This guy's never said he's smarter than everybody else, even though it's obviously true. The fact that he went to college early on comes up once in a while bec

This guy's never said he's smarter than everybody else, even though it's obviously true. The fact that he went to college early on comes up once in a while because a lot of posts on HN have to do with education and brains, but I have yet to see a post where he rubs it in anyone's face. But there's a fundamental problem with anyone who admits to having gone to college at 13. It's a lot like being 6'9" at age 13. In that particular field, you're better than everyone else, and it's plain as day. However, unlike being really tall, people generally hate you for it. Smart guys don't get groupies. Smart guys aren't generally popular. There's stigma regarding intelligence, and I'm not sure why. With regard to Mensa, keep in mind there are only 50,000 members in US, out of a maximum of 6 million that fall into the 98th percentile for IQ. If you tested Silicon Valley denizen, you'd find a lot of people on the right end of the curve. Woz, Sergey, Bill G, they're probably all in the top 99th percentile. In fact, Bill Gates won a national math competition when he was young. If you mean Mensa people don't rock the valley, you're right, but if you mean 98th percentile folks don't rock the valley, I'm pretty skeptical. In any case, Colin's obviously a genius. I for one don't hold it against him. I don't really into buy social standards of arrogance and humility; I don't want to overestimate or underestimate myself. I want to be accurate. If I'm the best, I won't try to convince myself otherwise. Likewise if I'm the worst. Colin, if you ever find you need someone to work with but your smarts have scared people off, contact me.