I can relate too well with the author here with knowing more than others, but I see it from a different perspective. From the perspective that there are other f

I can relate too well with the author here with knowing more than others, but I see it from a different perspective. From the perspective that there are other forms of being smart besides knowledge. There is a bigger picture of culture, which just means how we interact with the world and people around us, and intelligence is only a small part of that. Culture is hard. I thought it was just me at first, but I've been meeting more and more people who just don't "fit in", and I think it's because they never really "got" the culture around them. And now I'm seeing it more and more in my children, the fact that some people don't just naturally pick up the culture around them like others do. For some it's harder to learn than others and takes more effort. As I grow older I realize more and more of this was caused by me being an arrogant kid. That arrogance stopped me from learning from around me because I would be too focused on the thoughts inside my own head, believing them to be more worthwhile than anything externally. So I never picked up learning from the world around me during the time I was supposed to, and I was decades late to the party. Case in point, I'm 31 and only gave beer a real chance for the first time this year (conclusion: I like it!). And I've accidentally passed that on to my own children, the arrogance and the cultural internalization. I just wish I had spent more time being quiet and listening to the world around me than thinking too much. Half the time I wasn't actually "smarter" than anyone around me even though I thought I was, and the other half when I actually was, my intelligence did more harm than good to myself. Some of the people I look up to the very most are "ignorant" by the standards I held myself to growing up (and maybe society did too). They're "uneducated fools". But they're kind, patient, quiet and thoughtful, good listeners, meek and humble, compassionate and understanding, forgiving. I find myself wanting to be around them just because they're them, and wishing I was more like them.