The INFj: Genius or Giftedness . . . | Page 4 | INFJ Forum

The INFj: Genius or Giftedness . . .

...At least I don't feel quite as deflated
 
Anyway, for sure, anyone who thinks they know everything is not going to be very interesting or likable... or know much worth knowing. People who are too intellectual but have lost their curiosity can be a bit like this.
 
Seriously,
I feel you...lol.
When I was studying anatomy & physiology, psychology, pharmacology, surgical technique, etc...I never took notes in class, nor did I study for tests...I read the required material, and near the end of the course people in class began to notice that I never had notes out, took notes, etc. They would ask me how I did it and I didn’t have a good answer for them other than I just paid attention...granted it was something that interested me...had it been the opposite it would have been much more difficult for me to do that. I always got A’s on all the tests much to the frustration of the my classmates....lol. They would often ask me to go to study group with them, and I did a few times acting more as a tutor than a study-mate.
On a side note,
something that I have found interesting over the years was upon getting tested at UCLA by some child psychologist for IQ and learning disabilities (of which I had none) in the fourth grade, he tested me for ESP...with the standard ESP testing cards...you know, a star, three wavy lines, etc. Anyhow, I got something like 85% correct...he did the test twice actually, still the same. Just curious have you or anyone else reading this who is in the high IQ percentile range experienced any sort of ESP type thoughts or feelings that you would consider more than a coincidence?

Very interesting. I wonder if your experience, what you describe about exceptional memory and retention and the ESP test relates to the concept of 'direct knowing'. I think that INFJ's sometimes understand concepts and information as a kind of 'down load' which could be seen as almost psychic in nature but has to do with the particular way that their minds work and how they think. 'Direct knowing' is one of the psychic areas of ability, there is also hearing; clairaudience, seeing;clairvoyance and feeling clairsentience. If I remember rightly. Anyway, I do suspect that ESP can also relate to high intelligence. Pretty amazing because you could tune into just about anything and apply yourself to whatever you want.
 
[MENTION=3998]niffer[/MENTION]

Are you sure you aren't my twin sister from another mother?

What you just described sounds like myself to a frightening degree.

Especially the selective mutism. They put me in a public speaking class once. I didn't deliver even one speech. It was "speak or fail" and I pretty much indicated that I found the terms acceptable - I did not speak and therefore failed.

My mum said I refused to speak. Just understood what was going on around me without talking. That can also sometimes be related to trauma or anxiety though or so I've read. (In my case I think it was as my mum was a scary head case).
 
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This is really good reading and so true. I was lucky enough to have one teacher that allowed me to be myself. As long as I aced the tests, I could sleep in class, look out the windows, and not do my homework. He actually asked the class why they couldn't be more like me one day(that was a little overboard, but he made his point after slamming his hand on my desk to awaken me). I went back to sleep. One teacher! Another failed me with a high B for skipping her class all the time. I liked her, but her take on a poem slammed God to me one day. I lost interest in what she had to say after insinuating God was a fool....................................................Finding somewhere in life to be is more challenging to some it should be easier for. For me? I hid it most of the time and have become accustomed to acting somewhat normal. The down side is I just had surgery and had I went to college and applied myself, no telling if I might have been performing surgery like my Uncle wanted me to do, to be, and to live. Reality sinks in to young children at such early ages. We know what is affordable and what is not. We know when we are needed doing something else, no matter what the parents say. I will be bold and say we are living in a façade when we do these things. We are not living up to our own potential to better our environment, whether near or far. I have said entirely too much. Think I'll crawl under a rock and be forgotten.
Intelligent INFJ best career, writer.
 
I'm 'gifted' in the way that I pick up on things very quickly. People will make comments when they teach me something like 'Jeez, you learned that fast' and it's usually in a envious or bitchy tone so I down play it and try my best to reassure them I didn't learn it that fast. Before I knew that I actually do learn things really quickly, and most people would not have learned whatever at that speed, I'd compare myself to whomever was teaching me in a way of 'Oh I'm sure you learned just as fast' and they'd get more bitchy and tell me that they didn't; that it took them weeks to learn. It's not a fun thing. People don't learn as quickly as I do and it's always something I have to realize and remember constantly because when they comment on it it's not in the form of a compliment, it's in an angry envious tone :/
Yeah right, surely that king of intelligence is different to the conventional view/mode. As others said there is a lot of maths and also moving letters round to make words, that's only way of thinking surely. I got 131 but I had to guess the maths stuff because I'm like what the ... my brain just doesn't think that way.
 
my teachers in my undergraduate program told me im clearly gifted, obviously talented. at work i run rings around everyone, i achieve things in a day that they dont achieve in a year. im some sort of freak, and it doesnt mean a damn shit. i work in a shop and im still stuck in this dump of a life. i dont qualify for mensa and people frequently see me as an idiot. so what.
makes it more challenging to be fulfilled.
 
