What makes someone intelligent? It may sound like an easy question, but people always seem to give different answers about what could be considered signs of genius. Is it the ability to solve complex problems quickly? Knowing tons of facts about various topics? Being among those high-IQ people who supposedly have what it takes to change the world? Or maybe it’s having a strong work ethic and excellent communication skills? These are all things that can influence how successful someone will be in their career or personal life, but they aren’t necessarily what makes an individual objectively smart.
First of all, what does “intelligent” mean? The Cambridge Dictionary, among other sources, defines an intelligent person as someone who is able to learn and understand things easily. As soon as we read this, a picture of Albert Einstein’s face inevitably popped into our minds. One of the most brilliant people to ever walk this planet was a late talker and couldn’t form full sentences until he was 5 years old. Does this mean the one and only Albert Einstein, who struggled to learn how to talk correctly, could be considered unintelligent? Honestly, we don’t have the skills and knowledge to answer this question. The only sure thing is that we love looking for people’s opinions about different topics and sharing them to spark meaningful and thought-provoking conversations.
That’s what we did today. We recently found an AskReddit thread where people posted which, in their own personal opinion, are the subtle signs that someone is intelligent. Some of the results are things you might have expected, but others honestly surprised us! So if you’ve ever wondered, “Am I smart?”, this might be the moment of truth. Check out what people consider signs of intelligence and find out if you have a chance to be the smart person in your group of friends!
This post may include affiliate links.
"I was in a convo with a guy who has a Ph.D. in infectious diseases this summer and asking him about Covid etc. While all of us speculate and regurgitate crap we see online he was so upfront about saying “Well I haven’t seen the data on that so I can’t speak on it.” Or “That’s not my area of study, so I’m not sure.”
It was eye-opening. Out of all of my friends who could give a coherent and educated opinion about this he was the first to take himself out of the convo because he knew what he didn’t know."
If only we could teach this to people in school, and repeat this lesson to them every day---we'd have a lot less BS out there, giving people the wrong ideas, and there would less "outrage" from ill-informed. There are some things we don't know about and that's OK.
"I think intelligent people are more willing to calmly debate/discuss, rather than argue. Like, you explain to them why you disagree, and they listen to you and ask further questions about your viewpoint before offering a different perspective; as opposed to an unintelligent person, who would just resort to insults when other people disagree with them."
This is true, but it reminded me of the time my boyfriend and I got into a huge fight, and I mean a FIGHT, about our different opinions on a TV show characters mysterious origins. It was end of April in 2020 and we had been stuck inside with each other every day all day for weeks. That ridiculous fight almost ended a 10 year relationship haha 😅
"They can switch up the way they talk to match the person they're talking to without sounding condescending. They listen to how others learn and explain it in that person's language of understanding."
This is a skill! Essential for working with with children, for example. I think most good elementary school teachers are intelligent this way.
"Admitting when they're wrong and being willing to learn from mistakes."
"I've got a bone or two to pick with Aristotle, but I can vibe with his misquoted 'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought and not accept it.'"
"I feel like there are also very intelligent people who do have social skills, but overthink interactions so much that they are afraid of doing something wrong or hurting someone by asking a too personal question and therefore act out more awkward."
"My father-in-law is very smart, went to MIT & Cal Tech, founded and sold several businesses, published books that are still in circulation, holds several patents, and now is working in the immunotherapy space.
Anyway, I’m just a typical Midwestern State College grad, and the things I’ve learned about cancer and the various treatments from him are amazing. These are technical, medical, and biological concepts that I could learn if I read 100 books. But he can somehow explain them in such simple and relatable terms I feel like I really understand. It’s a gift of genius."
My brother is the same way. He's very intelligent and has a way of explaining things in a way that not only makes sense, but also without making me feel stupid. He's a teacher at a private school and I know he's good at his job. I consider myself his first unofficial student since he helped me graduate high school on time.
"Explaining something complex is simple terms. Knowledge is so vast that they can talk about in the easiest way for someone else to understand."
