"I'm a Genius"

I heard this 10-15 times this week in the 7 hours working with this 21 year old kid. He was a nice kid but a bit of a motor mouth. I found it funny he was so adamant about the statement and it was a bit telling as to who he is. "I'm a Genius," or statements about how smart he is and how quickly he picks things up happened a lot during the day. He said he had a photographic memory, and how he could be shown something once and would be able to to the task.

Well, from what I saw on the steel, those statements were a stretch of his competency. When someone says, "I'm a fucking genius," I'm going to pay attention, see how they do whatever task. Do they do something exceptionally well? Did they innovate or do the task in a revolutionary way? Did they show me a new way to do the job I have not thought of in the years of doing said job?

Also, when someone makes that statement or tells me how smart and competent they are, it makes me think that someone at some point in their lives constantly told them they were stupid. The cry, "I'm a genius!" is from someone constantly being told they are not.

I've worked with some geniuses. None of them ever said, "I'm a genius." You could tell by how they thought, talked, and did the things they did. Other people would say they were a genius when the person was out of the room. And most everyone would nod their heads in agreement. It was that obvious.

I wanted to tell the kid this observation, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise. He never shut up long enough to listen to another person. Not the trait of a genius.

And the things he said about women made me know he was not a genius. He had no understanding of a creature that years of experience have given me no understanding of.