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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   521 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026

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I’m curious about another scenario. I went to a private school in NYC where not everyone, but probably 40-60% of people were pretty smart. It wasn’t hugely selective but because it has or at least had at that time a reputation as being more academic than the hippie private schools, had a large contingent of smart kids. I did OK, maybe 70-80th percentile but outside of English and History was never top of the class. I went to a competitive and selective but again not HYPS tier college.

So I have the interesting but probably common experience (including professionally) of being mostly in ‘my league’ my whole life intellectually. I meet people both smarter and dumber than me all the time.

I meet people both smarter and dumber than me all the time.

I clearly move in the wrong circles because it's fairly rare for me to meet people who are obviously smarter than me while unfortunately the other end is not nearly as rare. I've arranged my life so I can mostly deal with my peers on that level but unfortunately such selection isn't always possible at the workplace. Internet forums are of course a near complete disaster when it comes to that.

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