I try to do this when required. Rare that i need to cuz i don't explain things to people much and when i do it is not complex.
"They admit to changing their mind about something."
I was convinced and changed my opinion to match my opponent and I said so. The opposing party was astounded.
"Smart people never bother showing off that they are smarter. Instead, they end up pulling up the IQ of everyone around them in the room a few notches and doing it in a manner that no one feels belittled."
"You can memorize a bunch of random facts and repeat them, that’s knowledge. But knowing what to do with that knowledge, how to apply it, how to make sense of it, is what I think real intelligence is. Richard Feynman captured that mindset perfectly in his book."
"Jack of all trades master of none" comes to mind. I know sometimes, for certain intelligence, it is hard to pick a focus. It takes a balance of different types of intelligence to work through the mess in your head and apply the knowledge that is amassed.
"When they explain something they make you feel intelligent."
it's not manipulation, its explanation slang. taking complex terms and breaking it down to the actual needed information.
"They aren’t afraid to say they don’t know the answer to a question."
"They ask questions and spend more time listening than talking."
This is so true! I can't stand when people come to me with questions, and when I try to answer, they cut me off and just provide reasons why their view is right. If you are so sure you are right, why did you ask me in the first place? Just do what you were going to do and don't waste my time.
"They're logical, and they find out more information rather than believing something right away."
Curiosity is the drive. Wanting to know rather than wanting to be right.
"Lateral thinking. Seeing connections between disparate subjects, concepts, whatever, that most people can't or won't."
"Intelligent people often go against the trends and immediately point out when something doesn't make sense even if it's supported by a large crowd of people. They often read things they disagree with in order to challenge themselves."
And when they do speak out to the crowd are likely to be burned at the stake...
"John Von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us." - Edward Teller
"If it weren't for the people who are way, way smarter than me inventing, discovering, and teaching stuff I never even imagined could make my life better, my life would be so much worse.
I had a friend in college whose roommate was a graduate student in physics. He later went to medical school and is now a neuroscience researcher after spending a decade as a neurologist. When I had a brain tumor diagnosed last year he was the first person I reached out to. He became an advocate and translated what the surgical team was about to do to my head into a language I could comprehend. I was, and am, so grateful.
Model those qualities your professor had. People like her make the world a better place."
"People who get excited when they're wrong. Like, smart people get disappointed too (especially if their misunderstandings are the cause of larger problems), but there's also a kind of underlying excitement of, 'wait, woah, this works differently than I thought?! Interesting!'"
More like " Well, shoot. That didn't work. So what did work to make it not work?"
"Favorite line I got from a professor, that made me genuinely realize I can have my own thought, was, “that’s a great question that I don’t know but we need to talk about.”
Conveyed immediate interest, but kept her same professional knowledge base which allowed me to explore my ideas with her. It really showed me what discourse is all about."
My life changed after I asked my instructor a question after class, and he asked why I didn't ask in class. I told him I assumed I was the only one who was confused. He told me that I was just as smart as the rest of the class. If I didn't understand, others also didn't understand, so always ask. I'm now happy to ask questions that might sound silly. It often results in exposing bad assumptions.
"Humor. I think that truly funny people are often very smart and cognizant of the different ways an idea can be humorous on several levels. They also know their audience. I think the difference between say Jeff Foxworthy and Dave Chappell and Bo Burnham is their audience and their interests."
"They say they love learning and they learn something new every day. Then they listen more than talk."
I think there's a lot of intelligent people that talk an awful lot and love to have conversations, discussions and debates. I guarantee they listen and learn. There are also people that hear things and remember things that you wouldn't believe they were even paying attention to. But not all intelligent people are quiet.
"Someone who knows, they know nothing at all."
"They can ask really good questions."
"Always tries to see the bigger picture, and considers multiple perspectives in the story.
Not overcompensating with flowery words in their speech/ can explain a point concisely."
I always get to the point without the fluff. That is why my projects are always shorter than wanted.
