You know, I am often underwhelmed by people who insist that they are geniuses, and that mere mortals such as myself (or, let's just say hypothetically,
anyone on this forum) can't possibly comprehend their incredible minds. I have a fairly decent brain, myself, and can keep up in most situations... and I can even think particularly quickly in a handful of specialized contexts like, say, soloing on Giant Steps at a clip, because I've worked on that... but I have always been pretty happy that I don't seem to be a genius, because that quite frankly seems like a lot of trouble and a heavy load to bear.
But I've also noticed that most of the truly brilliant people I've known, and I've known a few in my time, people who simply bowl me over with insight and clarity so that I go "oh, yeah, right, that's possible... I wonder what that's like?" - those people are invariably pretty quiet about it. They are NEVER the same people who want to tell anyone within earshot about how they were a child genius and the doctors did all these tests but simply couldn't handle them, didn't know what to do with someone so advanced. That's a funny thing, innit?
And for the record, I'm not one to harp on spelling, or unorthodox ways of writing or talking, because I've also known some very sharp folks that just happened to be thinking about very different things during those classes. I happen to appreciate good spelling and grammar, and an elegant turn of phrase even more, but I'll take a rough-edged but lucid insight over a cleverly worded platitude any day of the week. However, when faced with someone holding forth about their unappreciated and misunderstood genius, I am often left thinking, how shall I put this? The lady doth protest too much, methinks...