Is my brain functioning at a higher level?

Hubris mostly.
Can I ask how old are you?

i am 15

and btw i am not trying to build myself up, i am simply wondering if anyone else has noticed this themselves and if it is possible that humanity has reached a time when our brains may be developing more, even though it might not be that much.

@XOIIO
Ignore that “Hubris mostly.” Most teenagers feel this way, I used to think that none of my friends knew anything I didn’t know of any relevance. (Poor syntax structure)
I’m reading a book that’s closely relevant to this now, it’s about understanding about how much more is out there regarding knowledge. In your mid 20s your should feel that there is a mammoth amount to know and you know only a fraction of it.
Keep with it but as I said most teenagers feel this way.

But you can’t use capitals and punctuation in the right places!

Just kidding. Look up “low latent inhibition” and tell us if it sounds familiar.

Well, i felt and operated the same way, i still work the same way, but somehow i feel obsolete.

@quarkquarkquark this seem to be incredibly simmilar, i have noticed that i am more creative than people around me, and many other things i read in the wiki description.

The simple answer is – yes and no. When you are standing on a stepstool – yes.

@XOIIO
It’s a bad idea to diagnoses your own problems.

@Flutherings __

Ok, my sink is overflowing, my floors are getting damaged, my carpets ruined – I thought that I should turn the tap off. If I follow your advice, who should I turn to for help?

@XPOIIO, as a parent of a gifted child, I can say that if you’ve noticed this about yourself, good for you. This means you have no excuse not to take IB classes and college level courses, and expose yourself to as much education as you can. There is an army of people out there of all ages who can intellectually eat you for lunch; you just haven’t met them yet. Don’t waste whatever abilities you think you you may have.

Are you by chance a high school sophomore? What you are experiencing is very common during the sophomore year of high school.

@flutherings, i am not diagnosing for myself, i am simlply saying that this is simmilar.

@XOIIO flutherings, i am not diagnosing for myself, i am simlply saying that this is simmilar.

If you are so advanced, why can’t you spell similar? Truly bright people are autodidacts and don’t make errors like that.

@pandoraboxx yes, i am going into grade 10 in 2 weeks.

i am aware that there are many people that are much more intelligent than me. i do not deprive myself of education because i think i am smarter, in fact, i do quite the opposite. i try to learn as much as i possibly can, you can never know too much, and there is always more to learn.

Similar to what? It sounds like you have a high level of contextual or relational reasoning. Most people your age do not have that yet. It’s a good thing. People do get it with time and trial and error. It in itself is helpful, because it should stop you from making stupid personal decisions. You should be able to forethink consequences.

Watch Don’t Eat the Marshmallow

@darkscribe i have a perfectly logical explanation. my keyboard is quite old, and manny of the keys stick, causing errors in spelling. i check over my answer, but it is also 5:00 am, and i can not notice everything. just so that you dont say “you should be sleeping”, i have an issue with my sleep schedule, and i am stuck going to sleep at around 5:00 pm and waking up at around 4:00 am.

a perfect example, i saw the double n in the word many just as i pressed “answer!”

@XOIIO darkscribe i have a perfectly logical explanation.

Yeah, right. You did the same thing more than once and managed to type words with an “m” in them repeatedly without it happening elsewhere.

I think that I have got your number now. Thanks…

I’ll bet that if I met your parents they would tell me that you have an answer or an excuse for everything. Want to introduce us?

@pandoraboxx i will watch that as soon as i can, but my current PC does not support any sort of video or flash player (windows 95!)

@darkscribe this banter is a pointless waste of time, and I can see no further point in continuing this conversation. You are being immature, and I deem this conversation over. If you have no valid point, then i ask that you keep your opinions to yourself. Good day.

It seems from your report that you probably have a highly developed sense pf spatial relationships and logical intelligence. There are many, many types of knowledge and intelligence, including social, empathic and emotional forms. Since you have some areas down pat, you may want to identify some of the others and work on them so you are a truly intelligent person by the time you mature. Good luck with it!

@XOIIO If you have no valid point, then i ask that you keep your opinions to yourself.