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I'm thinking in terms of creativity and ways of thinking and applying yourself. To me it has to do with being adaptive (e.g responsive and curious in relation to the environment) and I think it's also about facilitation. Just writing that has also reminded me about emotional intelligence and reading of situations and people. These things that INFJ's are good at, are to do with intelligence but they are not 'dry' but adaptive.

I remember wanting to hide things about myself from others at school because I didn't want to stand out too much for being gifted, even in the few things I stood apart in. On the other hand although I don't like attention I love performing. I think that's because its to do with the externalising emotion and I love being expressive.

I definitely never particularly stood out as a top grade student, although I have excelled in things I've liked, when I've made the effort. However I was slow to learn literacy in primary school and so I had the idea I wasn't very bright, or at least perhaps inferior or different to others at that age. However as soon as I learnt to read I could not put a book down, and I started my first journal aged 9.

I like thinking in terms of concepts and ideas. I'm good with languages, like to write creatively, play an instrument and am adept at other creative things. I could apply myself to things quite easily, whether scientific or creative. (I'm not very good at Maths but I think it's important to decide that even harder subjects can be learnt, the brain can get over a hurdle if the driver is confident)!
I think that curiosity has an important part to play in learning. Someone else mentioned being aware of the gaps in their and others thinking and knowledge etc. which is important because innovation is also about always questioning, applying, trying to implement etc. Without a questioning mind this wouldn't happen a lot. The things that don't stimulate me remain unchartered territories in terms of learning. I do though have a lot of appetite to learn new stuff.

In relation to others, how others see me, I too relate to the feeling of being the odd one out, this can often be the case. For example in group discussion I sometimes get quite excited and agitated about some 'aha' moment, some idea that's popped into my head as I've joined the dots between ideas. In these moments people are sometimes a lot less enthralled, not quite getting where I'm at. However it's a lovely thing when it does turns out differently than that!

...At least I don't feel quite as deflated

Anyway, for sure, anyone who thinks they know everything is not going to be very interesting or likable... or know much worth knowing. People who are too intellectual but have lost their curiosity can be a bit like this.

Very interesting. I wonder if your experience, what you describe about exceptional memory and retention and the ESP test relates to the concept of 'direct knowing'. I think that INFJ's sometimes understand concepts and information as a kind of 'down load' which could be seen as almost psychic in nature but has to do with the particular way that their minds work and how they think. 'Direct knowing' is one of the psychic areas of ability, there is also hearing; clairaudience, seeing;clairvoyance and feeling clairsentience. If I remember rightly. Anyway, I do suspect that ESP can also relate to high intelligence. Pretty amazing because you could tune into just about anything and apply yourself to whatever you want.

My mum said I refused to speak. Just understood what was going on around me without talking. That can also sometimes be related to trauma or anxiety though or so I've read. (In my case I think it was as my mum was a scary head case).

Intelligent INFJ best career, writer.

Yeah right, surely that king of intelligence is different to the conventional view/mode. As others said there is a lot of maths and also moving letters round to make words, that's only way of thinking surely. I got 131 but I had to guess the maths stuff because I'm like what the ... my brain just doesn't think that way.

makes it more challenging to be fulfilled.

You can use the multi-quote/+quote feature like I've done here to quote multiple posts at once, as double-posting, but especially multi-posting, should typically be minimized in threads like these. It's an old, dead thread anyway, but it's still a useful feature to know about.
 
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Invisible,
thanks too for your comments. As you might have noticed, I'm a bit clumsy in the on-line arena um, having a few technical difficulties.:relaxed: Thanks to all the IT savvy for your patience with a lesser technocrat. It's great to see all you out here though, and all the sharing of ideas and experiences.
Related to this thread, about IQ and what it means in the world, I think we'd all agree that as INJFs having a meaningful sense of direction in life is pretty important for our INFJ happiness. I speak for myself but I guess it chimes.:wink:
 
"People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities"

"There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of it's purpose, for it's silent power grows irresistibly greater with time."

"Whatever you can do or believe you can do begin it, boldness has genius; power and magic in it"

Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe.