I R STOOPID

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

But then there is the conundrum where everyone is telling you that you are really smart, intelligent, etc., AND they are expecting you to fix shit and get shit done.  You certainly can have humility and acknowledge that you have limits and are of course fallible.  But when you have people depending on you, at some level you do have to take the mantle and run with it, that's just leadership.  If you don't, then you have a bunch of directionless, fearful people on your hands with sads. 

Oh, how noble it is of you to suffer for the little people.

In my experience, if the people you are leading are directionless and fearful, you're doing a piss-poor job of leadership. An effective leader empowers people to take control. A really effective leader can walk into a situation where a shitty "leader" has left people feeling directionless and fearful, can empower them, and create a situation where they can just walk away and everything will be fine.

Sure, in a situation where a leader has a direct supervisory role over the people asking to be lead.  I'm in a situation where I have that role PLUS a role of being a leader for other, similar organizations in my state, because it is a situation where there is no direct leadership.  There is no one telling our organizations what to do, yet, we do tend to band together and work together.  And so naturally everyone will look for a torchbearer, and they WILL pick one, they will naturally look to one or two key people who are seen as intelligent, smart, and able to get shit done.  I am in that position here in Maine in my line of work, so sure I am a fairly humble chap, but I also have to  own and embrace my skills, because it is because of those skills I was identified as a leader.  That's why I say if you don't take that up, people get fearful and aren't sure how to act.

Ohhhh my god. 

All my skin peeled off my face.  I am sitting in my chair, bellowing laughter out of my bare skull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Who fed him that line of shit, I wonder? Sucker. 

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Look out, guys, RWHN is THE SMARTEST GUY IN MAINE.

[hooplala]

But then there is the conundrum where everyone is telling you that you are really smart, intelligent, etc., AND they are expecting you to fix shit and get shit done.  You certainly can have humility and acknowledge that you have limits and are of course fallible.  But when you have people depending on you, at some level you do have to take the mantle and run with it, that's just leadership.  If you don't, then you have a bunch of directionless, fearful people on your hands with sads.

That must be very tough for you.

Have you banged any celebrities you would care to complain about, while we're here?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

But then there is the conundrum where everyone is telling you that you are really smart, intelligent, etc., AND they are expecting you to fix shit and get shit done.  You certainly can have humility and acknowledge that you have limits and are of course fallible.  But when you have people depending on you, at some level you do have to take the mantle and run with it, that's just leadership.  If you don't, then you have a bunch of directionless, fearful people on your hands with sads.

That must be very tough for you.

Have you banged any celebrities you would care to complain about, while we're here?

  <--- Just horked coffee all over myself.   

You know, there's a certain kind of person who has to respond to a thread like this with "I, however, am smart!"

[Cainad (dec.)]

I think being constantly showered with messages of how smart I was as a kid kind of screwed me up a bit.

I wasn't smart because I worked hard at school; I practically never had to do any damn work at all because nearly everything was completely trivial. I had the benefit of highly educated and involved parents, and nothing more.

You're so smart
You're the smart one
The smartest kid in class
The brainiac

That shit becomes part of your identity when it's drilled into you over and over again from the age of 5.

Achieving feats of intellect wasn't something I earned praise for. It was just part of being who I was expected to be. Being lauded for my brains wasn't anything special: it was part of the natural order of things, and if I wasn't dazzling people with my precociousness then something must be wrong with me. Anything I couldn't easily excel at became a source of shame, something to be avoided. No one likes doing things they suck at, but for me it bordered on neurotic.

When I did bust my ass for something, I didn't feel good for earning it. I felt like crap for not being better at it in the first place.

Too much carrot, not enough stick. Eventually it turns into "no carrot = stick." Simple lack of praise becomes the same thing as criticism.


I needed shit like Discordianism and the Black Iron Prison to influence my intellectual maturation to be able to see this part of myself. I'm still working on fixing it.

And, at the end of the day, I ain't so damn smart. I'm mostly just lucky.

