Ever wish you were born stupid?

[Ingemar]

I do. My parents have the misguided idea that I am brilliant and talented based on my 3.6 GPA in college. But that's far from the case. I am quite lazy and manage to coast through most of my classes. This was also true of High School (except my GPA was weighted and so it was more like a 4.4).

Now they want me to become a doctor. I don't want to become a doctor. I'm fine with being mediocre. In fact, dumber people will eventually win the demographic race because intellectuals are to steeped in debt to start a family while dumb people procreate anyway. What do you guys think?

[White Raven]

Don’t take this the wrong way... But I think you are taking yourself way to seriously.

If you have the brains, and ability to make something of yourself, you had better try your BEST and do it.
If you don’t want to be a doctor that’s fine, but don’t waste your chance at education.
Don’t just skate by with grades, when you know you can do better.

So many people never have the chance to do anything.
I think it’s very selfish to waste something that is so valuable.

[Nia-chan]

Well, if you managed to coast through all your classes, sounds like you're pretty talented to me << >>

Obviously if you don't want to be a doctor then you shouldn't be, but I guess if God gave you above average smarts, then it might not exactly be useful if you're just going to settle for mediocre. I know how you feel though, that's just my opinion.

Edit: Uh yeah, kind of what White Raven said ^^;

[Kaligraphic]

I say you remind me of myself.

The trick is to relax. The carnal mind is enmity with Christ, remember? So your own intelligence, really, is pretty much irrelevant. Actually, when it comes to getting God's ideas on things, natural intelligence can work against us, causing us to rely on our own understanding.

[Lady Macbeth]

There are certainly days I wish I was born stupid, but that's just because working as a Moderator on a fanfiction archive requires repeated when stupid people can't get basic rules through their head. It'd be nice to just for one day be able to figure out why they think the way they do, so that we could work on a fix for it.

Seriously, though, it sounds like you are just in a situation where you're being pushed to "maximize your potential". I've been there. If I'd have done what my parents wanted, I'd be working for NASA right now. They'd have been probably freaking out, because I'd have been one of the astronauts on Discovery when she had to be repaired in space, or worse, on Columbia the day she disintegrated.

The thing is, that's why we have free will and the right to exercise it once we turn 18.

Find something you're passionate about and pursue that. If you're a musician, be a brilliant musician. If you're an artist, be the next Leonardo. If you're a total slacker in all respects, move to Hawaii and be a brilliant belly boarder. That's what's great about being smart enough that you can slide by in life - when you apply yourself, you can excel at what you want to excel at and what you enjoy being able to excel at.

[bigsleepj]

I do.

Me too. Sometimes.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I don't. I'm not stupid but I'm not hugely intelligent either. Actually I envyied the people who could breeze through school and college (not doing homework much and still getting A+s). Maybe it's not good with all the expectation of your parents but on the other spectrum I didn't have much fun working my butt off in school and college and getting mediocre grades.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I think I was born stupid

Edit: Then again, that would mean I was born smart... because a stupid person wouldn't ask that they would wish to be born stupid... because well... they're stupid..

Meh, I dunno

[harina]

I wish it quite often. I dunno but I think that I lack in social skills because I'm more clever than the average.. I mean, it feels like all my talents are in thinking and such, not in socialising with other people.

[Neko Niisan]

I know the feeling. You start to excel in school in your younger years of 2 x 2 = 4 and then your elders never let up on the expectations.
I often find myself thinking that "why can't a B in Biology be good enough if I want to do computing in College?" and getting told that "You should always just do your best..." and I'm like "so what if a B is my best" and then its like "No, your better than that." and it totally does my head in!!

Ok, I'm over it...

[Slater]

I do. My parents have the misguided idea that I am brilliant and talented based on my 3.6 GPA in college. But that's far from the case. I am quite lazy and manage to coast through most of my classes. This was also true of High School (except my GPA was weighted and so it was more like a 4.4).

