If you have a high IQ, do you have trouble relating to people who are not as smart as you? Yes.

1. Being smart is like walking behind someone with a walker and you can’t get around them. It drives you crazy. Now imagine this is your brain dealing with most people.
2. When you ask a political question people think you are stupid for asking the question, because the answer is “obvious.” Ironically, they are the ones who don’t understand the complexity and nuance of the question. Expect to face this quite a bit.
3. You make arguments on politics, religion, etc. and you are called “crazy,” “unhinged,” or “weird.” This is because you are thinking several steps ahead of other people. You see results far beyond what they are seeing. They don’t see it. Or they are very conventional thinkers. They accept groupthink. If you speak outside of this people think you are insane. Ironically, you are the only one that is right.
4. The dumber someone happens to be, the smarter they think they are. This is the Dunning Krueger Effect.
5. You don’t live your life according to conformist societal conventions. For example, you don’t care about mowing your lawn on a regular basis because you don’t care. Or you may have unconventional political opinions.
6. Finding a mate is not easy. People with high IQ’s are rare. It is hard to be in sync with someone who is 40 IQ points away from you. You just speak in another language from each other.
7. Normal IQ individuals tend care about things you do not. For example, my friends on Facebook become obsessed with football. They get very emotional about it. And they get together and drink beer and watch football. I understand the rules of the game, but to me it is terribly tedious. I have no interest in tribal games. It makes you feel so different than others. And when they try to chat with you and you cannot discuss sports, you feel alone.
8. You may find yourself ostracized by your co-workers or your family. Some families are authoritarian. They are not tolerant of non-conforming opinions. You may find yourself singled out, despite your attempts to be with them. Despite your best efforts, you may find yourself cast out. Don’t feel bad. It is not your fault. You can try airing your feelings and opening up. But I promise you, if you are scapegoated, it simply won’t work. I tried this. They just used my openness against me. You must get away from these people. That is the only way you can survive. Get away. It doesn’t matter if it is your brothers and sisters, whoever. More people are in therapy because of scapegoating than you might imagine.
9. Most workplaces are designed for the IQ level of those who work there. A professional workplace is going to be suited to someone with a 115 IQ. But if you are 130+, you will find few workplaces designed for you.
10. Studies have shown that having lots of friends is positive for normal IQ people. It helps them. But for high IQ people, lots of friends actually causes depression.

Why Do Some Intelligent People Fail To Achieve Their Potential?

The problem is not with them. The real problem is that success means different things to different levels of intelligence.

1. For a person of average intelligence, graduating from college, having a home, your own lawn, a job, a spouse and children is considered successful. And it is. But somehow, when someone with a high IQ only does these things, somehow this is considered “not successful.” But why should the two be different? People with high intelligence are not a different species. They still have emotions and physical needs. They still go to the bathroom as anyone else.
2. Normal people consider “success” to mean being rich. If someone has a high IQ, then they should be rich, right? Actually it is the opposite. To make a lot of money you have to produce a product or service that pleases the majority of people. But being smart would actually make this harder for very intelligent people, because they are so different. In fact, the richest people tend to be average or only slightly above average intelligence. Someone like Chris Langan with an IQ of above 200 isn’t going to be interested in making sales quotas or climbing the corporate ladder. He is interested in developing his theories of metacognition, which requires being alone and undisturbed.
3. Social status is also considered “success” by average people. But again, this would involve joining the rat race, which highly intelligent people see as being shallow and mind numbingly boring. These people also have difficulty being happy around people who are more than 30 IQ points below them. It is tiring to dumb yourself down so others can understand you. It is draining.
4. School is designed around your average IQ student. So for very smart people it is boring. Plus school requires conformity, which smart people don’t like, because this is designed around the mediocre expectations of the average minded masses.
5. Smart people are happy being left alone. They like to read, write, think, and not be bothered. But to your average minded person, this is boring.