It’s the same reason high IQ people aren’t popular in school, don’t care for sports, and always seem to be shy and awkward: the social/value/reward system was put in place by and for the lowest common denominator of the masses over eons of time.
A high IQ person sees right through these things.
Sports? Some people put on jerseys with their school’s name and they are supposed to be excited if they run it across a line more times than the guys wearing another jersey from across town? They know that if all the players from each team transferred schools the crowd would be cheering the exact opposite outcome. It is hilarious and ridiculous to the high IQ person.
They see popularity as a selling out and it pains them to see friends they had in third grade who didn’t have a concept yet of cool and not cool suddenly avoid them in the halls, deciding they are not popular enough to be friends with. But they recognize that those kids are doing it because of the fear of losing something that is more important to them than being themselves—social ranking.
They are being controlled by the peer group now, something unthinkable to someone with a high IQ and probably impossible even if they tried. They see the manipulation and know that to assimilate means caring about the guys in the jerseys and a million other things they don’t care about. Their entire life would have to become a charade.
The high IQ person is discovering science in high school. Did you know that photosynthesis is the sun’s energy turning into mass? Notice how a plant in a pot can grow to a tree with just water and the dirt never drops in level? Where does all that plant mass come from? E=mc2 means energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. The conversion of light energy into mass is what we eat—an apple is just a red ball of sunlight.
This is what they are thinking as they walk the halls bumping into people hearing “watch out dork!” with a KICK ME sign taped to their back.
As an adult, this doesn’t change. Money, cars, girls, social status, power—this is what the same society that told them to be popular and care about sports tells them to care about now. And they watch people chase it and their perfectly formed social media posts designed to project that they are doing what they’ve been told and are succeeding so please-let-me-sit-at-the-popular-table-at-lunch. It’s just not their dream.
No, by now the high IQ person has found their passion: physics, writing, engineering, statistical probabilities. They are on to a Ph.D. where they can work on it with inner joy forever. Or maybe they are writing the Great American Novel that will get published or not while they pay the bills waiting tables or, more likely, doing accounting in a back room for a tax advisor. But it’s their definition of success—-doing what they love doing every day.
Chasing money for the sake of money and girls for the sake of which one is hotter is clearly a losing proposition if the girl is looking for an upgrade on her social ladder and no matter how much money you make it’s never enough until you’re the richest person in the world and then they hate you for not donating more to charity.
Having a comfortable place to live, pursuing a passion, keeping stress low. That’s living a good life.
High IQ people have a different definition of success
is the short answer to the question.
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