Why some people with high IQ are so "unsuccessful?"

[New World Explorer]

Christopher Langan is the smartest man alive, with an IQ of 195 (for comparison, Einstein’s was 150). But he has spent most of his life as a bouncer in a bar. 

Robert Oppenheimer was also a genius. The theoretical physicist and father of the atomic bomb was one of the most important figures of the 20th century.

Why are the career trajectories of these two geniuses so dramatically different?

Money certainly played a role—Langan grew up in poverty and Oppenheimer’s family was well-off. But beyond the direct advantages of wealth, Oppenheimer benefitted from wealth’s indirect advantages, including being raised in the “concerted cultivation” style and learning the practical intelligence needed to talk his way out of numerous controversies.

Conversely, Langan was raised in the accomplishment-of-natural-growth parenting style. He never developed the practical intelligence that would have given him opportunities to succeed. ( to continue see link: https://www.shortform.com/blog/christopher-langan-outliers/)

 

This reminds me of the fact that: The Bible contains a wealth of “practical wisdom” that can help us to live meaningful/successful lives. (Proverbs 2:7)

 

 

 

[Dustparticle]

6 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

Christopher Langan is the smartest man alive, with an IQ of 195 (for comparison, Einstein’s was 150). But he has spent most of his life as a bouncer in a bar. 

Robert Oppenheimer was also a genius. The theoretical physicist and father of the atomic bomb was one of the most important figures of the 20th century.

Why are the career trajectories of these two geniuses so dramatically different?

Money certainly played a role—Langan grew up in poverty and Oppenheimer’s family was well-off. But beyond the direct advantages of wealth, Oppenheimer benefitted from wealth’s indirect advantages, including being raised in the “concerted cultivation” style and learning the practical intelligence needed to talk his way out of numerous controversies.

Conversely, Langan was raised in the accomplishment-of-natural-growth parenting style. He never developed the practical intelligence that would have given him opportunities to succeed. ( to continue see link: https://www.shortform.com/blog/christopher-langan-outliers/)

 

This reminds me of the fact that: The Bible contains a wealth of “practical wisdom” that can help us to live meaningful/successful lives. (Proverbs 2:7)

 

 

 

Ones term of successful life  have different shades  meaning. You might be smart on a piece of paper, but not street or people smart. Many ones who get straight A's at schools do get straight F's in life. Believe me we see this. Look at the world we live in. We don't know how to live our lives. Jeremiah 10:23

[Tortuga]

4 minutes ago, Dustparticle said:

Many ones who get straight A's at schools do get straight F's in life.

I worked with a young man at an oil refinery many years ago. He aced every test and quickly qualified to operate a process unit, however he was the dumbest operator and completely oblivious when it came to a practical application of what he studied. He was eventually terminated...

[Amygdala]

The difference between knowledge vs. wisdom.

[Katty]

This depends greatly on how one defines success. In the world, success is defined, by wealth, prestige and influence. However, to attain these things, generally a major prerequisite is highly conformist thinking. Let's face it, most people don't want to hear other people's opinions. They want to hear their opinions coming out the mouths of "experts". People like Joel Olsteen, Oprah, etc, have been raised to enormous amounts of wealth and influence, by basically telling other people what they want to hear. Generally, people of highly intellectual capacity have a difficult time both conforming and tickling the ears of others.

 

If anyone's heard of the Dunning Kruger effect, it's, put in most simplest terms, the phenomenon by which people of high levels of competence and intelligence doubt their competence or intelligence more, whereas people with lower amounts of competence/intelligence are more confident in such. Psychologists have linked the Dunning Kruger effect to a couple of things. Because there's an element of comparison with your peers, the more competent people, would over estimate the competence of their peers, whereas the less competent over estimated their own competence of things they didn't know enough about, to realize they didn't know enough. Generally, the more competent end the Dunning Kruger effect leads to imposter syndrome, and thus, the most intelligent and competent people may not always believe they deserve a high level of influence in their field of expertise, because they might believe they're good at this topic so much as this topic is easy. It's a common human bias, thinking that, if something comes easy to you, it must naturally come easy to others as well.