Oh my GOSH
Yes, I suffer from this exact problem. My parents believe that I'm super smart and that if I don't make Honor Roll (well, now it's Dean's List) every semester that it's my own falt and I "didn't apply myself half as much as I should." My sister, on the other hand, can get a 3.5 average per semester and recieve so much praise and stuff... when I do the same, I get something like "Satisfactory work, try for higher next time."

It sux.

[Technomancer]

I really can't imagine wanting to be stupid, or lacking in intellectual curiosity. If you don't want to be a doctor, than do something else with your degree or change your major.

[Linksquest]

I do. My parents have the misguided idea that I am brilliant and talented based on my 3.6 GPA in college. But that's far from the case. I am quite lazy and manage to coast through most of my classes. This was also true of High School (except my GPA was weighted and so it was more like a 4.4).

You probably ARE brilliant. Just because you call yourself lazy doesn't mean that you aren't smart. It just means that you don't want to apply yourself.

The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is the drive to want to achieve things and get things done. You can be the smartest person in the world and not want to do anything. You could also be an average person, and if you work hard at doing things you will be more successful than the smartest person in the world!

Because you could "coast" through your classes getting pretty decent grades probably is evidence that you ARE really smart. If you applied yourself more you could probably do many more things.

*does not mean to offend you*

[FadedOne]

I do. My parents have the misguided idea that I am brilliant and talented based on my 3.6 GPA in college. But that's far from the case. I am quite lazy and manage to coast through most of my classes. This was also true of High School (except my GPA was weighted and so it was more like a 4.4).

Now they want me to become a doctor. I don't want to become a doctor. I'm fine with being mediocre. In fact, dumber people will eventually win the demographic race because intellectuals are to steeped in debt to start a family while dumb people procreate anyway. What do you guys think?

Yeah, I definitely relate. I have this really high college GPA right now and it gives people the wrong idea. Yeah, I did have to work for it, but not as much as you'd think. People think that means i'm so smart & i'm going to make something amazing out of my life. But honestly, i have a hard enough time being motivated to handle every day stuff. -_-

Oh and yeah, my Mom wants me to be a lawyer. Not happening. Part of me just wants to be average/normal with a local job, an old car, and a "mediocre" life. Great achievements carry WAY too much responsibility and chances for failure. (or so it would seem).

My Mom always says though that the more power a person has, the more God can use them. People high up who live for God do have alot of sway in things. She's right. But yeah, personally i'd rather be a little person who knew how to serve God better.

[Dante]

A) According to Owen Anderson, my philosophy teacher, ultimate knowledge is the good.

Therefore, as ultimate knowlege is difficult enough to percieve or capture for a smart person... it is even more difficult for a stupid person... Therefore wishing to be stupid is to wish to never achieve any good in life... However, don't confuse knowledge with facts, everything from athelitics to God to love involve knowledge, so being stupid means having no idea about anything in life, including complete ignorance of God or love! Woe be to thee who wish stupidity upon themselves, for these are valuable treasures indeed.

B) 3.6 isn't bad, but don't worry about becoming a doctor if this is your average and you're just beggining college. As time goes on the classes get REALLY hard if its anything like my school and medical schools are incredibly competive... For instance, you would currently be competing with Yuliya from my school, a physics major with an honors thesis in some odd ball subject that graduated with a GPA VERY close to a 4.0... She became incredibly angry last year when she recieved in an A instead of an A+... The rest of the class was most angry with her because we praised God to just squeak by passing that evil teacher... however, you could also trick your parents and tell them that you DO want to become a doctor... doctor refers to the final degree you attain in college, not to the proffession, so you could actually get a doctorate in computer animation, philosophy, writing... anything your heart desires... And when you are done people have to refer to you as doctor!

