Who's the smartest person you know who never amounted to much in life?

[HamburgerBoy]

I don't really know tbh. The smart people in my family are generally successful; some could have likely gotten further if they had stronger work ethic but I wouldn't say that getting a middle class job, working minimally to enjoy goofing off counts as amounting to little. One of my grandfathers is a really smart guy, got his PhD in Chemistry from a public Ivy (or at least it's considered one today; maybe in the late 50's/early 60's it wasn't), and is very knowledgeable in general, but he was also an alcoholic that would brag about taking 2-3 hour lunches and getting paid well to do little work. I doubt that he considers himself anything close to a failure, however. I've known peers at school who I'm pretty sure are smarter than myself (at least much faster learners than myself) that push lab reports out in 30 minutes and study for exams only the day before finals, knowing that they can safely have a ~3.0 average with minimal work. Most of them love to party and one is a bartender. Considering their ages and the fact that the standards of success created by some random nerd aren't applicable to everyone, I think they do quite well.

tl;dr what lxskllr said.

 

[AreaCode707]

My sister was a brilliant people-person. At the age of 10 people referred to her as "the psychologist" because she was so incredibly good at helping people work through their issues.

She was immensely mature and responsible even as a teenager. She was (probably to her detriment) my parents' rock during times of turmoil and distress in their lives, through career disasters and moves. She helped raise my little sisters.

She went away to college and graduated magne cum laude, witih maybe an over-particular love of feminist literature. She minored in dance after a dozen years of training; she was a professional quality modern dancer.

She found jobs in the dance and academia world and was doing quite well for herself.

Then she met a jello-shot swilling good ol' redneck boy whose method of expressing affecting was smacking her on the ass with a beer bottle and sharing his car-trunk stash of Jagermeister. Between July and October she spent her entire life savings, and then when my parents expressed concern, she hugged them and said she understood and directly ran off to Vegas and married the creep. They returned, while my parents swallowed hard and threw a party for them and his family, and promptly cut my entire family out of their lives.

She has finished nursing school, to her credit, but I've barely heard a word from her since. She was one of the most amazing people I've ever met and from what I can tell she aspires to be barefoot and pregnant now, and is still working unsuccessfullyy on both.

If you're a Firefly fan, this is tatamount to River Tam marrying Jain and living puzzelingly ever after.

 

[Ruptga]

I was going to say me, but I don't think I can compete in this thread.

 

[jagec]

Alkemyst.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Buddy of mine named Job (as in "Jo-beh). Smartest guy I know, and I have spent the last 10 years amongst very smart people (patent lawyers tend to be pretty darn smart). Job has a bachelors in EE from a prominent engineering university and a masters in biomedical engineering. He and I worked together at the PTO and went to law school together. He was #3 in our law school class and accomplished that effortlessly. We both joined a prominent law firm together. After 1 year he quit and ended up going back to his old job, where he did literally nothing for 4 months and was let go. Last I checked he was doing freelance legal work, which is about as low as you can go in our particular field of the law.

An argument could be made that he made something of himself. But damn, I have never seen someone forfeit so much of his potential for what appears to be nothing.

 

[Fritzo]

Me.

Same boat

If I was 20 and had the Internet when I was in college, I'd have owned the place.

 

[mistercrabby]

Perhaps because he/she didn't apply himself/herself or because of some other factors in his/her life. Bet some of you are going to say, "Me".

Brother in law, quite gifted artistically. Made beautiful pottery. 50 now, hasn't done it in 15. Smokes,drinks, pot too much. Works for his old man maybe 30 hours per week mowing lawns and doing repairs to rentals. Hate to see talent go to waste. D:

 

[SheHateMe]

I still don't understand what happened to him.
He is on facebook from time to time.

?

 

[FallenHero]

Best friend in Elementry/Jr High. Ended up with perfect scores on ACT and SAT, all AP classes and couple math classes in HS that were 300 level or above college courses. Learned German in a summer cause he was bored. Took french after that because he could, took him 2 years to learn that language.

Went into stage acting after high school and went to a liberal arts college. Lives check to check now, or close to it.

 

[Meractik]

I'll go with me too with the caveat that I don't like the way the question is framed. "Never amounted to much in life" is usually code for didn't make an amount of money suitable to impress the neighbors. Another definition might be "didn't put name in the history books", IOW, wasn't a game changer. Most people aren't game changers. They're just cogs in a machine with an inflated sense of self worth.

