It is only difficult to deal with average people if you believe yourself to be above them and look down on them.

You only annoy people by asking questions at inappropriate times, if you were really that much smarter then you would know when to ask and when to shut it.

I don't know how you would measure the acceptance of traditions but off the cuff Stanford, MIT and other places where high IQ people tend to congregate seem to enjoy their traditions as much or more than more middling schools.

Sounds like a personal problem.

Nope regular joes find work boring too, just look at all the pulp fantasy stuff made to distract the common man.

The main problem with a high IQ seems to be it is easier to fall in to a narcissist trap of thinking you are somehow different from the common man just because you can add a little faster.

Nonsense. Unless you are going to insist on two things: that everyone has the same cognitive capacity, within some delta; assuming the first, that anyone in a conversation who leaves anyone else behind in understanding is at least a narcissist, and possibly otherwise degenerate.

People don't get difficult just because you are intentionally condescending to them. People learn at different rates, people reason at different rates, and some people take the mere acknowledgment of this fact as condescending and narcissistic. They also take the fact that a conversation amongst friends went down a particular thread faster than they could keep up as a sign they are being patronized and degraded. Social etiquette would dictate that the conversation always slow down to the point that everyone keeps up, but that has its own drawbacks, not the least of which that it turns being able to think and reason fast into a psychosis -- so this looking down upon can go both ways, and usually does if even behind the veil of social propriety. Neither party is guilt-free here.

You only annoy people by asking questions at inappropriate times, if you were really that much smarter then you would know when to ask and when to shut it.

As I pointed out in a different thread here, what happens in the case when the inappropriate time is unreasonably restrictive -- for instance, there is no appropriate time. Are you really going to assert that a smart person show unwavering obedience? Do you realize the consequences of such a philosophy?

I'm not defending the OP; I think his list of correlations is presumptuous. However, the responses here (so far) are likewise very presumptuous about the poster -- perhaps it is to dose the poster with his own medicine, but that it is done under the auspices of discussion social skills is quite ironic. I really wish this were not the standard knee-jerk reaction of the community to these sorts of posts.

Are you really going to assert that a smart person show unwavering obedience?

Who said anything about obedience? Not being an offensive jerk is something we should all aspire to achieve(Not quite there yet but I try). If a question has no appropriate time then I suggest that the question is more than likely naive and with little more thought\research to couch it in more scientific terms could be an acceptable question at some more private moment. Anyway asking questions at inappropriate times is usually unlikely to get you an answer so all the asking has done is make you look like a jerk and not satisfied your curiosity in any way.

Blaming your high IQ for your lack of social graces A) Is an easy cop out, to you know, actually developing them. B) Makes you look bad because the other high IQ people have gotten over it and learned how to make friends with us lowly common folk.

Sorry if it comes off as callow but I have dealt with more average people with the I am so smart chip on their shoulder than actual smart people with it, so much so that as soon as the I am so smart dance starts your IQ drops a few points in my eyes.

Unrealistic expectations of what you can accomplish points to a lack of self-knowledge.

Difficulty in dealing with average people is a social skills issue, but 'average' and 'below average' people might have that same problem.

More likely to question things and annoy people in the process is again a social skills issue, really clever people can work out lots of stuff without having to ask for it, and when they do it's a matter of timing, tact and packaging.

Less likely to accept traditions again has nothing to do with IQ, but if you are smart you may be better able to argue for yourself why you do not wish to follow traditions. To be in other peoples face for not accepting traditions would be another social skills issue.

Less likely to enjoy the simple pleasures in life is not at all limited to people with high IQ.

Less likely to find a job as an employee rewarding depends on what you define as an employee. If you think a full professor at a university is an 'unrewarding' position because you are an employee then you probably have other issues.

Seriously, I can't see any of those problems related to having a high IQ per se.

The way the original posted phrased this, I don't believe he meant so much asking questions to clarify something obscure, but more accurately to stress something inconsistent or inaccurate. There are two aspects to this: noticing the inconsistency, and then notifying others. As I understand it, pattern recognition is something at least moderately related to intelligence. Revealing that pattern to others, and choosing when and how, is much more a matter of following social protocol, which may go even as far as to dictate that such patterns never be revealed.

Difficulty in dealing with average people is a social skills issue, but 'average' and 'below average' people might have that same problem.

This leads to a what I think difficult question that in general seems to have a suspiciously certain answer: when is it appropriate to disregard social etiquette and protocol? The obvious answer is: never, because no good ever comes from people being annoyed and offended.

This seems suspiciously clear-cut, and historically inaccurate. I can think of a number of very detrimental philosophies that would still be adhered to today if everyone's foremost goal was to never cause offense, far more detrimental than the offense fighting against them may have been.

