Brilliant...but lazy....

[Vault101]

this just a random nitpick I guess


[small/]dear god TVtropes I used to respect you[/small]


this is something I see quite a bit online, the person who is very very smart yet due to lazyness and or attitude they do not try...or get by on bare minimum...or do ok without effort but "could totally do better"

and this attitude really really REALLY pisses me off for a few reasons I think

[b/]1. I call bullshit[/b] I get the impression this may in fact be a "cover" for people, they never have to try, so they never have to fail. They can sit there with a sense of smug supirioty without ever having to show anything for it, its a delusion that's very easy to have among a certain demographic of people *cough*. I get the feeling if half of thease people actually tried they'd realise they were in fact normal and not super special (of coarse I think in some cases the dedication and will to work for it is just as important as the ability being htere in the first place.)

[b/]2. its nothing to be proud of[/b] even if there was truth in the statement, again as I said, the dedication and will to work towards being "brilliant" is just as important. I don't see it as a bragging point because I think personally I just see it as wasting what you have...[b/]and acting like its a fucking good thing[/b]...or I dont know..some kind of "cool and rebellious" thing...

now I admit I am by no means perfect, I've been burned before by my own lazyness and attitude not to different from this, mabye its a kind of jealously really,

so what do you think? do you know anyone like this? do you agree/disagree?

 

[RedFeather1975]

There are brilliant people out there who are completely incompatible with what this world demands. Attack their sense of pride, threaten them, or make them hurt because they don't contribute. Whatever lines you want to cross. It's both desperate and futile.
Now go and burn with rage. Just feel that anger and need to spite consume you.

 

[Keoul]

I think the word complacent would describe these people quite well...
Then again maybe it's from being smart in their early years that lead to their laziness. They've always aced their tests and always got great marks, they don't realize that things will get harder and without studying or "trying" they WILL fall behind.

I'm kinda like that XD Trying hard to get out of old habits but it's still there...

 

[Vault101]

There are brilliant people out there who are completely incompatible with what this world demands. Attack their sense of pride, threaten them, or make them hurt because they don't contribute. Whatever lines you want to cross. It's both desperate and futile.
Now go and burn with rage. Just feel that anger and need to spite consume you.

I know that people with insane intelligences can have "issues" in other areas in regards with being able to function in day to day life....(weather than be from mental illness or conditions like autism or ADHD)

I'm talking about people who don't have serious issues, mabye a bit socially awkward or not fitting in...but not stuff that makes every day hard

 

[Joccaren]

Being one of these people...

1. Kinda. I will go into class with no idea what a test is on and pull out a 70-80%, having not listened in class nor read the text book, or taken notes. Others in my class study hard, and get similar marks. Yet more study, and get 80s,90s, and occasionally 100s. I know I could do better, because its impossible for me not to. I get to a test with no idea what half the terms even are that its talking about, yet if I had so much as listened in class I would have at the very least a basic understanding of them. Do I count myself as especially intelligent? Not really. There are people smarter than me, there are people dumber. On the grand scale, I'm presently probably slightly above average, if I tried I don't know how high I could go, though I don't delusion myself into thinking I am a mastermind of any sort. I just think differently to a significant number of people, and am able to pick up and understand most things instantly because of this. It gives me an advantage, but I wouldn't think its that great.
Also, I am dedicated to work when its something I choose to do. Put a wage at the end of whatever the goal is, or something interesting for me to think about and discover, and you'll find it hard to stop me from trying. Most of the time, there is nothing interesting at the end.

2. Agreed. I am completely wasting what I have, but I'm somewhat happy with that. Why? I have an absolute ton of free time because of it. Think of every time you've ever studied in your life. Now, add that time to free time because you simply understand it all and don't need to study, and your memory is great and will remember it until you need it. If you've ever spent a night preparing for a test, spent your time in class listening to what the teacher was saying, gone home and gone through the questions in the book and tried to understand them - that is all time that I have spent doing what I love and enjoy doing, and living my life.
TBH though, it also worries me. There is a time very quickly approaching during which I will need to try, even for the things that I couldn't care less about, and I'm not sure whether I can do it or not. Well, I know I can do it, rather whether I am willing to do it or not.