Pascal

[Mithrandir]

Hmm... I've wanted to, but for entirely different reasons. The more knowledge/wisdom I pick up, the more I feel I have to actually explain my own beliefs to myself. There was a time in my life were I simply believed whatever I heard from the pulpit. When I found out my pastor was human, I was cast adrift in the sea of my consiousness. Later, I did my own research and study and came up with a list of things that there are simply no good explinations for. That feels like a cop-out to me, but my lazy (or practical, take your pick) side says, "Don't spend the rest of your life trying to figure it out - it's not functional. You don't have the temperment to be a full-time philosopher"

So I'm bright, functional and lazy - and I lie awake at night with a list of questions there are no answers for this side of eternity. When I was young and naieve, I let someone else do the exogesis for me. Now I feel like I'm not really learning unless I can draw upon every valid historical reference and make fair socio-economic judgements on a subject. Well now, this has certainly taken a turn for the introspective. Perhaps I should end here, but I think one more paragraph is in order.

For those of you who are wondering, I have not decided whether it's better to be where I am or where I was - but I can't change where I am. Therefore, I go on and pine for where I was, while at the same time making the most of where I am. I've found comfort in the fact that most of my unanswered questions have killed more brilliant minds than me; I don't really *have* to come up with better explinations/reasons/etc. Perhaps I was put on earth to show this truth to just one person, but I'd be a little upset with God if I lost all that sleep for that. Heh heh.

So Ingy, yes. Yes I have; but not for the same reasons. After you get out of college, your parents will say, "Why aren't you more successfull?" The comic in me says, "I've found you don't have to live up to your full potential for success. You just have to be more succefull than them." The realist in me says, "When your parents say you need to be a doctor, tell them you have to get through undergrad first. Buy yourself some time to have fun and be young. After you start full-time work, you don't have those oppertunities anymore. Find a ballence between the prodigal son and man who burried his talents."

Maybe I'm "oldschool" but that's what I did. *shrugs* I seemed to turn out OK.

[Ingemar]

For all those interested, I will be a senior in the fall.

[Myoti]

I think I go with what Mith said, mostly, though, I don't really want to be "stupid."

It's much more fun to be brilliant and make people think you're stupid, then totally psyche 'em out all the time.


For a long awhile, I was kinda worried about some of my own grades, partially, yes, because of my parents' expectations (or in all truth, what I BELIEVED were my parents' expectations). But I discovered later that being in AP means your grades are weighter MUCH higher in your actually AP. So yeah, I didn't "slack off" or anything because of it. I just didn't worry as much when I got more Bs and Cs (come on, some of those classes are freakin' HARD). It still amazes me I got out of Trig with a B. o.o

And maybe it's not that I'm "booksmart," I just think. Alot. About alot of stuff. So when people ask if something's wrong with me/why do I look "sad"/etc., I kinda snap out of my own world with a "huh?", right in the middle of planning something important in my head.

And that + ADD might make some think = me being stupid Not that any of them have said it (but I know I've had some teachers that probably thought it), but I shall succeed and turn back to laugh in their faces (though I'm too lazy to actually try to find them and do so; maybe a nice e-card would work...).

[Puritan]

I have to admit, it does look tempting to be less intelligent sometimes. The more you learn, the less you discover you actually know, until you reach Mithrandir's situation where you find yourself questioning everything. There are advantages to having what the minister at my church calls a catechism faith, a belief in things you have been taught rather than an understanding from first principles. In school, I still feel like I've overreached myself in going for my Masters degree when my advisor gives me strange looks for having forgotten obscure bits of work I did over a year ago. It's easy to wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just not try at all, but I figure I am here for a reason, and as I have a good purpose in doing what I am, and more importantly believe that God wants me to be here, I will just stick with it. In the end, I'd rather know what I do and struggle with the things I know (and what I don't know) than not understand at all. It would be much more boring otherwise.

[Nate]

I do, but only because of what Calvin said in a Calvin and Hobbes strip. He said it was better to be stupid, because ignorance is bliss. The more you know about things, the more you feel upset about them, and the more you feel like you have to do something.

