35 Times People Noticed Someone Displaying A Scary Level Of Intelligence

We meet all kinds of people over the course of our lives, but some leave a deeper impression than others. Especially when the interaction leaves one feeling weirdly humbled and in awe of the level of genius we are likely in the presence of.

#1

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Had a genetics professor as a freshman in undergrad. Class was 100 kids on the first day and ended with 40. She would take attendance in her head—students moved seats every day—and she would also measure how many times each student looked at their phone during every class; she did this while teaching inordinately complex information without a single note. One day, late in the semester me and a friend went to her office hours. She asked him why he had looked out of the window so many times during a class from over a month before, and she knew the date. I never once saw her stumble on a question no matter how out of scope it was. Also, this was not in her first language.

#2

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My dad told me about the calculus graduate teaching assistant he had in college. Last day of class he asked the class to give him random problems from the text book and he’d solve them in his head, he solved the hardest problem just with a few seconds of thought. The display of brain power stuck in my dad’s head for years. He even remembered his name…Ted Kaczynsky.

#3

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I was coming back from a high school JROTC competition and we stopped at a Denny’s for breakfast. We had 56 students, 2 teacher chaperones, plus the bus driver.

The waiter took down everyone’s order, their drinks, etc. with 100% accuracy. Thia included customizations. For those that ordered coffee he asked what flavor creamer pod and how many. He got all those right too.

Guy made more in tips than the manager’s salary by a long shot. He said sometimes people would insist he write down their order. He showed us the notepad he would use. Nothing but random doodles and scribbles.

#4

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I sat next to a Russian exchange student in a college course. She would regularly take notes with both hands at once, in separate notebooks, one in Russian and the other in English, sometimes German too. She would also doodle incredible drawings with one hand while she took notes with the other. She could do all of this with either hand, interchangeably. She often seemed bored.

#5

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I once knew someone who could predict how group arguments would unfold with uncomfortable accuracy. Not just who would get mad, but the exact phrasing people would use once they felt cornered. They explained it as pattern recognition from years of watching small social tells stack up. Nothing supernatural about it, but seeing it play out in real time felt eerie. It was like watching probability applied to people instead of numbers.

#6

Idk if this counts as “creepy” but my 6 year old randomly spouting the exact note of the clink of a bottle took us by complete surprise. After testing him with a tuner, we found out he has perfect pitch. It blows my mind. I’ve tried asking him how he knows and he just shrugs like it’s nothing and says he can just picture where the key is on a piano and just knows how they sound. It will never not be cool to me.

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#7

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I used to run a bar that was a little hole in the wall. This guy would come in every couple of weeks and down near a bottle of Jim Beam by himself and stumble home. Never really talked. I always just thought he was a drunk. He looked dirty and unshowered. Old ratty clothes and just a hunched over posture most of the time. Rarely ever spoke to me. One day it was slow so I tried doing a sudoku puzzle in a book I had gotten. I got maybe halfway through one and the bar had a few people walk in so I put it down to take care of them. While I am taking care of them the guy walks in and sits at the bar. It must have been maybe 30 minutes after I had gotten him his drink I go over to ask him if he needed a top off. Low and behold he finished the puzzles. Everyone single one in a brand new book. Must have been a 50 or 60 page book front and back. I was blown away. He says he just kinda sees numbers. That’s when I learned his job was balancing nuclear reactors with harmonics. Never judge a book by its cover. He told me so many other stories, that man lived a wild life.

#8

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My son has never taken a sculpting, molding, or art class. However he makes/molds perfect 3d models of any and everything at scale down to miniatures with a picture and medium (usually clay). It takes him minutes. Has done this since he was about 5.

None of us know how but it’s amazing work and we have hundreds around the house and they are so very good.

#9

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My Commander (when he was a Captain) a weather guy could predict accurate weather down to the minute. It was scary. Like biblically scary.

One time we were deployed and he forecast a sandstorm 7 days out down to a 5 minute window on arrival and departure. He had this calmness about himself.

For context, his accuracy was at 98% for everything, cloud heights, rain start and stop, dust storms, hail, tornadoes and snowstorms/blizzards. The average accuracy ranged from 70 to 85%.

Funny thing was, he wasnt a typical meteorologist. His bachelor’s was in Engineering. He just read all the books on forecasting and atmospheric physics and got good.

I think he is retired now. He was a great dude too for context. He was always trying to teach us and make us smarter and see the world how he saw it.

#10

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I once worked with a guy who could tell exactly who was walking down the hallway just by the rhythm and weight of their footsteps.

One afternoon, we were in a windowless office and he stopped mid-sentence, looked at the door, and said, “The boss is coming, and he’s pissed.” Three seconds later, the boss swung the door open looking for someone to yell at.

When I asked him how he knew, he didn’t just say he recognized the sound. He broke down the specific “heel-strike” frequency of different coworkers and explained that the boss’s stride was 0.5 inches shorter than usual, which indicated he was walking with “aggressive intent.” It wasn’t just a lucky guess; he had subconsciously cataloged the walking patterns of thirty different people. It was impressive, but it also made me realize he probably knew exactly where I was in the building at all times just by listening.

