@@CreatedByKC yea but that's what smart is. How fast you can learn something if you try. Why would I want to spend 500 hours to learn something that some genius learns in 1 hour. Coding is legit chinese to me. I would have to study it for 1000s of hours to learn.
@@germ4613 coding is pretty simple if you are not breaking the limits. However some people learn to code and they quit because It's not for them simply
I joined MIT as a grad student last year and I was humbled realllllly quickly by how everyone is just simply much smarter than I am. I realized that I fall into the same bucket you described and the only way I was able to join and graduate is by working 10x harder than whatever load is required for a course/project
I'm also like this, I joined computer science 3 years ago and made the mistake of doing things the same way as my much smarter friends. I failed for a while before I could adapt.
Yeah, and if I were working only 3x harder then I would naturally think that you were just simply smarter than I, when all I had to do was work 7x more harder. No one sees the work people put in and just assume that it come effortlessly to those who appear to excel in class. Same as when one thinks: "screw putting my hand up to ask the teacher to repeat what he just taught, cause I did not understand it, because no one else is putting their hand up". The fact is, no one bloody understood but ego gets in the way, as you don't want to look like the dumb kid.
At least you got into MIT. Many of us wouldn't. Anyhow, when I was younger I used to resent not being as smart as others. But as I grew older I realized two fundamental truths. There will always be somebody smarter, prettier, more talented than you are. It's called evolution...that's the nature of the universe. In any event, I also came to appreciate that what ever our skill set or level of cleverness, human beings are more like a hive creature than anything else in nature. We collectively create probably the most successful organism if not in the entire universe, pretty close to it. We each benefit from the brilliance and cleverness of many millions of other humans. We don't have to go out each day and hunt or scavenge for food like every other creature on earth. And everything we enjoy and take for granted from the iPhone to electricity, to the internet was created by many millions of smart people. Why resent that? So the most important thing we can do as humans is give back, not only to human kind, but also to Planet Earth. We are all part of the ecosystem and if we don't take care of it, it won't take care of us.
Clear thought is more important than pure intelligence. Obviously the combination of the two is really optimal but if i had to choose clear in thought would be better overall
When complimenting someone, instead of praising them by saying, ".. you're so smart". Instead, say "you must've worked really hard for that". They'll continue to work hard to achieve a desired outcome instead of relying on 'natural abilities'.
@@tbcstuff3634 cool. it's not a foolrpoof strategy, but, anecdotally, this strategy seems to be more effective in 'getting the most out of people' ... but agree to disagree, do whatever you feel most effective
I've always been praised for being the smartest in the room ever since I was a kid. I'm an ESL teacher now learning to code to change careers and realizing that I've only been called smart because I was trying harder than everyone else not because I was actually smart
this is me too. I just did my work while everyone else played around but i wasn't smart. There's also the fact that I took AP courses which made people assume I was smart but I actually wasn't
Socrates said that btw. Imagine you have a circle, the more you know, the bigger it gets (the knowledge is what is inside). The circumference (the line that draws the circle) is what you don't know. The bigger the circle is, the bigger is the circumference . This is a nice way to picture it.
Growing up, I was _that_ smart kid. I think I was actually reasonably smart, I was writing stories at 2 and doing multiplication at 3. But in the end I think it crippled me. I was the kid who only needed 20 minutes to study. Therefore I *always* had to be the kid who only needed 20 minutes. Needing to study longer would mean I’m not actually smart. But as topics get harder, everyone has to study more. And as everyone else studied for days or weeks, I had trouble walking over my big fat ego to study more than a few hours. Everyone would keep saying _“if only you applied yourself…”_ and I was *terrified* of proving them wrong. What if I couldn’t do it even if I tried? My whole _thing_ was being smart. If I wasn’t smart, I’d be nothing. On top of that, I can’t live with mediocre achievements. I got into the best university of my country, but I didn’t get into US Ivy League due to my lack of work ethic. I’ve never been able to feel proud. No matter what I do, I should’ve done better. I’m really working on developing work ethic. At my university, I don’t know how many people are as “smart” as me, but most people are almost definitely *better* than me. Because they can actually put in the work. I’m working on being more like them.
perfect description of how i'm feeling right now, thanks for sharing. As Einstein said: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
Yo I’m going through the exact same thing :). Don’t worry it is all normal, right now I am studying law/economics in the best university in France #40. I am originally from Mexico and can speak 4 languages fluently, so I had the chance to study there. I realized that I was not as smart as everyone else and that I had no preparation for this type of pressure, I was always praised by my teachers in high school and was always seen to be the smartest person in the certain room, since I didn’t need to study for exams and would still get good grades. Needless to say, my ego did get crushed by the time I got to school and I realized that not having a good work ethic is the worst thing not to have in college. Nevertheless, it is also important to enjoy whatever we are doing in life, and truth is I don’t enjoy economics, but I do enjoy doing things like law and philosophy. I’m changing majors next year and although I’ll have to begin from scratch, I am thankful that I had the chance to actually study here and to know what to expect for the future, it is much more easier to work and to be disciplined whenever you set up goals for yourself, and to wake up in the morning to do something you enjoy. So for real don’t be too hard on yourself and give yourself some credit, you’ll get that work ethic and we’ll make it through :).
I've been on the same page as you for most of my life. Luckily, on my 2nd year of college (engineering) I hit the wall but I could reach everyone else's work ethic. My problem actually came after that. Even when I was able to put the work, I always thought that being smart was equal to being successful and rich, and I HAD to be that. It took a long time for me to change my mindset and expectations. Now I realize that the only difference between the rest and myself is that I'm probably the one that solves most problems and retains more information, but that doesn't mean that I have magically traced the path to success. I've fallen into bad career choices but I'm not less valuable for them. I've learned a lot from my mistakes. There's a RUclipsr who is a psychiatrist and some of his podcasts talking about this got very deep into me, I'll give you the link if you wanna give it a look. ruclips.net/video/QUjYy4Ksy1E/видео.html ruclips.net/video/kPZwR3v_UyI/видео.html
This is so true. Being called "smart" and "talented" by your parents only boosts your ego, which in turn tells you "you don't need to study for that exam" or "you failed that test? what a bad test that was". You HAVE to break it. You have to realize you are the equivalent of the work you're putting in.
Shit homie, this hits home really hard. I didn't get this concept until I was 27, always looking for excuses as to why I wasn't where I wanted to be. It all boils down to being hard on yourself and actually doing the goddamn work, every fucking day, no shortcuts, no excuses. Grind. You're not special, you're not entitled to anything, work for it, get to it.
I am the guilty party that would look over the notes 20 minutes before the test and passed. Being able to do that really fks you up when you’re actually trying to do something genuinely hard.
@@hopelessfool6722 nice, I never studied anything and didn't read books or articles or podcasts (anything thought provoking) and was stuck in the social media algorithm for years and recently I started becoming more and more aware of how my perfectionism affected my growth (made me procrastinate my whole teenage years away) and I am finally more organised and willing to sit down and put in the hard work, but I have dug myself into a mountain-deep hole and it takes all of my energy and effort to climb out of that hole.
@@lampsizgod no, because lack of discipline will really f u in life, unable to focus, make a plan, schedule and organize isn't something youll wish you have.
I completely agree with your sentiments here in this video. I made the same realization around your age where I realized I was not the smartest person in most rooms. This is an uncomfortable feeling to confront oneself with as the ego does just about everything it can to work against this idea. On paper, it might seem like "I'm smart". I have a PhD in computer science from a top school. I've written numerous papers on quantum computation, run my own business, and do a number of other "smart-sounding" things. However, in all of those pursuits, I have had to put in way more effort, time, dedication, etc. to get similar results to my peers. I've realized that it's not about your initial "intellect roll", but more so about what you do with that information. In my case, I've just decided to apply the same techniques you've outlined here--hard work, tracking, and consistency. In the end, I've seen that hard work and consistency steamrolls brute "strength" in the form of intelligence. From one dull penny in the fountain to another, I salute you :)
I know you bro. I am also not smart but love programming. I failed in public exam and spent 2 more years than others to get into college, but I didn't give up and now become a software engineer!
Perfectionism is another part that I develop thinking that I'm 'smart'. The expectation that 'smart' people don't make mistake really thrown me down the hole of mental issues. Just like video mentions, if I took so long to understand or do something, I would get frustrated with myself. Slowly the fear of failure develop, the needs to keep the image of being 'smart' (pretending), I stop working and be in denial. Now I am trying to climb out of this hole that I dug for myself. My best advice is do what YOU can, don't compare yourself to others, and focus on your own specific needs. Most importantly, love and learn more about yourself (ability, capability, skill and environment, etc...), who you really are without lies that you told yourself. I hope you the best.
That hit hard...All my life I thought I must do perfect on my first try. If I didn't, I was just a failure in my eyes. I went to therapy because I didn't do anything that I used to. All my hobbies began to cause more self-doubt than they brought me joy just because I couldn't do everything in a flawlessly. I'm still working on my perspective, but comments and videos like this do help steering myself into a better direction. To anyone who's reading this: Please don't lose your motivation just because you didn't do something perfectly on your first try. Practice and mistakes aren't something to be ashamed about. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Don't waste your time.
@@lenart_0143 so true the way I look at it is every experience that’s our first can’t be perfect because it is our first time trying to do it. When ur born u get bits on navigating life but it’s so much of it has to be self work and you have to be patient with yourself about things and be kind to ourselves just like we are to others when they make mistakes. Setting urself up to be perfect is the biggest way to set yourself up for constant disappointment it’s better if you come in with the mindset “I’m not perfect but I’m just doing me”.
@@lenart_0143 im reading this at 4 in the morning, cant sleep, really worried about my job/life, i'm not smart and i feel its affecting my life / work so much. will start therapy soon.
It's refreshing to see someone who has come out of their shell in regards to life ambitions. I relate to being a terrible student and disorganized employee, although in my case I think it was more of a lack of direction than thinking I was brighter than my peers. I'm now in my mid-20's and I'm finally pursuing the things I actually want and need, for the first time in my life. I look back at my younger self and I don't know what I was thinking.
You describe my situation perfectly, I'm in my mid twenties and life has humbled me so much. I'm trying to let go of the negative perceptions of myself and move forward slowly after finding out something I would love to pursue.
Are you sure it’s not the case that those people picking up concepts in 20 minutes that took you hours have already been exposed to the concept beforehand? Einstein put a shit ton of hours into math and physics. I always hear about these people who can just magically understand concepts and pick up skills. I’ve never seen anything like that. I went to 5 high schools and never came across anyone like that. In college I haven’t come across anyone like that. Maybe I can only witness something like that in an Ivy. My guess is that if you dig deep enough you will find that they put the time in too, probably just long before they needed it or indirectly through another skill or concept that’s related. I remember people flunking out of beginner CS courses who I thought were smarter than me. I wasn’t one of those people flunking because I was already learning a lot of the concepts in my free time beforehand because I found it interesting. If you’re the type of person who reads philosophy for fun, then you ace all your humanities courses without studying much, are you really just a genius? That’s such a ridiculous notion when you think about it. There are so many ways in which your hobby is giving you direct and indirect exposure to a shit ton of the concepts that will be addressed in those courses. This idea has never made any sense to me. As humans, we use other concepts/ideas to build on others. This is why a baby can’t do Calculus and Physics or comprehend complex philosophical concepts. They simply do not have the intellectual building blocks for it. If someone is picking things up fast, they almost certainly put the time in elsewhere to develop the building blocks necessary to grasp that concept quicker and easier. There are certainly different degrees in natural ability, but unless you’re mentally handicapped, I think the difference between the average and high-achieving is negligible. When it comes down to it, everyone has to work hard to accomplish anything worthwhile.
100% agreed. On top of that, while I think people whose minds are considerably/naturally gifted in certain areas definitely have a head start, they often lack the objectivity or “big picture” thinking necessary to take advantage of it in the long term. That objectivity usually comes from being an underdog, aka hardwork and experience.
I couldn't have put it better myself. I would only add that a genius in one domain is average or below average in other domains, whereas a genius in those other domains is only average or below average in the former domain. You might call this the law of equity amongst humans: time is limited and our ability to study is limited by time, therefore if we devote our time to a singular domain of knowledge, we lack the potential understanding from other domains of knowledge, thus we may excel at one thing and be plainly average at other things. A good example is mathematics and music. While the two are obviously related via harmonics, if one studies mathematics and doesn't dabble much in music, he may become a genius mathematician but will never perform in an orchestra. Vice versa one will never expect to see Kanye West solve high level math problems between albums. In essence, humans are creatures of limitation and so our individual abilities reflect this inherent limitation. The only exception to this rule is intelligence if intelligence is defined as the ability to quickly process knowledge effectively (IQ is a measure of this). In that case an individual of high IQ may be able to pick up mathematics and multiple musical instruments from a young age and be precocious at all of them, but then there will be *other* fields of knowledge he will always be limited in simply due to the limitation of time and, perhaps, his interest in those other fields. Therefore genius is really a poor descriptor for successful individuals. It implies some next-level trait in human evolution when genius/smartness is nothing more than a combination of two factors: dedicated time to a specific field of knowledge, and the inherent ability of an individual to process information quickly and effectively. The latter quality is rather rare, but the former quality can be developed by literally everybody. It's the people who have both qualities in spades, however, who history tends to remember for thousands of years as universal geniuses, and that fact simply cannot be denied.
Yeah, I remember in college in my freshman Physics I class (for my mechanical engineering degree) I took an exam and finished first out everyone in a class of about 150 people. Everyone else had their heads down and was still diligently working. Usually I would finish before other people on other exams too, but that time I beat everyone by about 10 minutes. I took basically that class and physics II as part of my AP physics class. The exam didn't count towards my major (it counted as a physics class for non-majors) and I didn't pass the AP exam anyway, but seeing the material before made that class and physics II a piece of cake. I took a social psychology class to boost my GPA (I tested out of a lot of early classes and got no grade for them), and the professor threw up the distribution of scores on one exam: I was the only one out of about 400 people to get a perfect score on one exam. They asked me to TA it afterwards, lol. Part of the reason I did well is because psychology is just a fun subject to study. In my free time I liked to listen to podcasts and read books on the subject so and I was familiar with a lot of the concepts before. I only read the material for the exam once in the hallway about 3 hours beforehand. SAT scores are highly correlated with IQ score. I'm brighter than most people but not super bright: my SAT score only correlates to an IQ of about 117. I'm only a little more than one standard deviation away from the mean (you're not getting any Nobel prizes out of me). I do wonder what it would be if I retook it now, since I know men's brains keep developing well into their 20's, but on a certain level I'd rather not clearly know.
As long as you have an acceptable baseline, it's all, and I do literally mean all, about the hour count. That's by far the dominant factor. Nothing else comes close. Now you can't just put in hours for the sake of putting in hours. They have to be meaningful and focused. So if you have the minimum qualifications and aptitude as long as you "work hard", you'll be just fine. Compare where you end up after 2000 hours and compare that to someone "talented" who started out the same as you after 2000 hours. You won't be nearly as far off as you would imagine. 80% of life is literally showing up and putting in an honest effort. The other 20% is just dumb luck. "Talent" I consider the equivalent of an early game booster. It helps early on, but you can be rather quickly outcompeted.
There were 3 types of people at my school: 1. People who said they did not study but actually studied a lot at home(common) 2. People who said they did not study and did not study(common) 3. People who said they they studied and did actually study(rare)
Realizing I'm not as intelligent as I was told throughout my whole childhood, and for a good part of my tens, was a blow. I'm not attractive or interesting or funny enough, so being smart was my only strength. Learning I'm just average and was experiencing a "kind of big fish, little pond" situation made me very, very depressed and ruined my chances of succeeding in life. Now, in my forties, and a failure. Not because I'm not wealthy or famous or successful. Just because I feel unhappy and both disappointed and disappointing. Expectations placed on you by suggestion are a terrible and sure way to ending up as a sad human being. When you think you're average from the get go you work harder and actually accomplish stuff.
I see you. Solidarity. We've still got time, though. I'm turning 40 later this year, G-d willing, and I'm planning on making the most out of my next 80 years on earth ❤️
I believe in you. I believe you will be able to accept yourself and the world and find that anyone can make a mark in this Earth just by their willingness to help it to be better.
@@veniqer I haven't given up yet. I'm learning a new skill, quite a challenging one, coding, and it's... coming along. Not as easy as I wanted it to be, but it's not supposed to be, right? There's still hope. 80 years is still a considerable amount of time :D
My mom was a baseball fan and she always told me that Pete Rose wasn't the most naturally talented player but he worked harder and longer than the others. Years later, he eventually made the Hall of Fame and I remembered my mother's words. So when I had a kid, I always told her that it doesn't matter how smart she may be, there will always be people out there who are ahead of her in brains. What matters is being willing to work at what you want.
Golden advice here. It’s so easy as a parent to fall into the ‘tell your kids their smart for their self esteem’ trap. Teaching them the value of hard work is responsibly preparing them for a successful life.
Never saw an advice video this related to my self-experience. As an Asian who has always been “pushed” into some sort of elite group and grown up with imposter syndromes. It made me constantly ruminate on the concept of “self” and eventually I realised that “self” is just an object/instance from collective consciousness to individual awareness.
It's about how interested you are in something, whether that be mathematics, tech or whatever. Some people know every single detail about their favourite sport and had they had the same interest in, say physics, they also would be considered as very smart. Those in your class you considered smart were highly interested in doing well in exams and thus developed efficient systems of memorisation or were interested enough to study when they needed to study, and enjoyed studying. Their egos boosted when they saw the results, further motivating them to study more.
Hahaha. So true. The ego boost was definitely a big factor. I don't think I ever put in as much effort into anything than I did junior/senior year of high school and junior year of university. I stopped caring and my grades tanked. The drop off was swift, enormous, and and made me realize, "wow, I'm literally dead average". Might as well focus on what interests me.
That is true. I am not smart but I enjoy what I do and therefore spend time and effort learning it therefore making me good at it. It is like a positive feedback cycle. On the otherhand if you hate(say maths) you are probably not going to want to do it therefore not be good at it. Then again if you are not good at maths you are probably going to hate it as well. Basically, I think it is best specialising in a skill or industry you enjoy and love but can also profit from it. Something that can land you a good middle class jobs and has further career options. Heaps of people absolutely loves sports like football/soccer, video games, Martial arts, youtube etc but you are normally competing against everyone in the whole world and only a tiny% of the elite can make a living from it in certain industries.
It is SO weird that someone has felt the same experience I did growing up. My childhood was surrounded by video games, TV, and playing around in school. When middle school was over, I found out my crush was planning on applying to this high school magnet program that apparently had lots of Asians. So my 8th-grade self made the decision to apply there and I got in. My life changed after I entered that high school. I was living in a new world. My peers were not only ambitious and hardworking - they were incredibly talented. Presidential Scholars, competing in international competitions and other insane feats. When I was a sophomore, the realization dawned upon me that I was not the smart kid my mom said I was. No - I was leagues asunder everyone. Whether it was presentation skills, making novel critiques against arguments, being articulate in speech, or just flat out being a faster learner: they were always on top. I found out I would have to study 3-4x as hard as my peers just to keep up with the content. I was struggling. And now I have to say that I'm not really satisfied with your solution mindset of "damn I can't be that far off." Because what if you are actually very far off? What if you found out you have severe cognitive impairments like a working memory that is faulty even against middle schoolers? What does it actually mean: could we provide a description or qualitative evaluation as to how far off an individual can be before we realize their life truly does have some terrible, harsh disadvantages? Telling an individual who has severe limitations or impairments that they should just try harder, I think, wouldn't be great. In a way, we make them feel responsible for something they have no control over (and this is an enduring criticism of the growth mindset). It just doesn't account for innate talent or acknowledge it enough. I, as an individual, have a working memory that is below what is normal. And I know because my memory affects every aspect of my life - my relationships, school performance, self-esteem, my job, everything. I have lived and experienced my frustration.. I understand that, to some people, I may come across as idolizing intelligence. That is something I am also considering. Intelligence isn't what I should value. What I should value are principles of being a moral and good human being. But that response still doesn't really feel relieving. It feels more like a superficial band-aid of "hey bro just don't think about it." I intend not to come across as rude in my comment. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts regarding innate intelligence.. such a depressing topic.
i feel you on the working memory stuff, it makes me feel like i'm actually cognitively impaired.... and like you say, it affects every single thing i do, including just holding a conversation. i don't know what the solution is ...
I feel your pain bro. l also was told l was smart when l was a kid, but in uni realized that wasn’t true. I struggle with basic concepts all the time, and as l age memory and brain power slowly get worse. I try mental exercises to keep up but man, it’s so hard sometimes, and you can’t feel any payback.
Same, my memory is failing me and affecting my daily life and relationships whether family or friends. I want to get my brain scanned but i need to get a job first to have the money
Yeah even I had this problem of thinking myself as smart. When I was learning to code, everyday I would try to solve coding problems in the evening, and whenever I would solve one I would say out loud in my brain "Oh.. I am smart" and after that I would approach another coding problem and whenever I would get stuck. I would curse myself l. After looping through this a lot of times. I realized that I am not smart it was just hard work and constant learnings, that were paying the off.
1. Would your past self be happy with your future self if they saw that you were making the exact same mistakes? 2. Nothing changes in life unless you make the change. 3. Anything you want if it's something worth achieving is going to take time, pain and effort. 4. Improvement in life is all about slow incremental change.
Thank you for sharing! Very humbling. I come from a similar circumstance and my parents had given me the same advice. I realized in high school I wasn't the smartest and that I needed to put in more hours/effort to achieve the same results as my peers. This still applies now that I'm 30 when I set my goals with self-learning and in my career. Having a GRWOTH MINDSET is pivotal in life + be consistent with how you're investing in yourself!
Brilliant! It’s taken me all my life to figure this out, so you are way ahead of the game. You have to be honest with yourself and do the best you can with what you have. Being smart, or handsome or rich or whatever is not going to get you where you want in life. Effort, dedication and patience and discipline will. I predict you’ll do a hell of a lot better than most people in life because they haven’t understood the simple truths about life.
Thanks for the video Kevin. I do realize that realizing I’m not smart drives me to work harder as it tells me I’m not entitled to anything in life. Kudos 💪
I was one of those 'gifted' kids who always did well in tests and was very naturally academic. I just seemed to have a knack for school - especially written work or humanitarian subjects. Through my entire school life I could put minimal effort into my exams and get really good grades, but this was to my detriment in the end because I didn't develop any work ethic. I never had to try and so I didn't. When it got to uni and everything was suddenly 10x harder, I felt out of my depth. I saw my friends getting firsts in their essays every single time and wondered why I wasn't getting the same grades when I was great during high school and college. When I actually had a conversation with the best girl in the whole course about her work, she explained how in primary and high school she was the bottom of the class and so she had to work super hard to get her final grades. She would spend weeks on a single essay, perfecting it over and over again to get it just right, having multiple meetings with tutors for extra advice. She worked super hard to get where she was, and I was barely scraping by because I was putting no effort in. Having to push yourself at a young age really does teach you how to work hard. It sounds silly but I still kinda struggle with this. Thankfully I'm not in school anymore.
Just wanted to say thanks for putting out all this content. I relate to a lot of your problems and I find a lot of comfort in watching your videos! I always feel super dumb when I don’t get a concepts when others get it faster than me but I’ll never give up!! Thanks KC 🙏🏻🙏🏻
10 years ago, when I was in art college, I was crushing it in every class, especially in human sciences. Now today, I'm taking a simple course in programming, where the road has been bumpy. A lot of my classmates are getting concepts much faster than I do. It was really disheartening to fail classes after repeatedly hearing people around me say how "smart" I am. What I realized is that, it's not about how smart I am, it's about how I try to understand things. My brain is not trained to do abstract thinking, and it's really hard to make it do so anyway. So yeah, we don't often know where our brain's strengths lie until we give different things a try.
Yah never know, those kids in your class with you could have prior programming knowledge. I’ve been programming for years and if I took a class at this point I’d be way ahead, so I’d probably look really “smart” when really I just know a bit more and have an advantage. I think some people truly do pick stuff up faster, but you never know how ahead someone already is :) Blessings to you. Becoming a developer is hard !
One of the more interesting moments in my life was when it really clicked that nobody really knows how much they don't know. You cannot know how much you don't know, which is a very interesting mindset to have because it just makes learning things feel really rewarding because the more you know, the more options you have.
I know that feeling. When I was young I was in a really good school, so when I went to high school I meet people who were from not so good schools and I was doing really good with nearly no effort and one of the teachers once told my mother that I am lazy and I throw all my work on the fact that I thought I am smart and when it was the time to do the official exams I was confident that I will do good because my school marks were good so I wasted so much time and when the marks were out many of the people that I thought I was smart than turned out to have better marks than me I was shocked then and it was the time I understood that I am not that smart I just had an unfair advantage for some time and I had to work harder to stay at the top so when I went to university I started to study day by day and I put way more effort than before and my marks were good this time even though I was not the best at the class but I was happy because I know I deserved every good mark I got.
I was never a quick learner, but when I first got to college as a full time student, it was a breeze and I never had to work too hard. I made the deans list the first 2 years, worked full time and had a social life. When I got deeper into my major (aerospace engineering), I tried to keep applying the same methods and I never adapted to the fact that I had to study harder than I started off. I can relate to this video, because I would see other students breezing through information that I needed more time to digest when I got home.
It's a strange thing, how people seem to love it so much more to get complimented on their intelligence, rather than on their hard work. It's weird, intelligence is to a large part just a perk you got for free, like a big mole or a short nose, but results of hard work are actually real achievements....
And the exact reason you then tell them as the receiver of the compliment: It's not because of intelligence, but hard work that they can and should put in as well!
but intelligent people once they get to know that they are smart double down on their potential with working hard. imagine this. if i get 100/100 on math, by just reading the book a week before the exam, and if it is something that takes almost avg energy(effort), and gets you 4 times the ego boost or dopamine hit then you'd want nothing but that even more in your life. some of the high iq friends of mine work more than 9 hours a day because that makes them tons of money and tons of money makes them super happy and boosts their social dominance and status.
It’s because as an intelligent individual, you have a naturally higher potential which is precious and rare. Hard-work can be learned, intelligence can’t
that wanting so much of the job but still procrastinating till the last minute to prepare is so relatable. Thx for the tips, I have been thinking that I am the 'smarter' one since a very young age however every time I wanted to achieve something I did dedicated a lot
Honestly, I wish more people were humble. No one is truly smart, what makes us "smart" is hard-work and constant studying. If you are dedicated to something, you will succeed. Many of us who have gone through great high schools and universities realize/realise this. Especially at the University level, things get very competitive if you are studying at a top 20-25 Engineering/STEM school.
Actually wrong, there are people born so smart they pick up a math book and in a few months famous mathematicians fly over to get them in university at age 10. But anybody can increase their intelligence, it’s all about daily training your brain challenge it
Yeah this is wrong. Some people can learn faster, learn higher level concepts and at greater levels of abstraction. Others do not have the same capabilities. IQ is quite a robustly studied topic. However, someone who learns 4x as fast and only studied a topic 10 hours can still be definitely outdone by someone learning at 1x who studies 100 hours. But intelligence is still absolutely at different levels. In my accounting classes for instance I was tutoring other students while having not studied the material at all. I only showed up and listened in class. This was true for almost all of college. I rarely studied, only enough to be sure I understood the topics and had all the details right, often the night before the test, and yet others struggled greatly. I am no better of a human for having been born with gifts others do not possess as much of, and there are others with more than me. I am thankful for these gifts. I have not earned it, and even fall short of being worthy of it, because as a result of things being easier, I am lazier. I don’t have the same work ethic and discipline, which I admire and want to improve
3 minutes into the video and you're describing my life. Im in med school and all my friends are so smart and blessed with a higher level of intelligence it has become embarrassing for me to be around them. Sometimes I can't even understand what they're talking about so i just nod and hope they'll stop soon. I probably have imposter syndrome by now and my self esteem is shattered. Most of the time i feel like people are asking how I'm doing and hangout with me just to feel better about themselves. It wasn't always like this. I used to be a topper in my primary school and an average student in my highschool.I know the problem probably lies in my will and study discipline yet i haven't managed to climb out of that hole. Thank you for the video it makes me feel like im not alone in this and maybe there's still hope
i feel you...i am in dental school.. i felt into the rabbit hole of sadness because i simply don t feel smart enough..and i don t want praises like "no,you are. .." i just want to accept it for once and for all no matter how smart or how stupid i want to be fine with it and not interfere with my will..to study..i don t feel i am worthy of school..i don t have bad grades i think what i would want to be is the problem but i can t change it for now..
Never thought I was smart. Always assumed everyone is smarter than me. I realized I had to work hard to understand things others seemed to grasp quite easily. I thought I had to study really hard to catch up to them. Didn't realize it then, but over time my heavy study was building up deep intellectual capital, while they were just coasting along skimming off the top. Eventually paid off, to my utter surprise. When I finally looked up one day, I was the master of the field, hailed as a genius, and everyone was hunting me down. It was bewildering. All along I thought I was just a dumb-ass who had to put in hard work to catch up to everyone else, and didn't realize that I had lapped them several times over in the process. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I have long stopped referring to people as "smart", and expelled that word from my vocabulary. What matters for excellence is whether you work hard or you don't. I treat those presented as "smart" or having "natural talent" with skepticism and suspicion.