I do have a valid point – you asked a question and I gave a valid response. You are not “a faster/ better thinker than many of the people around” you as you suggest. If so you wouldn’t make simple errors in communication. Or weak excuses when asked about them. I have a great deal of experience with “wunderkind”, child prodigies. You don’t meet the basic criteria – you are not an autodidact.

BTW, does that mean that you don’t want to introduce us?

I just want to chime in regarding your comment about logic – I really don’t want to actually have the discussion you were talking about, just to point out that any philosophical point is refutable, and we don’t ever speak of “winning” or “losing” debates.

And I know what DarkScribe means, I think – there is this compulsion to use words and grammar correctly. Not to say that this indicates I’m a wunderkind. Or anything in particular – just that I have to keep editing my answer until it is not only perfect grammatically, but also varied in word choice. This on an iPhone, mind you. just spent an extra 10 minutes editing this answer, which apparently is even harder to do on the new iPhone OS :( If you don’t have this compulsion, be glad.

@XOIIO: Similar; for the non-genuises here.
Infallible: Just for starters.

And do learn about parallel construction when writing sentences, please.

@darkscribe, it is not that i don’t want to introduce you, my mother simply does not have the time, and i am a bastard. (my mother never married my father, and i don’t know him)

might pertain to you.

The Lake Wobegon Effect

@ABoyNamedBoobs03: Good find.

I’m pretty good at taking stuff apart and putting it back together. I can visualize objects too. So this evolution actually took place over 31 years ago. So, my special snowflake you are good at one thing but the location of shift key still eludes you.

Why is it important for you to feel that you are better than other people?

All people have different talents and skills. Certainly, you are not the best at everything.

For example, you seem to have a long way to go in terms of developing empathy or compassion.

If you are as logical and bright as you think, perhaps you should do some research on self esteem or even look at narcissism.

Personally, I would find the idea of obsessing about my own cleverness a bit scary.

You may have a knack for doing some things better than your peers, but that doesn’t mean you are operating with higher brain function, just that you are better at that paticular thing. So let’s just call it different, not necessarily better.

Some people who are higly intelligent in one area, may not be very good when it comes to spelling/ grammar/punctuation. For instance, my SO has Asperger Syndrome, and tho he is extremely smart, he can’t write well at all, and often recieves the same type of teasing you have in this question .

Don’t worry so much about being smarter or better than those around you. Just be the best you possible. That’s what really matters.

Is this a recent feeling? Like were you feeling normal, and then, maybe over a period of a few months or even a year, you gradually found yourself thinking faster and faster? Or have you always felt this way?

Additionally, do you find yourself to be more irritable now? Are you getting into more fights with parents or siblings? Do things annoy you more than they used to?

Do you go on binges of any kind—buying a lot of stuff you don’t need. Hanging out late with friends, maybe drinking or smoking pot a lot?

And you don’t have to answer this publicly, but do you find yourself thinking about sex a lot, or even trying to get girls to fall in love with you, one after another? I.e., can you have a stable girlfriend, or have you blown through a lot of girls? I apologize if you are a girl. I was just thinking you sound more like a boy.

If any of this stuff rings a bell, feel free to pm me, too.

@daloon good catch
@XOIIO I have often had occasion to feel the same way. It is our fate in life that society is not tolerant of that kind of talk, in general. They get very nit-picky, such as pointing out errors in spelling and grammar. I think many people feel that to discuss our apparent differences somehow diminishes their accomplishment and talents. I have discovered to simply use the talents I have, and admire the ones I don’t in other people works better than talking about it in public. If you want further discussion in private, just click on my avatar.

@YARNLADY such as pointing out errors in spelling and grammar.

It isn’t picking yarnlady, it is a valid comment. Exceptionally bright people don’t make errors in spelling common words. If you spend some time with savants you will find them erudite and literate, even if they lack formal education. They learn very quickly and invariably have good memories.

@YARNLADY Wouldn’t that be starting a clique?

@DarkScribe And according to that kind of thinking, doctors would have perfect handwriting, also.

@YARNLADY, I see where you’re coming from and am tempted, frequently, to take the same position myself. Likewise with you, @DarkScribe. I think we’re having a communication problem here.

