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Does genuis deserve and/or require special treatment to better cultivate their ideas?

Asked by cynema (123points) October 2nd, 2011

I’m not going to be so bold as to call myself a ‘genuis,’ but I often find myself bogged down by small talk, and surrounded by people that I feel have ‘simpler’ lifestyles, or concerns. I always seem to have solutions for myself, in situations that trouble those around me and am starting to feel bogged down by issues those around me can’t work out, to the extent that it legitimately seems to waste my energy, while I’m always thinking about big picture and complex abstract ideas and how to implement my ideas. Here’s me, trying to figure out how to apply Psychometrics to film design, spending 6 hours trying to explain why you need to shut the electric off in a flooded basement and not to bother consulting the neighbors or calling the fire department. Or for instance, having to read and reread a paper, to find otherwise meaningless typos, when I’m trying to ask a serious question. This happened while I was writing this. It kept getting kicked back because I was spelling one word wrong. Meanwhile, I’m working on getting my Doctorate in Psych. It’s frustrating to try and ask a question and have to worry about typos and re-reading/correcting, when I know the reader will understand anyway, and I’ve got so many ideas, I’m literally wasting time worrying that I placed a comma in the incorrect place.
On a larger scale, people seem to stress over scenarios I would never bother them with, or that I have figured out solutions to ages ago, or get trapped in hang ups that I can easily work through, to the extent that I feel like the majority of the people I’m surrounded by are literally, but not intentionally wasting my time. It’s starting to make me feel like a big jerk. I know this sounds a bit childish and possibly arrogant, but since I’m often developing or working on complex projects, I’m honestly starting to get very frustrated over this because I’m thinking, if I wasn’t wasting my energy on this stuff, I could possibly be using my talents to do greater things. To make matters worse, it seems remarkably difficult to even communicate these projects and concepts to these people, and I’m starting to really feel a practical need to distance myself. Trouble is, these people include loved ones and family members, who may even be sensing my frustration, and are expressing a desire for me not to distance myself!
It remember hearing that a child genius is usually placed in a special school. Whether or not, I myself am one, I’m starting to understand this problem. Without throwing out the baby with the bathwater, how can you balance the potential stifling of creativity, by those who cannot understand your work, without isolating yourself and hurting people, who cannot understand that I can’t waste my time and energy on problems I don’t have, in order to get said work done?

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