I believe this is very useful not just for people who "aren't smart", but everyone. Because probably, even if you were the smartest person on the planet, taking work seriously would improve your results.
This is so relatable. All throughout engineering school, I felt intellectually inferior to many of my peers. I had to study harder than them and for longer. I didn't have much free time and when I did, I procrastinated it away because I was so tired from studying/doing assignments that I just wanted to relax. I managed to get pretty decent marks, but the issue is that I don't feel knowledgeable in the subject matter, and since I basically just study to do well in assessments, I can't remember much after the final exam. Now that I've graduated, I still don't feel confident enough that I can work in my field competently. And it has lead to me pivoting my career choice
I think if this careerfield is what you really want I think you could still try becaus I don't think everybody remembers everything after they graduate and I think if you work in a job you will learn al lot of the things you need to know for this job learning doesn't stop after collage everybody continiues to learn and you will probably not need everything you've learnd in Collage most people learn the important in their job some things can't be studied you have to experience them I'm not saying that it's a sure thing that you would have success but it's also not sure that it would be a Desaster and I think you could still go into this careerfield I think way more people relate to you than you think who are succesfull Plus theres a Chance that you underestimate your Potential and what you are capable of doing :)
Wow.. I've never related so much to a 5 minutes video before.. I am a lazy person, I've always think that I'm smarter than others and I don't need anyone's advices. Meeting people that are smarter than me doesn't help much due to my mind that keep on making excuses. thank you soo much for sharing. It really means a lot to me. I'm at 11th grade and currently is preparing for my overseas study. This video just enlighten me and now I know what to do to maximize my preparation.
An important note for people on the higher end is to be understanding when someone does not get something as quick as you do. Their brain could have simply just not had the same click as yours when you finally began to understand something.
This video is pretty much explaining the Dunning-Kruger effect. Nice! I think this video is a good life lesson. I would like to say that while one might not be "smart," that hard work and dedication you talked about usually ends with you have a wealth of information and experience to pull from. In most cases, I would say that it is better than being "smart."
OMG! I had the same problem. I had friends who were like “I didn’t prepare for the midterm, but I got full”. I hated such people, because they make midterm look easier for me
Just what I needed to hear. I think I was on the brim of falling into a similar mind set. Realizing that we are not geniuses is the smartest thing one can do.
The reverse was true for me. Kids and sometimes even teachers would say how I'm not smart and how I work hard, teachers as a compliment, but kids out of jealousy; it created an insecurity that I'm not smart at all and it made me lazy and try to do things with minimal effort to prove to myself I have decent intelligence; it worked in high school but now I'm struggling in university
Same! How do u plan on moving on? For me, my entire life I was called stupid by teachers, kids, parents, family. My mom told me I was a mutation in the family. Even if I work very hard to get good scores, I am always reminded that I needed to work way harder than everyone else and how it's just luck. I've reached a point where I have given up, but I want to get back to how I was before. I just don't know the steps towards that :(
@@cookiecookielookies Wow, it's nice that we're connecting with similar stories. I'm working with a psychologist through some perfectionism modules and trying to heal childhood trauma. It's so hard to get out of because working hard often feels like falling back into that insecurity of needing to work hard. I can send you the modules if you'd like?
Hi, thanks for the reply! You're so kind! My comments are not going through for some reason but my e mail is wendywuhomecomingwarrior@gmail.com .We can talk through there :)
This hits home big time. I just joined one of the top 3 B schools in the country this summer and I am starting to realise that I have been living with the same mindset. On my way to accept that I may in fact be average without it having to diminish my self image. I need to know that I have to put in the hours to match what my peers can do effortlessly. Growing up with a fair bit of natural intuition I kept being told I was smart, and I think that internalised in all the wrong ways.
This is such good advice that I wish I had learned sooner. I actually am smart, I was that kid in school that never studied and got A's on tests. But I also have severe ADHD and with it some pretty big cognitive deficits. When I got into college I flunked out because I had never taken the time to address my deficits. It took me from 18-28 to finish my undergraduate. But after I was done I got an interview at a top tech consulting firm and spent nearly 200 hours in 2 weeks studying to do as best I could on the interview. And I got the job. Humility goes a long way. I'm sure there are many other folks like me who have aptitude in certain areas and not in others. Humbling yourself and putting in the work is the only way. This is the first video I've seen of yours and it really struck a chord. You've earned my sub.
Question---> Can you visualize an apple 🍎 in your minds eye? How much detail do you see? Can you see elaborate color variations in the skin, or its textured pores? Is it wet, does it have a stem? Where is the apple, by itself, or in a bowl, on a table, in a sculptures hand, etc? Or... do you only see 👀 black ⚫️ space and the apple is just an idea 💡like something from a list, but not physically visible in your mind's eye? I ask because only seeing black is called aphantasia, and makes learning complex "imaginative" topics like physics almost impossible. People have varying degrees of imagination, for instance you might see... Just black or darkness. A foggy outline of an apple. A solid 🍎 like this emoji with no texture. A detailed apple with moist skin in a fruit bowl with other different fruits. Maybe it's on a table or on a kitchen counter. A man standing on the back of a horse 🐎 , riding through a forest full of other wildlife, who is balancing a teetering apple on his head like a circus performer. Then an archer 🏹 shoots an arrow through the apple 🍎 and it explodes into a thousand multi-colored pieces while also exposing its moist white center. The latter is hyperphantasia, or overly imaginative. But if you have trouble learning "imaginative" topics, various visualization exercises may be something worth exploring 🤔.
@@KentoCommenT 😄 I saw a planet sized 🍎 being closely orbited in space...like a giant apple 🍎 deathstar scene. It was a collaboration between George Lucas and Michael Bay and it was aiming to keep the Dr. away... from the planet.
Excellent video. This was one of my biggest problems in life-people continually telling me when I was younger that I was "really smart". I achieved high school honors with relatively low study but then I entered into engineering and got my butt kicked. This is what I now want to impress upon my children-life is hard work and if you want to be successful you better be prepared to work for it. Part of the problem here in North America is that the school system aids and abets this mentality. I work with one of the best interventional radiology physicians in the world and he was told he wasn't smart enough to go into that field. His life proves determination trumps smarts pretty much every time. And the smartest thing one can learn and be taught in their younger years-organize your time and be disciplined. We all have the same time in a day-my successful friends made those hours count.
When you gonna give us a discord channel my dude ?! Watching your videos ,legit makes me feel so much better about my computer science degree and i can relate with all that you went through my dude. Keep the content coming !
My perspective totally shifted when I realized that there are no chapters in life. I was counting on my "future self" to do certain things that I can't stand doing now. But there is no "future self," I realized. If I don't do the thing while it's on my mind, it simply won't get done.
I can definitely relate to this. At first it's hard to accept that maybe you're smarter than average but you're not a genius, but it's suuuper healthy. Good for the ego, you go easier on yourself, you work harder, you listen better and you learn more. You stop thinking you know everything straight away (somewhat)
Being tested as actually a bit smart, I can confirm that grasping a concept within 20 minutes is impossible. I have many classmates who also go to the ivies, and they don't do that either. People with average intelligence usually depict smart people as 'godlike' creatures who could do impossible things... no we don't. We are just a bit faster. You have the feeling that we only study 20 minutes before tests and still get a perfect score only because you don't see us listening in class. Most smart people have a longer concentration span, meaning that we can actually focus our minds longer. When your minds wonder off in god knows where during classes, we are actually absorbing ideas like a sponge. Reading a book later becomes a review which is really simple for everyone not just smart people. However, for those wonderers, reading books later is actually a process of learning new stuff. Of course that's gonna be slower! The bottom line is, anyone who seems like they don't break a sweat doing something is a lie. They work more efficient and harder under the hood. Not so smart people may not get a Nobel Prize, but it doesn't mean the NP winners don't even try.
I'm guilty of this and it takes reminding myself everyday. I got interested in maths recently (from the proof 'higher level' side) and am in a group with these other mostly self taught mathematicians. When I see them talking casually about advanced topics it is truly a sight to behold and I've never met them so I have this vision in my head that they are gods, and here I am on some book called 'Basic Mathematics' struggling with simple geometry proofs thinking 'they would never have struggled like this, they would have just read this and got the proof' and it's silly, on a rational level I know (and they've told me) that the struggle is literally HOW you get this stuff. Still, knowing all this I have to actively encourage myself, in maths everybody struggles
@@Bambotb yes ! Look at it this way, the problem is not understanding the concept, cause yeah that can be done in a short amount of time, BUT math and physics ( and relate topics ) need practise, a lot of it to be able to solve the real questions they give you in exams, often they start young so when it's time with more difficult lessons they are more accustomed. Also bear in mind that everyone has materials where it's easier than others, for instance, you can be very good in art / history / French... and really study them last minute, but need more time with biology / physics, which is okay, everyone has strength and weaknesses.
@@Bambotb ye cause Asian parents hate competition with other students, so we hide everything we study, but in reality we all knew that everyone else studied immensely.
I realized this when I entered medschool. Really smacked me on my face. I thought I was smart in undergrad because I got As, but the truth is, I just worker harder than the average. I kept lying myself that I was smart so I don't feel imposter syndrome. But once entering medschool, my grade failed. Hard work dedication wasn't enough for surviving medschool. I accepted that I'm really not smart.. So I had to really learn how I approached studying. Had to learn smarter because it didn't come naturally to me. I'm in the process of learning that right now, as I have to retake next semester for failing.. It's really ok to accept yourself the truth. it was a hard pill to swallow but trying to believe in yourself and lying to yourself doesn't always go so far, especially in hard fields which really strips you of your shell and tests you on how you truly can cope
Good points, and I want to add two things: It's only natural that you, and everyone wants to get the work done with minimal possible efforts, but the dangerous thing to be aware of here is a delusion that you're doing enough. And maybe one should think of being smart, but work hard, otherwise you may end up thinking that something is "too big for me, because I'm not so smart"
Great Video KC, I'm also living in the I'm smart mindset and I always looked to the majority of advices as a worthless monologue. I got inspired from this video to consider myself as not smart as I assuming, and I will start looking around and evaluate advices, and set up a process to achieve my goals Thanks
i had a similar experience. my freshman year high school history teacher tried to tell us to think like yoda from star wars, "do or do not, there is no try". have an internal locus of control and do not worry whether you're smart enough to achieve a goal, just be disciplined and keep trying, even if you initially fail. i always knew i didn't have that mindset. it took me almost ten years to stop comparing myself to others and think like yoda, and it changed my life. i wish i had a lot earlier.
I'm the same as you. Working harder has always been the way for me to keep up. I just recently found the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that has helped me how to get better at those things I'm wanting to excel in. There's a free audio book on RUclips. I too would think I could study at the last minute for interviews, but when I did I would find more things I should study and the rabbit hole would just deepen.
This seems to revolve more so around IQ than anything. Intelligence as you outlined, is a rather broad term. Whereas IQ simply refers to one's ability to pick up on and understand concepts quickly. Someone with a high IQ can be a blithering idiot, and likewise someone with a lower IQ (within reason) can be clever. Intelligence in summary is a combination of what you know(applicable to anyone), and your ability to pick up on and apply things (genetic and learnt). You can learn to learn, but you are limited by the processing power of the computer upstairs, and it can take longer as well as a lot more effort to memorise text from a course or something of a similar nature. I'm 17 and won't be finishing my A-Levels, I found school vexing and tiresome (mind you, out of boredom) despite doing Computer Science, Applied Law and Business. I felt neutral about getting high grades because I literally never revised. I'm currently working at a company as a Cyber Security Apprentice, in the following years hoping to be a Consultant in that field and wish to do a variety of things in life such as Real Estate and to pursue Civil Law. It tends to be the case that people are transfixed with the idea that they are the main character in their own story (subconscious, rarely consciously thinking about it), and as such believe they are capable and deserving of the best things in life. Whilst we all need aspirations, which are a good thing, it is good to be realistic as well. I wish to enter politics and offer an alternate view despite the barbaric environment it is, but know I realistically will never make it beyond an MP (IF THAT!!). I'm realistic and base my thoughts on fact, whereas in politics no matter how much I may want to get into it, has become more a self-serving joke getting into power through filtered lies. Don't set yourself up for failure because you pursue someone else's career, be the best you that YOU can be. And that's a good enough legacy for me. Doubt anyone read that but have a good day
Yeah, your 'smart' friends had probably been coached by their 'smart' parents via the social environment they constantly provided for them. Reading, writing and speaking in a native language is a phenomenal achievement that most kids around the world achieve around the age of five, given the opportunity.
@@Tom-dn6zy Learning languages isn't just memorization but also requires grammar and the ability to read between the lines. There is a critical period for children to learn a native language.
Holy shit, I'm 26 and you talking about your experience helped me realize (one of) the reason why I did so poorly in highschool... My entire friend group was filled with incredibly smart guys, one of whom became the valedictorian! And they literally would spend maybe a few hours studying for exams, when in reality I should've spent a few days preparing for them. Of course, going through uni I intentionally improved my studying/working habits, but it just dawned on me why my highschool academics were so mid
When i was in middle school i was the kid who studies everyday and always gets the best result and memorises everything right after the lesson. My friends told me that im not so smart but harworking. This irritated me. Then i went to a high school which accepts successful students like me. I didnt focus on my classes and i stopped working regularly. Then, i saw that i was able to get good grades with a short term and fast studying right before the exam. My friends told me that im smart. I liked it. But as the time passes by, the exam for getting into a college got closer. At my last year i struggled a lot because of my forgotten study behavior and my “im smart” ego. Success isn’t a thing you can reach without efforting. And most of the people are smart enough to success. The factor defines it is hardworking and willpower. Also i compared myself to my friends a lot and it made me lose my hope. Everyone’s life is different and ours is special for us. Even the person you admire has problems. Its not bad to struggle or make mistakes. Everyone loses and wins. It took a time for me to learn that. Being smart is knowing that you have to work hard for what you want. Not being easygoing like me. Or not being the first in everything. Now i have 48 days to the college exam and i am not good enough to get into somewhere i want. I guess i will have to study one more year for it. I made a lot of mistakes this year but also i learned a lot. I wont give up on my dreams. Now, i try to focus on working hard everyday for my dreams. Dont matter if i reach them after 48 days or after a year.
Its an exhausting realization that you have to work 10x as hard to do as well as your peers. Doesn't discourage me because I want to do well but I wish I could grasp concepts as easily as they do and think as fast as they can.
