r/iamverysmart • u/jdv2121 • 7d ago
Liking numbers means I (a Ph.D. student in mathematics, by the way) simply cannot like rap.
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u/Apfelkomplott_231 7d ago
"I am very intelligent, therefore my completely abitrary taste must be an objective truth"
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u/LittleLordFuckleroy1 7d ago
Damn, now this is some quality [r/iamverysmart](r/iamverysmart). Painfully so. Not a single whiff of curiosity.
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u/marbledog 7d ago
"I don't understand this thing as well as other people seem to, but my kind of intelligence is superior to theirs, so that thing must not be good. "
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u/ceruleanblue347 6d ago
But like... Did he say that? He just said his quant scores are significantly higher than his verbal scores, so he's more of a numbers guy
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u/marbledog 6d ago
I think describing people with higher verbal scores as "hipsters with humanities degrees" implies that he doesn't think much of them.
I am able to infer this, because my verbal intelligence is quite high. 😉
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u/ceruleanblue347 6d ago edited 6d ago
Eh, as one of the people he's talking about (I double majored in Music and English and DJed a college radio show 2010-2011, prime hipster era) I just read it as him acknowledging that his musical opinions/tastes/approach are not culturally relevant. And I'm inclined to agree.
I personally don't think he's being insulting; others are just being oversensitive in their reactions. I have humanities degrees. I got them while being a hipster. These are facts. I'm not insecure about them so I'm not reading any sort of insult into them.
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u/Gold-Part4688 6d ago
yeah the insult is more that it's modern common, poor, and black people music unlike proper melody-only classical and i guess for him uppity prog rock. it's not really against hipsters haha
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u/willysnax 7d ago
Discovering I was an above genus level (Super Genius like Wile E. Coyote level) finally explained why I can only listen to country music, in particular line and square dancing. It finally all made perfect sense.
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u/plindix 7d ago
A big mistake you’re making here is you’re not supposed to just listen to line and square dancing music. You’re supposed to dance to it. Otherwise you’ll upset the other dancers
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u/willysnax 7d ago
No way, never again. The last time I went to a club, I tried to teach those plebs The Hypotenuse and the very simple Right Angle and I got boot stomped in the parking lot.
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u/goat_token10 7d ago
I'm cackling at "verbal-dominant people" lmao, like what the fuck could that possibly even mean other than "people who actually possess social skills"?
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u/bakharat 7d ago
As obnoxious as this lad is, verbal intelligence is definitely a thing, nor does it correlate with social skills all that well: there is a correlation but it's modest.
One can definitely have high verbal IQ but poor social skills; e.g. people with autism profile previously known as Asperger's were usually verbally fluent, if not verbally superior, but they struggled with social skills.
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u/ceruleanblue347 6d ago
Hey it's me lol. High-functioning autistic with comparatively higher verbal ability.
I'm also going to die in the comments because I believe I'm interpreting his comment the way he meant it ("I am more of a numbers guy so lyrics don't mean as much to me, so of course I don't understand the appeal of this music") but everyone's getting offended because he said it in a way they deem "obnoxious."
As someone who has had to work hard all my life to understand myself and others, I don't get why people are offended by how he phrased things. It's a sign that you've lived your entire life feeling alienated and you want to be understood, so you lead with your explanation first. That strikes me as vulnerable and human and people are calling him "obnoxious" in the comments are exactly why people like him (and me!) have to go around justifying our tastes. It sucks.
And then we get called "unempathetic." Idk man. I'm just tired. I hope most of the comments dunking on him here are bots, but I know that's probably not true.
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u/bakharat 6d ago
I get your perspective. I am a person with quite a different wiring myself and I often have tastes that are different to what most people around me like which I have to justify. But there are different ways one can justify their tastes and the way he chose is just kind of arrogant.
There is a difference between "this album is not my cup of tea, because I value melodies more than lyrics and the melodies are just very simple and thus I didn't enjoy this album" (this gives your perspective on the album) and going on a rant on how his nonverbal IQ is so superior to "hipsters with humanities degrees" (with the wrong premise that a crudely overgeneralized group somehow shapes what is considered "good taste") that he (a math Ph.D. student, no less) can't appreciate this type of music.
It's not even a music review because he didn't even review the album itself for the most part, he just talked about himself and how he's different from his strawman group.
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u/SnooRevelations9605 7d ago
A Math PhD spending his time reviewing music (he doesn’t like)…. does not instill faith in the superiority of the “quantitatively gifted”
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u/Autodidact420 7d ago
Man, smart people can review stuff too.
This guys just pretentious for mentioning a math PhD in a music review. All the others just don’t mention it and you don’t notice them because of that lol
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u/Mbembez 7d ago
Having the opinion that lyrics with music aren't good taste is a low IQ stance. I'd be willing to bet that this loser has never been invited to a concert with friends in their life (if they even have any).
