Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

There is a strong correlation between IQ and reaction time. A leading theory is that IQ is basically a measure of reaction time.

On the other hand, IQ is steadily increasing on average. This may, however, reflect how as society develops better abstractions, it tends to increase our reaction time.

You know why this made it to the front page? Because we've all been there.

I pity your situation. I've been there. I was still in school, when I got the opportunity to work as a contractor with a team that had their shit together in an epic way. Everything they wrote was tested. Unit tests, acceptance tests, integration tests, and thorough exploratory QA. They were working on a legacy system, but everything they touched got nicely refactored and wrapped in a big hug of tests. 100% agile, always pair programming, and their process was smooth. I had never heard of any of it, and it was amazing to experience.

Unfortunately, the domain was super deep and insane to wrap your head around, and almost the entire team was made of introverts who wanted their machine to keep whirring along perfectly. I'm an extrovert, and I was so green it was ridiculous. I was one of the best students in my classes, but I felt like an idiot when I was at work. I left questioning why I had chosen to become a developer everyday for about 5 months, when finally things started to click. Unfortuately, these people had already formed an opinion of me. My boss was superb though and offered to move me to a different team. I jumped at the chance. I joined a team of more junior guys that got more chance to work solo. I blossomed in that environment. I taught myself things without fear of judgment and banged out features like a champ.

My manager was considering me for hire when upper management laid off a sizable chunk of the IT/Dev staff and froze hiring. I already had been interviewing elsewhere and ended up in as a consultant, which was a perfect fit for me to learn and grow. My advice is this: learn what you can from them, try to sharpen your skills, and don't be afraid to jump ship when you need to. I hope that helps.

Is there someone you could talk with at the company who won't judge you for being honest? If you're going to leave anyways if it doesn't work out, then talking with someone there who might sympathize with you cannot hurt.

If there is no one there you can confide your feelings in then leave.

I work with both sides of the spectrum. Sometimes I feel like I am the stupid guy in the room. However

- I must remember that I might see myself as stupid, but remember, they still hired me, against intense competition.

- I have realised that even though I feel stupid, I am more able than some of these rock stars in some areas.

- I open my mouth in meetings anyway - I have nothing to lose really - either I make a contribution, or I get ignored, or I get taught something new.

- The smartest folks I know are also very kind, and very nice. This is because they apply the same intelligence to interpersonal relationships too - to quote one such smart friend - he says he asks himself: "Do I really have any reason _not_ to be nice?", and that reflects in his behaviour to everyone.

- The "smart loners", I have seen are that way because they are insecure. They either believe that teaching or talking about their knowledge devalues their own - or they may be scared of being "found out".

- As for myself, and for you - remember that its just a job. You show up, try to do what you are told, and hopefully get to come in again tomorrow to do the same thing. The opinions of your colleagues do not define your self worth - that must come from inside you, and from the act of caring about something greater than you.