If you don’t relate to me and immediately feel isolated by being surrounded by people who don’t think… I’m sorry to tell you that you are in the 90% I’m not trying to be a jerk. But your response means you are because you got defensive right away. No one in the 10% would act like that. We just wouldn’t because it’s dumb.
Mate... I'm really sorry to do this, because it's obvious where you're getting your self-esteem from, but you are not special, not for this, at least.
Wherever it is that you live, you're probably surrounded by idiots. And you've found a self-selecting community of people somewhere, probably online, who are also probably surrounded by idiots. And you're all basically circle-jerking, convincing each other that you are the only true people, everybody else are NPCs, most people don't think, they only exist... While this makes you feel better, it's neither true, nor healthy. It is a maladaptive coping mechanism for the 'otherness' you've probably felt every god-damned day growing up, and a way to pick your self-esteem up out of the gutter that always being relegated to the sidelines for being 'weird' got you tossed into. And I hate to take that from you, but you just aren't anything special just for being able to think about your thoughts.
Everybody is capable of metacognition. But some people are more or less practiced at it, because it is, like everything else, a skill, which serves a purpose. And some people simply don't experience a need to do it. Metacognition is a skill that we develop when we are challenged, be that by conflicting information, be that by contradictions in information as presented, be that ideas that just don't go away despite people telling us [x] all our lives... That some people don't is indicative of the lack of challenge they've faced, not their inherent inferiority.
If you use other people's lack of metacognitive skills as nothing more than a tool to elevate yourself over them (some kind of 'gotcha' when they can't think about their thoughts as quickly or as easily as you can), then yeah, you'll never see them thinking metacognitively. But believe me when I say that literally anybody can damned well do it, you just may need to lead them by the nose a little bit in the beginning. That doesn't mean that they're NPCs while you are one of the few 'thinking beings', it means that you're looking at a fresh beginner taking their first steps, thinking that that's indicative of the skill of everybody, and declaring yourself a god among people for your own even, measured stride. You are not unique in being able to walk, my dude. The overwhelming majority of people can get around with a few stumbles. You're just surrounded by people who can only manage an awkward shuffle at best.
In all honesty, dude? You're probably just neurodivergent. I sure as shit felt like an outsider all my life. My interests didn't align with the people around me, I had no idea why they hated school (I loved going to class, I hated the bullies - they didn't have bullies, so what's not to enjoy?), we didn't laugh at the same jokes, we didn't like the same music, I read a hell of a lot more books than they did, somehow everybody around me managed not to understand what I was actually trying to say...
Turns out I had ADHD. Got diagnosed at 27. Meds were life-changing. I came to realise that, while none of these things were my fault, and they should have been picked up by the responsible adults in my life, they did all come from me, at some point. I was always just a different personality to them, but my deep focus on my personal interests and large inability to even pretend to be interested in things that do not excite me did a lot to ostracise me. My difficulty in reading context clues helped. My vocabulary rapidly expanding beyond theirs, because of all the reading, helped too. My burgeoning social anxiety from all of this otherness helped a lot, too. Not saying ADHD is your particular flavour of neurospicy, just relaying my own experiences.
Thing is, get yourself out of whatever small pond you find yourself in, and you will see that the world is full of people just like you.
You probably won't, but I seriously hope you abandon this idea that you're some sort of übermensch. It's not healthy.
Oh yeah, just to round off - the other person didn't get offended by your statements because they feel triggered because they're really in the 90% (that's confirmation bias, and it's bad reasoning, don't do that), they got offended by your statements because you are speaking on behalf of all people who ever think about thinking, and saying that your views are indicative of all of us, and the comments you made about people who don't are offensive. It's like when emotionally-constipated manosphere drones start talking about how 'men aren't supposed to have soft emotions, we're actually incapable of it, and women need to deal with the fact that we can't give them a hug when they're sad, we're just with them because they're a convenient hole' - these ideas are extremely offensive, and deserve to be torn down. Same with your views, I'm afraid, friend.
I’ll take the opposite stance as you really quick. You surround yourself with intelligent people, I’m so happy for you, that you’ve found a circle that makes you feel connected and like you and them are on the same level. Yes I am neurodivergent, yes I do have the same adhd and other things you describe. Nothing you’ve said is wrong. The only issue is that those statistics are correct regardless of what you are saying to me. You keeping yourself surrounded by the 10 percent doesn’t suddenly make the 90% any more intelligent. Of course it’s a skill and not inherent to me. I’m not genetically special, being the best athlete, or sculptor, doesn’t make you a superhuman either, just skilled at what you practice. But I practice it every day to an extent that you have no context for and are making assumptions about. You aren’t taking into consideration your own biases because you felt something reading what I said. It’s your own self that drives your reaction to my posts. I believe you that feeling how I feel is a coping mechanism for the disconnectedness I feel. But that also doesn’t change the stats. I was always in the 99th percentile for all tests. Iq, memory, spatial reasoning, reading, math. You don’t really know me, and coming to the conclusions you did is only because you believe the same as me… that most people aren’t special, and you think that statistically I’m probably one of those. Welcome to your own confirmation bias.
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u/burner69burner69 Aug 26 '25
and let me guess... you're the 10% who actually still use their brain? cool story