5 Struggles Only Smart People Understand

Have you ever felt that if you were smarter, you would have fewer problems in your life? We’ve all wished for some more intelligence when we got a bad grade or made a dumb mistake. But did you know that high intelligence can cause its own problems? If you can relate to these struggles, you're probably smarter than you realize.

Writer: Brian Cham
Script Editor: Vanessa Tao
Script Manager: Kelly Soong
Animator: Naphia
YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong

References:
Damen, D., Van Amelsvoort, M., Van der Wijst, P., Pollmann, M., & Krahmer, E. (2021). Lifting the curse of knowing: How feedback improves perspective-taking. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(6), 1054-1069.
Holahan, C. K., & Holahan, C. J. (1999). Being labeled as gifted, self-appraisal, and psychological well-being: A life span developmental perspective. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 48(3), 161-173.
Li, N. P., & Kanazawa, S. (2016). Country roads, take me home… to my friends: How intelligence, population density, and friendship affect modern happiness. British Journal of Psychology, 107(4), 675-697.
Robson, D. (2019). The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes. WW Norton & Company.
Sakulku, J. (2011). The impostor phenomenon. The Journal of Behavioral Science, 6(1), 75-97.
Wiemann, C. (2007). The “curse of knowledge,” or why intuition about teaching often fails. APS News, 16(10).

[feufeu]

1 - You’re prone to imposter syndrome 0:26
2 - You’re often alone 1:12
3 - You’re stuck in 'analysis paralysis' 1:48
4 - You’re burdened by high expectations 2:33
5 - You can’t explain yourself to others 3:18

[MarcusAurelius]

Number 6: You're accused of being arrogant even when you're more likely to doubt yourself and more likely to respect others point of view.

[ComicalRealm]

"I summarize intelligence as two things: memory and logic. What you know and how you are able to use what you know
" - Lisa Simpson

[jellybean]

I actually thought my analysis paralysis meant I was stupid. Listening to this perspective on it made me feel really happy.

[neofulcrum]

Self esteem and intelligence are a deadly combo.

[NathalieLazo]

This message is for someone who needs to hear this and will fully understand it... You are not define by your circumstance or your past. It’s not what happened to you that determines your success in life; it is how you deal with those circumstances that determines your success in life. You are strong, you are capable and practice forgiveness (Forgiveness is for you; forgive your parents or anyone whom we have chosen to hurt us, to begin the process of healing and freedom. Remember: Forgiveness is for you to be freed, healed and happy. It’s a RESET BUTTON) and practice gratitude everyday. This will change the course of your life forever. Love you always and I believe in you wholeheartedly no matter what ✨❤️ - Nat

[troubledoubleamr]

This is relatable. I've broken down multiple times when others don't get me, when others think I can't socialize and when others think I'm lying just because I can't explain.

[chynabarbieeeeee]

I always feel like I'm not very smart for my age and the kids at my school always bully me for this, I always enjoy watching psych2go because I've always felt connected to their videos and so much positivity.

[slgremory]

There's the usual argument of different types of intelligence (which I agree with), but I feel there's a second factor in intelligence: The willingness to learn more. Intelligent people in any field are always looking for ways to learn more.

[bazzfromthebackground]

Intelligence is "knowing how" to answer a question.
Wisdom is "knowing when" to answer a question.

[claire]

I once cried in elementary school when I got 99 in a test. I cried because I had always got perfect marks. I was scared that the first place is going to be taken by someone else. It was crazy now that I think about it. The drawback is, I didn't have time to develop my emotions and mental capacity in the past and now I suffer from it. I can't engage with my own emotions sometimes and I find it hard to express them as well.

[mr.wildride]

Also smart people often struggle talking period, when I'm in class my brain is overcomplicating an explanation and I can't speak properly and just mumble and freak out

[claire]

The last point about not being able to communicate with others about my thoughts is really relatable, and I want to understand more perspectives! Personally speaking, I find it frustrating and/or disappointing when I have spent so much time explaining things as thorough as I can, but people still don't seem to understand and just decide to give up listening eventually. I keep trying to offer chances for them to question me, but I don't understand why they decide to shut me off or switch the topic instead of picking on my ideas. How can I do better to communicate more effectively with people around me?

[UncleMyers]

I have ADHD and I believed for the longest time I was just stupid.
All of the work seemed easy for everyone else while I was struggling. But a lot of these are relatable and I'm glad they are.

[VioletyV]

4 of 5

Overthinking hurts so much, so I try to don't think about the future

[alsfishbarn]

It’s nice to have someone explaining what my life would be like if I was smarter.

[alexnothome]

Well, as a kid who has been labeled "gifted" in the past and unfortunately currently, I can indeed relate to all of these.

People think you have more confidence in yourself and your mood is more good than it actually is.

[betasquadmakesmelaugh]

This video is actually really well explained. Literally all of these points are things I've experienced. Especially 'being labeled as gifted', since people always think I take it as a compliment if they say I'm smart when it only adds up to the pressure. Like when I have a worse grade than I'd normally have my mom and dad sound disappointed, but if my sister had a bad grade, they'd understand it and comfort her. The point about not being able to explain yourself is also painfully relatable. When my IQ was tested (it happened during elementary school so it might changed idk how that works tbh) the results came out as 134 meaning I'm (idk how you say that in English. In Dutch we'd say 'highly intelligent'), but anyways, they said it was completely normal to feel that way. Sorry for the way too long comment and if my English is bad, I'm kinda tired at the moment (oh and peacefully and happily alone by myself😌)

[perrytheplate]

The last one is so true, when you are passionate about something, you form your own perspective on it so it’s often hard to communicate it to others, even when you have a lot of empathy

[notsocube]

10th grade student here. I've always related to these, and still is somewhat of a perfectionist but everything got better.

I got burnt out and lost my will to do everything perfectly. I feel like I threw everything down into the sink. At first, I felt like I'm disappointing everyone but after sometime I thought, you know what.... It's the best thing I've ever felt since forever. I cram all my week worth of school work in one go, from 8pm to 5am (modular learning since it's still lockdown cause of pandemic). The projects look terrible but I accepted that I just need to pass lol. And all the other days and hours of the week is just cleaning the house and gaming and gaming and gaming. Gaming and watching streams in peace at night up to 4am, and waking up at 1pm.

Out of 100, I still get 96 in maths and everything else above 90 with 3 subjects a few numbers below 90 (we study 11 subjects in total, passing grade is 76 or above). Cramming is made for me lol. The acne and tiredness is a big problem tho, only if I don't sleep from 9pm-12noon once or twice a week. Dehydration is a problem too, so I have reminders set to drink water.

Cramming is the perfect learning schedule for me. Even tho schoolwork looks terrible compared to my perfect schoolworks back then, I couldn't really care less about it, neither do I care about what my parents think(their still loving and supportive ^-^). Loosening up so much is the best decision I ever made. I even have time to exercise, lose some weight, and get some body definition, aka muscles, although I don't need it to attract anyone since I'm asexual but it's still for Aesthetics✨ and look nice. Living my best, and unpressured life rn! I Really wanna be a buffed, bearded dude and make yassified videos to post with the label "Stan Twitter:" although this trend might go away before I even get my goal but still.