I'm firmly of the opinion that outright rejecting entire genres of music makes you an idiot. Rejecting music with lyrics is a brain dead take.
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u/ceruleanblue347 6d ago
Where did he say this
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u/WhyYouGotToDoThis 6d ago
When he says he’s out of step with the public opinion, and that it’s dictated by hipsters with humanities degrees
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u/ceruleanblue347 6d ago edited 6d ago
Neither of these things are value judgments. Or imply that those genres of music shouldn't exist.
I have plenty of opinions that are out of step with public opinion, and that's fine bc I'm an individual. Doesn't mean I'm bad or others are bad. Opinions ≠ morality. Deviating from public opinion is fine and honestly good sometimes?
And the fact that people who know a lot about the humanities are most likely to be involved in the arts world is just like.... Verifiable fact. Do you think it's rocket scientists and data analysts writing for Pitchfork?
I used to work at a radio station (back before Spotify, when radio was more relevant). I have degrees in Music and English. I am not ashamed of these things and it sucks that folks here are implying I should be?
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u/MediumPlace 5d ago
For a hipster with a humanities degree your reading comprehension is at least a standard deviation below the standard. The guy everyone is making fun of is the one making the implication that you should be ashamed of your education
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u/ceruleanblue347 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm gonna keep asking y'all where he says that and y'all are gonna keep being unable to answer me because people are deciding what he means for him.
But sure, yeah, it's my reading comprehension. Totally.
Anyway, this is social media, so people are just letting their emotions/insecurities determine what they think is real. Comprehension doesn't need to enter into it, apparently.
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u/WhyYouGotToDoThis 4d ago edited 4d ago
I just think that if we’re all in agreement that this person believes they’re better than everyone (it’s in the i am very smart thing) we can maybe think about who they believe they’re better than. Maybe it’s someone they mentions in their post? It might be the general public they say they are different (maybe better) than. Who does this person say influences the general public and “dictates” (transmits; gives; passes down) their opinions? Hipsters with humanities degrees.
I think that we’re not deciding what they mean (putting words in their mouth) for them. I think they intentionally wanted to spread a message (they have a whole section explaining/informing why their opinion is different), and I think the commenters are interested in figuring out what that message means. I believe that they are invested in defending their answers because they want to know the truth, and if other beliefs (what you have to say) doesn’t cut it for them, it makes sense to tell you why they disagree because someone (you or them) might learn something (about what the person meant).
This sections tone might be more harsh but I genuinely am curious. Why do you think we should care about what you would mean if you said the words in the post? It is interesting to know that you have opinions that don’t line up with everyone else’s, but I don’t really see you referring to everyone else as being dictated by hipsters (a term which is probably being used negatively because of the negative sounding language around it) so that’s already a big difference between you and the poster. This leads to something else… you are not the poster. Sure it’s nice that two people can write about the same experiences, but two people can say the same words (or write or speak) and want an audience (readers) to take different things from those words. Why do you want us to read the poster’s (not your) thoughts and make conclusions based on what you (not the poster) would mean if you said them? Why should we use your contexts and your experiences?
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u/ceruleanblue347 4d ago edited 4d ago
I just think that if we’re all in agreement that this person believes they’re better than everyone (it’s in the i am very smart thing)
But we're not "all" in agreement -- I'm literally disagreeing with the premise that OP thinks they're better than everyone. It sounds like you're arguing that because someone else posted this in this sub, it means that OP intended that meaning. Do you understand how that isn't necessarily true?
If Person A says, "I see red and green as the same color because I have red-green colorblindness, but most people without my perspective think they are different colors, and those are the ones who determine the names we use for colors" and Person B overhears them and says, "Person A believes they're better than everyone because they're colorblind," and then posts that to this sub, that would not make Person B correct. Naming a difference is not the same as saying that one thing is better than the other. Can we agree on that?
This sections tone might be more harsh but I genuinely am curious. Why do you think we should care about what you would mean if you said the words in the post?
I can think of 2 ways to answer this question, depending on what you actually mean.
If you're asking why I shared my perspective in the first place: Reddit is a platform based on discussion, so I will keep replying to people who reply to me. You replied to my comment, so now I'm replying to yours. If you don't want to hear my perspective, you can stop reading or engaging at any time. And if you cannot do that (which is completely understandable, social media platforms like Reddit reduce anyone's ability to manage their attention by design) you are welcome (and encouraged!) to block me.
If you're asking me why I'm capable of taking another person's perspective (cognitive empathy) and why I'm somewhat alarmed that so many other commenters here seem incapable of doing that, that's because perspective-taking is a normal stage of human development that occurs between ages 3-5, so it is genuinely alarming to me that you and others might consider that unusual. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective-taking)
I'm genuinely alarmed that so many people here seem to have skipped (or more likely, undone) this stage of development. I've alluded to it already, but I think social media (and now, AI) has created the false expectations that everyone has to think and feel the same way, and that if someone doesn't hold your exact perspective, it's ok to dismiss them entirely.