[AFK]

But then there is the conundrum where everyone is telling you that you are really smart, intelligent, etc., AND they are expecting you to fix shit and get shit done.  You certainly can have humility and acknowledge that you have limits and are of course fallible.  But when you have people depending on you, at some level you do have to take the mantle and run with it, that's just leadership.  If you don't, then you have a bunch of directionless, fearful people on your hands with sads.

That must be very tough for you.

We all have our crosses to bear.

Have you banged any celebrities you would care to complain about, while we're here?

Maine isn't exactly overflowing with celebrities so, no. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

But then there is the conundrum where everyone is telling you that you are really smart, intelligent, etc., AND they are expecting you to fix shit and get shit done.  You certainly can have humility and acknowledge that you have limits and are of course fallible.  But when you have people depending on you, at some level you do have to take the mantle and run with it, that's just leadership.  If you don't, then you have a bunch of directionless, fearful people on your hands with sads.

That must be very tough for you.

We all have our crosses to bear.

Have you banged any celebrities you would care to complain about, while we're here?

Maine isn't exactly overflowing with celebrities so, no.

Oh shit

The implications in this are amazing. 

[AFK]

But then there is the conundrum where everyone is telling you that you are really smart, intelligent, etc., AND they are expecting you to fix shit and get shit done.  You certainly can have humility and acknowledge that you have limits and are of course fallible.  But when you have people depending on you, at some level you do have to take the mantle and run with it, that's just leadership.  If you don't, then you have a bunch of directionless, fearful people on your hands with sads.

That must be very tough for you.

Have you banged any celebrities you would care to complain about, while we're here?

  <--- Just horked coffee all over myself.   

You know, there's a certain kind of person who has to respond to a thread like this with "I, however, am smart!"

You mean a thread like this on a Discordian board?  Yes, it does take a certain kind of person to do that. 

[Jez]

I think being constantly showered with messages of how smart I was as a kid kind of screwed me up a bit.

I wasn't smart because I worked hard at school; I practically never had to do any damn work at all because nearly everything was completely trivial. I had the benefit of highly educated and involved parents, and nothing more.

You're so smart
You're the smart one
The smartest kid in class
The brainiac

That shit becomes part of your identity when it's drilled into you over and over again from the age of 5.

Achieving feats of intellect wasn't something I earned praise for. It was just part of being who I was expected to be. Being lauded for my brains wasn't anything special: it was part of the natural order of things, and if I wasn't dazzling people with my precociousness then something must be wrong with me. Anything I couldn't easily excel at became a source of shame, something to be avoided. No one likes doing things they suck at, but for me it bordered on neurotic.

When I did bust my ass for something, I didn't feel good for earning it. I felt like crap for not being better at it in the first place.

Too much carrot, not enough stick. Eventually it turns into "no carrot = stick." Simple lack of praise becomes the same thing as criticism.


I needed shit like Discordianism and the Black Iron Prison to influence my intellectual maturation to be able to see this part of myself. I'm still working on fixing it.

And, at the end of the day, I ain't so damn smart. I'm mostly just lucky.

This.  Except for the involved parents part.  Mine were not interested in me.  So, doing well at school was all I had.  It freaked me right the fuck out when some of my college classes actually required work.  I started to think that I must not be smart after all.  That's part of why I dropped out in 2000.

I'm just now getting to a place where it's not the end of the world if I don't understand everything right away.  I still pretty much assume I don't know anything, though, so I collect every bit of information I can find.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think being constantly showered with messages of how smart I was as a kid kind of screwed me up a bit.

I wasn't smart because I worked hard at school; I practically never had to do any damn work at all because nearly everything was completely trivial. I had the benefit of highly educated and involved parents, and nothing more.

You're so smart
You're the smart one
The smartest kid in class
The brainiac

That shit becomes part of your identity when it's drilled into you over and over again from the age of 5.

Achieving feats of intellect wasn't something I earned praise for. It was just part of being who I was expected to be. Being lauded for my brains wasn't anything special: it was part of the natural order of things, and if I wasn't dazzling people with my precociousness then something must be wrong with me. Anything I couldn't easily excel at became a source of shame, something to be avoided. No one likes doing things they suck at, but for me it bordered on neurotic.