Appreciate the advice Kevin, when you described your past self, I feel like I'm at that point in my life right now. If I truly want to achieve my goals, I have to change my approach to studying and be more disciplined overall. Glad this video popped up into my feed because I just finished taking my CS final but I think I bombed it haha. Anyways, love the advice, not only is it applicable in a career aspect, but life in general too. p.s: drop the arm routine bro, your arms are massive lol
Feels like my brain and my mind are different entities fighting each other. I (my mind) know my schoolwork takes effort, but my brain just keeps pulling me away from what I need to do. Having ADHD probably makes this worse but my medication isn’t as helpful as I wish it was
Realizing it definitely changed my life as well, but I realized it a little differently. I was always treated as the smart one, always one of the best in whatever I did especially if it pertained to mathematics. It got to the point where I was sick of being called smart because I felt like people were undermining the effort I put into it. I would often be in a position where I could help others, something I was really passionate about, but anytime I tried to encourage someone one of the most common replies were "yeah, but you're smart" Yes, it's possible I may have spent less time grasping some concepts, but I understood how to grasp those concepts quickly which is something I had to learn. No one is superior to others. Nearly every "smart" person understands this, which is why hearing someone say "I'm smart" or "they're smart" is often meaningless. Einstein put in the work and had help from peers, yet he often gets reduced to some anomaly.
@@jake9854 only because I've learned how. If doing things with little study is your goal, all you need to know is how to recognize what will be tested/required and, if it isn't intuitive for you, learn how to memorize small amounts quickly and efficiently But I wouldn't recommend this as it's not sustainable, it's best to learn good study practices. This takes time and effort. "Smart people" typically fall into one of these categories, the first of which only appears smart but is one of the stupidest things you can do if you want to learn, while the second is quite literally putting in the effort that anyone is a secure position is capable of
I really like the video and the message you’re putting out there. I just wanted to contribute what might be an alternate view: You’re absolutely right, being smart is subjective. I think there’s an even greater degree of subjectivity then we might assume. Growing up for example, I had a lot of friends who were drawing just as well as some really famous comic book artists by the time they were 15. I’m sure if you put a handful of those kids in any art school, most of them would have done really well. You put them in a STEM focused program, and I would only know a couple of them who would do well in that type of environment. If you’re a student in the former, art focused program. they would be seen as achievers, and in the more science and math oriented program, they would be the struggling kids. But why? Because most of these kids probably spent the vast majority of their childhoods drawing, painting, and otherwise trying to visually copy the things that they genuinely enjoyed. So by the time they’re 15, they’re already journeymen at their craft. Likewise, it could be that a lot of your friends growing up that you saw as being “smarter than you“ were exposed to a bunch of opportunities to improve those skills early on in life so that they became more second nature by the time high school and college roll around. That’s not to say that certain people don’t have an affinity for one thing or another, I just think we often discount the amount of hours that someone puts into honing things, and that it doesn’t always have to feel like work, for some people, doing a certain degree of math feels like play. Thanks for making a video to share your perspective on this, I do think there’s a lot of validity here, I just wanted to throw another viewpoint out there. Either way, determination beats natural talent any day of the week in most cases
I agree, especially in topics that it's proven they need LOADS of practise like math, and physics ! Understanding the concept is not the issue, the hard part is being able to solve every possible related variant to that subject, and that is not something that can be done in 20 minutes, I've seen this a lot. With that being said, there are many studies showing that people have different kind of intelligence, however, the current education systems are too rigid to help kids discover their own path, thus, continue creating generations of confused students thinking they are extremely smart/ or stupid ! Which is sad if you ask me.
@@hibaimene9684 This was very well put, I 100% agree with you! We forget the different minds are better at different things because we don’t come to schools with is the exact same types of experience in the same measure. Different people filter different topics mentally in different ways, and we need far more multimodal education practices. So people actually have a shot at figuring out what their path might look like.
Really insightful comment - It's the hidden work that has occurred in the background, possibly during early life, that must play a very large role in their future performances in academia and their work.
It’s crazy that the algorithm suggested this video to me, this describes me to a T. Similar background, similar advice from my dad, same mindset growing up. Thanks for the message 🙏🏽
I was told that I am smart. I always tell them, I am not smart. I don't know everything, and then I continue on learning and working hard to better myself than try to be better than everyone else. I decided to improve myself for me, and not for others. I know that even if you are older, you are still learning.
This is interesting, I kind of have the opposite situation going on where my Dad was the same way and I believed him and I knew I wasn't smart but people would tell me I was and till this day it leaves me confused. People still think I'm really smart...I think I'm pretty stupid because somethings I struggle hopelessly at time but I hate to quit so I've become somewhat of a masochistic learner and will put myself through migraines and anger fits to make sure I'm not stupid when it comes to something I really want to achieve. I had ADHD growing up and I'm properly medicated as an adult but I think having learning disabilities is a super power if your able to get them handled. I still study like I have ADHD, looking forward to seeing how that pays off in my medicated life. EDIT: Double edged sword, I got the cert I was studying for but then had a nervous breakdown 2 days after the test that put me out of work for 2 weeks. Consequences, consequences.
i recommend you go really easy on the meds, as someone who’s started as an adult in similar circumstances i wish i knew how bad non medicated days could be and should have taken absolutely minimum dose it takes to help for as long as possible. tolerance builds up and meds become easier than any of the natural skills you’ve acquired to focus and train yourself with. like any skills they need to be honed and practiced too, taking regular breaks from meds ensures you keep them maintained and prevent yourself from getting totally dependent on strong medication and forgetting all your coping skills =)
adhd smart ppl strugges. and medicating adhd doesnt make it go away it just lessens the symptoms you can still use other tool sto help you, bbut seriously sometimes its nice to just understand things easily when your in a pinch and need stuf figured outf ast
Feeling the need to work harder and longer is not always the solution. I am currently on my bachelor year second semester. The first semester i only worked about 3-8 hours every day Monday-Friday and then i had the weekend off. At the end of the semester i realized that this was not good enough because i had to work overtime the last weeks just to clutch the assignments. This semester I knew i needed to work harder to succeed. I was now working atleast 8 hours every day 7 days a week. This worked for some weeks but it got harder and harder to consentrate. I still felt like i was not working hard enough, long enough, like i was not pushing myself enough no matter if i worked 6, 8 or 12 hours i still felt like i could have done more or that my focus was not good enough, i deleted every social media every game cut of almost every constact with everyone. I was now either working or beating my self up for not working, even when sleeping eating or going to the toilet i felt like i was wasting my time. I developed depression starting having anxiety and panlc attacks. I enjoy life less and less every day. I now take like 3 naps a day. Everything distracts me because even staring at a white wall is more fun compared to school. What makes it worse is that this is something i really used to be passionate about. This has been a dream of mine since i was a kid and it has now become my worst nightmare. It is making me yearn for death to set me free. Luckily there is only 3 days left until the deadline for the last assignment. And i will be free. Atleast for a short while until I have to redo my failed assignments and hell starts over again.
The smartest thing you can think is that you aren't smart. Steve Martin maybe the greatest comedian of all time said that he may not be smarter than other comedians but he was willing to work harder than them, and yet he has the achievements those others could only wish for. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. *Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.* Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” ― Calvin Coolidge
Well, if you don't know how smart/intelligent you are, take a serious IQ test, then assess your rate of learning compared to others. Just from those two parameters you can figure out where you are in terms of intelligence.
I was one of those kids who could study for 20-30 minutes in high school before a maths exam, and still be at the top of the class. But I would say that speaks more for high school level math, compared to university level math, rather than my "intelligence". In my second year in high school, I would sit at the back of the class having fun with my colleagues. The math teacher would ignore us most of the time, but when we made too much noise, he would come angrily to us, and as punishment, would make one of us come to the board to solve a "hard" problem. When it was me, I would usually glance once at the problem, and then a solution would pop up, and to his astonishment, I would solve it immediately even though I was barely paying attention. In my third and final year, I had this teacher who would bring me special math problems during class, while the rest of the class was solving the standard high-school level problems. He noticed that I was getting bored after finishing all those exercises quickly. A few times, I stumbled upon innovative solutions, and he wrote them down because he wanted to "show them to the other classes and to the next generations", as he said. But that was high school. University was a different story. As other commenters wrote, sometimes when you think you're too smart, you can get used to being lazy, and it's hard to develop the habits of dedication and hard work, which you definitely need to accomplish anything significant in life. Eventually, I met people who were even smarter than I was, and though it took me a long time (and one or two identity crises), I learned to be humble and to appreciate hard work and dedication to a goal as great values, and also to focus on the results and to let them speak for themselves, instead of bragging about my IQ or "intelligence".
People see intelligence as static, but it’s dependent on many factors including upkeep. Like any muscle if you don’t use it you loose it. Regular exercise, good nutrition, good deep sleep are all key for an well functioning brain. Challenge the brain until it start to hurt a little let it rest with sleep and challenge it again. Exactly like lifting weights
This is why I hate all of those people that say that they're "gifted but lazy" because that is such a cop-out. They want to have the satisfaction that the reason they didn't succeed in spite of their genius was simply that they chose not to.
@@clumsyroad4026 it's wrong because it downplays the effort other people put in to succeed, and god forbid if the people who put in effort don't succeed perfectly. They make fun of them as they "could" hypothetically do incredibly better if they put just half the effort. Not that they have any proof of that but they make others feel like they wasted their time.
@@una9133 OMGGGG I've been surrounded by those ppl my whole life!!! I got a 1400 on my practice SAT (old score) and ended with a 2050 on the real thing. My cousins started with a 1800 and only got a 1900s in the real thing. They said I have to work so much harder than them and I got lucky. They still call me stupid and my mom called me a mutation in the family. I can't deny that they are smarter than me, and this has been very hard in my life. How do I not get bothered by what they said? I'm glad I saw ur comment bc that is exactly how those ppl think
I luckily developed study habits early in elementary school that helped me study better when it came to my high school and college life. I could pass exams and assignments without studying but putting in the effort makes a huge difference.
Yeah, I'm smart. Since I'm dyslexic and because of my age and location I grew up in, IQ tests were part of my childhood. I had several, and they were all pretty close to the same. In the type of test I was given, I wouldn't be considered a genius (Extremely High) but instead "superior," which would keep me out of Mensa, but who cares. Being smart is nice, and for sure, when it comes to conceptual understanding of abstract concepts and problem solving, I'm good. The two most important things that I have learned about what it means to be significantly above average but not in the top couple of the percent is that hard work matters more than intelligence most of the time and a couple of percent difference between me and a genius can be noticeable in somewhat extreme ways in the proper contexts. Still, the world is designed to be operated by ordinary people. So normal people who work hard can beat more intelligent people consistently in all but a few specialized disciplines.
Smart and intelligence are two different things to me. Smart is knowledge (What you learn throughout schooling) while Intelligence is more innate (You're born with). You can be smart, but not intelligent. You can be intelligent, but not smart.
@@friedstein4289 sure. I could except those definitions. I have raw computational and abstract thinking power. I could that with a significant amount of education and many certifications.
Good call ! I work in software - the most dangerous person on the team is the one who thinks he/she is smarter than they actually are - they are the one who will take a piece of work away confident that they can do it, won't take advice, won't let anyone else see what they are doing, will continue to tell you that everything is under control - right up to the last minute when they will have a nervous breakdown and you will miss your deadline. Recognising your own capabilities and knowing when to take advice or reach out for help makes you a much stronger and more useful team member.
My problem was a little bit opposite: Imposter Syndrome. Feeling like I need to learn more and more tech and THEORY set me back so hard. I grew depressed and procrastinated and fucked up. I am currently on a road of desperation and your stories have helped me a lot (made me feel not alone) and I'm happy to see you successful. Now I know you really just go for it and you learn on the job for the most part.
"I'm smart but I can become smarter" is the better mindset. I'm not talking about fluid intelligence, I'm talking about crystallized intelligence. With more crystallized intelligence, you will be able to finish tasks at a faster rate. You have :realized something but it's just the tip of the iceberg, nevertheless you're on the right track.
I grew up being smart but at some point to need to add effort in order to succeed, and I also thought I was going to become a hard worker magically, but then I realized that no, you have to actively sacrifice yourself.
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
Alternate title of the video: My boomer dad was right
LOL this is amazing
xD
@@CreatedByKC yea but that's what smart is. How fast you can learn something if you try. Why would I want to spend 500 hours to learn something that some genius learns in 1 hour. Coding is legit chinese to me. I would have to study it for 1000s of hours to learn.
@@germ4613 coding is pretty simple if you are not breaking the limits. However some people learn to code and they quit because It's not for them simply
Sounds like a dad
I joined MIT as a grad student last year and I was humbled realllllly quickly by how everyone is just simply much smarter than I am. I realized that I fall into the same bucket you described and the only way I was able to join and graduate is by working 10x harder than whatever load is required for a course/project
Only that you wouldn't have made it to MIT if you weren't smart.
I'm also like this, I joined computer science 3 years ago and made the mistake of doing things the same way as my much smarter friends. I failed for a while before I could adapt.
Yeah, and if I were working only 3x harder then I would naturally think that you were just simply smarter than I, when all I had to do was work 7x more harder. No one sees the work people put in and just assume that it come effortlessly to those who appear to excel in class. Same as when one thinks: "screw putting my hand up to ask the teacher to repeat what he just taught, cause I did not understand it, because no one else is putting their hand up". The fact is, no one bloody understood but ego gets in the way, as you don't want to look like the dumb kid.
At least you got into MIT. Many of us wouldn't. Anyhow, when I was younger I used to resent not being as smart as others. But as I grew older I realized two fundamental truths. There will always be somebody smarter, prettier, more talented than you are. It's called evolution...that's the nature of the universe. In any event, I also came to appreciate that what ever our skill set or level of cleverness, human beings are more like a hive creature than anything else in nature. We collectively create probably the most successful organism if not in the entire universe, pretty close to it. We each benefit from the brilliance and cleverness of many millions of other humans. We don't have to go out each day and hunt or scavenge for food like every other creature on earth. And everything we enjoy and take for granted from the iPhone to electricity, to the internet was created by many millions of smart people. Why resent that? So the most important thing we can do as humans is give back, not only to human kind, but also to Planet Earth. We are all part of the ecosystem and if we don't take care of it, it won't take care of us.
Clear thought is more important than pure intelligence. Obviously the combination of the two is really optimal but if i had to choose clear in thought would be better overall
When complimenting someone, instead of praising them by saying, ".. you're so smart". Instead, say "you must've worked really hard for that". They'll continue to work hard to achieve a desired outcome instead of relying on 'natural abilities'.
Um.. no.
Terrible advice lol
@@raggedybag45 how would you know if you haven't tried it? .... not saying you have to, but yeah
@@tbcstuff3634 cool. it's not a foolrpoof strategy, but, anecdotally, this strategy seems to be more effective in 'getting the most out of people' ... but agree to disagree, do whatever you feel most effective
@@raggedybag45 I don't think so. It is actually a good idea
I've always been praised for being the smartest in the room ever since I was a kid. I'm an ESL teacher now learning to code to change careers and realizing that I've only been called smart because I was trying harder than everyone else not because I was actually smart
I would like to be smart and hardworking too.
I made the same transition from ESL teacher to developer. It's worth it.
Me too. Aspiring front end developer here
thank you
this is me too. I just did my work while everyone else played around but i wasn't smart. There's also the fact that I took AP courses which made people assume I was smart but I actually wasn't
The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
dunning kruger effect
Socrates said that btw. Imagine you have a circle, the more you know, the bigger it gets (the knowledge is what is inside). The circumference (the line that draws the circle) is what you don't know. The bigger the circle is, the bigger is the circumference . This is a nice way to picture it.
@@Zerstorter ah yes the circle of competence...
True.
@@user-qe7qi2km6z you're the best example. Using a concept in a place that has no relevance. Congrats.
Growing up, I was _that_ smart kid. I think I was actually reasonably smart, I was writing stories at 2 and doing multiplication at 3. But in the end I think it crippled me. I was the kid who only needed 20 minutes to study. Therefore I *always* had to be the kid who only needed 20 minutes. Needing to study longer would mean I’m not actually smart.
But as topics get harder, everyone has to study more. And as everyone else studied for days or weeks, I had trouble walking over my big fat ego to study more than a few hours. Everyone would keep saying _“if only you applied yourself…”_ and I was *terrified* of proving them wrong. What if I couldn’t do it even if I tried? My whole _thing_ was being smart. If I wasn’t smart, I’d be nothing.
On top of that, I can’t live with mediocre achievements. I got into the best university of my country, but I didn’t get into US Ivy League due to my lack of work ethic. I’ve never been able to feel proud. No matter what I do, I should’ve done better.
I’m really working on developing work ethic. At my university, I don’t know how many people are as “smart” as me, but most people are almost definitely *better* than me. Because they can actually put in the work. I’m working on being more like them.
perfect description of how i'm feeling right now, thanks for sharing. As Einstein said: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
I would really recommend you read Carol Dweck's Mindset. It was truly life-changing for me.
Oh god I've never read anything more relatable
Yo I’m going through the exact same thing :). Don’t worry it is all normal, right now I am studying law/economics in the best university in France #40. I am originally from Mexico and can speak 4 languages fluently, so I had the chance to study there.
I realized that I was not as smart as everyone else and that I had no preparation for this type of pressure, I was always praised by my teachers in high school and was always seen to be the smartest person in the certain room, since I didn’t need to study for exams and would still get good grades.
Needless to say, my ego did get crushed by the time I got to school and I realized that not having a good work ethic is the worst thing not to have in college.
Nevertheless, it is also important to enjoy whatever we are doing in life, and truth is I don’t enjoy economics, but I do enjoy doing things like law and philosophy.
I’m changing majors next year and although I’ll have to begin from scratch, I am thankful that I had the chance to actually study here and to know what to expect for the future, it is much more easier to work and to be disciplined whenever you set up goals for yourself, and to wake up in the morning to do something you enjoy.
So for real don’t be too hard on yourself and give yourself some credit, you’ll get that work ethic and we’ll make it through :).
I've been on the same page as you for most of my life.
Luckily, on my 2nd year of college (engineering) I hit the wall but I could reach everyone else's work ethic.
My problem actually came after that. Even when I was able to put the work, I always thought that being smart was equal to being successful and rich, and I HAD to be that.
It took a long time for me to change my mindset and expectations. Now I realize that the only difference between the rest and myself is that I'm probably the one that solves most problems and retains more information, but that doesn't mean that I have magically traced the path to success. I've fallen into bad career choices but I'm not less valuable for them. I've learned a lot from my mistakes.
There's a RUclipsr who is a psychiatrist and some of his podcasts talking about this got very deep into me, I'll give you the link if you wanna give it a look.
ruclips.net/video/QUjYy4Ksy1E/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/kPZwR3v_UyI/видео.html
This is so true. Being called "smart" and "talented" by your parents only boosts your ego, which in turn tells you "you don't need to study for that exam" or "you failed that test? what a bad test that was". You HAVE to break it. You have to realize you are the equivalent of the work you're putting in.
This is so true
💯
Shit homie, this hits home really hard. I didn't get this concept until I was 27, always looking for excuses as to why I wasn't where I wanted to be. It all boils down to being hard on yourself and actually doing the goddamn work, every fucking day, no shortcuts, no excuses. Grind. You're not special, you're not entitled to anything, work for it, get to it.
I am the guilty party that would look over the notes 20 minutes before the test and passed. Being able to do that really fks you up when you’re actually trying to do something genuinely hard.
Yeah. Later in life, you realize that you don't know how to work hard, because you never had to.
Yes same… I’m learning how to really study now that I’m enrolled in university
Still, sounds like an innate quality that people would love to possess.
@@hopelessfool6722 nice, I never studied anything and didn't read books or articles or podcasts (anything thought provoking) and was stuck in the social media algorithm for years and recently I started becoming more and more aware of how my perfectionism affected my growth (made me procrastinate my whole teenage years away) and I am finally more organised and willing to sit down and put in the hard work, but I have dug myself into a mountain-deep hole and it takes all of my energy and effort to climb out of that hole.
@@lampsizgod no, because lack of discipline will really f u in life, unable to focus, make a plan, schedule and organize isn't something youll wish you have.
I completely agree with your sentiments here in this video. I made the same realization around your age where I realized I was not the smartest person in most rooms. This is an uncomfortable feeling to confront oneself with as the ego does just about everything it can to work against this idea.
On paper, it might seem like "I'm smart". I have a PhD in computer science from a top school. I've written numerous papers on quantum computation, run my own business, and do a number of other "smart-sounding" things. However, in all of those pursuits, I have had to put in way more effort, time, dedication, etc. to get similar results to my peers. I've realized that it's not about your initial "intellect roll", but more so about what you do with that information. In my case, I've just decided to apply the same techniques you've outlined here--hard work, tracking, and consistency.
In the end, I've seen that hard work and consistency steamrolls brute "strength" in the form of intelligence. From one dull penny in the fountain to another, I salute you :)
I know you bro. I am also not smart but love programming. I failed in public exam and spent 2 more years than others to get into college, but I didn't give up and now become a software engineer!
Congrats 😁
Curious, how many hours a day do you spend programming? Is that bad for your eyes?
I guess, are u from India???
Perfectionism is another part that I develop thinking that I'm 'smart'. The expectation that 'smart' people don't make mistake really thrown me down the hole of mental issues. Just like video mentions, if I took so long to understand or do something, I would get frustrated with myself. Slowly the fear of failure develop, the needs to keep the image of being 'smart' (pretending), I stop working and be in denial. Now I am trying to climb out of this hole that I dug for myself. My best advice is do what YOU can, don't compare yourself to others, and focus on your own specific needs. Most importantly, love and learn more about yourself (ability, capability, skill and environment, etc...), who you really are without lies that you told yourself. I hope you the best.
I do comparisons a lot I’m still working on it 😢
That hit hard...All my life I thought I must do perfect on my first try. If I didn't, I was just a failure in my eyes. I went to therapy because I didn't do anything that I used to. All my hobbies began to cause more self-doubt than they brought me joy just because I couldn't do everything in a flawlessly. I'm still working on my perspective, but comments and videos like this do help steering myself into a better direction. To anyone who's reading this: Please don't lose your motivation just because you didn't do something perfectly on your first try. Practice and mistakes aren't something to be ashamed about. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Don't waste your time.
@@lenart_0143 so true the way I look at it is every experience that’s our first can’t be perfect because it is our first time trying to do it. When ur born u get bits on navigating life but it’s so much of it has to be self work and you have to be patient with yourself about things and be kind to ourselves just like we are to others when they make mistakes. Setting urself up to be perfect is the biggest way to set yourself up for constant disappointment it’s better if you come in with the mindset “I’m not perfect but I’m just doing me”.
@@lenart_0143 im reading this at 4 in the morning, cant sleep, really worried about my job/life, i'm not smart and i feel its affecting my life / work so much. will start therapy soon.
It's refreshing to see someone who has come out of their shell in regards to life ambitions. I relate to being a terrible student and disorganized employee, although in my case I think it was more of a lack of direction than thinking I was brighter than my peers. I'm now in my mid-20's and I'm finally pursuing the things I actually want and need, for the first time in my life. I look back at my younger self and I don't know what I was thinking.
I'm in my mid 20s and still in a rut, no closer to any of my desires than when I was a teen unfortunately.
@@Danuxsy Well at least you have the self-awareness now to know that about yourself. That's the first step on the path to growth.
You describe my situation perfectly, I'm in my mid twenties and life has humbled me so much. I'm trying to let go of the negative perceptions of myself and move forward slowly after finding out something I would love to pursue.
Are you sure it’s not the case that those people picking up concepts in 20 minutes that took you hours have already been exposed to the concept beforehand? Einstein put a shit ton of hours into math and physics. I always hear about these people who can just magically understand concepts and pick up skills. I’ve never seen anything like that. I went to 5 high schools and never came across anyone like that. In college I haven’t come across anyone like that. Maybe I can only witness something like that in an Ivy.
My guess is that if you dig deep enough you will find that they put the time in too, probably just long before they needed it or indirectly through another skill or concept that’s related. I remember people flunking out of beginner CS courses who I thought were smarter than me. I wasn’t one of those people flunking because I was already learning a lot of the concepts in my free time beforehand because I found it interesting. If you’re the type of person who reads philosophy for fun, then you ace all your humanities courses without studying much, are you really just a genius? That’s such a ridiculous notion when you think about it. There are so many ways in which your hobby is giving you direct and indirect exposure to a shit ton of the concepts that will be addressed in those courses.
This idea has never made any sense to me. As humans, we use other concepts/ideas to build on others. This is why a baby can’t do Calculus and Physics or comprehend complex philosophical concepts. They simply do not have the intellectual building blocks for it. If someone is picking things up fast, they almost certainly put the time in elsewhere to develop the building blocks necessary to grasp that concept quicker and easier. There are certainly different degrees in natural ability, but unless you’re mentally handicapped, I think the difference between the average and high-achieving is negligible. When it comes down to it, everyone has to work hard to accomplish anything worthwhile.
100% agreed. On top of that, while I think people whose minds are considerably/naturally gifted in certain areas definitely have a head start, they often lack the objectivity or “big picture” thinking necessary to take advantage of it in the long term. That objectivity usually comes from being an underdog, aka hardwork and experience.
I couldn't have put it better myself. I would only add that a genius in one domain is average or below average in other domains, whereas a genius in those other domains is only average or below average in the former domain. You might call this the law of equity amongst humans: time is limited and our ability to study is limited by time, therefore if we devote our time to a singular domain of knowledge, we lack the potential understanding from other domains of knowledge, thus we may excel at one thing and be plainly average at other things.
A good example is mathematics and music. While the two are obviously related via harmonics, if one studies mathematics and doesn't dabble much in music, he may become a genius mathematician but will never perform in an orchestra. Vice versa one will never expect to see Kanye West solve high level math problems between albums.
In essence, humans are creatures of limitation and so our individual abilities reflect this inherent limitation.
The only exception to this rule is intelligence if intelligence is defined as the ability to quickly process knowledge effectively (IQ is a measure of this). In that case an individual of high IQ may be able to pick up mathematics and multiple musical instruments from a young age and be precocious at all of them, but then there will be *other* fields of knowledge he will always be limited in simply due to the limitation of time and, perhaps, his interest in those other fields.
Therefore genius is really a poor descriptor for successful individuals. It implies some next-level trait in human evolution when genius/smartness is nothing more than a combination of two factors: dedicated time to a specific field of knowledge, and the inherent ability of an individual to process information quickly and effectively. The latter quality is rather rare, but the former quality can be developed by literally everybody.
It's the people who have both qualities in spades, however, who history tends to remember for thousands of years as universal geniuses, and that fact simply cannot be denied.
Yeah, I remember in college in my freshman Physics I class (for my mechanical engineering degree) I took an exam and finished first out everyone in a class of about 150 people. Everyone else had their heads down and was still diligently working. Usually I would finish before other people on other exams too, but that time I beat everyone by about 10 minutes.
I took basically that class and physics II as part of my AP physics class. The exam didn't count towards my major (it counted as a physics class for non-majors) and I didn't pass the AP exam anyway, but seeing the material before made that class and physics II a piece of cake.
I took a social psychology class to boost my GPA (I tested out of a lot of early classes and got no grade for them), and the professor threw up the distribution of scores on one exam: I was the only one out of about 400 people to get a perfect score on one exam. They asked me to TA it afterwards, lol. Part of the reason I did well is because psychology is just a fun subject to study. In my free time I liked to listen to podcasts and read books on the subject so and I was familiar with a lot of the concepts before. I only read the material for the exam once in the hallway about 3 hours beforehand.
SAT scores are highly correlated with IQ score. I'm brighter than most people but not super bright: my SAT score only correlates to an IQ of about 117. I'm only a little more than one standard deviation away from the mean (you're not getting any Nobel prizes out of me). I do wonder what it would be if I retook it now, since I know men's brains keep developing well into their 20's, but on a certain level I'd rather not clearly know.
As long as you have an acceptable baseline, it's all, and I do literally mean all, about the hour count. That's by far the dominant factor. Nothing else comes close. Now you can't just put in hours for the sake of putting in hours. They have to be meaningful and focused. So if you have the minimum qualifications and aptitude as long as you "work hard", you'll be just fine. Compare where you end up after 2000 hours and compare that to someone "talented" who started out the same as you after 2000 hours. You won't be nearly as far off as you would imagine. 80% of life is literally showing up and putting in an honest effort. The other 20% is just dumb luck.
"Talent" I consider the equivalent of an early game booster. It helps early on, but you can be rather quickly outcompeted.
There were 3 types of people at my school:
1. People who said they did not study but actually studied a lot at home(common)
2. People who said they did not study and did not study(common)
3. People who said they they studied and did actually study(rare)
Realizing I'm not as intelligent as I was told throughout my whole childhood, and for a good part of my tens, was a blow. I'm not attractive or interesting or funny enough, so being smart was my only strength. Learning I'm just average and was experiencing a "kind of big fish, little pond" situation made me very, very depressed and ruined my chances of succeeding in life. Now, in my forties, and a failure. Not because I'm not wealthy or famous or successful. Just because I feel unhappy and both disappointed and disappointing.
Expectations placed on you by suggestion are a terrible and sure way to ending up as a sad human being. When you think you're average from the get go you work harder and actually accomplish stuff.
I see you. Solidarity. We've still got time, though. I'm turning 40 later this year, G-d willing, and I'm planning on making the most out of my next 80 years on earth ❤️
I believe in you. I believe you will be able to accept yourself and the world and find that anyone can make a mark in this Earth just by their willingness to help it to be better.
@@veniqer I haven't given up yet. I'm learning a new skill, quite a challenging one, coding, and it's... coming along. Not as easy as I wanted it to be, but it's not supposed to be, right? There's still hope. 80 years is still a considerable amount of time :D
@@syasyaishavingfun That's lovely, and a good perspective on things.
Thank you for writting this, I'm in my early 20's and I just feel like im going towards this state. God help me.
My mom was a baseball fan and she always told me that Pete Rose wasn't the most naturally talented player but he worked harder and longer than the others. Years later, he eventually made the Hall of Fame and I remembered my mother's words. So when I had a kid, I always told her that it doesn't matter how smart she may be, there will always be people out there who are ahead of her in brains. What matters is being willing to work at what you want.
💯 love it, that's some solid advice haha
Very interesting insight
There will also always be some people ahead of her in willingness to work as well, so that's not really an argument.
Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame, though.
He's banned from the hall of fame
Golden advice here. It’s so easy as a parent to fall into the ‘tell your kids their smart for their self esteem’ trap. Teaching them the value of hard work is responsibly preparing them for a successful life.
Never saw an advice video this related to my self-experience. As an Asian who has always been “pushed” into some sort of elite group and grown up with imposter syndromes. It made me constantly ruminate on the concept of “self” and eventually I realised that “self” is just an object/instance from collective consciousness to individual awareness.
It's about how interested you are in something, whether that be mathematics, tech or whatever. Some people know every single detail about their favourite sport and had they had the same interest in, say physics, they also would be considered as very smart. Those in your class you considered smart were highly interested in doing well in exams and thus developed efficient systems of memorisation or were interested enough to study when they needed to study, and enjoyed studying. Their egos boosted when they saw the results, further motivating them to study more.
Same. It's crazy how I still remember Pokemon and FIFA stats that I played years ago but can't remember a fuckin Math formula.
Hahaha. So true. The ego boost was definitely a big factor. I don't think I ever put in as much effort into anything than I did junior/senior year of high school and junior year of university. I stopped caring and my grades tanked. The drop off was swift, enormous, and and made me realize, "wow, I'm literally dead average". Might as well focus on what interests me.
That is true. I am not smart but I enjoy what I do and therefore spend time and effort learning it therefore making me good at it. It is like a positive feedback cycle. On the otherhand if you hate(say maths) you are probably not going to want to do it therefore not be good at it. Then again if you are not good at maths you are probably going to hate it as well.
Basically, I think it is best specialising in a skill or industry you enjoy and love but can also profit from it. Something that can land you a good middle class jobs and has further career options. Heaps of people absolutely loves sports like football/soccer, video games, Martial arts, youtube etc but you are normally competing against everyone in the whole world and only a tiny% of the elite can make a living from it in certain industries.
No, it's not.
It is SO weird that someone has felt the same experience I did growing up.
My childhood was surrounded by video games, TV, and playing around in school. When middle school was over, I found out my crush was planning on applying to this high school magnet program that apparently had lots of Asians. So my 8th-grade self made the decision to apply there and I got in.
My life changed after I entered that high school. I was living in a new world. My peers were not only ambitious and hardworking - they were incredibly talented. Presidential Scholars, competing in international competitions and other insane feats. When I was a sophomore, the realization dawned upon me that I was not the smart kid my mom said I was. No - I was leagues asunder everyone. Whether it was presentation skills, making novel critiques against arguments, being articulate in speech, or just flat out being a faster learner: they were always on top. I found out I would have to study 3-4x as hard as my peers just to keep up with the content.
I was struggling. And now I have to say that I'm not really satisfied with your solution mindset of "damn I can't be that far off." Because what if you are actually very far off? What if you found out you have severe cognitive impairments like a working memory that is faulty even against middle schoolers? What does it actually mean: could we provide a description or qualitative evaluation as to how far off an individual can be before we realize their life truly does have some terrible, harsh disadvantages?
Telling an individual who has severe limitations or impairments that they should just try harder, I think, wouldn't be great. In a way, we make them feel responsible for something they have no control over (and this is an enduring criticism of the growth mindset). It just doesn't account for innate talent or acknowledge it enough.
I, as an individual, have a working memory that is below what is normal. And I know because my memory affects every aspect of my life - my relationships, school performance, self-esteem, my job, everything. I have lived and experienced my frustration.. I understand that, to some people, I may come across as idolizing intelligence. That is something I am also considering. Intelligence isn't what I should value. What I should value are principles of being a moral and good human being. But that response still doesn't really feel relieving. It feels more like a superficial band-aid of "hey bro just don't think about it."
I intend not to come across as rude in my comment. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts regarding innate intelligence.. such a depressing topic.
sounds like you have ptsd bro go seek counselling
Consider getting adhd testing. I’ve struggled with similar things. Thank you for having the courage to share something so deeply personal
i feel you on the working memory stuff, it makes me feel like i'm actually cognitively impaired.... and like you say, it affects every single thing i do, including just holding a conversation. i don't know what the solution is ...
I feel your pain bro. l also was told l was smart when l was a kid, but in uni realized that wasn’t true. I struggle with basic concepts all the time, and as l age memory and brain power slowly get worse. I try mental exercises to keep up but man, it’s so hard sometimes, and you can’t feel any payback.
Same, my memory is failing me and affecting my daily life and relationships whether family or friends. I want to get my brain scanned but i need to get a job first to have the money
Yeah even I had this problem of thinking myself as smart. When I was learning to code, everyday I would try to solve coding problems in the evening, and whenever I would solve one I would say out loud in my brain "Oh.. I am smart" and after that I would approach another coding problem and whenever I would get stuck. I would curse myself l. After looping through this a lot of times. I realized that I am not smart it was just hard work and constant learnings, that were paying the off.
1. Would your past self be happy with your future self if they saw that you were making the exact same mistakes?
2. Nothing changes in life unless you make the change.
3. Anything you want if it's something worth achieving is going to take time, pain and effort.
4. Improvement in life is all about slow incremental change.
Thank you for sharing! Very humbling. I come from a similar circumstance and my parents had given me the same advice. I realized in high school I wasn't the smartest and that I needed to put in more hours/effort to achieve the same results as my peers. This still applies now that I'm 30 when I set my goals with self-learning and in my career. Having a GRWOTH MINDSET is pivotal in life + be consistent with how you're investing in yourself!
Actually realizing you are not smart is the first step to becoming smart, really do the search it's proven
Brilliant! It’s taken me all my life to figure this out, so you are way ahead of the game. You have to be honest with yourself and do the best you can with what you have. Being smart, or handsome or rich or whatever is not going to get you where you want in life. Effort, dedication and patience and discipline will. I predict you’ll do a hell of a lot better than most people in life because they haven’t understood the simple truths about life.
growth mindset is so important. Love your reckoning!
Thanks for the video Kevin. I do realize that realizing I’m not smart drives me to work harder as it tells me I’m not entitled to anything in life. Kudos 💪
Understanding basics and thinking from basics is really all about
I was one of those 'gifted' kids who always did well in tests and was very naturally academic. I just seemed to have a knack for school - especially written work or humanitarian subjects. Through my entire school life I could put minimal effort into my exams and get really good grades, but this was to my detriment in the end because I didn't develop any work ethic. I never had to try and so I didn't. When it got to uni and everything was suddenly 10x harder, I felt out of my depth. I saw my friends getting firsts in their essays every single time and wondered why I wasn't getting the same grades when I was great during high school and college. When I actually had a conversation with the best girl in the whole course about her work, she explained how in primary and high school she was the bottom of the class and so she had to work super hard to get her final grades. She would spend weeks on a single essay, perfecting it over and over again to get it just right, having multiple meetings with tutors for extra advice. She worked super hard to get where she was, and I was barely scraping by because I was putting no effort in. Having to push yourself at a young age really does teach you how to work hard. It sounds silly but I still kinda struggle with this. Thankfully I'm not in school anymore.
Just wanted to say thanks for putting out all this content. I relate to a lot of your problems and I find a lot of comfort in watching your videos! I always feel super dumb when I don’t get a concepts when others get it faster than me but I’ll never give up!! Thanks KC 🙏🏻🙏🏻
10 years ago, when I was in art college, I was crushing it in every class, especially in human sciences. Now today, I'm taking a simple course in programming, where the road has been bumpy. A lot of my classmates are getting concepts much faster than I do. It was really disheartening to fail classes after repeatedly hearing people around me say how "smart" I am. What I realized is that, it's not about how smart I am, it's about how I try to understand things. My brain is not trained to do abstract thinking, and it's really hard to make it do so anyway. So yeah, we don't often know where our brain's strengths lie until we give different things a try.
Yah never know, those kids in your class with you could have prior programming knowledge. I’ve been programming for years and if I took a class at this point I’d be way ahead, so I’d probably look really “smart” when really I just know a bit more and have an advantage. I think some people truly do pick stuff up faster, but you never know how ahead someone already is :) Blessings to you. Becoming a developer is hard !
One of the more interesting moments in my life was when it really clicked that nobody really knows how much they don't know. You cannot know how much you don't know, which is a very interesting mindset to have because it just makes learning things feel really rewarding because the more you know, the more options you have.
I know that feeling. When I was young I was in a really good school, so when I went to high school I meet people who were from not so good schools and I was doing really good with nearly no effort and one of the teachers once told my mother that I am lazy and I throw all my work on the fact that I thought I am smart and when it was the time to do the official exams I was confident that I will do good because my school marks were good so I wasted so much time and when the marks were out many of the people that I thought I was smart than turned out to have better marks than me I was shocked then and it was the time I understood that I am not that smart I just had an unfair advantage for some time and I had to work harder to stay at the top so when I went to university I started to study day by day and I put way more effort than before and my marks were good this time even though I was not the best at the class but I was happy because I know I deserved every good mark I got.
I was never a quick learner, but when I first got to college as a full time student, it was a breeze and I never had to work too hard. I made the deans list the first 2 years, worked full time and had a social life. When I got deeper into my major (aerospace engineering), I tried to keep applying the same methods and I never adapted to the fact that I had to study harder than I started off. I can relate to this video, because I would see other students breezing through information that I needed more time to digest when I got home.
It's a strange thing, how people seem to love it so much more to get complimented on their intelligence, rather than on their hard work. It's weird, intelligence is to a large part just a perk you got for free, like a big mole or a short nose, but results of hard work are actually real achievements....
The other way around is interesting too people like to compliment you are so gifted and talented.
And the exact reason you then tell them as the receiver of the compliment: It's not because of intelligence, but hard work that they can and should put in as well!
the same would apply to diligence and conscientiousness also highly genetic traits like IQ...
but intelligent people once they get to know that they are smart double down on their potential with working hard. imagine this. if i get 100/100 on math, by just reading the book a week before the exam, and if it is something that takes almost avg energy(effort), and gets you 4 times the ego boost or dopamine hit then you'd want nothing but that even more in your life.
some of the high iq friends of mine work more than 9 hours a day because that makes them tons of money and tons of money makes them super happy and boosts their social dominance and status.
It’s because as an intelligent individual, you have a naturally higher potential which is precious and rare. Hard-work can be learned, intelligence can’t
that wanting so much of the job but still procrastinating till the last minute to prepare is so relatable. Thx for the tips, I have been thinking that I am the 'smarter' one since a very young age however every time I wanted to achieve something I did dedicated a lot
Honestly, I wish more people were humble. No one is truly smart, what makes us "smart" is hard-work and constant studying. If you are dedicated to something, you will succeed. Many of us who have gone through great high schools and universities realize/realise this. Especially at the University level, things get very competitive if you are studying at a top 20-25 Engineering/STEM school.
Actually wrong, there are people born so smart they pick up a math book and in a few months famous mathematicians fly over to get them in university at age 10.
But anybody can increase their intelligence, it’s all about daily training your brain challenge it
Yeah this is wrong.
Some people can learn faster, learn higher level concepts and at greater levels of abstraction.
Others do not have the same capabilities.
IQ is quite a robustly studied topic.
However, someone who learns 4x as fast and only studied a topic 10 hours can still be definitely outdone by someone learning at 1x who studies 100 hours.
But intelligence is still absolutely at different levels. In my accounting classes for instance I was tutoring other students while having not studied the material at all. I only showed up and listened in class. This was true for almost all of college. I rarely studied, only enough to be sure I understood the topics and had all the details right, often the night before the test, and yet others struggled greatly.
I am no better of a human for having been born with gifts others do not possess as much of, and there are others with more than me. I am thankful for these gifts. I have not earned it, and even fall short of being worthy of it, because as a result of things being easier, I am lazier. I don’t have the same work ethic and discipline, which I admire and want to improve
Their are academically smart individuals but that doesn’t mean they are socially smart, artistically smart, athletically smart.
3 minutes into the video and you're describing my life. Im in med school and all my friends are so smart and blessed with a higher level of intelligence it has become embarrassing for me to be around them. Sometimes I can't even understand what they're talking about so i just nod and hope they'll stop soon. I probably have imposter syndrome by now and my self esteem is shattered. Most of the time i feel like people are asking how I'm doing and hangout with me just to feel better about themselves. It wasn't always like this. I used to be a topper in my primary school and an average student in my highschool.I know the problem probably lies in my will and study discipline yet i haven't managed to climb out of that hole. Thank you for the video it makes me feel like im not alone in this and maybe there's still hope
i feel you...i am in dental school.. i felt into the rabbit hole of sadness because i simply don t feel smart enough..and i don t want praises like "no,you are. .." i just want to accept it for once and for all no matter how smart or how stupid i want to be fine with it and not interfere with my will..to study..i don t feel i am worthy of school..i don t have bad grades i think what i would want to be is the problem but i can t change it for now..
Never thought I was smart. Always assumed everyone is smarter than me. I realized I had to work hard to understand things others seemed to grasp quite easily. I thought I had to study really hard to catch up to them. Didn't realize it then, but over time my heavy study was building up deep intellectual capital, while they were just coasting along skimming off the top. Eventually paid off, to my utter surprise. When I finally looked up one day, I was the master of the field, hailed as a genius, and everyone was hunting me down. It was bewildering. All along I thought I was just a dumb-ass who had to put in hard work to catch up to everyone else, and didn't realize that I had lapped them several times over in the process. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I have long stopped referring to people as "smart", and expelled that word from my vocabulary. What matters for excellence is whether you work hard or you don't. I treat those presented as "smart" or having "natural talent" with skepticism and suspicion.
I believe this is very useful not just for people who "aren't smart", but everyone.
Because probably, even if you were the smartest person on the planet, taking work seriously would improve your results.
This is so relatable. All throughout engineering school, I felt intellectually inferior to many of my peers. I had to study harder than them and for longer. I didn't have much free time and when I did, I procrastinated it away because I was so tired from studying/doing assignments that I just wanted to relax.
I managed to get pretty decent marks, but the issue is that I don't feel knowledgeable in the subject matter, and since I basically just study to do well in assessments, I can't remember much after the final exam.
Now that I've graduated, I still don't feel confident enough that I can work in my field competently. And it has lead to me pivoting my career choice
I think if this careerfield is what you really want I think you could still try becaus I don't think everybody remembers everything after they graduate and I think if you work in a job you will learn al lot of the things you need to know for this job learning doesn't stop after collage everybody continiues to learn and you will probably not need everything you've learnd in Collage most people learn the important in their job some things can't be studied you have to experience them
I'm not saying that it's a sure thing that you would have success but it's also not sure that it would be a Desaster and I think you could still go into this careerfield I think way more people relate to you than you think who are succesfull
Plus theres a Chance that you underestimate your Potential and what you are capable of doing :)
It infuriates me that some people can just put 10% of my effort into something and get way better results... It's just so unfair
Me too
You have a knack for storytelling. I am a dev too & Im realising this lesson now too.
You are the most real and relatable thing out there
Wow.. I've never related so much to a 5 minutes video before.. I am a lazy person, I've always think that I'm smarter than others and I don't need anyone's advices. Meeting people that are smarter than me doesn't help much due to my mind that keep on making excuses. thank you soo much for sharing. It really means a lot to me. I'm at 11th grade and currently is preparing for my overseas study. This video just enlighten me and now I know what to do to maximize my preparation.
An important note for people on the higher end is to be understanding when someone does not get something as quick as you do. Their brain could have simply just not had the same click as yours when you finally began to understand something.
we need to consider this every day. don't let ego and arrogance take over, don't belittle those around you
You are rather well-spoken for somebody that's not smart.
Do you think you are smart?
This video is pretty much explaining the Dunning-Kruger effect. Nice!
I think this video is a good life lesson. I would like to say that while one might not be "smart," that hard work and dedication you talked about usually ends with you have a wealth of information and experience to pull from. In most cases, I would say that it is better than being "smart."
OMG! I had the same problem. I had friends who were like “I didn’t prepare for the midterm, but I got full”. I hated such people, because they make midterm look easier for me
They lied 🤷🏼♀️
Just what I needed to hear. I think I was on the brim of falling into a similar mind set. Realizing that we are not geniuses is the smartest thing one can do.
The reverse was true for me. Kids and sometimes even teachers would say how I'm not smart and how I work hard, teachers as a compliment, but kids out of jealousy; it created an insecurity that I'm not smart at all and it made me lazy and try to do things with minimal effort to prove to myself I have decent intelligence; it worked in high school but now I'm struggling in university
Same! How do u plan on moving on? For me, my entire life I was called stupid by teachers, kids, parents, family. My mom told me I was a mutation in the family. Even if I work very hard to get good scores, I am always reminded that I needed to work way harder than everyone else and how it's just luck. I've reached a point where I have given up, but I want to get back to how I was before. I just don't know the steps towards that :(
@@cookiecookielookies Wow, it's nice that we're connecting with similar stories. I'm working with a psychologist through some perfectionism modules and trying to heal childhood trauma.
It's so hard to get out of because working hard often feels like falling back into that insecurity of needing to work hard. I can send you the modules if you'd like?
Hi, thanks for the reply! You're so kind! My comments are not going through for some reason but my e mail is wendywuhomecomingwarrior@gmail.com .We can talk through there :)
This hits home big time. I just joined one of the top 3 B schools in the country this summer and I am starting to realise that I have been living with the same mindset. On my way to accept that I may in fact be average without it having to diminish my self image. I need to know that I have to put in the hours to match what my peers can do effortlessly.
Growing up with a fair bit of natural intuition I kept being told I was smart, and I think that internalised in all the wrong ways.
This video is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much dude. Keep up the great content!
This is such good advice that I wish I had learned sooner. I actually am smart, I was that kid in school that never studied and got A's on tests. But I also have severe ADHD and with it some pretty big cognitive deficits. When I got into college I flunked out because I had never taken the time to address my deficits. It took me from 18-28 to finish my undergraduate. But after I was done I got an interview at a top tech consulting firm and spent nearly 200 hours in 2 weeks studying to do as best I could on the interview. And I got the job.
Humility goes a long way. I'm sure there are many other folks like me who have aptitude in certain areas and not in others. Humbling yourself and putting in the work is the only way. This is the first video I've seen of yours and it really struck a chord. You've earned my sub.
Question--->
Can you visualize an apple 🍎 in your minds eye? How much detail do you see? Can you see elaborate color variations in the skin, or its textured pores? Is it wet, does it have a stem? Where is the apple, by itself, or in a bowl, on a table, in a sculptures hand, etc?
Or... do you only see 👀 black ⚫️ space and the apple is just an idea 💡like something from a list, but not physically visible in your mind's eye?
I ask because only seeing black is called aphantasia, and makes learning complex "imaginative" topics like physics almost impossible.
People have varying degrees of imagination, for instance you might see...
Just black or darkness.
A foggy outline of an apple.
A solid 🍎 like this emoji with no texture.
A detailed apple with moist skin in a fruit bowl with other different fruits. Maybe it's on a table or on a kitchen counter.
A man standing on the back of a horse 🐎 , riding through a forest full of other wildlife, who is balancing a teetering apple on his head like a circus performer. Then an archer 🏹 shoots an arrow through the apple 🍎 and it explodes into a thousand multi-colored pieces while also exposing its moist white center.
The latter is hyperphantasia, or overly imaginative.
But if you have trouble learning "imaginative" topics, various visualization exercises may be something worth exploring 🤔.
I saw the apple like it was in one of those 4K OLED video render closeups.
@@KentoCommenT 😄 I saw a planet sized 🍎 being closely orbited in space...like a giant apple 🍎 deathstar scene. It was a collaboration between George Lucas and Michael Bay and it was aiming to keep the Dr. away... from the planet.
Excellent video. This was one of my biggest problems in life-people continually telling me when I was younger that I was "really smart". I achieved high school honors with relatively low study but then I entered into engineering and got my butt kicked. This is what I now want to impress upon my children-life is hard work and if you want to be successful you better be prepared to work for it. Part of the problem here in North America is that the school system aids and abets this mentality. I work with one of the best interventional radiology physicians in the world and he was told he wasn't smart enough to go into that field. His life proves determination trumps smarts pretty much every time. And the smartest thing one can learn and be taught in their younger years-organize your time and be disciplined. We all have the same time in a day-my successful friends made those hours count.
When you gonna give us a discord channel my dude ?! Watching your videos ,legit makes me feel so much better about my computer science degree and i can relate with all that you went through my dude. Keep the content coming !
This!!! @KC PLEASE! You should give me the peasant I rank too ;)
I don’t want a discord server
I've never thought about that actually, thanks for the suggestion! I'll add this to the list of things I need to do hahah
@@CreatedByKC YES DUDEEEEE
What was wrong with ur computer science degree in the first place
My perspective totally shifted when I realized that there are no chapters in life. I was counting on my "future self" to do certain things that I can't stand doing now. But there is no "future self," I realized. If I don't do the thing while it's on my mind, it simply won't get done.
I identify with lot of what you’re saying. This video is helping me see that I need to work hard and reevaluate myself
I love how you make learning feel so effortless!
this is probably not an easy video for you to make. thank you for sharing your story with us
I can definitely relate to this. At first it's hard to accept that maybe you're smarter than average but you're not a genius, but it's suuuper healthy. Good for the ego, you go easier on yourself, you work harder, you listen better and you learn more. You stop thinking you know everything straight away (somewhat)
Being tested as actually a bit smart, I can confirm that grasping a concept within 20 minutes is impossible. I have many classmates who also go to the ivies, and they don't do that either.
People with average intelligence usually depict smart people as 'godlike' creatures who could do impossible things... no we don't. We are just a bit faster. You have the feeling that we only study 20 minutes before tests and still get a perfect score only because you don't see us listening in class. Most smart people have a longer concentration span, meaning that we can actually focus our minds longer. When your minds wonder off in god knows where during classes, we are actually absorbing ideas like a sponge. Reading a book later becomes a review which is really simple for everyone not just smart people. However, for those wonderers, reading books later is actually a process of learning new stuff. Of course that's gonna be slower!
The bottom line is, anyone who seems like they don't break a sweat doing something is a lie. They work more efficient and harder under the hood. Not so smart people may not get a Nobel Prize, but it doesn't mean the NP winners don't even try.
I'm guilty of this and it takes reminding myself everyday. I got interested in maths recently (from the proof 'higher level' side) and am in a group with these other mostly self taught mathematicians. When I see them talking casually about advanced topics it is truly a sight to behold and I've never met them so I have this vision in my head that they are gods, and here I am on some book called 'Basic Mathematics' struggling with simple geometry proofs thinking 'they would never have struggled like this, they would have just read this and got the proof' and it's silly, on a rational level I know (and they've told me) that the struggle is literally HOW you get this stuff. Still, knowing all this I have to actively encourage myself, in maths everybody struggles
They are all studying behind the door and lying saying we don't..is that what you mean ? Because that's what i believe
@@Bambotb yes ! Look at it this way, the problem is not understanding the concept, cause yeah that can be done in a short amount of time, BUT math and physics ( and relate topics ) need practise, a lot of it to be able to solve the real questions they give you in exams, often they start young so when it's time with more difficult lessons they are more accustomed.
Also bear in mind that everyone has materials where it's easier than others, for instance, you can be very good in art / history / French... and really study them last minute, but need more time with biology / physics, which is okay, everyone has strength and weaknesses.
@@Bambotb ye cause Asian parents hate competition with other students, so we hide everything we study, but in reality we all knew that everyone else studied immensely.
Nobel Prize had often been about something they had been working on for decades
I realized this when I entered medschool. Really smacked me on my face. I thought I was smart in undergrad because I got As, but the truth is, I just worker harder than the average. I kept lying myself that I was smart so I don't feel imposter syndrome. But once entering medschool, my grade failed. Hard work dedication wasn't enough for surviving medschool. I accepted that I'm really not smart.. So I had to really learn how I approached studying. Had to learn smarter because it didn't come naturally to me. I'm in the process of learning that right now, as I have to retake next semester for failing.. It's really ok to accept yourself the truth. it was a hard pill to swallow but trying to believe in yourself and lying to yourself doesn't always go so far, especially in hard fields which really strips you of your shell and tests you on how you truly can cope
Good points, and I want to add two things:
It's only natural that you, and everyone wants to get the work done with minimal possible efforts, but the dangerous thing to be aware of here is a delusion that you're doing enough.
And maybe one should think of being smart, but work hard, otherwise you may end up thinking that something is "too big for me, because I'm not so smart"
You always make learning feel like a smooth process.
Great Video KC,
I'm also living in the I'm smart mindset and I always looked to the majority of advices as a worthless monologue. I got inspired from this video to consider myself as not smart as I assuming, and I will start looking around and evaluate advices, and set up a process to achieve my goals
Thanks
i had a similar experience. my freshman year high school history teacher tried to tell us to think like yoda from star wars, "do or do not, there is no try". have an internal locus of control and do not worry whether you're smart enough to achieve a goal, just be disciplined and keep trying, even if you initially fail. i always knew i didn't have that mindset. it took me almost ten years to stop comparing myself to others and think like yoda, and it changed my life. i wish i had a lot earlier.
I'm the same as you. Working harder has always been the way for me to keep up. I just recently found the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that has helped me how to get better at those things I'm wanting to excel in. There's a free audio book on RUclips. I too would think I could study at the last minute for interviews, but when I did I would find more things I should study and the rabbit hole would just deepen.
I’m not smart I’m just too dumb to quit is probably one of the best achievement moods honestly
This seems to revolve more so around IQ than anything. Intelligence as you outlined, is a rather broad term. Whereas IQ simply refers to one's ability to pick up on and understand concepts quickly.
Someone with a high IQ can be a blithering idiot, and likewise someone with a lower IQ (within reason) can be clever.
Intelligence in summary is a combination of what you know(applicable to anyone), and your ability to pick up on and apply things (genetic and learnt).
You can learn to learn, but you are limited by the processing power of the computer upstairs, and it can take longer as well as a lot more effort to memorise text from a course or something of a similar nature.
I'm 17 and won't be finishing my A-Levels, I found school vexing and tiresome (mind you, out of boredom) despite doing Computer Science, Applied Law and Business. I felt neutral about getting high grades because I literally never revised.
I'm currently working at a company as a Cyber Security Apprentice, in the following years hoping to be a Consultant in that field and wish to do a variety of things in life such as Real Estate and to pursue Civil Law.
It tends to be the case that people are transfixed with the idea that they are the main character in their own story (subconscious, rarely consciously thinking about it), and as such believe they are capable and deserving of the best things in life.
Whilst we all need aspirations, which are a good thing, it is good to be realistic as well. I wish to enter politics and offer an alternate view despite the barbaric environment it is, but know I realistically will never make it beyond an MP (IF THAT!!). I'm realistic and base my thoughts on fact, whereas in politics no matter how much I may want to get into it, has become more a self-serving joke getting into power through filtered lies.
Don't set yourself up for failure because you pursue someone else's career, be the best you that YOU can be. And that's a good enough legacy for me.
Doubt anyone read that but have a good day
Smart Kid, good luck!
Ive been called smart many times, but i never realized how smart i was until i went to college and saw how hard people have to work for their grades.
Yeah, your 'smart' friends had probably been coached by their 'smart' parents via the social environment they constantly provided for them. Reading, writing and speaking in a native language is a phenomenal achievement that most kids around the world achieve around the age of five, given the opportunity.
Learning languages has nothing to do with being smart...
@Wen dy learning languages is just memorization. Being smart is being able to think logically, like in maths.
@@Tom-dn6zy The speed at which one can pick it up is definitely associated with genetics, I'll tell you that.
@@jokerkenny1801 I agree
@@Tom-dn6zy Learning languages isn't just memorization but also requires grammar and the ability to read between the lines. There is a critical period for children to learn a native language.
i can totally relate to your story. feels like i have found my doppelganger.
Holy shit, I'm 26 and you talking about your experience helped me realize (one of) the reason why I did so poorly in highschool...