"My paternal grandma is really intelligent, I think. She went to secretarial school in the 1950s but never really worked, so I wouldn't call her highly educated or anything. But I think she could have gone far in higher education if she'd attempted it.
I'll explain something to her, and ask her if I'm making sense. She's 90 years old - I wouldn't be at all surprised if I said something that went over her head from time to time. But she doesn't miss a step. Whenever I describe a situation or concept to her and ask her if I'm making sense, she will repeat the thing I said back to me, using different wording and her own examples to prove she absolutely understood. I don't know many other people who do that.
She also is happy to change her stance on anything when presented with new information. And a lot of times she'll bring it up again months later and thank you for showing her a new perspective. (She isn't just swayed by me because I'm her granddaughter, she's the same way with everyone else I've ever seen her interact with.)."
"They surround themselves with those who are more intelligent than they are. If you're the smartest person in a room, you know well to find a better room."
"Sometimes you can tell when a person is smart if they are the type who doesn’t say much but sits back and observes."
Me all the way. I always just sit back and observe. Even though i am in introvert.
"They also admit when they are wrong and use that opportunity to correct their own thinking."
"There is such a thing as social intelligence (as opposed to learned social skills).
I think the short version is that we perceive people with both to be highly intelligent because they have both: 1) high logical intelligence; and 2) the ability to communicate in a way that makes their logical intelligence apparent to other people."
"They apply knowledge from one realm into a new and relevant situation.
For instance, one person described a situation (might have been on Reddit) where they were a new assistant in an academic research lab and fixed a snag that stumped all the senior researchers including the professor. The team was trying to video record their project using a strobe light and their footage wasn't working as planned.
When no one else made progress at diagnosing or solving the problem, the most junior individual spoke up and suggested that the strobe could be out of phase. They remembered that video typically records at a rate of 24 frames a minute second (thanks for the correction), and explained that along with suggesting a change to the strobe's flash rate so it would coincide with the recording.
This worked. And it really raised that individual's reputation within the group.
Inwardly they were almost embarrassed about the source of this knowledge. They had a gaming hobby back in high school, had taken some video footage of that, and discovered the standard frame rate while playing around with editing software.
But they remembered that detail years later and realized it made a difference in a completely different context.
That is intelligence."
"They understand what you’re saying before you’re even done with your explanation."
"I have a brother who is a genius. I’d say being thoughtful before speaking. He uses words carefully. Doesn’t ramble when he talks. Doesn’t just start talking and hope the point comes to him. TBH it can be frustrating because there can be a lack of rhythm to conversations with him. His house is filled with books. Everywhere you look there is a book. If I talk about something that interests me but he doesn’t know the next week there is a book on the subject at his house. He will read up on your interests so he can share a conversation about them. It’s a kindness I appreciate."
"No joke. The smartest professor I had in engineering school was also the most humble. She was an astounding human being.
By week 2, she knew everyone's names by heart in the intro engineering course. In College. With like 180 students. Later, in upper-division classes, people would occasionally ask some really stupid questions. Like, it happens... you get so deep into some fluid mechanics derivation or something you forget something really basic. People would ask a question like this and everyone would be thinking; "Wow, how did you even make it this far?" but then... it's like she would spot the flaw in their understanding so perfectly, and then respond with such clarity and wisdom that the person asking the question would look less stupid and the whole class would be enlightened.
And here's the thing... I pride myself on being really good at that exact skill. I tutored a lot of people. I was easily one of the brightest among my peers. But that woman was on another level. It was mind-blowing. And it wasn't just her intelligence, but her organizational skills, discipline, consistency...
And yet... she was so humble. She was quiet and physically quite small. But she just exuded competence and immediately commanded every room she walked into. I've never seen anything quite like it."
Your description of your teacher totally endeared her to me. Go teach'!!🤗
"I've always told people that there is knowledge and intelligence. I've met a lot of people that are dumb as a post, but know a whole lot of random facts. Anyone can be knowledgeable, intelligence is different.
Knowledge is what you know.
Intelligence is that ability to synthesize what you know and apply it elsewhere effectively and accurately."
