[Serious] What does it "feel" like to be intelligent?

I have friends who are more STEM inclined, artist friends, humanities people, social science people...everything! And they all have interesting things to say about what they're good at and interested in. But if someone isn't a math person or isn't a language person or doesn't 'get' history, there's going to be a large part of myself that can't engage with them. For friendships, this is fine. For relationships, it would be harder, and I'd not want to end up in a relationship where I restrict myself or my partner feels condescended to. As I get closer to 30, I see how many people pair off, how friendship wanes, and I worry about sustaining relationships with others at all if I can't find a romantic one.

Spot on. Same percentile, I've had the same problem. People's overt reactions tend to be "it will work itself out" or "you just haven't met the right person yet." Reading between the lines, a lot of people think it's because I can't get people to date me full stop.

I make a distinction. I date girls and it's great, I love it. But I look at the practicalities of it and I'm at the same conclusion you are. I've just not met that many people I'd want to spend my life with, let alone dated them. It's not so much that I don't think they're smart, it's that I don't feel stimulated. Stimulation is important to me. I enjoy crunching thoughts and I want conversation that stretches my brain. It is condescending to say, but I need a partner who is capable of that.

It's not even that I'm sure I won't find someone, I just don't think it's likely and I think it's wise for me to deal with that fact. If you're in the top 0.1th percentile, 1 in 1000 people you meet are also in that percentile. I only have 1000 Facebook friends - that's 1000 people I've had even a baseline relationship with, over my entire lifetime. 400 are girls, a lot less are girls I'm into. Of those, how many share my interests? How many do I click with? How many are into me? Even if I meet someone I'd want to date long-term, there's no guarantee she's going to be into me.

There's not really any way of talking about it without seeming like a condescending ass.

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