When I did bust my ass for something, I didn't feel good for earning it. I felt like crap for not being better at it in the first place.

Too much carrot, not enough stick. Eventually it turns into "no carrot = stick." Simple lack of praise becomes the same thing as criticism.


I needed shit like Discordianism and the Black Iron Prison to influence my intellectual maturation to be able to see this part of myself. I'm still working on fixing it.

And, at the end of the day, I ain't so damn smart. I'm mostly just lucky.

This.  Except for the involved parents part.  Mine were not interested in me.  So, doing well at school was all I had.  It freaked me right the fuck out when some of my college classes actually required work.  I started to think that I must not be smart after all.  That's part of why I dropped out in 2000.

I'm just now getting to a place where it's not the end of the world if I don't understand everything right away.  I still pretty much assume I don't know anything, though, so I collect every bit of information I can find.

I used to worry that I was retarded, and that nobody wanted to hurt my feelings by telling me. 

I think that one of the great benefits, for me, about going back to school after being a beadmaker and teacher was that learning to make beads was really hard for me, and took a lot of repetition. When I taught, I worked that repetition into my classes, and told my students that it would take ten repetitions of any new information for it to really make sense and stick. Now, as a student, I know that I won't get anything on the first exposure, so I don't feel stupid or self-conscious when I'm confused the first go-round. I just keep exposing myself to the material until it's familiar and makes sense. I also know that I am a slow worker; other people are jumping up with answers while I'm still getting my notes just right. It used to make me anxious, especially when other people would be leaving after a test while I was still working on it, and it made me feel inferior, but I'm OK with it now; sure, I'm slow, but I'm methodical and it works for me. I am the last one at my table to finish a lab, but I'm also the one to catch my lab partners' mistakes.

[Salty]

There's something that happens to people in certain populations. When you're surrounded by incredibly stupid and willfully ignorant people you begin to think you've got some edge. And perhaps you do, in a limited extent.

This is what, I think, RWHN in his humility, was trying to talk about.

This is, for example, how Sarah Palin got to power. The population of Wasilla is so amazingly, astonishingly simple minded and brain washed by TEEVEE they figured Sarah Palin was The Best Possible Bet. And I'll just bet SHE thinks she's super smart and surrounded by idiots. At least, until she left this place as quickly as she could sign a speaking tour deal.

And that's what its like all the time. There's no competition for jobs here because the lowest common denominator is very, very, very low. Its a miracle when people show up to a job interview sober and dressed. So when you do, you look like a fucking Rhode Scholar.

DOESNT MEAN YOU ARE ONE.

[Left]

You can have an IQ in the 99.7th percentile and still be a fucking moron if you're unable to listen to other people or participate in society like a functional human being.

Oh, didn't know you knew my ex-wife.  Small world, isn't it?

I know I don't know what the hell I'm doing, ever.   
This is probably why, unlike my father, I have never set a car on fire.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You can have an IQ in the 99.7th percentile and still be a fucking moron if you're unable to listen to other people or participate in society like a functional human being.

Oh, didn't know you knew my ex-wife.  Small world, isn't it?

I know I don't know what the hell I'm doing, ever.   
This is probably why, unlike my father, I have never set a car on fire.

Don't joke about it too much, or it'll turn out to be my ex-girlfriend.

Also, probably good that you are uncertain about what you're doing. Certainty is the destroyer of growth.

[Left]

I wasn't smart because I worked hard at school; I practically never had to do any damn work at all because nearly everything was completely trivial.

Me too...except for the math.  I wasn't diagnosed with dyscalculia until I was 16...And it didn't help that my dad lost it and slapped me the one time mom tasked him with drilling me with the flashcards. 
I was usually a smackable nuisance to him.

I was told I had to do things right. and then if it wasn't "right," then I was worthless.
...If I looked like I was happy around my very unhappy parents, they'd find a way to fix that.

I used to worry that I was retarded, and that nobody wanted to hurt my feelings by telling me. 

I got tested for retardation in junior high, I was pretty ashamed of that at the time.