Do you prefer being called an smart or attractive person?

Smart! Beauty fades with time. If you are smart, you would have the tools to become a better, caring person. Beauty alone, will not cut it. What good are books to a person whom is not smart enough to interpret the words? We get information from books, not intellect. Good looking people get breaks all the time. They get hired / they get the girl / they get the best tables at fine dining - they just have advantages. You know what a Genius gets? The knowledge of just how screwed up the world is, how futile so much of what we do really is and has a hard time being entertained. I’d rather be a hot idiot every day of the week.

When someone says I'm already extremely intelligent, though not in all categories. I can assure you it's meaningless alone in a human society. If you're wealthy, influential, tall, charismatic, extremely confident… then yeah, intelligence is a bonus. But by itself, in a human society? Completely worthless. And I know how some people think: “If you're smart enough, you can do anything.” Not really. Again, human society… run by humans. There are no self-made successes. You have to rely on many people sharing your vision and idea and relying on them in order to be successful, even if you are extremely intelligent.

Just being extremely attractive, though? You can make tens of millions of dollars on that alone, especially if female. It's called being a model. So yeah, in an ideal world, intelligence. In the modern-day human world though? Looks wins out every time, sadly. Though personally, I'd rather be both. As well as extremely tall, extremely confident, extremely strong, extremely handsome, extremely charming, and extremely successful/rich.

If you have a burning desire to contribute to the advancement of science, technology, and human knowledge then it is probably better to be smart. But if you are like most people and want to have an emotionally fulfilling life with more opportunities for friendship, romance, sex, and financial success, then it is better to be pretty. Intelligence is usually not distinguishable within the first five minutes of meeting someone, but their looks do have an immediate effect on our perception of their intelligence. That extra head start on every first impression made throughout the course of one’s lifetime makes all the difference.

Take it from someone who was once both pretty and smart (both traits have since faded with age). My looks opened more doors and more important doors than my intelligence ever could. To give just one example: I was a shy, depressed child with extremely poor social skills. I sat by myself during recess and hid in the bathroom to avoid social interactions. I was well on the path to becoming a smart xxx, but then I entered adolescence and began getting an overwhelming amount of attention from girls.

Every week, my dad would hand me a large stack of fan mail and love letters from all the girls who had crushes on me, most of whom I had never spoken a word to. These girls didn’t see me for the deeply troubled, antisocial, suicidal boy that I was. They only saw that I was tall and cute, in an effeminate sort of way. They assumed from my appearances that I was gentle and kind, which couldn’t be further from the truth. They saw value in me, and the more I saw how they saw me, the more I began to believe in my own value, which catalyzed a virtuous cycle of increasing confidence and social competence.

At the time, I had no friends, no social status and I was a high school average. I was destined to become an incel or worse, but instead I cheated fate and became the successful, well-adjusted and happy person that I am today. Like many other smart people, I’m tempted to attribute my success to my intellect or my grit or something silly like that. But when I’m being honest with myself, I know that I am successful because I was loved, and because people inspired me to become what they saw in me.

All of the confidence and charisma I developed over the years began with me being liked for purely superficial reasons. All of my hard work was motivated by the people who trusted me and had faith in me. My resilience during challenging times was made possible by the people I could lean on for emotional support. But remember looks fade. Genius seems more interesting, though I’m not sure what it really means to be a genius or how much either of these matter. I think I’d rather have other options to choose from. Overall, I’d much prefer to have access to essential resources, good relationships, good health, and happiness. Genius and good looks doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with the former. Cheers!