How often are you complemented on your intellect or made to feel smart?

20 comments

1. Most days

2. Once/twice a month. I am a resident expert in my field. I work alot with clients and stakeholders that lack hands on knowledge. When I explain stuff to them I tend to blow them away.

3. Never, and for good reason lmfao

4. [removed]

5. Whenever I ask people what they think of me. But idk what gives that impression. What means more to me is when people call be funny. That one always makes me warm inside

6. I’m still unsure where I lie on the intelligence spectrum – somewhere between moderately intelligent and stupid. Getting a ‘good question’ response after asking a question makes me feel smart.

7. Every day at work. The team I work for (2 people) are heavily invested in making me the best version of myself I can be at work. They start every review of my work by saying what I’ve done right and then they explain the changes they’re making and the why. And they’re always super careful to say that I’ve done a great job and it’s small things that I’m not expected to know yet.

   I’ve been with these two for nearly a year and not a day goes by without some helpful critique and compliment. I know my worth thanks to them.

8. Fairly often. I prefer those compliments over physical ones.

9. Once a month

10. Directly? Not often. Indirectly, I get the most challenging assignments at work. Speaks for itself.

11. Reasonably regularly. I’m pretty early in my career, and a lot of people have been very complimentary of me or my work for the last few months. I kind of feel lost at sea and out of my depth a lot of the time, so I’m not 100% sure if they’re genuine compliments or if people are sensing my anxiety/imposter syndrome. Either way it’s extremely helpful.

12. That’s the most common type of compliment my man gives me and I absolutely adore it.

13. I feel smart most of the days just talking with people in general

14. Just the other day a friend said to me, “why are all the intelligent women I know into true crime and serial killers!?” It made me feel good. I was talking about a recent true crime podcast story I was listening to

15. I work with toddlers. I’m basically treated like a god every day. 😂

16. Often enough…maybe every few days.

17. Maybe once or twice a month or so, on average.

    More if I’m expressing stress about something they feel is related to intelligence (tests, certain life problems, job interview, etc.) Other triggers include solving a problem they didn’t see a solution to or giving them great advice.

18. Quite often

19. Rarely. Maybe once a year. Maybe

20. Made to feel smart: daily, because I make my living doing things only a smart person could do, and doing them very well in comparison to all of my competitors (when there are competitors – some of the things I’m doing are completely unique).

    Complimented on my intellect: almost never. Honestly like two or three times in 48 years. I’ve had people *observe* that I’m smart in a clinical sense, for example by introducing me in grade 12 to a whole lifetime of IQ testing scores from public school, then demanding to know why I’m skipping most of my classes and not going to university, then being pissy because I’m not interested.

    But that’s not a compliment. That’s still a diss. It’s just “you’re far too stupid to know what’s best for you – let me explain everything you’re doing wrong”, repackaged for unusually smart girls.

    I realize I totally deserve my impending screen cap for r/iamsosmart, but this is also an accurate representation of my actual life. Some people are unusually good at solving the kind of puzzles they tend to make IQ tests out of, and I happen to be one of those people.

    But as a woman that’s almost never in my whole life led to a “compliment.”

    My mom told me in my twenties she was worried about my romantic prospects, because she’s also very smart, and she’d learned over the course of her short dating career (before meeting my insufferable MENSA member dad) that men *need* to believe they’re smarter than the women they date. And she just couldn’t see that happening, because my public schools told her my test scores too.

    Fortunately I eventually found a man who is just as smart, but who doesn’t feel like he needs to be smarter than me. Both the “compliments” I’m thinking of over the course of my 48 years on this planet came from him.