Emotional, behavioral and social difficulties among high-IQ children [pdf]
When I was in elementary school I was singled out as &quot;a genius&quot; because I could add numbers in my head faster than anyone else. I was pretty good at consuming and regurgitating all of the information thrown at us, and I spent a lot of time reading&#x2F;doing educationally valuable things thanks to my parents (of &quot;ordinary&quot; intelligence, whatever that even means).<p>Naturally, this went straight to my head, and left me with a lot of latent narcissism around my intelligence.<p>Around middle school I lost interest in my education and being smart and was no longer the best at school, though I still got A&#x27;s without much effort. I struggled socially, but I don&#x27;t think that this was caused by my intelligence; rather an inability to find the right people to do the things I enjoyed with. By the end of high school I was fairly popular, once I started finding those people and others stopped being so socially nepotistic.<p>By the time I got to college, my smarts were running out and I feel like I&#x27;ve hit an &quot;abstraction ceiling&quot; [0]. Compared to most STEM students towards the &quot;top&quot; of the board, I&#x27;m about average or below and very far from &quot;a genius&quot;.<p>It&#x27;s really difficult for me to continually remind myself of the fact that I was never special, and that there are a lot of people above me who are, because that was such a core part of my identity at a very formative age. That&#x27;s been the biggest difficulty for me.<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;anchoragechambermusicfestival.org&#x2F;new-music-premieres&#x2F;douglas-hofstadter&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;anchoragechambermusicfestival.org&#x2F;new-music-premiere...</a>