I took an IQ test when I was 23 and it came out at 131, so if you happen to have an IQ of 150, kudos, you beat me by 19 points. But you know what? It doesn’t matter.
No one needs more than 100 IQ points. We might as well take the extra 81 we have between the two of us, and give them to someone who could really use them.
I was very bored when I was 16.
Here’s my routine from back then:
- Go to school.
- Sit in class, be nice, answer all questions I can answer, which was most of them.
- Have fun with friends during breaks.
- Go home, do my homework in 20 minutes.
- Throw my bag into a corner and start playing Xbox.
I can barely remember a day where I studied more than 30 minutes before a test.
The preparation for my final, last, biggest high school exam in English was to flip through my vocab book and watch the new Dorian Gray movie.
I often felt frustrated. Dumb conversations, dumb tasks, dumb games. It was all too easy.
Well. There’s a saying: If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
It is up to you to change that. You’re 16. I wish I had someone tell me what I’m about to tell you back then:
Being bored isn’t a result of a high IQ. Being bored is a result of being lazy.
This laziness often comes from fear. The only times I have been bored in my life were the times when I was avoiding doing something hard, important or meaningful.
Breezing through what’s beneath you is easy. Complaining is a consequence of complacency. Stepping up to your own skills and picking challenges that match them takes courage.
If you love math and physics, try to get into MIT. Take the hardest online courses there. Read a few scientific papers. Can you add to them? Find flaws? Come up with your own mathematical theory?
Some time in 2012, I decided I would choose myself and try to build a life where I don’t depend on anyone to pay my bills. Now for an introverted, non-entrepreneur-bred, anti-sales-y kid like me, that’s a challenge. I’m still working on it today.
I haven’t felt bored since.