Problems That Clever People Sadly Often Have! You, Too?

High IQ, many challenges. Where there is a lot of light, there is also a lot of shadow. This saying and its truth are experienced live and in color by highly intelligent people from childhood on. Their special talent allows them to grasp many things faster and better than their averagely intelligent fellow human beings, but a high IQ also brings with it a whole host of interesting problems that outsiders have no idea about. Intelligence is mostly innate, a little bit can be sharpened by education and training, not to mention the lessons of the greatest teacher of all, life. In this article, we would like to introduce you to 10 problems that mainly affect people who enjoy an extraordinarily high degree of intelligence.

Their reputation as know-it-alls precedes them.

Highly intelligent people are smarter than the rest of us. Of course, this fact is often and readily apparent in our daily interactions with them. While we as adults may still at least sometimes stand in awe of so much cleverness, children only see the otherness of these playmates and that’s where bullying starts. The smart ones express themselves more selectively and sometimes in a more complicated way, and some of their trains of thought are things we mere mortals cannot comprehend at all.

High standards are the minimum.

Anyone who thinks that a high level of education and knowledge protects against having to reckon with self-doubt and defeat is very much mistaken. Especially the super smart ones suffer much more often when they can't reach their ambitious goals. They know exactly what they can do and what they are capable of. If they still fail, the repercussions are enormous. However, they do not only cultivate this attitude of entitlement towards themselves. The hold their fellow men to this high bar, too, so that they can be regarded as equal or at least acceptable.

They love freedom beyond measure.

What doesn't sound like a real problem at first glance becomes one from the moment when highly intelligent people have to comply. As employees and subordinates, they suffer agony when they have to follow regimes and are subjected to hierarchies that do not make sense to them. If superiors are not competent, they immediately see through this shortcoming and usually make no secret of their realization. Needless to say, as subordinates they are not exactly the declared darlings of the executive suite. But they also dislike general rules, norms and regulations that seem illogical or completely absurd to them.

Chaos is their oasis of well-being.

The workplace of an above-average intelligent person is usually found around exactly two opposite aggregate states: Sterile and spotless or cluttered and chaotic. Most overachievers, however, tend toward the latter scenario, living according to the famous quote "genius sees through the chaos". Many theories surround the states in which great minds go about their groundbreaking work. Why, why, why they abhor order so much, however, will probably remain their well-guarded secret forever.

The fear of failure is omnipresent.

High expectations are accompanied by great doubts and fears. Anyone who is used to being an overachiever and accomplishing everything on the fly will naturally reach his or her limits at some point. It is hard to realize that you are not a jack-of-all-trades and that you have to learn or even repeat things until the desired result is achieved. From this point on, the fear of failure is the constant companion of the highly intelligent. After all, no one can always be brilliant. No one masters everything equally well.

They get bored quickly.

Those who soak up every piece of knowledge and every skill like a sponge faster than the rest are soon on the lookout for new challenges. At school, underchallenged children then show themselves to be troublemakers. As adults, they are constantly on the lookout for a new thrill that will challenge their super brain and give them the longed-for sense of achievement. At some point, the end of the line is reached and there is nothing really new for them to discover.

Professionally, they never stay in the same place for long.

This point follows on seamlessly from the boredom problem of the highly intelligent. In the workplace, the aforementioned problem with hierarchies and regulations is compounded by the fact that they are soon underchallenged. In addition, the super-smart are often not exactly born team players and find it difficult to fit into the rear order and interact with others. Most super-smart people can only be really happy professionally if they are self-employed. In any case, a competent boss is then a certainty for them.

Disappointments and frustrations are constant companions.

In addition to the fear of failure, the smart ones are plagued by two emotional states that are anything but pleasant. They are literally haunted by frustration and disappointment when great plans and ambitious goals do not come to fruition. Interpersonal relationships are a perpetual hair-splitting game and conundrum for them, rarely resulting in happiness and fulfillment. The constant confrontation with their otherness haunts them from an early age like an evil nursery rhyme that just can't be stopped and permanently allows itself a joke at their expense.

Perfectionism is their religion.

The high standards and the knowledge of their own sensational abilities create individuals over the years who are satisfied with nothing less than perfection. Every detail must be perfect, every little insecurity must be eliminated in advance. They don't tolerate half-measures, nor do they tolerate people around them who don't take things as precisely as they do. As supervisors, they can drive their employees crazy; as colleagues, they have to expect resistance from all directions. What they can somehow manage in their professional lives is much more difficult in their private lives. If there is no immediate match, it looks bleak on the dating scene. Being extraordinary is a unique selling point that leaves many of them standing alone.

They are often not very popular.

The above-average smart ones seem somehow different, strange – and the strange we humans reject basically out of hand. In addition, they naturally show us our limits and what would be possible if we, too, were above average. They seem to know-it-all and often express themselves in an incomprehensible and very complicated way. The interpersonal area is the purest jungle for them, which is why they often prefer to stay alone from very early in life. But socializing is a talent that must be learned and trained at a young age, so that later it works out to some extent with other people. Here, however, the super-smart often encounter an enormous educational gap, even if it is often their only one.

Today’s Conclusion

The heavy lot of smart people. An IQ of 100 is considered a good average, from 130 one may count oneself among the highly intelligent. But a giftedness like this is certainly not a pure reason for joy. For these people, everyday life often seems to be in slow motion and living together with others is usually difficult for them. Even as children they feel misunderstood and excluded. As an adult, making friends or entering into relationships is a real challenge for them. By the way, if you think you are average, you are doubly lucky. In addition to IQ, there is also EQ. This measures emotional intelligence, and as a human being, you can't have enough of it. That's it for today.