How did he come to such a conclusion and what is the connection between the two?

[Anonymous]

I have a male friend in my physics class. At that time, our conversation was about our final project. I remember the last time I talked to my female friend about her finishing her final project when we were in the same semester. According to the rules, the assignment can be done if it has reached a certain semester but my friend had completed it before reaching that certain semester. I brought up this topic to talk to my male friend. I told him that my friend could finish her final project early even though it hadn't reached the semester, but why couldn't we at school (that's what I asked him), he said that it's useless for you to be smart... and other words that I don't remember clearly. I was confused as to what the connection was between being smart and the final project, and how could he conclude that I was smart when we were in different classes and never met and communicated at school except for occasionally communicating at the physics tutoring centre.

[Oliverlogan263]

Wow, that's really strange of him to say. I don't understand the connection between the final project discussion and calling you smart either. A few thoughts:

- Maybe he was trying to compliment you in a weird, backwards kind of way? But it came across really rude and dismissive.

- Or he could have some kind of insecurity about you being smarter than him and tried to brush it off like that. But that's a weird assumption for him to make about someone he barely knows.

- The topic was your friend finishing early, not you personally. So it seems random to bring up your intelligence out of nowhere like that.

- It almost sounds like he was just looking for an excuse to put you down for some reason. But who knows what that reason is since you don't interact much.

I wouldn't read too much into it if I were you. Some people just say odd things without thinking. But it was rude of him to insinuate being smart is a bad thing or that he knows your abilities so well from minimal contact. I'd just ignore that comment if it comes up again with him.

[Effably]

I often find myself wishing people would try to be more concise and clear.

The way I understand it:

1. You told a guy your girl friend managed to finish a similar course before the deadline.

Meaning you told him about a smart person doing well in a similar course.

2. He responded that for your current course it does not matter if you are smart or not.

Meaning he was stating that he/you are not neccessarily any worse but do not have that option of finishing early.

Some courses offer the option to conclude it when all tasks are done. This is especially the case with online courses. In a more physical setting there can sometimes be exceptions made with early exams although they often need to be justified as it is an additional workload, this is not commonly offered regardless of a student's exellence.

As a sidenote as an academically inclined individual: Being smart is certainly useful but nothing competes with diligence within our typical systems of rote learning. The smartest kid in class is rarely the one doing the best.