And it's true. Stupid people go around, blissfully ignorant of all the horrible stuff going on around them. To that end, I envy them a bit.

[FadedOne]

According to Owen Anderson, my philosophy teacher, ultimate knowledge is the good.

hm...not trying to pick at you, but that one line confused me greatly. How does knowledge =good? Knowledge can be USED for good, but i've never seen it as anything past that. clarify?

[mitsuki lover]

I feel pretty stupid when people talk technical. I don't have a technical bone in my body.

[ShiroiHikari]

I wish it quite often. I dunno but I think that I lack in social skills because I'm more clever than the average.. I mean, it feels like all my talents are in thinking and such, not in socialising with other people.

I kinda feel the same way. Society doesn't seem to care how intelligent you are...they just want people who are friendly and gregarious and aggressive. That's not who I am, and I don't want to be that way, so does that mean I'm doomed to failure?

I wish I had started out slow as a child instead of starting out ahead. My parents always told me I was so smart and wonderful and then I got older and found out that I'm not. It's taken me most of my life to come to terms with the fact that I'm not very special and probably never will be.

[uc pseudonym]

An old friend of mine has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and thus has little intelligence. He's the same age as me and is currently living on his own and in the workforce. Right now he is a happy person, and there are always friends hanging around his apartment. But most of those friends are just people who have realized he can't discern properly and are exploiting him. They know that he can be induced to finance things they want to do or even give them money. He is oblivious to this and it has led him to very difficult financial situations.

In the past I have worked with students who have well-under-average levels of intelligence. I've seen them sit in front of a paper for hours, putting forth all their will to solve math problems that would take me an instant. They want to solve it, desperately try to focus enough to master these skills, but they simply can't.

So the answer is no.

[Nate]

Society doesn't seem to care how intelligent you are...they just want people who are friendly and gregarious and aggressive.

Well, intelligence honestly doesn't count for much in the real world. I mean, think about it.

You are the head of a company. You have to choose between two applicants. One of them is exceptionally intelligent, but lazy. The other isn't the smartest guy in the world, but he's a hard worker. Which one would you pick?

Most employers would pick the latter, and for good reason. Intelligence means nothing if you can't back it up. In fact, it's better to be a hard worker than intelligent.

[meboeck]

An old friend of mine has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and thus has little intelligence. He's the same age as me and is currently living on his own and in the workforce. Right now he is a happy person, and there are always friends hanging around his apartment. But most of those friends are just people who have realized he can't discern properly and are exploiting him. They know that he can be induced to finance things they want to do or even give them money. He is oblivious to this and it has led him to very difficult financial situations.

In the past I have worked with students who have well-under-average levels of intelligence. I've seen them sit in front of a paper for hours, putting forth all their will to solve math problems that would take me an instant. They want to solve it, desperately try to focus enough to master these skills, but they simply can't.

So the answer is no.

I guess I have pretty much the same perspective. I can't imagine not understanding some of the things that seem simple to me like math or basic philosophical stuff. But I know people who don't understand it. I can't honestly say I've done everything with my intelligence that I could have, but my lack of motivation isn't enough to make me wish I was less inteligent.

[Myoti]

Eh, really, I don't think I'd ever want to be "stupid" as much as maybe, say, "childishly naive." Just carefree, but still "intelligent." :p

[Phantom_Sorano]

No....not really,....I am proud of my intelligence....I try to make myself better....my last GPA score was 5.0, actually....so no, I am thankful not to be born with any mental defeats.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Mental defects? Gee, that's a nice thing to say.

[Bap]

Roffle. One of my friends did a whole three week project for the History fair on the last day, and she ended up winning for her category in the school. xD;

I.. am not as smart as her though. xD; I'm.. just average. I don't want to say I'm smart, 'cause.. I'm not. >_>; But things just kinda click for me on somethings, and I'm happy about that. xD; *is lazy u_u;*

But, neh. D: I don't wish I was born stupid. That would make school even more difficult than it already is. xD