We all have one in our high school graduating class. The whiz kid who topped math Olympiads ending up as a taxi driver. Or the perennial honor student not finishing college and starting a family early. Or the valedictorian who now runs a successful business only that it involves regulated pharmaceutical products.
People expect so much. The academe nurtures these fine specimen, giving them countless opportunities to shine and hone their gifts. Parents pamper them with all the support in dreams of titles for their sons and daughters, Attorneys, Doctors, Pilots, Presidents, the list goes on...
Beside all these, why do smart people fail?
1. The Rude Awakening
Once the gifted child's alarm clock sounds off, he reawakens to the newer gifts of life. Love, sex, alcohol, drugs, friends are one of the many forms of these alarm clocks. An achiever finds his new opium in one of these, he sets aside his former ways. He devotes countless hours to be the personal school bus of apple of his eye. Late night studying is replaced by until early morning drinking sessions. Sex replaces, well, you know what it replaces -- the M word. There's more to life than just the report card. They eventually, wittingly conclude that you are not your grade.
2. The Threshold of Success
He has done it all, School President, National Science Quiz Bee Champ, Best Debater, Champion Orator, Valedictorian, The Natures Crusaders Founder and President. You name it, he's got it and the worse part is that he is not proud of it all. When the smart kid finds less and less meaning to all the accolades, he steps less on the gas and leans more on the brakes. Whenever all these achievements are for the satisfaction of the people around him and not even a slight for himself, the signs all point to disappointment.
3. Succumbing to Pressure
You know what they say about pressure, just apply what is right to achieve the right effect. One can argue that whiz kids have been dealing with pressure all their lives, the pressure to come out on top of the class, the pressure to win in the national press conference, the pressure to recite when nobody else knows the answer and classmates are all staring in the kid's direction. Imagine if this was to happen all throughout the kid's life, eventually he will break down right? Well some are just hard coded machines (you will recognize the stereotypes), and others are just not built for the long run and eventually succumbs to pressure.
4. Lack of Competition
When smart persons go out into the real world and are put under the noses of mediocre professors, bosses, colleagues, classmates, it is either they revolt against the situation or put on their poker no care face. The latter is the problem. Competitors as these smart persons are, the eventual rising to the apex where they are all alone may be the straw that pushes them toward apathy and mediocrity. The lack of a challenge may disinterest the achiever in putting on his best game face.
5. Theory and Application
This is the case of the brilliant chemist who knew all the formula but cannot even mix a passable margarita! (Ok bad analogy!) To rehash that: most brilliant minds are pure bookworms who have memorized all the theorems from cover to cover but alas, lack in the application department. They can memorize all the mathematical formulas in the world without finding any application for them. They can recite the Periodic Table in their sleep without having a clue why a faucet flows out a brownish fluid. It is so bad sometimes that they would rather hire a vocational electrician than change the bulb themselves. It is that bad, that sometimes common sense is better than the 165 IQ.
So, that is my simple explanation on plausible scenarios in which smart people fail. Nevetheless, everything is relative right as is success and failure. The taxi driver may be a success when he has zero accidents and no drunk driving arrests, right? Or the sex-happy teenage mama might be better equipped in childcare than anyone in her class, right? Or the prescriptionist is just happy about his new found ecstacy, right? Err, I don't know about that last one, but still, what is the measure of success? Maybe I will tackle that in a different entry.
People expect so much. The academe nurtures these fine specimen, giving them countless opportunities to shine and hone their gifts. Parents pamper them with all the support in dreams of titles for their sons and daughters, Attorneys, Doctors, Pilots, Presidents, the list goes on...
Beside all these, why do smart people fail?
1. The Rude Awakening
Once the gifted child's alarm clock sounds off, he reawakens to the newer gifts of life. Love, sex, alcohol, drugs, friends are one of the many forms of these alarm clocks. An achiever finds his new opium in one of these, he sets aside his former ways. He devotes countless hours to be the personal school bus of apple of his eye. Late night studying is replaced by until early morning drinking sessions. Sex replaces, well, you know what it replaces -- the M word. There's more to life than just the report card. They eventually, wittingly conclude that you are not your grade.
2. The Threshold of Success
He has done it all, School President, National Science Quiz Bee Champ, Best Debater, Champion Orator, Valedictorian, The Natures Crusaders Founder and President. You name it, he's got it and the worse part is that he is not proud of it all. When the smart kid finds less and less meaning to all the accolades, he steps less on the gas and leans more on the brakes. Whenever all these achievements are for the satisfaction of the people around him and not even a slight for himself, the signs all point to disappointment.
3. Succumbing to Pressure
You know what they say about pressure, just apply what is right to achieve the right effect. One can argue that whiz kids have been dealing with pressure all their lives, the pressure to come out on top of the class, the pressure to win in the national press conference, the pressure to recite when nobody else knows the answer and classmates are all staring in the kid's direction. Imagine if this was to happen all throughout the kid's life, eventually he will break down right? Well some are just hard coded machines (you will recognize the stereotypes), and others are just not built for the long run and eventually succumbs to pressure.
4. Lack of Competition
When smart persons go out into the real world and are put under the noses of mediocre professors, bosses, colleagues, classmates, it is either they revolt against the situation or put on their poker no care face. The latter is the problem. Competitors as these smart persons are, the eventual rising to the apex where they are all alone may be the straw that pushes them toward apathy and mediocrity. The lack of a challenge may disinterest the achiever in putting on his best game face.
5. Theory and Application
This is the case of the brilliant chemist who knew all the formula but cannot even mix a passable margarita! (Ok bad analogy!) To rehash that: most brilliant minds are pure bookworms who have memorized all the theorems from cover to cover but alas, lack in the application department. They can memorize all the mathematical formulas in the world without finding any application for them. They can recite the Periodic Table in their sleep without having a clue why a faucet flows out a brownish fluid. It is so bad sometimes that they would rather hire a vocational electrician than change the bulb themselves. It is that bad, that sometimes common sense is better than the 165 IQ.
So, that is my simple explanation on plausible scenarios in which smart people fail. Nevetheless, everything is relative right as is success and failure. The taxi driver may be a success when he has zero accidents and no drunk driving arrests, right? Or the sex-happy teenage mama might be better equipped in childcare than anyone in her class, right? Or the prescriptionist is just happy about his new found ecstacy, right? Err, I don't know about that last one, but still, what is the measure of success? Maybe I will tackle that in a different entry.
0 comments:
Post a Comment