#11

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I would get so mad at my dad for reading further in a book (in his head) than we were reading out loud. He would be reading me chapter 5 of a Harry Potter book but when I would look at the page he was “reading” he would be almost to chapter 6 reading in his head while speaking out loud the chapter we were on but not actually looking at it. He never forgot a single word and had voices for each of the characters that he used for the whole series! When I asked him why he did that he said “sometimes I like to read ahead a little”.

#12

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My calculus and advanced linear algebra professor probably fits the bill. The guy could solve two completely different problems on the board at the same time with his two hands. As in one problem with his left hand and one with his right hand AT THE SAME TIME. School told him to stop because students could barely follow one incredibly complex problem, let alone two at the same time. Really odd guy, incredibly intelligent though.

#13

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I’m a guy and my best friend in my teens was a girl. She was that nice, but cliché dumb blonde girl. Always extremely naive. The better I got to know her the more she acted differently, but only towards me. I could have highly intellectual discussions with her about nearly anything. But as soon as other guys were around, she acted like barbie again. I asked her why that is and she very bluntly told me “Well, guys feel threatened by intelligent woman, it is easier to play dumb to get my way around them.”. And she told that in that calculated, manipulative, ice-cold manner. I was convinced I was talking to a real psychopath. She ended up with a full scholarship and studied in a prestigious university. She is now working for a very well known IT company.

#14

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Mention any popular song from the 1950’s, 60’s or 70’s. My uncle knows what date it came out and what DAY OF THE WEEK IT WAS. He can also do this for almost any random event you mention. And no, he’s not just making it up because I have checked many times. He’s accurate. I have no idea how he does that. I can’t even remember what day it is today!

#15

My autistic son (low needs) learned sign language at 7-9 mos old. His math skills were outrageous by 2nd grade. It was then I started envisioning taking him to Vegas, like Rainman. He could look at math problems and just know the answer. Eventually, they became too easy and he lost interest, started acting out so my Vegas dream was shattered.
Today, he is the head of a MECA tronics program at an engineering program. So much for my quick million!

Image source: Creepybabychatt

#16

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Had a physics teacher who was so smart, he broke down how you could predict collisions in space using complex math. Every lecture I would walk out with a headache trying to keep up with him and his breakdown of things. He was a no kidding genius and saw the world totally different than anyone I met. He was also banned from a ton of casinos for counting cards.

#17

I went to college with a guy who would be given a coding assignment and after a few moments thought would type out the whole thing with zero bugs. He’d be done in 15 minutes, the rest of us spent hours troubleshooting. He was the most frighteningly intelligent person I ever met.

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#18

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My roommate could recite every lie I’d ever told him, word for word, years later. Never used it against me.

Just liked knowing he could end me anytime he felt like it.

The silence was louder than any threat.

#19

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Those people who can look at like a twig on the ground in someone’s video and somehow pinpoint their exact location.

#20

Not sure if creepy, but my best friend in high school had STEM classes like he had the answers hard coded in his head. Would drive teachers crazy because he HATED showing his work. He could solve calculus problems in 1/5 the amount of chicken scratching a normal human would need. He got an electrical engineering degree, masters in bio-chemical engineering… would skip class because the teacher “was an idiot”, read the book and get a perfect score on the tests.

Could not act, dance, play music, but anything that needed computational power… he just has it. Being brilliant in certain ways meant he couldn’t release his particular types of analysis thinking that makes life pretty hard: relationships, work, parenting- things that are anti-pattern to computation.

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#21

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In my first job in Australia, there was a guy named William.

The first odd thing I noticed was that he liked to program this old PDP-11 computer we had there, by toggling in machine instructions one at a time on the front panel. He had memorized the whole instruction set, in binary.

Later, I found he knew where every postcode in Australia was located. He had a train hobby, and apparently the postcodes followed the train lines.

Then he moved on to buses. He memorized all the bus routes in our major cities. He had a source for getting periodic updates.

We could ask him how to get from A to B in Australia, and he’d tell you the best train + bus route, down to the street in the bus routes, kinda like we can see in Google Maps today, but this was 1982.

Last I heard , he’d done similar for ISD phone prefixes globally. He claimed to have figured out the Pope’s phone number on the basis of this.

#22

I knew a man who we all thought was a know it all, because of how he lacked a filter, and would spew out “facts” he knew about something randomly to those around him. He also had an interesting life, was eccentric, and idolized Einstein, somewhat having a similar look. He said he loves space and sees numbers in various color because growing up etc etc.

I bought a great course on space, out of interest, and we watched it together. I don’t recall the specifics of the question, but it asked along the lines of “how long would the sun burn if it were made completely out of coal?”

I paused the video, and mockingly asked him “alright Heinstein, cuz his last name was Heine, and that was his nickname, “how long?” He got this look on his face, looked to the sky while doing some finger movements, and 8 seconds later blurts out an answer. I unpause the dvd and the lecturer says the exact same answer.

