How old were you

> How old were you when you finally understood that you're not as smart as you thought you were?

From what I've observed. I think it hits adult males about the time their children start school...and they start acting like their parents.

I've been blessed my whole life with dyslexia and a number of unique perceptive traits. When I started school, they told Momma Cash I had to go to the "special ed" class. With Momma Cash's help I eventually overcame my perception problems. So in a nutshell I thank God above I have never "thought" of myself as being very smart. I guess I've always thought of myself as a little "slower" than the average Joe. The nagging feeling that I'm missing something has kept me on my toes my whole life.

While it seemed as though it might have been a hurdle in my childhood; I've been blessed with constantly second guessing myself...something more surveyors should practice, in my humble opinion. B-)

That was probably at about 18 years and two weeks of age. That would coincide with a date approximately one week after starting university classes in engineering. As you say, some people are scary smart. I met quite a few of those people over the next four years. They may live on the same planet and breathe the same air as the rest of us, but their brains are operating on a level far, far above the other 99.9999999 percent of humans. They seem to absorb knowledge by simply walking through a technical library. They don't merely "solve" assigned classroom problems, they "analyze and disassemble" those problems for the fun of it, then embarrass the professor by pointing out certain weaknesses in the wording of the problems and suggesting alternative ways to improve on the wording. They tolerate the regimen demanded to obtain their diplomas so they can move on with that "ticket" to become employed eventually somewhere where that superintellegence can be put to a productive use.

> How old were you when you finally understood that you're not as smart as you thought you were.

About two weeks after finishing Survey School.

Thought I knew it all.

Found out that, in the real world, I knew F'all

> They seem to absorb knowledge by simply walking through a technical library. They don't merely "solve" assigned classroom problems, they "analyze and disassemble" those problems for the fun of it, then embarrass the professor by pointing out certain weaknesses in the wording of the problems and suggesting alternative ways to improve on the wording. They tolerate the regimen demanded to obtain their diplomas so they can move on with that "ticket" to become employed eventually somewhere where that superintellegence can be put to a productive use.

That sounds like a good dear old friend of mine. He majored in Engineering. For his thesis while going for his Master's degree, he placed a bunch of sensors in a valley and blew a bunch of smoke down it. He discovered some sort of previously unknown random number pattern thing, and was able to model it on a computer to verify his theory.... Basically he was pretty much a shoe-in for his Doctoral... Don't ask me exactly what it was. He explained it to me once and it just blew right over my head...

He works for the Energy Dept now. He and another guy from Munich are considered the top two experts in the world for situations like gas attack/bombings in major city subways etc. Gas dispersion. I asked him once, "Well, what would happen?" His response was "Not much..." HAHA! But really, the gases would be contained within the subway system itself and casualties would be lower than you'd expect...

His daddy was a real well known Folk guitarist. He seems to follow suit. And yes, there really are nerds out there thinking about this kind of stuff...

I don't understand your question.
But lmfao about it.

As a teenager, I thought I had things pretty much figured out. I am unable to pinpoint a specific time, but the older I get, I realize how little I actually do know.

And I have also come to realize how many things my parents were/are so very correct about.

That being said, I find it truly amazing (that with how little I know), how much more I Do know about numerous things than many of the people I work with (for instance, and that is not in surveying).

I wake up every day with the knowledge that I am smarter today than I was yesterday, but that's only because I realize I wasn't as smart yesterday as I thought I was. Too early to tell whether I'm making any progress, I will let you know tomorrow.

James

I was in my late 20's, and had only been in this business for a very few years when I began to notice how many of my colleagues had gotten themselves into fairly serious trouble with their obstinate refusal to admit that they had made a mistake. Or that the other surveyor is absolutely right. Supposedly Winston Churchill once said "I have had to eat my words many times, and I have found them very nourishing."

"How old were you when you finally understood that you're not as smart as you thought you were."

On a daily basis, every time I read something. 😉

Have a great week Don. B-)

>
> I've been blessed my whole life with dyslexia and a number of unique perceptive traits.

I supervised and sometimes PCed a crew where 2 members were dyslexic.
Iman/PC and rodman/Iman.
It kept me on my game and it was a good crew.
We worked a 4 1/2 day schedule. I would set a reasonable task goal on Mondays for the week work and if they met the goal then Fridays would be a very light workload.