"Eight years of math class and I barely understood anything! We got a new teacher and within two hours she explained a complex math problem so well that even I understood it. She saved my grades in math, was the first time I ever got A‘s in math. So I would say a subtle sign is, that they can explain the most complex problems so that everyone can understand it."
I had the same with statistics. First time I had a peculiar man. When asked, he regurgitated just the same he said before. Retaking the class before graduation, the new teacher wanted us to learn. I knew how to calculated 95% of the problems, but made an careless mistake on the exam and only got a grade 4, of 5 possible 😋
"I was struggling to explain 3D printing to my elderly neighbor without visual aids. My younger friend pipes up, 'Pretend you're sculpting a castle out of hot glue, think of how you'd do it, layer by layer.' I was so awed at her ability to pull a simple analogy that would work for the old woman. But my friend is a polyglot, a translator by trade, so I shouldn't have been surprised I suppose."
I was thinking of a pastry bag, maby because I just ate cream😋 (Though no heat involved)
"Dynamism and creativity. I really don't agree with that old notion of an intelligent person, as someone with social difficulties who's good at logical thinking. This is just one single possibility, among dozens of others."
"As an English teacher, I’m probably biased, so take my opinion for what it is.
That said, I can often identify a brilliant student by the way s/he uses written language. It’s hard to explain. It’s not just vocabulary, and it’s not the concepts communicated in the writing; it’s the fullness and maturity of the writer’s voice (which encompasses the aforementioned and then some). The piece of writing often sounds like it could not possibly have been authored by the student."
"They wear a mask in public don’t make a fuss over it."
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. - Iroh"
"They are curious about everything. To be intelligent you need to be knowledgeable and you can't be knowledgeable if you are never curious."
"A lot of these responses seem more about self-confidence.
Admit you're wrong? Confidence.
Admit you don't know something? Confidence
Change your opinion when presented with new information. Confidence with a dash of intelligence.
Intelligence indicators in:
The ability to quickly grasp and apply new concepts is a huge indicator.
The ability to clearly communicate concepts across specialties/huge education or experience gaps.
Using generic problem-solving skills on new and unfamiliar problems without prior knowledge of the space."
"They draw wisdom from multiple sources. Wait but that might be more wise than intelligent... But I guess those two tend to be seen together a lot."
"I think what's important is some people are deathly afraid of simplification because there are always "experts" that will tell you you're wrong. But simplification is incredibly important in explaining concepts to people.
You build rules that are applicable 75% of the time, then you teach the exceptions. So many people out there start with the exceptions first and it's so clear they've never had to formally instruct anyone in anything.
Speaking as someone that gets roped in to explain every board game to others, even the ones I haven't played."
"They can genuinely consider an idea which opposes their worldview without necessarily accepting it."
"Being able to speak properly. Understanding language and being able to use it always makes me, personally, give someone's opinion or ideas more merit."
They know the purpose of language is to communicate, and want to do so clearly.
"They don't brag about their online IQ test results."
Real IQ test results are only given as a percentile (98%+ is MENSA level). If anyone gives a number without the specific test it means nothing (125 is a low score on some high on others). There are ZERO acceptable online IQ tests.
"Honestly I don't think there is one thing. Being intelligent in one field usually means you also lack in another. Just because I can do calculus with ease doesn't mean I'm intelligent socially.
I think a subtle sign would be someone who does brainstorming for any situation though, taking into effect both sides or positives/negatives."
"'If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough.'
Albert Einstein is commonly credited for saying something along these lines but I don't have time to verify that right now, Does anyone know the origin of this quote?"
No i can't but my husband quotes this on a regular basis 🤷🏼♀️
"By having enough knowledge and experience across different domains such that they can see similarities, differences, and spot missing information that is worth asking a question about. Getting there requires asking a ton of simple questions along the way."
"People who use analogies to explain concepts to others. It’s a form of code-switching and integrating concepts on the fly is a clear indicator that someone is both socially and conceptually intelligent."