I'm a realist. Life is what it is, and is what you make of it. I could have changed things to put more money in the bank, or gain greater notoriety, but if I could go back, there's little I'd do differently.

*clap* *clap* *clap* seriously, that's not sarcasm, I agree!

 

[Meractik]

Best friend in Elementry/Jr High. Ended up with perfect scores on ACT and SAT, all AP classes and couple math classes in HS that were 300 level or above college courses. Learned German in a summer cause he was bored. Took french after that because he could, took him 2 years to learn that language.

Went into stage acting after high school and went to a liberal arts college. Lives check to check now, or close to it.

I know a couple similar guys who chose to pursue a path of "free-thinking" now work at amber-crombie and fitch stores but where once considered the brightest of the brightest in high school and scored outrageously on tests, one works in retail writes books and smokes pot while the other deliveries pizzas locally.

 

[TridenT]

Yeah, this guy. Me and Christopher Langan, not so different.

 

[FallenHero]

I know a couple similar guys who chose to pursue a path of "free-thinking" now work at amber-crombie and fitch stores but where once considered the brightest of the brightest in high school and scored outrageously on tests, one works in retail writes books and smokes pot while the other deliveries pizzas locally.

Yeah it's kinda weird. I mean I am sure he is a great stage actor...anything he put his mind to he did great in, and I am also sure he is happy and content. But to me, from the outside looking in, it seems like such a waste of a gift.

 

[sad_guy]

Me indeed.
Not joking, i am pretty smart.. Altho lazy

 

[TecHNooB]

so many 'me' replies. i knew you were all very bright

 

[OinkBoink]

so many 'me' replies. i knew you were all very bright

 

[Thebobo]

Same here me..

 

[ionamartin123]

you are right, ME I always feel that I'm doing less work or not in a right place considering my knowledge. Not sure what's holding me back though!

 

[IceBergSLiM]

ITT: underachievers of ATOT unite

 

[highland145]

ITT: underachievers of ATOT unite

In. I'm lazy. Just look at the hours I spend here. To inspire me to be more productive, I should work on a perma ban but .....

 

[Fritzo]

ITT: underachievers of ATOT unite

In my defense, I was in college back in the early 90's. Then, studying consisted of sitting in a library reading gigantic books until midnight...and I just couldn't do that. It would often take hours of research to find the answer to a single question, and sometimes the ancient tome that held your answers was checked out, so you would have to keep calling the front desk to see if it came back yet.

You kids and yer Google and yer instant answers to anything from your phones these days.

 

[OinkBoink]

In my defense, I was in college back in the early 90's. Then, studying consisted of sitting in a library reading gigantic books until midnight...and I just couldn't do that. It would often take hours of research to find the answer to a single question, and sometimes the ancient tome that held your answers was checked out, so you would have to keep calling the front desk to see if it came back yet.

You kids and yer Google and yer instant answers to anything from your phones these days.

Yeah well, everyone has those privileges these days, so we're even.

 

[highland145]

In my defense, I was in college back in the early 90's. Then, studying consisted of sitting in a library reading gigantic books until midnight...and I just couldn't do that. It would often take hours of research to find the answer to a single question, and sometimes the ancient tome that held your answers was checked out, so you would have to keep calling the front desk to see if it came back yet.

You kids and yer Google and yer instant answers to anything from your phones these days.

In college in the 80's and I liked to drink. I did that well.

 

[Kaido]

Buddy got a full-ride scholarship to not one, but two colleges in math & finances - and completed both of them. Doing advanced math was like making a PB&J for him - a non-challenge. Excellent focus skills, top 1% of his class, amazingly clear brain. Great student, no drinking or drugs, just really hammered through school to the max of his abilities.

Did nothing with his life.

On one hand, there's the philosopher's approach of that any life decision is fine and that people should be free to choose any course of action (or non-action) in life. On the other hand, the schools & state put up a lot of money to put him through his education & pay for boarding, books, etc. and there was no ROI. None of that investment of resources was put to use for the betterment of society, so in the classic sense you could say he didn't amount to much in the workforce. So from a business perspective, the scholarship was completely wasted.

I've known very few people with his level of intelligence, and most go off to work in super advanced areas or get PhD's and make ridiculous money. So it's hard to see wasted potential like that, especially when he worked so hard to do well with his education.

 

[JM Aggie08]

ITT: Lazy Narcissistic Shits

FTFY