person should know all there is to know about everything. The result is a person who runs off in all directions, with no depth of knowledge in any one area. There is a lot to be said about for using your intelligence to become an expert in something, letting that one thing to be the focal point for investigating other fields. Besides, nobody is going to pay you very much for knowing a little bit about a lot of things. Or, as David's Law No. 1 states, you can do anything, you put your mind to, but you can't do everything you put your mind to.

6, Boundary-blundering: It seems that the smarter you are, the harder it is for you to remember where the boundaries are between mental and physical reality, for instance, or between imaginary and real universes. For this type of person, mathematics or social science may become more absorbing than the real world of human emotions, or conversely, the highly intelligent person might be more prone to be caught up in the grip of powerful stories, myths or complicated belief systems. For instance, every educated person knows that there are an infinite number of points on any line segment, but how many of these same people are really clear on the fact that there are no points at all on the physical representation of a line? *

7, Superior survivorship: This is the conviction that intelligence is a survival factor for human beings. Actually, intelligence may even be counterproductive for survival. Most of the time, conformity is much more useful for bonding people to a group, and groups are the highest need for survival. Most behavior that seems unintelligent to an outsider makes perfect sense to those inside group. As one anthropologist puts it, stupidity might just be more important for survival than intelligence, as long as nothing new comes along to upset the status quo. Intelligence is sort of held in reserve for very unusual times; in the meantime, you can always use it to have a lot of fun in your life, or to make up terrible puns.


From the April 1997 issue of Grafitti, the newsletter of Cleveland area Mensa, Mary Ann Terrigno, Editor.

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* (typist note: lost in translation - I don't get the point of this example - could somebody explain?)