The issue with someone who claims to function at a higher intellectual level using bad grammar, spelling and punctuation is not that these issues evidence a deficit in reasoning. Exceptionally intelligent people find it easier to accomplish more mundane, everyday tasks—that is, they do simple things right. Failing to type correctly exhibits a kind of laziness, a forgetfulness to accomplish the simplest communication task that makes us wonder just how difficult it is for the writer to remember to do so. Like, @DarkScribe, I tend to take this kind of thing as evidence of lower functioning, but @XOIIO is describing a thought process that might not affect his typing ability.

@quarkquarkquark Yes, many people are either too non-conformist, or too lazy to try to be PC all the time. It is not a sign of intelligence either way.

I guess I should clarify—I believe that bad spelling and grammar are not indicative of lower intelligence, but rather that good spelling and grammar and frequently indicative of higher intelligence.

@jonhpowell the reason i don’t use proper spelling as much is because for around 2 months u used my Ipod Touch for everything, and got too used to auto-correct.

@marina, it is not important for me to feel better than anyone, i never put myself on a pedestal, and i do not obsess about my cleverness, i am simply trying to find out if people have noticed this themselves, and for any other information i can get on the subject. as for empathy and compassion, up until grade 9 (last year) i have only had one friend, and never talked to many people. i lack greatly in communication skills, because of this. i find it difficult talk to people normally, and often wreck a conversation because of this.

@XOIIO Considering your age, I believe my initial post was a little too harsh. I will point out that if this is something you talk about, it would not be among Dale Carnegie’s tricks for “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

Communication skills can be learned. You seem smart. Devote yourself to that at the same level you do to problem solving. Also, in high school, you will find a larger pool of like minds.

Finally, if anything in my wise friend @daloon‘s post resonated, I urge you to follow up on his offer of a PM.

here are your answers daloon.
1: I have always felt like this.
2: yes, I fight with my parents but I think at a usual level. I do get irritated, but by things being incomplete, sloppy or uneven (say for building lego, I want both sides to have the same color pattern). if I do something not to my liking, i can spend any amount of time trying to make it perfect, sometimes for hours.
3: i don’t buy things i don’t need/ wont use. I have very few friends, and only see them during school. i never or ever will drink/ smoke/ take drugs.
4: (yes I) am a male I rarely think about sex, I think that should be saved for marriage. I have never and probably nerver will have a girlfriend, I am not the most attractive/ desireable guy in the group, and for some reason, every girl i have ever met thinks chivalry is boring, and are not even close to being interested in what I do. I feel ?I am better off by myself anyway.

@scamp, interesting because i have mild aspurgers too, and often have trouble paying attention to… hey, what’s that? .... oh, where was I, oh yeah. I find it difficult to pay attention to boring, repetitive tasks.

@Marina You owe me and Daloon and everyone one this site who has ever used PM to help out a fellow jelly an apology.

@YARNLADY Thank you for yet another schoomarmish lecture. I am perfectly capable of determining when I owe anyone an apology. When I do, that person gets one.

@Marina there are probably some things worse than being a schoolmarm

@XOIIO: I was independently considering Asperger’s Syndrome. You clearly have the intelligence; maybe there are some groups or forums to help with the social skills. We have a flutherer who has AS and has discussed it openly, but I haven’t seen him/her for a while. I will PM Daloon with his/her name.

@YARNLADY And according to that kind of thinking, doctors would have perfect handwriting, also.

Why? Doctors are not particularly intelligent. I have two in my immediate family and neither is above average intelligence. As for handwriting, it has little to do with erudition, just expression. My reaction and interest in this is related to several years very intimate experience with savants. There are quite a number of common traits exhibited by them when in their teens, none of which I see here. I think that aboynamedboobs’ link is probably pretty close to the mark.

Well, @XOIIO, I’m glad to hear the answers to your questions, because I was worried about something that seems not to be the case. If you have mild aspergers, then you must have been diagnosed. Are you being treated in any way? Do you see a doctor as needed? Have you researched your condition to learn about it?

I have a cousin once removed who also has Aspergers. My cousin told me that he has been taking various classes aimed at helping people with Aspergers socialize more effectively. You probably have quite a few talents, or at least, something that really interests you, and perhaps you focus a lot on certain topics?