He had no access to the video previous, and long story short he doesn’t surf the web, well not very well, because of various life problems like recovering from a traumatic brain injury, and working and raising kids, not enough time to learn, etc. and he said he didn’t already know the answer. It took knowing all of this for me to believe him, and after that I never doubted the random facts he would blurt out, wasn’t bothered by his abrasive personality, and would try and learn to learn for myself.

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#23

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Wasn’t creepy really but I did a group coding assignment with a guy who was as logical as a computer. He could just know where a mistake was and fix the error in an algorithm. Made me feel like my brain was spaghetti.

#24

I had a friend who picked up languages easily. He wasn’t fluent in every language he knew, but he could hold lengthy conversations or help people if he could.

It was the way he would switch languages. He would get a blank face, no blinking and suddenly back to normal speaking in the different language.

Most people like blink or move their eyes a certain way because they’re thinking of the translation. Not him. It was like every language was a first language for him.

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#25

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I had a kindergarten student who told me exactly when a 7 minute timer was going to go off on my phone. I had forgot that I even set it and out of nowhere she said 3,2,1 and it went off. The wall clock was out of order. There were no computers in the room and she didn’t have a phone or watch.

I’m pretty good at this as an adult, like I can set the microwave on three minutes walk out of the room and return just as it goes off… but I’m over 40. How could she do that at 5 years old? She is still my student years later and I know that she can tell when I’m lying. It will be like little things, to avoid hurting someones feelings. I think I’m a pretty good liar but she will call me out on it.

#26

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A very good friend of mine is a profiler. The level of accuracy is astonishing. He can pick up information within a nano sencond on your education level, where you where educated (city, county side) your salary range, what you do for work, your positives and negatives skillsets, what your intentions are what your hiding and your injuries to name a few.

#27

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I had a professor who remembered the names of about 100 students in our class after saying their names once on the first day of class.

#28

My 9 year old non-verbal son can pinpoint where a certain number is on his math square blocks (that aren’t numbered and are about the size of a large sugar cube with different colors) He lines them up in different patterns and more than 400 so it ends up being a long rectangle. One day I asked where some random number was and he immediately touched one so I counted and he was right. He’s never been wrong. I’m not a math person so maybe it’s common but I can’t look at 400 blocks and tell you where 233 is without counting every block 🤣.

Image source: Cheri0411

#29

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In my first IT job I was having an argument with a colleague over password complexity.

I argued “of course people are going to write these passwords down, they’re 12 random characters including symbols, we should provide them with some kind of password management software.”

He argued that you only need to look at a password for thirty seconds to remember it.

So to settle the argument we set up a laptop with a random password, write it on a piece of paper, give it to him and set a timer for thirty seconds, then we take the paper away, agreeing that we’ll slide the laptop in front of him at a random point in the day.

We catch him in the middle of a phone call and slide it in front of him.

Without stopping his phone call he then proceeds to type the password into the laptop using his middle fingers which he then flipped up at us as it logged in.

Still argue that I was right and his demonstration meant nothing haha.

#30

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If you’ve ever seen the mentalist with the character Patrick Jane, I knew somebody who was just like that. He was extremely good at reading people from their body language and words. He made a full time living from playing poker.

Scary guy cos I’m sure he always knew what everyone was thinking.

#31

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When we were kids, our friend Dan was hit by a car and suffered a major brain injury. Afterwards, he could multiply large numbers in his head.

We would do “calculator battles” where we’d try to come up with the answer using a calculator and he’d usually beat us. So something like 1576 x 78 and he was usually faster than the kid trying to punch it in. This was 6th grade.

#32

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My brothers are both crazy good at math. One time we were at a restaurant with a group of my older brother’s friends (seven of us in all), and after our meal my brothers started debating the best way to split the check. Not only were they able to calculate how to split the whole check seven ways, but they could also calculate other splits, like the three of us paying together while the other four paid seperately. And then they could calculate AN %18 TIP for every sum they came up with in these theoretical check splits. They did this in their heads and very fast.

#33

My Greek teacher in high school had an endless memory. One morning I ran into him on the train and told him I couldn’t chat because I had a history oral exam (not his subject). He asked what topic it was on and then started explaining, in incredibly detailed fashion, the dynamics behind the decisions made by the rulers of that particular period.
He never prepared a lesson: he would walk into class and ask, “Where did we get to?” and from there he’d start explaining whatever came next. About anything.
Once he told me that this ability of his was also a curse, because he could feel any pain he had ever experienced in his life — including losses — as if they had just happened.

Image source: Gionareg

#34

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In real life up close, my husband. He’s a genius and sometimes he makes a call months in advance if something happening. It’s so unnerving. We watch the news and see a report he clocked months ago.

#35

I know a couple people who have numerical intelligence beyond my understanding. my friend’s ex, who was an engineering student who did his homework at the gym- took one look at the problem he had to solve, worked on it in his head while doing his set, then wrote the answer when he was done. correct every time. then my aunt who is now the head of her math department at the university she works at, I’ve watched her not just solve huge complex equations in less than a minute but run through ten or so at a time as a fun hobby. She’s a great teacher, too, and the only reason I passed my college calculus classes, which to me is one of the best signs of intelligence there is.

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