high potential characteristics

Very Clear Differences

Many high intellectual potential (HPI) individuals wonder if they are truly different from others. This question is legitimate, considering their value system. Lying is nonsensical to them, and self-deception would be the worst betrayal of their alignment. However, in a society that conditions and rewards standardization, differences are not just unwelcome; they are often rejected.

Yet, the reality is strikingly clear in HPI profiles, including hypersensitive, zebra, or gifted individuals. Social pressure, incredibly intense and daily, gradually pushes HPI individuals to lose themselves in a world that does not resonate with them, speaks a different language, and often forces them to forget who they are. These differences exist, and even amid saturation and depressive states, they may mistakenly believe their traits are common and suspect mental issues. However, a mad person does not consider themselves mad; they think they are normal, and its others who are mad. The mere act of questioning one's sanity is proof of sanity.

To help HPIs recognize and embrace their true selves, affirming they are neither mad nor disabled, and to appreciate their deep connection to the world, here is a comprehensive list of HPI characteristics:

• Intolerable relationship with injustice

• Honesty / Inability to lie

• Joy in others' happiness

• Prioritizing the common good over personal interests

• Distant relationship with money (earning enough to stop worrying about it)

• Arborescent thinking

• Social saturation (funneling / verbal and/or behavioral blockages)

• Prone to depression / significant disconnect from the world

• Incomprehension of the surrounding world (absurdities, intolerance, egocentrism)

• Feeling of madness, being misunderstood

• Days of great enthusiasm and deep depression (mistaken diagnosis: bipolarity)

• Issues with alcohol, drugs to feel closer to others, to think less.

• Hyper lucidity (depends on maturity level) / Hyper logic

• Hypersensitivity

• Hyper empathy

• Hyperesthesia (5 senses + 6th: intuition)

• Hyperconnectivity to the world, surroundings, others, everything

• Quick scanning of new acquaintances

• Strong attraction to beauty, fluidity, harmony, coherence

• Frequent wonderment

• Child-like purity

• Incorruptibility

• Highly developed curiosity

• Rapid boredom

• Difficulty integrating into groups

• Questioning adult life, meaning of adulthood

• Hyper fatigability

• Viewing sleep as unnecessary, superfluous, a waste of time

• Striving for excellence, perfection, accuracy

• Quest for impossible perfection <> relationship with the impossibility of lying (perfect or nothing)

• Impostor Syndrome (feeling merely adequate, even among the best)

• Not considering oneself highly intelligent, just different and pragmatic, logical

• Questioning death

• Existential questions, the meaning of life, a grand universal project

• Interest in history, Egypt, world wars, prehistory as a child

• Questions about the universe, space, infinity

• Struggles with the educational system / bored

• Issues with hierarchy / authority

For a more precise understanding of HPI profiles, it's essential to delve into more detail. Although "high intellectual potential" is the most appropriate term, it subdivides into three distinct categories:

Dysfunctional HPI: Characterized by an emotional dysfunction, often stemming from a cold, distant, and low-communication family background. These individuals are brilliant and precise in their habits, prioritizing logic over sentimentality and often perceived as closed-off or intimidating. Example: Mr. Spock from Star Trek.

Functional HPI ("Zebra"): Identified by Jeanne-Siaud Facchin's term "zebra." These individuals effortlessly switch between various domains, interested in a vast array of subjects but not delving deeply into any. Often not fond of mathematics, they need others, thriving on sharing, interacting, and seeing joy in others. They constantly connect everything around them, seeking knowledge, understanding, mastery, sharing, discussion, debate, and emotional experiences.

Deviant HPI: Perhaps the most problematic, characterized by a pivotal shift in late adolescence to early adulthood. This period is crucial, especially for HPIs, due to their intense emotional charge. If this emotional charge is not expressed properly, everything changes. The identity established by default, not desire, leads to a truncated identity, remaining stuck in an adolescent state. These individuals are self-centered, narcissistic, negative-focused, have difficulty with self-reflection, live in denial, and feel elevated by others' suffering.

In the HPI sphere, Dysfunctional HPIs are rare, offering ultra-pragmatic expertise in a world they emotionally detach from. Functional HPIs, nourished daily by knowledge and interactions, are vital for breaking chains, evolving systems, and refusing confinement and standardization. Deviant HPIs, unfortunately growing in number, cultivate and spread their malaise, requiring caution due to their cunning nature.