"You need a wide knowledge base of reference material to make a lot of comedic connections. If someone is really quick-witted with jokes they're probably a genius in some way, even if they don't realize it."
"People who are genuinely curious about the world, ask questions and listen to others instead of just waiting for their turn to talk. Also, they don’t view education as just a means to get a job."
"Curiosity. Pursuing things they want to know for about and just having an interest in things."
"They don't brag about it."
You don't brag about being smart. Just like a tall person bragging how big they are.
"You can honestly just tell by their 'vibes'.
The way they compose themselves, talk, write, think, explain, etc.
What I find the most interesting is that intelligent people, in my experience, are more likely to be less cold/fact-driven and more theoretical and creative. For example, if an intelligent person were to read a certain stat, fact, idea, etc, they are likely to have very interesting theoretical extrapolations.
My friend qualified for the Mensa membership, and whenever we talk, his mindset always strays towards very interesting outlooks. He has certain ideas that I would never have even thought about.
It's actually very fun to talk to intelligent people. The way they are able to absorb information like a sponge and apply that information is very eye-opening."
"This is more of a hit-or-miss one, but in casual conversation, they're good at puns/wordplay. Making good puns, especially spontaneously, requires a high level of understanding in whatever language is being spoken. If they tell you a pre-constructed joke that has a punchline that is a pun (a punchline if you will) you can't really tell, because they could have had a lot of time to come up with it (like me for instance), or they could have memorized it from somewhere, but spontaneous puns generally mean they're processing your conversation multiple interpretations at once, in an intelligent way."
"They’re hilarious."
Sometimes hilarious people are just super depressed and trying to cheer themself up 🤷🏼♀️
"The extremely intelligent people I have known have always seemed like magic to me. They know things they have no possibility of knowing. They think of things that no one would have ever thought of. They make connections that are ridiculous until they are actually made, at which time they seem obvious."
"People who generally use clean language. For example not excessively cussing, and not making vulgar jokes. It shows that someone has a more sophisticated vocabulary."
Actually there are scientific studies that say people who curse have a broader vocabulary.
"Self-depreciation in their humor and curiosity about even things they're not supposed to do according to their government. Also knowing the pursuit of knowledge is infinite and ultimately in the grand scheme of things individual knowledge is inconsequential in scale. Even geniuses are specialized intelligence and may be ignorant in some regard."
Self deprecating humour is awesome especially when you're with stuck-up pretentious perfectionists!!! They simply can not understand why you are saying exactly what they think about you, and you are laughing at it too🤣🤣🤣
"When they try to see things from an opposite perspective as compared to that which is the main point of view of the conversation. Typically, intelligent people do this to try and analyze the topic from multiple points of view. It doesn't mean they are arguing."
"Intelligence isn't a monolith, that's the most important thing to keep in mind. There are many types of intelligence and assigning all of those based on signs of one is nearly always a mistake."
"I met a guy who counted seconds in his head. Like all the time, nonstop. Didn't interfere with his conversations, or tasks. But you can ask him the time in seconds, any time, and he's got it."
"They have no idea that they are intelligent and unknowingly expect people to understand complex concepts."
"I’m dumb as hell in that case.
I’m curious about just about everything. I will spend weeks studying a newfound topic of interest. Then I might move on to something else while retaining an interest in everything I had “researched” prior.
While retaining interest, I might only retain half of the stuff I had learned and could explain less than that if someone asked about the topic.
And I will have done nothing with any particular interest of mine outside of somewhat satisfying my curiosity.
Writing this out confirms the ADHD diagnosis a little more in my mind."
"They know when their knowledge ends and say something to the extent of 'I don't know and anything else I say on this topic is ignorant speculation.'"
"I worked with a lad who was very like this. He could make any conversation really intriguing and thought-provoking, often causing people to reconsider their perspective and position. He was an HR manager that could defuse any situation, helping people mend bridges and resolving issues because he could get both parties to compromise and put aside resentment.
