<p>Have you ever seen an unimpressive person write an extremely insightful essay/forum post? (one that you clearly aren’t fully capable of making?) By unimpressive, I mean that s/he normally seems to act stupid in front of you (or has poor grades and didn’t seem to be too intelligent otherwise). </p>
<p>And if so, did that totally change your perception of him/her? Or did you find a way to believe that you could have done the same thing?</p>
<p>Yup. For many people, I didn’t think “Wow, they’re smart” when I first met them but I saw their essays and was really impressed with how they presented their topic. </p>
<p>I think we underestimate people a lot when it comes to intelligence… I haven’t really met someone who was really, really stupid. Paris Hilton even has good insight sometimes. =]</p>
<p>Yup. For many people, I didn’t think “Wow, they’re smart” when I first met them but I saw their essays and was really impressed with how they presented their topic. </p>
<p>I think we underestimate people a lot when it comes to intelligence… I haven’t really met someone who was LEGITIMATELY stupid. Paris Hilton even has good insight sometimes. =]</p>
<p>or maybe I just haven’t gotten out a lot.</p>
<p>Happens all the time, I think it’s because people act a lot more vapid a lot more frequently than they probably should. Social expectations or whatever.</p>
<p>Additionally, I don’t necessarily think good insight is reserved for the intellectually elite. Average people can have experiences that give them good insight that someone without such an experience could not have. Observant people don’t have to be smart. It’s usually the people who appear to be unobservant and apathetic to the world that tend to surprise me with an insightful essay, not so much “unimpressive people”.</p>
<p>Yeah. Like just off the top of my head if I met say Kanye West or Eminem in person I’d be like, “You’re an idiot,” but a lot of their lyrics are, if not masterful, at least very incisive and clever and sometimes even poetic. I couldn’t write lyrics like that…</p>