 

Also, many highly intelligent people tend to be more introverted. I'm not saying that introverted people are more likely to be highly intelligent, only that, even a more extroverted highly intelligent person may be more inclined to be drained by many stimulating experiences. If success is defined by wealth and fame, then those things naturally bring lots of attention and possibly even obligations to spend a lot of time in the public eyes, whereas many highly intelligent people prefer to live more private lives.
 

TL DR:

Lack of social/intellectual conformity
Underestimation of one's own intelligence in comparison to others

Higher levels of introversion and a desire to be more private.

[Qapla]

Success, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder - even though the "experts" will try to tell you what your eye beholds.

 

If a person lives a long life working only part time at a job they really enjoy and spend the rest of their time doing whatever they like ... and, if they own all they have and don't owe anything or have any "credit" and pay with cash as they go ... and, they enjoy good health - if they do not have the newest, latest gadgets, live in a "nice" home and drive a "great" car - they are considered to be "unsuccessful" by the "experts" ... they sound pretty successful to me  

[New World Explorer]

I cherish practical wisdom that comes from Jehovah more then anything. 

I can see application of the wisdom from above really works. 

My only definition of being successful comes from Jehovah's approval and this is sufficient to me. 

In 40.000 years from now on.. who will even mention material goods, or cars we had in this old rotten system? 

Only "spiritually successful" people from this current era will be alive, happy and perfect at that time.

 

But it's nice to see brothers and sisters with high IQ making spiritual choices over the "success" in the world (I know some personally) 

[EccentricM]

It's also about who you know and where you are. Being successful a lot of the time means being popular, to be popular you have to say things people either like or value, or be so controversial people hate you and you become infamous, or simply being in an influential circle with resources.

 

As the Bible says, the swift do not always win the race.

 

My IQ is actually 130 (I took multiple tests). I never actually "complete" things, I start many things, but I blame my ADHD on that, (and maybe a little bit of "Dunning Kruger effect", lol).

Edited July 20, 2020 by EccentricM

[Katty]

3 hours ago, EccentricM said:

It's also about who you know and where you are. Being successful a lot of the time means being popular, to be popular you have to say things people either like or value, or be so controversial people hate you and you become infamous, or simply being in an influential circle with resources.

 

As the Bible says, the swift do not always win the race.

 

My IQ is actually 130 (I took multiple tests). I never actually "complete" things, I start many things, but I blame my ADHD on that, (and maybe a little bit of "Dunning Kruger effect", lol).

I figured you were above average.
Also that's something I had forgotten to mention. It seems like people who are highly gifted seem to be overrepresented in the subset of people who have mental disorders like ADHD, autism and anxiety disorder, so the mixture of anxiety, difficulty with executive functioning, and/or social misunderstandings leading to not having good peer support can be reasons as well.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Katty

[Katty]

I really wish @Ferbwould have taken an IQ test. He's certainly exceptionally gifted.

On 7/14/2020 at 3:54 PM, New World Explorer said:

But it's nice to see brothers and sisters with high IQ making spiritual choices over the "success" in the world (I know some personally) 

It's what I found the most appealing about him: a mixture of high intelligence and spirituality.

[Hotteok]

I think smart people, I mean, if they are really smart, tend to look down on many worldly things, not having any desire for fame, money or such superficial things.

It's often those with greed and lust who constantly strive hard and get it finally. 

It often comes down to desire, rather than intelligence. 

[rocket]

There are those with hi IQ's who don't have a lick of sense. They are smart in their own mind and are constantly telling others how smart they are but I am thinking they drink to much of their own Lysol.

[TheCplan]

The strongest predictor of success is a combination of personal traits. High in contentiousness(industriousness and orderliness, openness(intelligence) and low in agreeableness(mainly in competitive careers). I guess low neuroticism is good to handle the negative emotion of having a lot of responsibility is useful too.

Im using the model of big five personality. 

[EccentricM]

@ProcrastLife very interesting. I did the Big Factor 5 test and my results were:

 

(Scores 0-100)

Openness 91

Conscientiousness 39

Extroversion 73

Agreeablness 91

Neuroticism 27

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by EccentricM

[TheCplan]

15 minutes ago, EccentricM said:

@ProcrastLife very interesting. I did the Big Factor 5 test and my results were:

 

(Scores 0-100)

Openness 91

Conscientiousness 39

Extroversion 73

Agreeablness 91

Neuroticism 27

 

We got similar results!