I just read something about superiority complexes and ‘thinking you’re smarter than everyone’ and it’s really distressing me because I’m scared I’m like that. I perceive the world in quite an analytical way and I guess I’m quite good at understanding things? I’m open minded. But there have been times where I’ve genuinely thought I might be smarter than my peers and now I’m scared I have a gigantic ego. I tell myself everyone probably feels this way because it’s hard to translate our intelligence to others. But still I’m just very scared.

I grew up that way- I was IQ tested at 6 and from then on not only was I put into advanced placements and clearly learned more easily and quickly, I constantly heard from people around me that I was different to and smarter than my peers. I ended up with an actual problem with this- I was argumentative, always corrected people and understandably didn't have many friends. Eventually I had to acknowledge that seeing people as 'not on my level' was both alienating me and causing me to miss out on everything other people have to offer in getting to know them. That's where ego can be a problem, and even then it's possible to put it right. My take on it is this: it's fine to acknowledge your strengths. There is nothing wrong with noticing. I'm still aware that I'm the most well-read, literate and analytically minded person in my circle- I also know that I'm *not* the smartest person out there, as I've read the papers and seen the talks of people who blew me away, had stronger abstraction and reasoning abilities and had plenty of expertise- and I've had experiences of trying hard to understand difficult things and being able to essentially feel the limits of my own brain like walls. I have a rough idea where I stand, but actually no, I don't think you're right about everybody feeling that they're smarter than their peers inside. Most people seem to have a decent gauge on their comparative intelligence/competence, and I've known plenty of people who are aware that they're not the smartest people in various settings. Just like how I sometimes struggle to keep up with Eleizer Yudkowsky and Max Tegmark, many people struggle to keep up in lessons or with complex reasoning/understandings/ideas which others try to convey to them or are conveying around them. If I grew up surrounded by material and expectations which were more challenging for me and which my peers found easier than I do, then I wouldn't have thought I was more advanced. Your gauge on your own intelligence compared to some of your peers is more than likely correct. Trust me when I say that if you're not keeping up, or someone else is smarter than you, you for sure notice it. A superiority complex really involves treating others as if they're in some way inferior. There's nothing shameful or egoic about noticing where you're more competent at something than others are, or suspecting it. You're not judging or dismissing others as less worthwhile people the way I used to. These days I try to not see it as a hierarchy, and I've made some good friends with excellent personal qualities since I adopted not being dismissive of people and being open to taking them as they are, as a new personal value. If you had a superiority complex, it would be evident in your behaviour. Again, there's nothing wrong with noticing your strengths or having those moments of noticing where others don't naturally examine their beliefs or recognise the complexity or depth of topics which you see. The solution for my actual negative attitude wasn't to shame myself for noticing or deny things that were clear, it was to question whether intelligence is actually the only valuable thing and question whether the way I interacted with people was actually good or bad for them and me. If you value your peers and treat them as valuable, you don't have a problem. A highly skilled engineer can be best friends with a shop cleaner with no qualifications- not by denying that they're smarter or taking pity on the cleaner. By connecting and seeing their value and enjoying them and loving qualities of theirs including kindness, persistence, patience and commitment to their family etc. I've found there's plenty I can relate to in people who don't have my brain, and at this point I prioritise kindness over intelligence in others *and* myself. So long as you see the value in others, there's nothing at all wrong with noticing. Other people have competences and strengths which you don't, you have competences and strengths which others don't. It doesn't make anyone better than anyone else. So there's nothing bad about noticing. Noticing isn't judging.