As for jealousy... I'm not entirely sold on that one. Maybe more resentment, or something similar. I have teachers, students, and random people I barely know who dislike me because I never have to try, and teachers especially I find it somewhat hard to believe would be jealous of my ability to pick things up. I think its more a natural reaction to dislike someone who doesn't try, as they don't seem to contribute, regardless of whether this is true or not.

 

[Terratina.]

About last week, got 71% on a test I did hardly no revision for, but last summer, failed the proper exams because of general laziness. Some people are just stupidly, epicly smart. Not me. The one person I do know that's like this mostly expects herself to fail every exam she's taken. Most of the time she's pleasantly surprises by her results though.

Got about all A's in GCSE with some effort, but got some B's as well due to lack of effort with coursework. I learned the hard way:

Failed to prepare? Prepare to fail.

All you're doing with studying is creating a sort of 'safety net' in case that exam day is a bad day, so do bother. These people are just hiding behind their smugness, if they bother you, just ignore them and focus on you and your life.

 

[Jonluw]

I am sort of like the people you describe.
I was always able to get an A or B while putting minimal effort into things like homework.

This meant that when I got to a level where simply paying attention in class and trying to understand things intuitively wouldn't cut it, my grades started dropping a bit.
And I never managed to do anything about it, because my way of doing schoolwork was just too ingrained in me.
I'd always tell myself "next week is when I start putting effort into school", but I never came around to it.
It's a pity too. I'm sure I could have managed better grades than what I ended up with.

But in the end it doesn't matter.
There are more important things than grades in the world. I was dealing with depression for a decent bit of my last few years of school, and by the end of upper secondary I'd reached a personal philosophy which I consider more or less necessary for me to live without being strangled by depression.
I want to live my life now, not in some hypothetical "10 years into the future" that I'm planning towards. I don't want to sacrifice the first 30 years of my life just so the remaining 50 can go smoothly.
I'm getting the impression that you're condemning me for not putting grades as my number one priority.
Maybe you should consider the idea that not everyone considers school the most important thing in their life, even if they have a talent for it.

Additionally, joking about the situation may look to you like they think their attitude is 'cool' or some shit, but at least in my case (and I suspect in most others), it's a case of these people being too used to being able to score straight As without studying for them to simply start putting a lot of effort into studying.
What I'm saying is, most of these people have probably tried fixing their laziness and their 'attitude' with poor results.
When you're talking to them on the internet, you're talking to a person who has given up fixing their 'laziness' and come to accept it. As such, they joke about it and make references to their situation as a way to come to terms with it. They're not trying to appear cool (at least I'm guessing most of them aren't). They're just telling the internet about how stupid their situation is.

Most of them aren't trying to be smug. It's less "I'm so cool because I don't put effort into school" and more "Heh, looks like I can't bring myself to change my situation. Well, might as well joke about it."

 

[RedFeather1975]

Sorry, Vault101. I think I misinterpreted what this topic was about.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, I'm sorta one of these people.

I could do way better at the talent that I have, but I'm just kind of spent. I used to do way better when I was younger and more hopeful and motivated, but I've grown tired and my mentallity has simply changed.

Now I just use my talent for my own peace of mind, and I no longer try to compete for a place in the spotlight.

I never act like it's a good thing though, because I still wish I could do more, but as it stands I've thrown in the towel.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I'd never claim myself to be 'brilliant' in general. However, I do excel in my own fields.

I agree with you that it's irritating when you see really gifted people doing just the minimum amount to get by, partly out of jealousy I admit. If I've worked really hard to get an above average score in a test, it doesn't do morale any favours to see someone who couldn't care less come and make me look like my efforts were wasted because I'll never be as good as them.

On the other hand however, I do symapthise with some of them to an extent. I also have things that I could be much better at then I am if I really applied myself, but I don't, because to really excel at something you need more than just natural ability, you need passion, and there are some things that I am naturally gifted for but have never been able to summon any kind of impetus to care. I also think the school environment, especially in later years, doesn't help. I remember getting to the stage in my final year where I looked back through everything I'd done before, back through the times where I was super enthusiastic and competitive over everything I did, and all it seemed to show me was that if you really try and succeed, there's no prize over the horizon, just another, harder challenge, stretching as far as the eye could see.