Provided that there is some correlation between intelligence and noticing abnormalities in patterns, this point ties back to the first, in that the person deemed difficult may just be seeing a pattern that few others are able to see, and as a result of continually bringing up aspects of that pattern are considered difficult and a lackluster teammate.

I don't think just saying "stop being such an anti-social dickhead" is an all-inclusive solution. Further more, I don't think we want it to be when thinking about long-term concerns.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11224/11224-h/11224-h.htm

e.g.

Matt Damon: It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

Marilyn Monroe: 'It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.'

Mae West: It's better to be looked over than overlooked.

Steve Jobs: It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.

- em forster

* Terman's Gifted Kids: http://www.amazon.com/Termans-Kids-Groundbreaking-Study-Gift...

* Harvard : http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness

For example, if your IQ is say 145, the way you communicate when talking will in some sense be fundamentally different from someone whose IQ is less than 115 or greater than 175. This is not to say that its impossible, only that it actually takes cognitive effort to translate what you're saying into a suitable cognitive frame of reference for the other person's consumption. This is similar to the difficulties in communicating with someone from a completely different cultural background, albeit different details.

I think that if you really understand stuff you can explain it to just about anybody, no matter how big the gap. This may take a lot of time and hard work but both parties willing it should be possible.

To feel that you are improving, you must continuously challenge yourself and decide to take the helm of your life. A high IQ gives you more opportunities, and thus a bigger challenge of creating the feeling that you are succeeding.

* labeling your expectations "unrealistic" may be a sign of fear of failure. Stretch yourself ever further.

* it's difficult for average people to deal with intelligent people too. Put some effort into your side of the situation.

* there's more to everything than meets the eye or any logical analysis. If you think questioning something could annoy someone, analyze instead why is that so and formulate a different question.

* it's hard enough to communicate simple ideas clearly among a large group. Traditions are a simple and effective way of keeping social cohesiveness, and realize this is important. Realize too that most progress comes from single, highly motivated individuals and not from "traditional" people. Live your social life, and life your intellectual life; don't mix when inappropriate.

* enjoying the simple pleasures of life takes understanding the value in simple things. Higher IQ gives the capability of seeing this value in the most surprising ways. Again, a high IQ individual is not easily satisfied. Put some effort in seeking pleasurable, deep ideas.

* nobody finds a job as an employee rewarding.

I had a terrible sports injury, damage to the cartilage in my left knee a few years back. Left me not able to do a great many things I used to, and I have to be cautious on all the rest. I've got to stretch 10 minutes a day or my leg starts hurting. For a while, I could barely walk - I was taking industrial-strength doses of anti-inflammatories and doing physical therapy, icing my leg nightly.

For a while, I called the few minutes I hurt my leg "the worst 10 minutes of my life", because it seemed to be massively inconvenient and painful on a long term basis, with absolutely no gain whatsoever.

And yet, somehow, I took a great many lessons from it with time. I do everything slower and more deliberately now, I pay close attention to my health, I floss, I take care of my back. A bit embarassing to say so, but it severely limited what I could do in the bedroom - but the irony is, it made me a better lover. I lost all variety, because any position that came from weight on my knees I couldn't do for more than a minute of a time. All the strength and power had to come from my arms, shoulders, and maybe a touch from my hips. But losing all variety, and being limited to just a couple ways of making love - it gave me an immense amount of practice and forced me to think really critically. I'd say I'm probably a better lover now, injured, than I ever was before fully healthy.

Ironic huh? IQ clearly has a lot of benefits, but sure, a lot of downsides too. In the end, it's what you make of it and how you think of it. Here's the scene from Hamlet:

http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/nothing-either-good...

Hamlet: What have you, my good friends, deserv'd at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?

Guildenstern: Prison, my lord?

Hamlet: Denmark's a prison.

Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.

Hamlet: A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.

Rosencrantz: We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet: Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

I've always wanted to be an engineer, and that's the career I've chosen and am still working in. Along the way, I learnt five foreign languages, studied psychology, philosophy, sociology, political science. Acquired the equivalent of an MBA with better than professional knowledge of accounting, marketing and sales. Read about 30-40 books on history, architecture, geography, geology, astronomy, etc per year.

AND ... from all of this I've learned to listen actively when in conversation with others and ask leading, insightful questions based upon my broad knowledge and listen more. I've learnt more from such conversations than from all the courses and reading.

A high IQ is like a high performance computer, you can use it to play some computer game or decode DNA, synthesise treatments for diseases, explore the mysteries of quantum physics and lots more. You have been given the power, now choose wisely...