He had IQ and EQ to go a lot further than the role he was in but he was happy and maybe that is another little tidbit of intelligence."
"Taking an interest in people and asking what you genuinely want to know.
Be good at coming up with engaging hypotheticals.
Also, enjoy hypotheticals being asked of you. It makes conversations easy.
TLDR: be an engaging nerd."
"They are able to listen to drastically different points of view without getting offended. Understanding that human beings are very limited in what they actually 'know'."
"They’re on Reddit instead of Facebook."
Um, excuse me, but we Bored Pandas are the brightest of all. 😉
"Some people would argue; people who have very colorful language have a larger vocabulary and are generally more intelligent."
"The smartest people I know eventually lose the need to ever act smart. Obviously they “act smart” when the time is necessary but 9/10 they’re just goofing."
"Talking to people as if they're intelligent at their level and without being condescending or even letting on that it's lower than their level.
I used to work with a doctor - Tom Howard - and the day I realized he was a genius was the time he guessed every single condition a patient of mine had based on minute pieces of information about him."
"Like not blocking the entire aisle when they’re reading the labels and 5 people are trying to squeeze by. Like, be aware of your surroundings because people are trying to move on with their lives!"
The above behavior would be more about someone being mindful, which IMO also shows intelligence.
"One of the first cues for me is when someone speaks rather quickly but pauses/backtracks in the middle of a sentence to think about what they’re saying."
"They know what pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniosis is."
"I once was hired by a college as a tutor for other students who were having trouble with courses they found difficult but I had absorbed pretty easily – electronics stuff mostly. The department head who hired me said something along the lines of "Pay isn't much, you won't make enough to buy more than a pizza or two a week. But you'll learn stuff about what you teach you never realized you needed to know – you never REALLY grasp a topic until you can explain it clearly to someone else."
"Highly inefficient at accomplishing anything because they're enamored by everything. Like little moths flapping towards flickering candles in the distance."
"'The Wire' scene about gangbangers learning how to play chess comes to mind here somehow."
"Comfort level in traditionally complex subjects would likely correlate with intelligence.
Trying to discern comfort from undeserved confidence would be the difficult part for the average interaction unless you're well versed enough in the same topics."
"They don’t open up threads like these hoping to find comments that fit how they see themselves.
Yeah, I see you looking through these comments."
"Ya but my mom says I'm intelligent so."
I wasn't tested until I was in 4th grade which was found out I was in the top 0.5% range Regarding intelligence but before I had that knowledge I thought that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't really understand my peers and I was always pretending to enjoy what they enjoyed. I know that a clear sign was while I was In a second grade my stomach was always hurting In my pediatrician realized it was stress and anxiety and so I was already Drinking Mylanta out of the bottle before I was 10 years old
So many of these are signs of being articulate and reasonable, rather than intelligent. Sure, many intelligent people are also rational communicators, but so are a lot of people who are average or relatively unintelligent. Courtesy, respect, thoughtfulness, coherence, etc. don't necessarily denote a great mind. They are signs of a good person.
I decided to put "intelthgenk" in comments to ones that I would say are things that i would go under to reference the meme.
...well, I'm definitely not intelligent enough to understand this comment.
Load More Replies... I wasn't tested until I was in 4th grade which was found out I was in the top 0.5% range Regarding intelligence but before I had that knowledge I thought that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't really understand my peers and I was always pretending to enjoy what they enjoyed. I know that a clear sign was while I was In a second grade my stomach was always hurting In my pediatrician realized it was stress and anxiety and so I was already Drinking Mylanta out of the bottle before I was 10 years old
So many of these are signs of being articulate and reasonable, rather than intelligent. Sure, many intelligent people are also rational communicators, but so are a lot of people who are average or relatively unintelligent. Courtesy, respect, thoughtfulness, coherence, etc. don't necessarily denote a great mind. They are signs of a good person.
I decided to put "intelthgenk" in comments to ones that I would say are things that i would go under to reference the meme.
...well, I'm definitely not intelligent enough to understand this comment.
Load More Replies...