Actually the people between the 90th and 95th percentile are the ones who have difficulty getting along. Those above the 95th percentile understand how society works and are as Confucius described, "the ones that lead society (by example) so that all of society is harmonious."
I've met people from both categories.
The smartest geeks I know have no trouble fitting into society, one of them is leading a startup that has received over a million dollars in VC funding. They work on serious, possibly disruptive and hard project. (double emphasis on hard)
On the other hand, the rather large group of geeks I know who have trouble fitting into society work on not-so-important projects, usually things like flash games, simple web apps, etc. Some of these geeks (the ones who outwardly call themselves smart) suffer from illusory superiority (some even intentionally complicate their code so that others find it hard to understand, as a show of intellectual superiority; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority)
The fact, is these socially-challenged geeks aren't so smart after all; they don't put much effort socializing with people, and then they whine and complain how they don't fit it.
The reason why this doesn't happen in Asia as often, is because the culture doesn't permit it. In America, you can sort of get away by denoting yourself as a geek and refraining from social activity. In Asia, since that is seen very badly (much worse than the comical portrayal of geeks we have here); these kids are forced to go out and socialize.
"Those above the 95th percentile understand how society works and are as Confucius described, "the ones that lead society (by example) so that all of society is harmonious.""
This isn't actually true. If you look at the SAT scores of Congressmen, Senators, etc., they average below 95th percentile. Many are above 95th, but the average is below 95th.
"The smartest geeks I know have no trouble fitting into society, one of them is leading a startup that has received over a million dollars in VC funding."
Citing anonymous friends is not evidence.
"The fact, is these socially-challenged geeks aren't so smart after all; they don't put much effort socializing with people, and then they whine and complain how they don't fit it."
That's a complete non-sequitur. What does that have to do with intelligence or lack thereof? It's perfectly possible to be smart and not socialize much. It's also possible to be dumb and not socialize much. It's like saying the Unabomber was dumb because he killed two dozen people. Killing two dozen people makes you evil, certainly, but it doesn't make you dumb (the Unabomber was actually a math professor at Berkeley before he went insane).
Comments
Actually the people between the 90th and 95th percentile are the ones who have difficulty getting along. Those above the 95th percentile understand how society works and are as Confucius described, "the ones that lead society (by example) so that all of society is harmonious."
I've met people from both categories.
The smartest geeks I know have no trouble fitting into society, one of them is leading a startup that has received over a million dollars in VC funding. They work on serious, possibly disruptive and hard project. (double emphasis on hard)
On the other hand, the rather large group of geeks I know who have trouble fitting into society work on not-so-important projects, usually things like flash games, simple web apps, etc. Some of these geeks (the ones who outwardly call themselves smart) suffer from illusory superiority (some even intentionally complicate their code so that others find it hard to understand, as a show of intellectual superiority; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority)
The fact, is these socially-challenged geeks aren't so smart after all; they don't put much effort socializing with people, and then they whine and complain how they don't fit it.
The reason why this doesn't happen in Asia as often, is because the culture doesn't permit it. In America, you can sort of get away by denoting yourself as a geek and refraining from social activity. In Asia, since that is seen very badly (much worse than the comical portrayal of geeks we have here); these kids are forced to go out and socialize.
"Those above the 95th percentile understand how society works and are as Confucius described, "the ones that lead society (by example) so that all of society is harmonious.""
This isn't actually true. If you look at the SAT scores of Congressmen, Senators, etc., they average below 95th percentile. Many are above 95th, but the average is below 95th.
"The smartest geeks I know have no trouble fitting into society, one of them is leading a startup that has received over a million dollars in VC funding."
Citing anonymous friends is not evidence.
"The fact, is these socially-challenged geeks aren't so smart after all; they don't put much effort socializing with people, and then they whine and complain how they don't fit it."
That's a complete non-sequitur. What does that have to do with intelligence or lack thereof? It's perfectly possible to be smart and not socialize much. It's also possible to be dumb and not socialize much. It's like saying the Unabomber was dumb because he killed two dozen people. Killing two dozen people makes you evil, certainly, but it doesn't make you dumb (the Unabomber was actually a math professor at Berkeley before he went insane).
How do you look at the SAT scores of congressmen and senators?