When I was younger, for reasons that I don’t understand well now, I really didn’t want to be defined by “intelligence.” People often told me that I was smart, and that because I was smart, I ought to do x, y, z (be a biologist, be a physicist, whatever, and if it was a teacher, it was usually the subject they taught.) Which prompted me not to want to do x, y, z even though I found pretty much all subjects fascinating.
So I went into nursing, where a lot of the material (practical skills and empathy-based skills) involves stuff I’m not naturally good at...and all of the sudden intelligence is something I want to prove, and the fact that most people on LW are smarter than I am bothers me way more than it should.
So I’m not the only one who’s found that!
When I was younger, for reasons that I don’t understand well now, I really didn’t want to be defined by “intelligence.” People often told me that I was smart, and that because I was smart, I ought to do x, y, z (be a biologist, be a physicist, whatever, and if it was a teacher, it was usually the subject they taught.) Which prompted me not to want to do x, y, z even though I found pretty much all subjects fascinating.
So I went into nursing, where a lot of the material (practical skills and empathy-based skills) involves stuff I’m not naturally good at...and all of the sudden intelligence is something I want to prove, and the fact that most people on LW are smarter than I am bothers me way more than it should.