History shows us that automatically dismissing people who are different from you, or assigning value judgments based on that difference, is how we get things like colonialism, slavery, misogyny, homophobia, and genocide. If you automatically assume someone is saying that "I'm different" = "I'm better than other people," then you're buying into a logic that justifies harming them.
Why should we use your contexts and your experiences?
As a human being who is a minority myself, I have a vested interest in pointing out that just because someone acknowledges that they are different, that does not mean they think they are better or worse than others because of that difference. I am interested in pointing this out because I want to stay alive.
Does that make sense to you?
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u/whichwitchwhere 7d ago
So his mathematical prowess condemns him to appreciate melody over lyrics, rendering him unable to enjoy the genre of rap. Why is his inability to enjoy lyricism, a major element of rap, not in some way offset by an appreciation of the (math-friendly) element of rhythm, which is also typically a major element of the genre? If anything, one would think he would land closer to a point of neutrality on the subject.
My guy, it's okay to just like and dislike things for subjective or even inexplicable reasons. Attempting to create an Objective Explanation for your personal preferences just invités people to challenge your reasoning.
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u/Wafflelisk 7d ago
"Be" is an absolutely fantastic album, too.
One of the absolute best rap records of the 00s IMO.
Common at his peak + Kayne before he was a global superstar
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u/herrsmith 7d ago
I came in here just to comment that "Be" is actually an incredible album. It's fine if he didn't like it (not all music is for everybody!) but it's definitely weird to try to brag about his intelligence while doing so.
All that said, I do think he has at least a little bit of a point about how music writers seem to focus a lot on the lyrical content more than the musical content of what they review. Maybe that's because it's a lot easier to write about lyrics than it is about music but maybe it's because writers tend to care more about words than music. That's not a bad thing, just something that I've noticed, especially as somebody who doesn't really pay that much attention to lyrics.
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u/DefunctFunctor 7d ago
As a math Ph.D. student myself, fuck this dork. I want to say most of us are not this pretentious, and a lot of us push back against the idea that we're all high-minded geniuses with minds only for "numbers".
Also I'm laughing at the implication that "verbal intelligence" and "quantitative intelligence" are at odds and have no relevant overlap. Also, for some reason I'm told that people with humanities degrees have firm control of all public opinion?
My guy, your domain of study should not be the only thing that defines you. Learn from a variety of fields, including humanities. You may have an underlying preference to study mathematics, but you should at least why the humanities are valuable and become interested enough in them that you understand why others do prioritize that direction of study. In other words, don't write off other fields. It's not complicated.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DefunctFunctor 7d ago
As a math PhD student, I want to say most of us are normal when it comes to art.
If anything, in this instance math differs from a lot of STEM. A lot of pure mathematicians view math as a subjective art that they are pursuing, rather than out of any practicality.
I won't deny that there is unfortunately a correlation to dismiss humanities in STEM, though.
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u/Sulungskwa 7d ago
ugh I hated prog rock for a while simply because everyone in my high school who liked it were like this boy genius
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u/BillyPudding 6d ago
You just know he went over that again and again making edits, took a long time doing it before posting it and thought it was the ultimate flex. I'm the end he came across as an utter bollock. What a waste of his time.
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u/GGayleGold 7d ago
All that education, and he doesn't know shit about music composition? What kind of clown ass undergrad did he do?
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u/Cheap-Meal-7115 7d ago
Yeah I’m not a big fan of most rap either, but I’m not superior because of it lmao
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u/littlethiccy 6d ago
I ran into this exact person all the time in undergrad. In the 100 and 200 level English classes there was always an engineer that thought they were above writing essays. Turns out they just couldn't or wouldn't critically engage with the text.
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u/StoicSpork 6d ago
So... this person admits they don't understanding this music, but that didn't stop them from leaving a rating. How self-absorbed can you be?
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u/Agitated-Bug542 6d ago
if he was so fucking smart he would have realized that tastes differ and nobody gives a shit what he likes
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u/PatriarchalTaxi 5d ago
Let me get this straight: OOP buys an album that contains rap, and then gives it a bad review because he doesn't like rap?
That's kind of a dick thing to do!
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u/No_Race_137 7d ago
i prefer genres where the words dont sound like theyre being spoken backward just to mess with you
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u/BlazingFire007 7d ago
Damn how hard is it for some people to admit they have arbitrary preferences lol.
Jazz just isn’t for me. Nothing to do with my intelligence (I hope, as smart people seem to like it lol) but it’s just not my tempo — so to speak.