Have you ever surprised someone with the knowledge you have?

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So last Halloween I had a tool belt on with my networking tools my 110 punch-down tool, my rj45 crimper, my tone and probe, and my LAN tester. I was going as a network admin. At the moment networking and such is more of a hobby than a job. Well my friend was looking at my tools and like what are these so i explained them to him. He looked surprised and was like "ahh umm you stock shelves at safeway". I replied yeah im to smart for most jobs.


Anyone have anything similar happen to them?

Yeah, more than once, including my GP. I remember in particular a teacher I had in high school (I was in my 20's at the time due to dropping out) who was surprised by what I knew about Concorde and microbiology. NTs can't seem to get that official education and employment isn't everything.

Last edited by Skilpadde on 22 May 2014, 2:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Quite often/too many times to count.

I've surprised people with my ignorance. which is why I take wisdom in the old expression, "'tis better to keep silent and as a fool be thought, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

Constantly, ever since I learned to talk.
The best was my bio teacher's reaction to me getting a B on the final exam despite being absent 2/3 of the semester, and sleeping through class most of the days I was there. She keeps that test in a drawer. She's probably one of the few people who realize the extent of my intellectual gifts.

When it come to my knowledge of science and technology. Ya, I surprise people all the time.

When I taught HS, students had to take a SOL test to check that they were actually learning what was taught them. My classes did extremely well. Instead of congratulations from the other teachers I got "how did that ret*d guy get his classes to do so well on their tests"?

Haha, that's kinda funny. I suspect people would say similar things about me.

Yes, although each time they've just retorted and said "Sorry, but you're not qualified to have an opinion on this and stop claiming to have this degree, so my opinion is valid meaning that I'm better and more intelligent " when I never claim to have any degree anywhere. I was also unaware that you needed a degree to be able to formulate an opinion on a subject. Acquiring a degree doesn't indicate/imply that you're intelligent as it really could mean nothing more than the fact that a bunch of lenient professors were willing to let them get by as a bunch of them only care about getting their paychecks, or that they had to work extra hard (this isn't the same as being intelligent really). Despite that, I would likely go to somebody with a degree if I need professional assistance rather than one whose unqualified.

I've also been treated as if I'm inferior/dimwitted automatically since I'm 22 and have yet to enroll into any college. I swear that there are way too many individuals with degrees that let it get to their head, have personality issues (I have them myself) or who become/are too arrogant to talk to (most of them spaz out in the middle of a debate which is so boring). I'm just ecstatic that I'm not the only person who realizes all of this.

That's my adage as well!

But I have surprised people with some factoids at times. When I was a cleaner at city hall, I was having a coffee break once with my 2 co-workers and one of the civil servants who work there. And the subject of climate change came along, and nobody was expecting that a cleaner knew a thing or two about the Saalian and Weichselian glacial periods.

i've heard it a lot since i started posting in forums. tbh in one forum someone started a fan club for me called "Little Einstein".

Yes, medical specialists. Whenever something medical affects me, obsessive learning clicks on and I learn everything about it. I don't outright tell them what I know, nor do I point out the gaps in their knowledge when they exhibit this, though I make suggestions about treatment options and explain why I would like to try this or that. I am immunocompromised and have MGUS (sometimes a precursor to lymphoma) so they regularly review and monitor me and will for the rest of my life.

I think this arose with me because I was so often misdiagnosed as a younger person - showed up at hospital with pneumonia and the house surgeon thought I was "just tired". Refused to leave until I was reviewed by someone more senior. Just as well...

And I suffered from chronic relapsing B19 for 30 years until it was correctly diagnosed. I knew that the virus could reactivate before they did. It astonished them.

^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah ditto though being misdiagnosed most of my life after mercury poisoning. People ask me if I am a doctor ha! I missed a lot of school and had no higher education yet my specialist says I am 'very knowledgeable' meaning that I know loads more than her and often have to put her right. I send her peer reviewed published studies but she doesn't read them.

Dear god yes. I work with a lot of scientists and doctors and they assume everyone else has the IQ of a prune. When they notice that I'm smart, there's the shock, and then the highest invitation in the land: to become a scientist or doctor. One guy, a med-school faculty doc, was delightfully bald about it: I helped him out at a computing center, and he did the shock thing, and actually said, "You're smart." "Yes," I said. "You know, you could be a doctor. Have you ever considered medical school?" "I'm too smart for that, I've seen how you guys live," I said, and he laughed and said, "You're probably right."

The scientists, though...it's sad, they're so rank-obsessed. If I'm talking to a scientist friend at another university or journal, and I say something bright, they're delighted that someone outside science understands science so well. If I say it in my department, where I'm hired help and not supposed to have much of a brain, they react like I'm a trained dog, and eventually become uneasy. They've got nothing to worry about, of course, they're tenured. But maybe they figure I'll eventually be able to see what crummy science many of them do. (Hint: I already do.)

Yes, all the time. I remember being in a K, 1, 2 class and my teacher was shocked when I not only knew addition in 1st grade but also subtraction, multiplication and division.

And all the time at work I surprise people, though I think they're used to it by now. My boss's favorite story to tell is about the time when I taught her to drive a forklift though I never drove one myself, simply because I watched people do it all the time. Or the numerous times I showed people parts of their job that I wasn't "trained" for, my scientific/historical rants that answer questions they had, being able to fix technology in moments that they've been banging on for hours or my prowess in counting for inventory, which earned me the nickname "Rainman" long before I even knew I was autistic (they still don't know).