[ericmcer]

Yeah agree, I have worked with tons of smart people, talented people, people whose parents had them coding in elementary school, but only one person I would consider brilliant.

It was jarring how he instantly understood any line of reasoning I was going down. There was no need for context or lengthy background explanations, he would just see what you were doing. That was in most areas also, politics, programming, philosophy, etc.

It was refreshing because conveying information to him was effortless, he needed like 20% of the info that is usually required when explaining something to another person. I don't know how one could achieve that other than just being gifted at absorbing and processing information.

[hinkley]

He was probably an HSP, which by some estimates is 15% of the population. HSP plus high IQ makes up a lot of people you would label “scary smart”.

[all2]

What is "HSP"?

[bena]

"Highly sensitive person". Basically hypervigilant

[hinkley]

Hypervigilance is more of a trait of anxious attachment style. You have not seen hypervigilence until you’ve seen an anxiously attached HSP. But securely attached HSP are some of the most successful people in the world.

There’s a lot of power in seeing patterns other people miss. Particularly when dealing with a person who is trying to hide that they are upset

[sevagh]

Were they also a Virgo? What Harry Potter house did they get on an online quiz? What about INFJ or ENTJ on the Briggs-Meyer scale?

[financltravsty]

It's real, but the umbrella term is very much hokie. You can sometimes see it in ADHD or autism: hyperawareness of stimulus and a nervous system that pattern matches quickly.

I have something similar. Very easy to burnout, when you're constantly being flooded by information of which you see the long-term consequences of, know how to orient and navigate to avoid, but do not have the resources to handle (e.g. time, money, energy, etc.).

Or being hyperaware of everyone's micro-expressions and what they're feeling. Too much info, and I don't have any care to spare to deal with it (even though that I want to).