Brain Attraction

Have you ever met someone that is really just a little "too smart" for his/her own good? You know the type I'm talking about...smart as hell (book/IQ wise), thinks he/she is better than the other 98% of the population that aren't Mensa members, but have the social graces of a pissant cat.

Are they really that intelligent if they can have conversations using only desk calendar Words of the Day in an effort to confuse the Hell out of the other party and show-off his/her vocabulary? Or that they're so close-minded that they refuse to learn about anything new because if he/she hasn't heard of it, then it's obviously just for the rest of us dumbasses?

I'm so much more impressed by an individual whose intelligence comes out in a natural way versus an "in your face" type of approach. This example is probably best illustrated by the exchange between Matt Damon and the Harvard-Pony-Tail-Guy in Good Will Hunting (according to IMDB, the character's name is Clark). Clark tries to make Ben Affleck's Chuckie look stupid in front of Minnie Driver's Skylar by asking Chuckie's thoughts on Colonial American economics. Will (Damon) steps in with his ratty t-shirt, scuffed shoes and messy hair and verbally annihilates the guy.

Then you have those who always try to "one-up" you. Don't you just hate that? The type that no matter what you say, they always have some type of a comeback "yeah, but" or "well, actually." My favorite is when I'm on a date and the guy thinks it's apparently a "good thing" to make himself look better, while trying to make me look stupid. I'm not sure which annoys me more -- the fact that he does it or the fact that he thinks I'm not catching on to it. Tool.

The thing of it is that there are so many ways to determine intelligence in that there's the traditional IQ, book smarts, street smarts, common sense, artistic skills, mechanical skills, etc. And who's really to say that one is any better than the other? Can you imagine a world where we just have a bunch of Clarks running around?