What is definitely NOT a sign of intelligence but people think it is?
Certainty. People who are actually intelligent are aware of how much they don't actually know, so they tend to choose their words carefully and couch their responses with caveats. Less intelligent people perceive this as uncertain or lacking confidence.
Exactly. The intelligent ones may be seen as slow because they had to actually think about an answer rather than instantly parrot the programmed response.
This makes me feel so much better because I get so insecure about how slowly I tend to speak at times. People’s attention spans are shorter now and I can feel them waiting for me to finish😪 I’m just taking my time!!
People don't like a thoughtful answer, they want a fast answer, now. I have to blurt out, I'm thinking!
what if someone has a 126 IQ (professor, engineer), yet talks slow like Moses in the bible? I meant that the aforementioned IQ would be on par with those jobs - I'm an actuary, suits me well.
U just gave me a flashback of community college when I was talking to this girl I just met a kinda liked, at one point she said “u talk really fast.” Right then it kinda dawned on me and I told her something like ‘I try to get everything out b4 I feel like the person I’m talking to is sick of hearing me speak.’
Depends on if that is actually why you’re speaking slowly lol
Even among thinkers, there are still quicker thinkers/more succinct answers
Oh definitely. I can certainly riff and have quit wit and be direct, but slower and meandering in other settings. In a casual, relaxed conversation I find it frustrating because there’s no pressing deadline for an answer, but I still get the feeling like I’m being rushed to the finish line. I’m not monotoned molasses like the old school PBS Dinosaur show guy from Mrs. Doubtfire, just thoughtfully paced 🤔
I cringe so hard when I hear my manager blurt out stuff that is so unrealistic and often downright wrong AND stupid sounding, yet always said with so much confidence that hardly anyone objects. Sometimes I say afterwards that it was very exaggerated and not even true or not the case or didn't meet the point, but the reply usually is: whatever, they took it.
In the business world, if you want to succeed, it seems you need to be like this. Cocksure and full of yourself. They don't want thinkers and people who speculate. They don't want to hear "maybe". They want to hear "yes we can do it", and if you stand in front of them naked and talk about how amazing your clothing is, they will praise it, because they want to be fooled like this and want to believe the bullshit. Because that is less effort and everyone is just covering for the next idiot, never openly admitting what a shit show it is because that would not guarantee their salary.
Just look at the Biden/Trump debate tonight.
they had to actually think about an answer rather than instantly parrot the programmed response.
The thing that infuriates me is that literally everyone has more than enough potential to do this, but instead so many choose to regurgitate talking points that were intentionally designed to polarize. People in this country generally seem unaware (to me at least) of the extent that psychoanalysis is overtly applied to literally everything in American culture. What we need now more than ever is what every society benefits from- social cohesion.
The polarizing rhetoric and deliberate misinformation from "trustworthy sources" is what keeps people from having real conversations IMO. A true discussion about anything should enlighten both parties as to what each other actually knows and understands- not hearsay.
I think intelligent as well as wise people can talk fast if they're external processors but they're thinking outloud and refining as they go, and open about it. You will see refinement and clarification ans editing outloud as they talk.
I'd say there are caveats to it all. I have a PhD in microbiology where I did virology work and was familiar with coronaviruses but had never personally worked on them, but virology is kinda like snowflakes, they are all different but also kinda the same.
During COVID, extremely basic parts of virology and subsequent vaccinations were getting twisted and I kinda had to just put down my foot with whatever authority I could muster to say "with certainty" quite a bit of things.
It actually really sucked, because sometimes there was nuance that I would avoid because it complicated the whole explanation, but you can't give someone 8 years of education in a short conversation. I ended up just saying "trust me" a lot as well, which, is kind of shitty.
I wouldn't consider myself an expert on coronaviruses whatsoever, my only real experience was SARS and MERS test cases and potential respiratory epidemics/pandemics from them that I studied late in undergrad. But I'm much more of an expert on the topic than 99% of people, and I can speak the language and comprehend the primary research as well, so I ended up knowing a bit more about it and having a bit more confidence in the information I was relaying... but a lot of it is just explaining how science works and "we don't know" is the basis of science.
I need someone in unsolicited conversation to tell my wife this.