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Re:Exceptionally gifted children: long-term outcomes of acce... by madaxe_again on Saturday April 18, 2020 @03:59AM (#22906085)
It’s because the usual, and entirely understandable reaction to talking about this is “oh you think you’re better than me” hostility.

The easiest thing is to just be an island. There’s a reason that people like me are called “eccentric”, because too much time in your own company inevitably results in social drift.

Re:Exceptionally gifted children: long-term outcomes of acce... by DoreenMichele on Saturday April 18, 2020 @04:09AM (#22906137)
I was one of the top three students of my graduating high school class. I was constantly held up by teachers as basically the person to hate at school.

They would act like they were good teachers because I knew so much and act like other kids were just lazy and should "be more like me and just study more" which wasn't at all fair or accurate.

In eighth grade, I was friends with a Hispanic boy. The class was given the chance to do a thing for extra credit and it involved decoding something. Not only did he speak English as a second language, he had no idea what the thing actually was.

I got in trouble for telling him it's a letter substitution puzzle. I didn't know because I was smart. I knew because my father did the Crypto quote in the newspaper every single morning and would drag everyone else into it when he couldn't do it easily.

It was an early lesson in how unfair the world is. He had no hope at all of getting the extra credit because he had too many things stacked against him.

Anyway, I had few friends at school and it was a toxic social environment. I gave up a National Merit Scholarship in part to escape the toxic BS and figure out who I was other than some toxic asshole as taught to me by the school system as a survival mechanism.

If you have no friends and everyone hates you, yes, you learn to Lord it over everyone that "at least I'm smarter than you" as the only defense mechanism you have.

I finally found a thing that explains that it's our strengths that limit us. I've had enough serious problems in life that I've gotten to escape the prison the school system actively built for me, but it wasn't at all easy.

Re:Exceptionally gifted children: long-term outcomes of acce... by Viliam1234 on Saturday April 18, 2020 @08:46PM (#22912439)
> It’s because the usual, and entirely understandable reaction to talking about this is “oh you think you’re better than me” hostility.

Yes. You try to describe how you got hurt, and people think that you are just bragging. (How exactly are you supposed to describe the social consequences of your higher intelligence without ever mentioning the fact?)

Then they look at some dysfunctional mechanism you developed as a result of your pain, and they conclude that you are a bad person and therefore you actually deserved it.

Re:Exceptionally gifted children: long-term outcomes of acce... by gowld on Saturday April 18, 2020 @09:33PM (#22912712)
Calling people "string lamps" is not describing how you are hurt, it is bragging in the tackiest way.
Re:Exceptionally gifted children: long-term outcomes of acce... by apotheon on Monday April 20, 2020 @07:42PM (#22930191)
You appear to have the empathy of a moldy cheese sandwich.
Re:Exceptionally gifted children: long-term outcomes of acce... by tudorw on Saturday April 18, 2020 @04:50AM (#22906288)
Islands can have bridges or tunnels if you're so inclined :)