Smartest Guy in the Room Syndrome

[Doktor Howl]

The Smartest Guy in the Room also has a bag of first world problems.

Mike the Engineer, for example, makes 3 times what I make - and I make a damn good wage - and he never stops bitching about how poor he is, having to pay on a $500,000 house, the biggest pickup truck ever made, the constant need to upgrade his computer so he can play the newest games, etc.

ETA:  He does this bitching in front of the operators, who make about $30K/year.  It's a form of boasting, of course.  They are not amused by this.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Sgitr is the intellectual equivalent about the guy who keeps talking about how big his junk is and how big his loads are. The only difference is you dont really want to see big dick guys evidence or lack thereof. Youre comfortable with his delusion as long as no one brings it up.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Smartest Guy in the Room syndrome is related to Dunning/Kruger Effect, and affects men and women equally.

The Smartest Guy in the Room is smart enough to know that he's smarter than most people, but not smart enough to recognize when other people are smarter. He defaults to the belief that because he is smarter than the majority of the population, he must be smarter than the people he's talking to, and tends to look no further or deeper than whatever initial assumption he has made or conclusion he has come to.

I like this. I know this guy. I've been this guy, on occasion but the first sentence doesn't quite ring true. SGitR strikes me as being smart in some areas but dumb as shit in others. I sometimes feel like I'm the smartest guy in the room, when I probably am but if there's someone smarter than me there or even some dumb fuck who knows more about something than me, it doesn't fuck up my delicate ego to recognise this. SGitR on the other hand seems to be blindly oblivious to even the possibility of this and that's just plain dumb in my eyes.

Kinda like an atrophied limb or something - SGitR usually seems to be amongst the dumbest guys in the room.

The Smartest Guy in the Room IS a dumbfuck. He's just a dumbfuck with a significantly above-average IQ, the score of which he has committed to memory and occasionally manages to interject into conversation.

Part of the syndrome requires actually being pretty smart. Above average enough to have been praised for their intelligence through childhood and young adulthood, even if they had trouble in school. Particularly if they blame their trouble on having been "too smart" and "bored" in class.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sgitr excels at bullshit. When he doesnt have the facts he can make them up on the fly. And even he believes the bullshit. His confidence in the correctness of the wrong answer leads others to accept it. He doesnt need to skew the facts when he can just make them up as he goes.

What I love is that we all know SGitR.

Everyone does. Everywhere. He's a universal!

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Oh definitely! Sgitr is part of the human condition. I can picture a homo erectus sgitr going "thats not the right way to make a flint axe. Youre doing it all wrong" and then making a flint axe thats exactly the same.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The Smartest Guy in the Room also has a bag of first world problems.

Mike the Engineer, for example, makes 3 times what I make - and I make a damn good wage - and he never stops bitching about how poor he is, having to pay on a $500,000 house, the biggest pickup truck ever made, the constant need to upgrade his computer so he can play the newest games, etc.

ETA:  He does this bitching in front of the operators, who make about $30K/year.  It's a form of boasting, of course.  They are not amused by this.

Oh holy shit, YES.

Many of them also had a troubled and tragic youth, brought on by the terrible burden of being too bright and raised in a nice suburb.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Ooh. I got a music specific one. Sgitr is the guy who goes into guitar center and "tries out" new gear. And by that i mean he plays a bunch of complicated but well known songs that hes practiced at and when hes done jamming decides that hell think about it and come back later.

Eta: hes also that guy at the party always playing the same songs on the porch. If youre watching a movie hell watch it with you but also practice at the same time.

[Disco Pickle]

Ooh. I got a music specific one. Sgitr is the guy who goes into guitar center and "tries out" new gear. And by that i mean he plays a bunch of complicated but well known songs that hes practiced at and when hes done jamming decides that hell think about it and come back later.

Eta: hes also that guy at the party always playing the same songs on the porch. If youre watching a movie hell watch it with you but also practice at the same time.

Holy shit, I know THAT guy.

I spent a good part of my early and mid 20's being TSGitR, but I think I did a fairly good job balancing it by being TSGitR who has no problem admitting he doesn't know about <insert subject> and then asking a lot of questions about it.

Probably one of my father's best personality traits I learned to mimic at a young age.

[Danny Muffin]

Party etiquette question: if someone breaks out an acoustic guitar at a social gathering, is it acceptable to smash the guitar and garrote him with the low E string? What if it's the host?

[Doktor Howl]

Party etiquette question: if someone breaks out an acoustic guitar at a social gathering, is it acceptable to smash the guitar and garrote him with the low E string? What if it's the host?

According to Animal House, yes.

It is legal to destroy anyone who breaks out an acoustic guitar - and said guitar - anywhere.

Unless the guy is named Keith, and lives in Rhode Island.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

It is acceptable to bust out a guitar at a party if youre at a party ofmusicians and everyone gets a turn or everyone goes hey play a couple of songs. The later only happens in high school though and is usually asked by girls who both think the guitarist in question is dreamy and want him to play dave matthews.


This brings me to another item sgitr guitarist wants you to jam with him at said party. If you oblige he will ask you to play some of your stuff and then proceed to make suggestions on how to make it better. He also does this at shows.

[Doktor Howl]

It is acceptable to bust out a guitar at a party if youre at a party ofmusicians and everyone gets a turn or everyone goes hey play a couple of songs. The later only happens in high school though and is usually asked by girls who both think the guitarist in question is dreamy and want him to play dave matthews.

Q:  Is it an acoustic guitar?

This brings me to another item sgitr guitarist wants you to jam with him at said party. If you oblige he will ask you to play some of your stuff and then proceed to make suggestions on how to make it better. He also does this at shows.

Look, Twid...God put engineer boots on this planet for a REASON.  That reason is for you to USE THEM.  And not like James Hetfield does.  The proper home for an engineer boot is UP SOMEONE'S ASS, not all clean & shiny in a cheesy music video.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

A) yes it is an acoustic guitar some of the time. But if at a musician party and electric instruments are not available it becomes ok if something good collaborationwise comes out of it and collaboration is eventually transferred to electric. At least i think so. But you wont see me being the one initiating said collaboration.

B) i aint got no boots anymore.

[Doktor Howl]

A) yes it is an acoustic guitar

B) i aint got no boots anymore.

Oh, boy.

You haven't started singing the Delilah hipster song, have you?

[Cain]

The only acceptable venue to play Dave Matthews is a prelude to a mass suicide.