Insufferable geniuses. I won't front, I am a pretty intelligent kid, as I have been in advanced classes since grade school, but some of the peers and colleagues over the years have had this "everyone else is just beneath my level of intellect" thing going on which just bugged the **** out of me.
I don't know man, if you are going about with the thought in your mind that you have been in advanced classes and stuff, and that automatically makes you smarter than the other people in the classes below you, you are shooting yourself in the foot with that statement.
We all get arrogant at times about stuff, well, apart from some exceptioanlly nice people I imagine, and that same person can feel like the stupidest person in the room at times too. The trick is to just think of yourself as a person who is willing to learn and makes mistakes, try to drop your ego and laugh at yourself.
It's ok to use stuff like that if you are questioning yourself, 'am i dumb? well, I was in advanced classes, so i must be smart', but i would be careful *what* you use for that, so you don't end up thinking the same way as the arrogant people. edit: ie think of something you did on your own, not something that's in comparison to other people.
I mean, I have been slagged off on message boards more times than I can remember for being quite casual in my observations, or presentation, but when i do think to myself, are they right? i remember the time at the end of my 1st year at art school when i did an essay on a whistler painter when i was brutally hungover, the day before it was to be handed in, and in one draft, just sat in front of the painting and let it fly, and i got an A minus from a tutor who was notorious for never ghiving out A's.
So, I can rest easy and type up crap as much as i want on message boards with that in mind, let them slag me off all they want, academic stuff is easy. Just be careful only to define your own intelligence by what you do, not by comparing it to other people, because you will fail when you do that, you do not have all the information on those people.