I couldn't see all my efforts amounting to anything substantial and positive. All they seemed to be doing was making me miserable with stress. I just felt worn out, meaning that doing just enough to get by, and having no-one expect any more of you, seemed like the more attractive option.

 

[bluepilot]

Brilliant buy lazy? Hmm, a chocolate fondue hat so that when you tip you head forward warm chocolate goo runs down your face and into your mouth...

ha ha, OT: The brilliant but lazy people tend to peak early in life. There comes a point where even they have to start working hard but they never learned how to so they fall behind and never quite manage to catch up. There are of course exceptions, but these tend to be the people who find something that can occupy their brilliant minds for more than 5 seconds.

I think that success is more linked to strength of will than talent.

I am one of those people who does not have any natural talent so I had to work hard to achieve everything. I do not begrudge those with natural ability though, those types have their own mountains to climb.

 

[Evilpigeon]

I have serious problems with self motivation. I did extremely well academically until I hit 6th form and the subjects I was studying became complex enough that I had to work to understand them, I'd never had to do that before. I was at one of the best rated schools in the country and I quickly ended up somewhere near the bottom of the year and rather depressed because I was failing both socially and academically (at least in comparison to everyone else in my year, my final IB grades are equivalent to AAB A levels, I was somewhere near the bottom.) It's a couple of years later and I'm having to take a year off to try to fix my issues before I make a second pass at university because I simply cannot make myself work.

I am clever and I'm proud of that but right now it looks like I'm going to end up being smart whilst flipping burgers and dying alone unless I can actually find some way to make myself do something about it.

 

[mad825]

Vanity is so easy to commit but so hard to prove.

 

[MetalMagpie]

I'm not super-intelligent, so I've always had to work hard to achieve. Whilst it would be lovely to believe that I'm not reaching my full potential (and that I'm a secret genius really) I know it's not true. I hit my academic limit some time ago.

On the other hand, hard work meant that I outperformed a number of my much more intelligent friends at university. (Including one who was always having to explain difficult concepts to me!) Life isn't all about brains. Some times it's about hard grind and knowing when to admit that you need help.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

I don't think i'm "brilliant" by any stretch of the imagination, but I am told constantly by my teachers that i've got some sort of potential that i'm never quite able to unlock. Art is the only subject I think i'm actually working at anything near my full potential, just not my full capacity. In Art (and Animation) i'm just being told to work faster.

 

[Sexy Devil]

I'm somewhat guilty of this kind of crap. I think the longest I've ever paid attention in lectures is a minute - I want to, I just can't. Actually genuinely think there might be something mentally wrong with me in this regard but I've never really mentioned it to anyone so I've never gotten checked out. This is also the primary reason that I rarely read.

Of course my response to this shortcoming is to spend ridiculous amounts of time doing hands-on work (if I read notes for more than a minute I zone out too so I just do work and read sections as they become relevant) until I'm absolutely certain I have it all down. Gets me consistent 90s so I must be doing something right.

 

[Sun Flash]

I don't try because trying doesn't get me better results. Don't get me wrong, I don't half ass my work or anything but I'm also not falling over myself trying to make my coursework perfect.

If I study really hard in a subject, I'll score somewhere in the low A/High B area and be disappointed I didn't ace it. On the other hand, if I don't stress myself over it and just do what is required of me, I can usually get a mid/high B. I genuinely think I've tapped out academically. I can't do much better than I'm already doing.

Right now, I'm on course for a 2:1 or a 2:2 in Uni and honestly? I'm happy with that. I'm tired of studying. I've currently got a job that I'd prefer to do full time and plans after Uni that don't necessarily need a qualification. The only reason I'm still studying is because I'm three years into a four year course and choosing to duck out now would just be a complete waste of three years. I may as well get something out of it.

 

[DrDuckman]

I love how all of you are so special and unique and all, but are just held back. I am sure it's very comforting. Does it not surprise anyone that apparently everyone here thinks they are slightly above average intelligence? Is the escapist some sort of bright beacon of intelligence, gathering up all the poor lost brilliant souls that just could not apply themselves? I think not.

I call bunk, I think it's less smarts and more an ability to bluff your way through academia until things get serious. Having being both on the student and on the teaching side of the classroom, I know how easy it is to bluff, and I know it does not really help you when you actually need to apply that knowledge, which certainly does not happen at uni.