Just a random question I had, on which I'd appreciate some input. How do you, at z personal level, gauge a person's intelligence? And as something of a corollary, how do you distinguish between intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals?

There are times when you will miss what you never had. I wonder how you will find what you so desperately need.

There is such a thing as a "Random Question" thread you know?

as for the question, i don't label people like that, who the hell am i to put a tag on a person?

Yeah, but I remember being told that it was for more concrete questions. Apologies if I remember incorrectly. In either case, the various answers for this would probably spam that thread.

There are times when you will miss what you never had. I wonder how you will find what you so desperately need.

Discuss a topic you know really well with the person and see what he says. If he starts making stuff up, he's a pseudo-intellectual, and if he answers honestly (even if it's to admit that they know nothing about the topic), gauge the quality of the answers. And it's not so much about what the person knows as how much he thinks he knows-meaning there's no good test for intelligence, but you can test for the lack of it.

Depending on the type and course of conversation I have with a person, I can more or less place him/her as either an intellectual or a pseudo-one. Once you've been really exposed to enough geniuses and really smart people you learn to distinguish the real intellectuals from the pretend ones. Just my take on that.

Nulla in mundo pax sincera
"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth." - Albert Camus