AskMen, how can you tell the difference between actually being smart and just not being stupid?

It's really hard to tell, even then you can't be sure. I generally think if the person is consistently successful then they have something going on up there. Other times you have to just know the person for a while to pick up on little things they do.

This one guy I knew from university who played tight end, he was a nice guy, seemed on top of things, but not boastful and quite reserved. He graduated the year before me, and I remember finding out got 100% in his dissertation which is pretty much unheard of (for anyone not from the UK, your dissertation is the most important piece of work you'll do at university). He went off to work for the big tech companies, now he's CTO of a smaller company at 26.

There's also times where you might think someone is smart, but they've just recognised their weaknesses and planned accordingly. Some of my friends think I'm smart because my career is coming along well and I have a good job at a relatively young age. In reality I have a hard time concentrating and get myself into panics which makes it hard to think and maintain a train of thought, I'm also surrounded by genuinely smart people so I'm well aware of what I'm not good at.

When I was younger I realised if I could achieve a few key goals, then I would be set. I got myself into a CS course at a top 10 university, then I needed an internship so I wrangled myself one of those (and gave up my last summer in university for it). After graduation I applied to this company that was known for taking high calibre graduates, obviously I got rebuffed, so I called them up and managed to get myself an interview. Turned out the company was full of snakes and shitty people, so I aimed to get myself a promotion since having a promotion from that company would arguably look better on my CV than my degree. Got a promotion then left 3 months later, doubled my salary and moved to the job I'm in now, which I love.

/r/AskMen Thread