12 signs you have genius-level intelligence

1) The natural observer

most people love to talk about themselves they'll ramble for half an hour about all their funny little quirks but a select few people spend less time talking and more time listening if you have genius-level intelligence you're probably more observant than the average person when you engage in a conversation ,you aren't just thinking about what you're going to say next you aren't trying to boost your own ego instead you're genuinely paying attention to the other person you're picking up on patterns in their speech in body language you're taking in everything they're telling you and you're thinking of new and interesting ways to brighten up the conversation the smartest people rarely step into the spotlight more often than not they're quiet and careful listeners who spend most of their time just taking the world in .

2) Under control

self-discipline takes years of practice

for most people but impulse control

comes naturally to the highly

intelligent you know how to regulate

your emotions stifle your unhealthy

ravings and find a comfortable balance

between spontaneity and discipline that

knack for self control also helps you

lead a healthier lifestyle filled with

inspirational routines and hobbies this

is so common among intelligent people

you don't let your vices fly under the

radar when you recognize something you

want to change about yourself you just

don't let it slide you find a lasting

solution you make substantial

adjustments to your mindset or your

behavior because intelligent people know

when something needs to change

3) seeking specificity

in 2011

a pair of researchers investigated

whether or not highly intelligent people

think differently than everyone else so

they started with something simple that

everybody does making assumptions do

people with a genius-level intellect

make assumptions like everybody else

to test this researchers use two kinds

of assumptions they're called

overfitting and underfitting overfitting

is when you know something very specific

that fits one situation really well but

it doesn't really make sense anywhere

else

okay let's say you wanted to recite a

poem if you started spouting those

verses in your English class well people

would understand you but if you took

your poems out onto the streets you'd

get a bunch of weird looks right

well that's overfitting under fitting on

the other hand is when you choose

something that's way too general it

might fit the larger population but it

doesn't really tell you anything useful

okay let's say you want to study cats

you gather a bunch of data from shelters

and breeders and you decide that cats

have at least one thing in common they

all have four legs hmm well you could

generalize that assumption to the entire

population it doesn't really tell you

anything does it so what do cats and

poetry have to do with your intelligence

people with a genius-level intellect do

one of these two things way more than

the other highly intelligent people love

to be specific in fact you'll catch them

overfitting on a daily basis they'll

make dozens of ultra specific

assumptions that don't really work

anywhere else because as an intelligent

person you're always curious you're

never satisfied with a single vague idea

that sort of makes sense you get too

specific too fast and then slowly but

surely real yourself back in

4) flying solo

if you have a

genius-level intellect you probably like

being alone a lot intelligent people

have no problem flying solo because you

put your alone time to good use maybe

you have an active imagination you like

planning out your passions or you just

spend lots of time thinking about life

in general either way as an intelligent

person you rarely need other people to

entertain you now that doesn't mean

you're antisocial or completely

introverted but when you're looking for

a worthwhile way to spend your time you

don't rely on anyone but yourself

5) focus like crazy

when a

highly intelligent person gets in the

zone it's hard to pull them out you can

focus for hours at a time diving

headfirst into whatever passion project

you're working on this week that

incredible concentration is one big

reason why intelligent people get so

much done but only if you're excited

about your work you hate doing things

that you find boring or pointless you

get distracted constantly if you're

stuck doing busy work but when you find

something you're passionate about

oh ho there's no stopping you

6) creative clutter

while a cluttered room

or a desk can put a damper on your

productivity messy people tend to be

more innovative and intelligent this

idea has been floating around for a

while but a recent study put the power

of creative clutter to the test in their

experiments participants sat at one of

two desks the first was clean and

organized while the second was a

complete disaster it was covered in

random papers office supplies and other

distracting messes while sitting at

their desks participants were given a

ping-pong ball their job was to imagine

new ways to use that ball it could be

something straight forward like a

paperweight or something bizarre like a

hat for your finger researchers just

wanted to see how many ideas people

could come up with in the end people

sitting at the messy

desks came up with significantly more

ideas they were more inventive they

thought outside the box which tells us

that messiness and creative intelligence

go hand in hand

7) debating anything

if you

have a genius-level intellect you can

argue about anything it really doesn't

matter if you don't know much about the

subject one little fact is enough to

keep a heated debate going for hours on

end because you can draw all kinds of

logical conclusions from that small

piece of data you can do more with one

tiny detail than most people can with

pages and pages of information

intelligent people are such potent

debaters because their mind adapts and

makes connections at lightning speed if

you can argue anything you're a creative

and flexible problem solver and more

importantly you aren't afraid to make a

point and stick to it you have faith in

your own brain you know that you can

reason things out as well as anyone and

that intellectual confidence makes you a

force to be reckoned with

8) Emotionally intelligent

arguments while you can effectively

argue about any subject you know when to

push and when to back off you don't

stand there screaming and berating your

opponent you don't make things personal

or try to tear them to pieces extremely

intelligent people understand even in

the midst of an argument how to be

sensitive and respectful imagine you're

caught in a debate with a friend you

might have all the tools to prove them

wrong but you realize this issue means

more to them than it does to you so

instead of ruining your friendship you

get your point across without making

your friend feel attacked or ignored

knowing when to pull your punches is a

rare and valuable skill so if that's

something you do on a regular basis you

might have genius-level intelligence

9) Brains run in the family

thanks to a twin study in the early

2000s we know that part of your

intelligence comes from your genetics

your genes around 500 of them to be

exact

have a huge impact on the way your brain

develops if for example if your frontal

lobe is larger than average you can

thank your strong gene pool since

genetics play such a major role parents

can actually pass down cognitive skills

like memory or reasoning in other words

if you come from a long line of smart

people you'll probably follow in their

footsteps

10) Texting mania

texting has become a

hugely popular form of communication in

fact many younger people think it's

strange to have a conversation over the

phone but texting 24/7 can have a

negative impact on your intelligence you

see texting creates something called

info mania you're constantly absorbing

new information without really

processing anything that means your

brain isn't getting the exercise it

needs to grow and develop so if you

don't spend much time on your phone you

probably have a higher IQ

11) Twisted sense of humor

do people tell

you that your jokes are weird or

offensive it turns out a twisted sense

of humor is a reliable sign of high

intelligence this was discovered by a

study at the University of Vienna first

researchers had participants listen to a

few different kinds of jokes some were

mild puns others were gross and way over

the line participants rated each joke on

how funny it was which gave researchers

a glimpse into their general sense of

humor after that researchers needed to

test their brainpower now if their

hypothesis were right people who enjoyed

the most offensive jokes would also have

the highest IQs so they scored each

participant's intelligence using a

series of verbal and nonverbal

intelligence tests just like they

predicted people with a twisted sense of

humor scored significantly higher so if

your jokes don't usually sit well with

people I've got some good news your

intelligence might be through the roof

12) The big questions

do you

spend hours thinking about the way time

works or how the universe came into

being do you challenge these big

questions on a regular basis if you do

you're probably more intelligent than

you realize

people with a genius-level intellect

enjoy the confusion and uncertainty of

these impossible questions they want to

know the answers but they don't want

someone to tell them what to believe

highly intelligent people like you want

to figure it out for themselves.