A genie appears before you and says you must choose to be very physically attractive, but slightly below average intelligence, or very intelligent, but slightly below average attractiveness? Which would you choose, and why?
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I thought I blocked this shit hole instance a couple days ago. Apparently it didn’t work. Time to add them again!
Why do you keep coming back, OP?
Did you just read through thousands of my comments to find that, or what? To answer your question, this Ask Lemmy community has the most subs according to my app’s search feature, and my question is completely non-political, so I figured I can post it here but not have to deal with the extreme political opinions common to users of this instance.
No, just the first page of the modlog.
Intelligence, easier to figure out how to improve my attractiveness and deal with complex problems in general than trying to get smarter.
if you’re beautiful you don’t need to be smart.
Beautiful but unintelligent people can make far more mistakes than intelligent but not beautiful people.
What is the definition of ‘beautiful’, here? Do I get to decide, or is it up to the genie’s interpretation?
It will be what the majority of society considers beautiful. So you know, like young Brad Pitt, or young Angelina Jolie, or Jason Momoa, or Gal Gadot, or whomever you consider to be attractive. But! You wouldn’t be Brad Pitt because it says slightly above average attractiveness. So you would be the guy that everyone asks if you’ve ever been told that you kind of look like Brad Pitt.
That’s not a very specific definition, innit? I looked these folks up, and didn’t exactly spot any obvious similarities among them, though maybe that’s just me. I mean, are people gonna see me and be maybe slightly reminded of Jason Momoa but in a dollar store knockoff version, or am I gonna maybe sorta make people unconsciouly be thinking “hmmm… they remind me of someone. I just can’t pinpoint who exactly”, unaware that they’re in fact thinking of Gal Gadot? Cause those are different paths. I mean, what does that even imply? Slightly bigger, a wee bit more muscular, 5 ³⁄₇ pack? Or do I thin out ever so slightly, with a milimiter larger butt or something? So many ways one could change, appearance-wise
I’m sure the genie will be happy to explain all the intricacies… Maybe when you are approached you can just ask him for a picture or a list of options.
Smarter.
But I feel like I already have both. At the same time I feel like I have nothing od them both.
Especially because only a selection tells me that I look very attractive. I get more compliments from males when I dress like a female for Halloween while I am hetero. But mostly I feel like its not true because many people just accept my presents. But maybe they only accept me because I dont look unattractive.
So choosing attractiveness leads to better social connections which I rely on.
The intelligence… I feel dumb as fuck often times because simple tasks are difficult for me or getting a focus in general. But I get compliments of being smart as fuck, especially when they see how many peogramming languages I can write in or see the projects I created or I was creative on.
Still, I guess this is the sideproduct of being too intelligent. That being too intelligent with Asberger and ADHD results into not being able to do simple tasks. I feel like the word “dumb” is just a question of perspective, because i am dumb in too many simple things, except its about a topic I love like Computers, electronics or Math sometimes.
So the question arrises. When I choose being intelligent. Would I be able to be Intelligent in tasks which people with lower IQ (I guess dumb?) can easily master? And at the same time also in tasks which only people with higher IQ can master? (Idk my IQ btw, could be both high or low. I really dont know)
Also, would I be able to still connect with people with the intelligence because I would have a high Empathic Intelligence? I noticed that the Higher the IQ of someone is, the lower their EQ will be. Making them a bit Egoistic and unhandsome.
Its a complex topic with many questions
Smart. Pretty, dumb people get taken advantage of. Besides, I’m already unattractive, might as well give me something after making me go through high school 😒
I’m an introvert so I’m going for very intelligent.
I’m already smart and beautiful.
Isn’t there a genie out there that cures anxiety?
Not really a genie, more of a willo the wisp, but I get it from a bloke called Spider. It’s very more-ish.
Easily smart and slightly below average attractiveness. It’s pretty trivial to boost your appearance by 2-3 “points” with some decent fashion choices, makeup, working out, and good grooming.
Worst case, I use my high intelligence to get a high paying job and use some of the money for plastic surgery.
Beautiful. I’ve tried smart, it sucks.
Yeah, told the genie I want to be smart. Motherfucker turned me into a car.
Smart… Looks good away but intelligence is forever.
intelligence goes away too, it just takes a bit longer
I am lucky enough to already be both, so I don’t have to choose, thank you very much.
Smart, being beautiful would just get attention from boring people
But if you’re not smart then those would be your people.
I don’t want to be boring
The opposite also works
I’m studying engineering, so i’ll take smarts, we all know that anyone in this field ends up bald by some mystical force anyways
Too real. In the middle stages of my career I am fighting a losing battle against this plight.
Probably smart, because I’m already pretty smart and the prospect of giving up what I already have seems scary.
Plus, I’ve lived most of my life thinking I was repulsively ugly; part of overcoming that anxiety involved understanding that “you can be the juiciest, ripest peach in the world, but some people just don’t like peaches”. If there’s anything I’ve learned from that, it’s understanding that attractiveness is even harder to “objectively” quantify than intelligence
I would rather be beautiful because then I wouldn’t realize everyone else around me is so unfathomably stupid.
My trick to coping with that has been to seek out rooms or contexts in which I’m the stupid one, relatively speaking. I sometimes struggle with insecurity when doing this (especially as a bright kid who was “a big fish in a small pond”), but I never feel happier than when I’m learning from someone knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their little weird slice of the world.
Where do I live? If I’m in a place where people are beautiful, slightly below average attractiveness would be perfect for the rest of the world, make me a genius.
If I live where people are so intelligent and are ugly, please make me better looking and slightly dumber than them, I can make my way through the world just fine.
I think looks are easier to fix, but learning can help fix stupid - I’m sure there are at least some stupid people with more sense than some smart people.
Education can cure ignorance, not stupidity.
I don’t mean you can gain native intelligence, but nobody is using their full potential. I remember my mom saying that my sister got the most out of the “gifted” classes in school (I sincerely hope they don’t call them that anymore) because she barely qualified, so was challenged, engaged by the curriculum, and learned more than those of us who were bored because it was easy. Long after I was out of school she said she wished she had put me at least in a private school where you could move at your own pace. But hardly anyone gets that, in any family.
So I think a person who is less intelligent, recognizes it and learns and trains can end up in a better place than someone who is smart and so less motivated to try, since they don’t have to.
If just asking if I’d take extra smarts or extra looks from my starting point now? Extra smarts. I need them to hedge against dementia when I get older.
Is native intelligence a protection against dementia? Does it lower the odds?
It’s more like padding, I was an anorexic teen and young woman so even though I’ve finally gained weight in midlife and feel fat by my standards, people see me as thin. I’m tall, so even if I lose a couple inches to age I won’t be short. If you are very smart, it doesn’t prevent dementia, no. It just takes longer to slide from a higher point, you have farther to go, your early dementia isn’t going to be as apparent to others.
As far as I know, only physical exercise can prevent it and only for a subset of people. Like, if you keep your heart and circulation healthy, you can prevent it if it’s preventable for you personally. Some people are doomed to it from heredity.