My entire friend group was filled with incredibly smart guys, one of whom became the valedictorian! And they literally would spend maybe a few hours studying for exams, when in reality I should've spent a few days preparing for them. Of course, going through uni I intentionally improved my studying/working habits, but it just dawned on me why my highschool academics were so mid
yo glad you can relate! Good on you that you fixed your habits in college! I didn't fix mine until way after haha
When i was in middle school i was the kid who studies everyday and always gets the best result and memorises everything right after the lesson. My friends told me that im not so smart but harworking. This irritated me. Then i went to a high school which accepts successful students like me. I didnt focus on my classes and i stopped working regularly. Then, i saw that i was able to get good grades with a short term and fast studying right before the exam. My friends told me that im smart. I liked it. But as the time passes by, the exam for getting into a college got closer. At my last year i struggled a lot because of my forgotten study behavior and my “im smart” ego. Success isn’t a thing you can reach without efforting. And most of the people are smart enough to success. The factor defines it is hardworking and willpower. Also i compared myself to my friends a lot and it made me lose my hope. Everyone’s life is different and ours is special for us. Even the person you admire has problems. Its not bad to struggle or make mistakes. Everyone loses and wins. It took a time for me to learn that. Being smart is knowing that you have to work hard for what you want. Not being easygoing like me. Or not being the first in everything. Now i have 48 days to the college exam and i am not good enough to get into somewhere i want. I guess i will have to study one more year for it. I made a lot of mistakes this year but also i learned a lot. I wont give up on my dreams. Now, i try to focus on working hard everyday for my dreams. Dont matter if i reach them after 48 days or after a year.
Damn boy this hits right home. I appreaciate the realness of your content. Immidiately subscibed
Its an exhausting realization that you have to work 10x as hard to do as well as your peers. Doesn't discourage me because I want to do well but I wish I could grasp concepts as easily as they do and think as fast as they can.
Appreciate the advice Kevin, when you described your past self, I feel like I'm at that point in my life right now. If I truly want to achieve my goals, I have to change my approach to studying and be more disciplined overall. Glad this video popped up into my feed because I just finished taking my CS final but I think I bombed it haha. Anyways, love the advice, not only is it applicable in a career aspect, but life in general too.
p.s: drop the arm routine bro, your arms are massive lol
Feels like my brain and my mind are different entities fighting each other. I (my mind) know my schoolwork takes effort, but my brain just keeps pulling me away from what I need to do. Having ADHD probably makes this worse but my medication isn’t as helpful as I wish it was
Realizing it definitely changed my life as well, but I realized it a little differently. I was always treated as the smart one, always one of the best in whatever I did especially if it pertained to mathematics. It got to the point where I was sick of being called smart because I felt like people were undermining the effort I put into it. I would often be in a position where I could help others, something I was really passionate about, but anytime I tried to encourage someone one of the most common replies were "yeah, but you're smart"
Yes, it's possible I may have spent less time grasping some concepts, but I understood how to grasp those concepts quickly which is something I had to learn. No one is superior to others.
Nearly every "smart" person understands this, which is why hearing someone say "I'm smart" or "they're smart" is often meaningless. Einstein put in the work and had help from peers, yet he often gets reduced to some anomaly.
It sucks to be the smart one.
nah u r smart. u can spend very little time n get very good grade
@@jake9854 only because I've learned how. If doing things with little study is your goal, all you need to know is how to recognize what will be tested/required and, if it isn't intuitive for you, learn how to memorize small amounts quickly and efficiently
But I wouldn't recommend this as it's not sustainable, it's best to learn good study practices. This takes time and effort.
"Smart people" typically fall into one of these categories, the first of which only appears smart but is one of the stupidest things you can do if you want to learn, while the second is quite literally putting in the effort that anyone is a secure position is capable of
Being honest with yourself is the best way to be happy
I really like the video and the message you’re putting out there. I just wanted to contribute what might be an alternate view:
You’re absolutely right, being smart is subjective. I think there’s an even greater degree of subjectivity then we might assume. Growing up for example, I had a lot of friends who were drawing just as well as some really famous comic book artists by the time they were 15. I’m sure if you put a handful of those kids in any art school, most of them would have done really well. You put them in a STEM focused program, and I would only know a couple of them who would do well in that type of environment. If you’re a student in the former, art focused program. they would be seen as achievers, and in the more science and math oriented program, they would be the struggling kids.
But why? Because most of these kids probably spent the vast majority of their childhoods drawing, painting, and otherwise trying to visually copy the things that they genuinely enjoyed. So by the time they’re 15, they’re already journeymen at their craft.
Likewise, it could be that a lot of your friends growing up that you saw as being “smarter than you“ were exposed to a bunch of opportunities to improve those skills early on in life so that they became more second nature by the time high school and college roll around. That’s not to say that certain people don’t have an affinity for one thing or another, I just think we often discount the amount of hours that someone puts into honing things, and that it doesn’t always have to feel like work, for some people, doing a certain degree of math feels like play. Thanks for making a video to share your perspective on this, I do think there’s a lot of validity here, I just wanted to throw another viewpoint out there. Either way, determination beats natural talent any day of the week in most cases
I agree, especially in topics that it's proven they need LOADS of practise like math, and physics ! Understanding the concept is not the issue, the hard part is being able to solve every possible related variant to that subject, and that is not something that can be done in 20 minutes, I've seen this a lot.
With that being said, there are many studies showing that people have different kind of intelligence, however, the current education systems are too rigid to help kids discover their own path, thus, continue creating generations of confused students thinking they are extremely smart/ or stupid ! Which is sad if you ask me.
@@hibaimene9684 This was very well put, I 100% agree with you! We forget the different minds are better at different things because we don’t come to schools with is the exact same types of experience in the same measure. Different people filter different topics mentally in different ways, and we need far more multimodal education practices. So people actually have a shot at figuring out what their path might look like.
Really insightful comment - It's the hidden work that has occurred in the background, possibly during early life, that must play a very large role in their future performances in academia and their work.
It’s crazy that the algorithm suggested this video to me, this describes me to a T. Similar background, similar advice from my dad, same mindset growing up. Thanks for the message 🙏🏽
I can’t thank you enough for putting out this video 🙏🏼
I was told that I am smart. I always tell them, I am not smart. I don't know everything, and then I continue on learning and working hard to better myself than try to be better than everyone else. I decided to improve myself for me, and not for others. I know that even if you are older, you are still learning.
This is interesting, I kind of have the opposite situation going on where my Dad was the same way and I believed him and I knew I wasn't smart but people would tell me I was and till this day it leaves me confused. People still think I'm really smart...I think I'm pretty stupid because somethings I struggle hopelessly at time but I hate to quit so I've become somewhat of a masochistic learner and will put myself through migraines and anger fits to make sure I'm not stupid when it comes to something I really want to achieve. I had ADHD growing up and I'm properly medicated as an adult but I think having learning disabilities is a super power if your able to get them handled.
I still study like I have ADHD, looking forward to seeing how that pays off in my medicated life.
EDIT: Double edged sword, I got the cert I was studying for but then had a nervous breakdown 2 days after the test that put me out of work for 2 weeks. Consequences, consequences.
i recommend you go really easy on the meds, as someone who’s started as an adult in similar circumstances i wish i knew how bad non medicated days could be and should have taken absolutely minimum dose it takes to help for as long as possible. tolerance builds up and meds become easier than any of the natural skills you’ve acquired to focus and train yourself with. like any skills they need to be honed and practiced too, taking regular breaks from meds ensures you keep them maintained and prevent yourself from getting totally dependent on strong medication and forgetting all your coping skills =)
@@sayat_nova So much for medical advice on the internet.
adhd smart ppl strugges. and medicating adhd doesnt make it go away it just lessens the symptoms you can still use other tool sto help you, bbut seriously sometimes its nice to just understand things easily when your in a pinch and need stuf figured outf ast
Feeling the need to work harder and longer is not always the solution. I am currently on my bachelor year second semester. The first semester i only worked about 3-8 hours every day Monday-Friday and then i had the weekend off. At the end of the semester i realized that this was not good enough because i had to work overtime the last weeks just to clutch the assignments. This semester I knew i needed to work harder to succeed. I was now working atleast 8 hours every day 7 days a week. This worked for some weeks but it got harder and harder to consentrate. I still felt like i was not working hard enough, long enough, like i was not pushing myself enough no matter if i worked 6, 8 or 12 hours i still felt like i could have done more or that my focus was not good enough, i deleted every social media every game cut of almost every constact with everyone. I was now either working or beating my self up for not working, even when sleeping eating or going to the toilet i felt like i was wasting my time. I developed depression starting having anxiety and panlc attacks. I enjoy life less and less every day. I now take like 3 naps a day. Everything distracts me because even staring at a white wall is more fun compared to school. What makes it worse is that this is something i really used to be passionate about. This has been a dream of mine since i was a kid and it has now become my worst nightmare. It is making me yearn for death to set me free. Luckily there is only 3 days left until the deadline for the last assignment. And i will be free. Atleast for a short while until I have to redo my failed assignments and hell starts over again.
the lesson here is don't burnout. set a goal but don't need to kill yourself to achieve it. there are other things in life.
The smartest thing you can think is that you aren't smart. Steve Martin maybe the greatest comedian of all time said that he may not be smarter than other comedians but he was willing to work harder than them, and yet he has the achievements those others could only wish for.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. *Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.* Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
― Calvin Coolidge
Well, if you don't know how smart/intelligent you are, take a serious IQ test, then assess your rate of learning compared to others. Just from those two parameters you can figure out where you are in terms of intelligence.
I was one of those kids who could study for 20-30 minutes in high school before a maths exam, and still be at the top of the class. But I would say that speaks more for high school level math, compared to university level math, rather than my "intelligence". In my second year in high school, I would sit at the back of the class having fun with my colleagues. The math teacher would ignore us most of the time, but when we made too much noise, he would come angrily to us, and as punishment, would make one of us come to the board to solve a "hard" problem. When it was me, I would usually glance once at the problem, and then a solution would pop up, and to his astonishment, I would solve it immediately even though I was barely paying attention. In my third and final year, I had this teacher who would bring me special math problems during class, while the rest of the class was solving the standard high-school level problems. He noticed that I was getting bored after finishing all those exercises quickly. A few times, I stumbled upon innovative solutions, and he wrote them down because he wanted to "show them to the other classes and to the next generations", as he said.
But that was high school. University was a different story. As other commenters wrote, sometimes when you think you're too smart, you can get used to being lazy, and it's hard to develop the habits of dedication and hard work, which you definitely need to accomplish anything significant in life. Eventually, I met people who were even smarter than I was, and though it took me a long time (and one or two identity crises), I learned to be humble and to appreciate hard work and dedication to a goal as great values, and also to focus on the results and to let them speak for themselves, instead of bragging about my IQ or "intelligence".
People see intelligence as static, but it’s dependent on many factors including upkeep. Like any muscle if you don’t use it you loose it. Regular exercise, good nutrition, good deep sleep are all key for an well functioning brain. Challenge the brain until it start to hurt a little let it rest with sleep and challenge it again. Exactly like lifting weights
@@nox5282 Agreed!
This is why I hate all of those people that say that they're "gifted but lazy" because that is such a cop-out. They want to have the satisfaction that the reason they didn't succeed in spite of their genius was simply that they chose not to.
What's wrong with that?
Is it a choice like choosing between an apple or a banana?
@@clumsyroad4026 it's wrong because it downplays the effort other people put in to succeed, and god forbid if the people who put in effort don't succeed perfectly. They make fun of them as they "could" hypothetically do incredibly better if they put just half the effort. Not that they have any proof of that but they make others feel like they wasted their time.
@@una9133 OMGGGG I've been surrounded by those ppl my whole life!!! I got a 1400 on my practice SAT (old score) and ended with a 2050 on the real thing. My cousins started with a 1800 and only got a 1900s in the real thing. They said I have to work so much harder than them and I got lucky. They still call me stupid and my mom called me a mutation in the family. I can't deny that they are smarter than me, and this has been very hard in my life. How do I not get bothered by what they said? I'm glad I saw ur comment bc that is exactly how those ppl think
I luckily developed study habits early in elementary school that helped me study better when it came to my high school and college life. I could pass exams and assignments without studying but putting in the effort makes a huge difference.
Yeah, I'm smart. Since I'm dyslexic and because of my age and location I grew up in, IQ tests were part of my childhood. I had several, and they were all pretty close to the same. In the type of test I was given, I wouldn't be considered a genius (Extremely High) but instead "superior," which would keep me out of Mensa, but who cares. Being smart is nice, and for sure, when it comes to conceptual understanding of abstract concepts and problem solving, I'm good. The two most important things that I have learned about what it means to be significantly above average but not in the top couple of the percent is that hard work matters more than intelligence most of the time and a couple of percent difference between me and a genius can be noticeable in somewhat extreme ways in the proper contexts. Still, the world is designed to be operated by ordinary people. So normal people who work hard can beat more intelligent people consistently in all but a few specialized disciplines.
Smart and intelligence are two different things to me. Smart is knowledge (What you learn throughout schooling) while Intelligence is more innate (You're born with). You can be smart, but not intelligent. You can be intelligent, but not smart.
@@friedstein4289 sure. I could except those definitions. I have raw computational and abstract thinking power. I could that with a significant amount of education and many certifications.
This was the video most people needed but didn't realize it🔥
Wow this is profound. I had a similar experience.
Good call ! I work in software - the most dangerous person on the team is the one who thinks he/she is smarter than they actually are - they are the one who will take a piece of work away confident that they can do it, won't take advice, won't let anyone else see what they are doing, will continue to tell you that everything is under control - right up to the last minute when they will have a nervous breakdown and you will miss your deadline. Recognising your own capabilities and knowing when to take advice or reach out for help makes you a much stronger and more useful team member.
Fuck this is me but worse 💀I live on D’s through college almost done in 4 weeks 😭
My problem was a little bit opposite: Imposter Syndrome.
Feeling like I need to learn more and more tech and THEORY set me back so hard. I grew depressed and procrastinated and fucked up. I am currently on a road of desperation and your stories have helped me a lot (made me feel not alone) and I'm happy to see you successful. Now I know you really just go for it and you learn on the job for the most part.
"I'm smart but I can become smarter" is the better mindset. I'm not talking about fluid intelligence, I'm talking about crystallized intelligence. With more crystallized intelligence, you will be able to finish tasks at a faster rate. You have :realized something but it's just the tip of the iceberg, nevertheless you're on the right track.
I grew up being smart but at some point to need to add effort in order to succeed, and I also thought I was going to become a hard worker magically, but then I realized that no, you have to actively sacrifice yourself.