
Ask HN: Can intelligent people be poor performing students? - newyearnewyou
For example, there are many claims that some exceptionally smart people do not see their intelligence reflected in the classroom (grades, performance, etc.) for a variety of reasons (personal, motivation, etc.) is there any truth to this?
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ddingus
Absolutely!

The primary cause of my own poor performance was simple priority.

I'm in charge of what I learn, how much focus it gets, why, etc...

That differed very considerably from the official program at times and I
really didn't care.

Things like learning and writing assembly language programs were far more
compelling and useful than say, learning the cold war bloc nation status was.

Where that was true, I did the minimum to comply, otherwise devoting max time
and resources to completing projects, building things, picking up skills.

Frankly, all of that, for me, paid off far better. It was no contest.

Later in life, a lot of those irrelevant things became relevant, and got the
same treatment.

Not everyone does this, or if they do, does it well. But to answer the
question here, yes. Totally happens.

I had several peers doing similar things. Most had similar outcomes.

Re: exceptional. That's very hard to measure. I won't speak to that here, save
to say I was smart enough to want to do, and see success in doing the things I
gave priority to.

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auslegung
Yes. But first, I assume you mean book-based intelligence as there are many
different ways to be “intelligent,” such as physically, relationally,
emotionally.

Performing well in school is comprised of several skills, including test-
taking, relating well with others, collaboration, etc . Anxiety, fear, issues
at home, etc can cause anyone to perform worse than they otherwise would,
especially on tests. If your authority figures at home (eg parents) are
terrible, then you are very likely to dislike the authority figures at your
school, which will cause problems and often lead to poorer grades.

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Juliate
Why not?

Intelligence is highly context-dependent.

And classroomS optimize for various different outputs, depending on what the
school system or the teachers value.

Some optimize for autonomy, or fulfillment, or realization. Some optimize for
output, within the class environment, or outside of it. Some optimize for
compliance (attitude, grades, performance on grades, certification).

And they can do it using various techniques (carrot or stick?).

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buffaloo
E.O. Wilson has some thoughts you might find relevant.
[https://medium.com/@mmeditations/e-o-wilson-on-the-upside-
of...](https://medium.com/@mmeditations/e-o-wilson-on-the-upside-of-
introversion-the-limits-of-iq-and-where-ideas-really-come-from-23cface0cd8b)

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nitwit005
Sure, just never do your homework, skip class, get expelled, get arrested,
etc.