Folks, Learning tact is usually quite difficult for people with Aspergers. I don’t know what our friend, @XOIIO‘s situation is, but I think we would do well to learn more about it before we come down so hard on him. Asperger’s symptoms include difficulties with relationships and not being so good at empathy. They often say things straight out, calling them as they see them, and can have a difficult time seeing how they come across. It is something they can learn, but they have to focus intensely on it. There are classes for them. Things that most of us think are obvious are not at all obvious to people with Aspergers.

Anyway, back to @XOIIO. The things you describe are probably indicative of where your talents lie. You probably do have a greater facility with three-dimensional imagination than most people do. You probably do have a greater facility to use logic, however, like Dr. Spock, that may make you overlook the role that emotions play in other people’s lives.

So, for example, most people are brought up to be modest about things like intelligence. We are trained not to brag about it. Merely pointing it out can appear to be bragging to others. One way to avoid this kind of problem is to simply keep yourself to the facts, instead of adding normative terms such as “better” or “higher.” You think fast. You can visualize in three dimensions. Is this rare? Is there anyone here who is really, really good at that?

These are ways you can ask the things you want to know about without punching everyone’s buttons. (Does that metaphor mean anything to you?)

A lot of people here appear to think you are full of yourself—i.e., the Lake Wobegon Effect. However, since you seem to also be able to speak clearly about your weaknesses, such as assessing yourself as probably never having a girlfriend, I’m more inclined to believe that your way of talking about yourself is based on your observations, and not because you need to make yourself feel better about yourself.

I’m no expert on Aspergers. All I know is what I’ve picked up over the years—perhaps an article or two. So I could be very wrong in the way I’ve characterized it. Besides, not everyone with the condition has the same characteristics.

As @gailcalled said, finding support groups or classes to help you learn social skills. Learning about your weaknesses is just as important as understanding your strengths. You can fix weaknesses, such as being clueless socially speaking. You can also learn how to focus on your strengths, and how to employ them usefully. Being good at envisioning things three-dimensionally can be helpful in many professions—architecture, engineering, chemistry, physics, etc. Similarly, a need for symmetry and identifiable patterns (such as the ones in your lego structures) could be useful in design or art (especially computer art).

I’m not a great believer in the idea that perfect spelling is a correlate of intelligence. My son is highly intelligent and he hates reading and writing. But he thinks about philosophical and cosmological things in a way that I don’t think most nine year olds do. People have talents in some areas and not in others, and poor spelling doesn’t mean someone is stupid.

However, @XOIIO, in online forums (fora?) such as this, people do appreciate “proper” spelling perhaps more than in most places online. It just makes it easier for people to understand what you’re talking about. I find that using Mozilla Firefox as my browser, or Google Chrome are much better because they immediately underline words they don’t recognize. It’s easy to go back and check to see if those words are spelled “properly” if they are underlined in red.

Personally, I thank you for an interesting question.

@daloon Well said, as always.

@Marina Thanks;-)

@daloon fori, perhaps?

Per wikiAnswers: American Dictionary of the English Language: n., pl. fo·rums also fo·ra (fôr’ə, fōr’ə).

@daloon, the doctors said i may have aspergers/ ADD or something similar, i could not recall exactly. I am not taking any medication, I believe we tried and it didn’t help at all.

You would not believe I am referred to as Mr. Spock, it’s quite funny actually.

It’s true, i do try to base most all of my conversations/ questions etc. on my observations.What is strange is that I have actually had several people ask me for dating advice, even though i have never dated anyone. I believe it is because I am an “outsider”, and can observe multipul points of view, rather than being on one side of the current issue/ conflict, etc..

I personally use SeaMonkey, for several reasons

1: windows 95 will not support anything else
2: it offers tabbed browsing, and internet explorer does not.
2: it has auto-correct built in as well, plus it rus reasonably well.

@XOIIO It is funny how much easier it is to give other people advice, but to be unable to do it to oneself. Actually, that’s not quite the case with me. I know what I would tell myself to do if I were not me. I just can’t seem to do it.

Anyway, I do think, no matter what your diagnosis is, that it is worth studying it. I believe that all these conditions didn’t come around for nothing. They must be adaptations that are useful under some environmental conditions. The trick is to find the kind of conditions where your “disorder” is actually an advantage.

