Some people are so smart that you begin to doubt whether they are from another time.
He understands everything.
The undercurrents of history, the boundaries of philosophy, the cutting edge of technology, the codes of social interaction, understands trading, understands cryptocurrency, understands the stock market...

But he lives like a ghost.

You are in the CBD holding a thermos cup brewing goji berries, he is in a village in the city smoking while discussing Hegel.

You listen to your boss boast about a billion-dollar financing dream in a PPT, he squats at the doorway chatting about structuralism with a vendor from the market.
You say he’s not capable? Deep down, you envy him.
But he really never 'made it big' in his life.
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Why do extremely smart people end up trapped at the bottom of society?
Let’s discuss this slowly, no rush.
First, let’s clarify one question: where exactly is the intelligence of smart people?
They are not the type who come first in exams.
Nor are they the kind that the boss sees as 'capable'.

Their intelligence is—a profound ‘insight into the uselessness’ of the world.
They see through, they see deeply, they see too much.
For example, an ordinary person sees someone in a suit driving a BMW and automatically assigns the label of 'successful person'.

Whereas a smart person sees: loans, pressure, identity anxiety, power games, and the confidence that is put on for show.
He knows that the suit cannot support his crumbling self-esteem.
He can even see at a glance: that is a shell struggling painfully to maintain 'dignity'.

He doesn’t want to act.
The problem lies here.
Smart people don’t want to act.
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Society is a huge theater.
Everyone is acting: the boss acts as a leader, employees act as hardworking, clients act as respectful, the client (A) acts as professional, and the service provider (B) acts as obedient.
Even love and marriage often become extensions of role-playing.
But smart people—have a natural impulse to 'break the fourth wall'.
They don’t want to keep acting.
They know who wrote the script for this play and that the audience doesn't care about the truth.
They see through it but cannot act it out.
They either leave the stage or sit in the corner sneering.
As a result, society begins to punish them.
In this world, there are two types of smart people.

One is called 'operational intelligence'. The other is called 'cognitive intelligence'.
The former knows how to navigate the system, how to package, and how to find the optimal strategy among the crowd.
The latter thinks, questions, and sees everything too clearly.
Operationally intelligent people—get promoted, make money, engage in light-hearted banter, and thrive.
Cognitively intelligent people—often become mute, marginalized, or even suffer.

Why?
Because they are in the wrong race.
You think through philosophical problems while others evaluate you with KPIs;
You study social structures while others look at whether you 'secured resources';
You reflect on the traps of consumerism while others ask if you’re buying the iPhone 20.
They aren’t incapable, but they move too slowly.
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Society is a game, but not an intelligence game.
It is a game of power, a game of resources, a game of acquaintances, a game of performance.

It’s not that knowing more means you can win.
Many people refuse to accept this.
They are still fantasizing that 'effort + intelligence = success'.
Please, wake up, okay?
There are levels among smart people.

Newton was smart, studied theology in his later years, and died in poverty;
Wang Guowei was smart, jumped into a lake;
Qu Yuan was smart, embraced a stone;
Steve Jobs was smart, but was also kicked out of Apple;
Confucius was smart, yet spent his life seeking help from others and died far from home.
Their problem isn’t that they are foolish, but that they understood too soon.
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Truly high-level individuals will 'selectively play dumb'.
You see him smiling, yet he has already analyzed your ancestors thoroughly.

But he says not a word.
He knows—if he said it, you wouldn’t understand.
It’s better to use that energy to make money, date girls, or raise cats.
Being smart doesn’t equal having high emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is knowing when to keep quiet, when to take action, and when to play dumb.
Yet too many 'smart people' have merely turned themselves into social noise.
No matter how much they say, no one listens.
And they become annoying.
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There’s another harsh reality:
Smart people from poor families die the fastest.

You think being smarter than others means you can turn the tables.
But you don’t understand, the 'card table' of this society has never been level.
You read a couple of books, learned about 'Ponzi schemes', 'monopolistic structures', 'capital exploitation',
and then fancied you could overturn all of this?
Naive.
Smart people scream outside the system, but nobody listens; fools flatter the boss within the system and get their year-end bonuses doubled.
Tell me, who wins?
People can be punished just for 'knowing too well how to live'.
The more awake a person is, the harder it is for them to be happy.
They feel hypocrisy in social interactions, boredom in the workplace, burden in family life, and scheming in love.
They analyze the essence of all relationships and then don’t want to participate in any of them.
They give up fighting, expressing, and striving.
As a result, they become what you call—the 'lower class of society'.
But do you say he has failed?
Not necessarily.
He may no longer care to win.
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I have a friend whose IQ is close to 180.
As a child, he could recite Tang poetry at a glance.
He studied philosophy in college, mastering Kant, Nietzsche, and Husserl.
After graduation, he hid in the urban-rural fringe and opened a second-hand bookstore.

Every day he barely makes a living selling a few old magazines for eight cents each.
When asked why he doesn’t go out and make a big effort?
He shakes his head: 'I don’t want to be forced into collusion with others.'
At that moment, I understood.
He’s not incapable.
He just does not want to become a certain kind of person.
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To put it bluntly:

Smart people don’t fail to live, they refuse to live on their knees.
It’s useless to call them 'cowardly,' 'self-righteous,' or 'out of touch with reality'.
Indeed, they have lost the game of wealth, fame, and class advancement.

But they have won the final spiritual sovereignty.
You might secretly browse their lengthy reviews on Douban while writing your weekly report.
You might be listening to their podcast and crying late at night after drinking too much at a party.
You might even have quietly saved that line of poetry they wrote:
“Unwilling to be used by the world, nor do I wish to oppose it.”
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Of course, there are smart people who are thriving.
But that is a result of talent, opportunity, emotional intelligence, self-control, and background all aligning.
While the vast majority—are smart enough but lack capital and can only be trapped in corners.

They are not failures; they just haven’t been given a cheat code for this game.

What they are best at is speaking the truth.
Unfortunately, no one wants to hear the truth.
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As that saying goes:
“You are awake but living in a dream; others are dreaming yet laughing all the way to the bank.”
That’s why you are confused.
That’s why you ask this question.

Why do smart people spend their lives at the bottom of society?
Because they understood too early, but don’t want to act, can’t pretend, and don’t want to climb.
They choose not to cooperate.
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The final statement, no chicken soup, no answers.
If you are smart, you figure it out yourself.
“Only what is seen has value; what is unseen is called an outlier.”

Either act or go mad.
Brothers, which one do you choose?

Let’s encourage each other!