I’m bipolar, and one of my symptoms was that my brain went faster and faster. It scared me, because I felt like I really shouldn’t be getting smarter at the age I was (51). I was afraid I had brain cancer. In any case, I started making more and more impulsive decisions. I had a hard time curbing my mouth, and felt like I was getting to behave more inappropriately. I could see it, but I wasn’t sure if I was seeing it correctly. I’d ask people, but they all said I was doing all right.

I wasn’t. I did some inappropriate things, and later got called on it. I apologized, but it wasn’t until recently that I connected that with my disorder. But I digress.

One of my employees (the one who told me I wan’t being inappropriate, in fact), is ADD. Maybe that’s why she didn’t think I was inappropriate. Wrong person to ask, perhaps.

Anyway, she loved working on details. She’d get so caught up in them, however, that she couldn’t see where she was going. She’d forget the big picture, and get involved in things that really didn’t matter (although were quite interesting to her).

I hate details. I get bored to tears. I can only do something once, really. Maybe two or three times, if I screw up the first time. But I tend to see the big picture. I see (or imagine) connections between just about everything. I am really good at pattern recognition, I think.

So she and I were a great team. I’d tell her where she was going, and set her off. She’d happily do the work I hated (and felt guilty for asking her to do), and when she got lost, she’d come to me, and I’d show her the way, again. I appreciated how hard she’d work, and it freed me to dream a lot (although I was sick at the time). I’d often try to brainstorm up ideas about where ADD people would do really well.

Anyway, my attitude is that when people are different, that it isn’t helpful to try to make them conform. It’s far better to see what tasks their difference makes them good at, and then get them working on those kinds of things. I think we can do that for ourselves to a certain extent, once we know what our differences are. It’s also helpful to ask for other people’s ideas, as you have done here. Some ideas will be useful, and others won’t.

In general, though, my advice is the same to everyone. If you enjoy something (something that doesn’t harm others), then do it. Do it for it’s own sake. If you keep doing it, eventually you will get to the point where other people want to hire you to do it. Or even if you don’t, it will still make you happy. What more can you ask for?

@XOIIO Thank you for providing the information regarding your diagnosis. In light of it, please also disregard my second post. Your brain quite likely does function differently from those of most people. For many types of things, that gives you a big advantage. For others (like making friends), it may be a problem. I second @daloon‘s suggestion that you read up about the condition.

@marina, like i said, i love to learn. If someone posts a link i will most always open it, just so i can see what it is about.

@XOIIO: News from yesterday about learning and practicing social skills. A concrete example about a 13 yr old girl with autism.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32494679/ns/health-kids_and_parenting

Aspergers

Or just google it and look for stuff about it.

ADD

Relationship advice for folks with Aspergers

Search for relationship advice

The Eight Asperger Advantages confirms your perceptions regarding your thinking advantages.

Yes, they are quite accurate.

ah, Asperger Syndrome, best gift my dad got me :) oh well, at least it’s not that severe in my case. just think of it as the mutation that’s cool to have.

@XOIIO I was kind of thinking of Aspergers because you write similar to my fiance, only with better spelling. Sorry that this thread has put you under everyone’s microscopes. Now they will try to ‘fix” you. But just know they do it with with good intentions.

Is it possible we are at a time when we will start to use our brains more? Actually, intelligent people use their brains less. I’m not kidding – fMRI brain scans show that more intelligent individuals require less energy than others to perform a given task.

Milo here: Matt, I knew that.

@xoiio I have been following this with interest. Seeing how you answered questions, I too wondered about the Asperger’s element.

If you were to be formally diagnosed (by a physician), your school is required to provide services to you in an environment that works for you and how your brain works. They have to come up with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that spells out exactly the circumstances of your educational experience. It can also allow for attention from a specialized teacher to help you with some of the social stuff (some of it can be learned).

One unexpectedly helpful thing I found was a poster that included people’s facial expressions and the words for the emotion underneath the picture. This is very helpful (although you may have to memorize it rather than “learn” it) when trying to figure out how other people are reacting to you, their environments, bad news, etc.

There is a famous woman (in Asperger’s circles) named Temple Granden. She is a professor in Colorado and has written a number of books about her experience (anyone of which you might find interesting). There are also a couple of youtube videos of her giving speeches about her experience.