If these 10 phrases annoy and irritate you deeply, you probably have a really high IQ

There are some sentences that annoy you when you hear them, and that’s likely because you’d rather question an easy answer than just let it slide.

What’s missing in the middle

Black or white works well for a chessboard, but not so much for human situations. Someone who talks about things being ‘black or white’ probably isn’t very intelligent. They’re removing every middle option and ignoring all the nuance that’s present in most situations.

People with higher intelligence know that there are hardly any ‘black or white’ issues. There are shades of gray in practically every problem out there. So, it’s no wonder they get annoyed by people who prefer to ignore all that gray.

No such thing as chance

The issue with the phrase ‘Everything happens for a reason’ is that it’s too tidy. It’s one of those sayings that turns random events into a story with a purpose. Nobody knows whether there actually was a purpose, but this phrase acts like there always is one.

That’s pretty annoying to smart people. They know that, actually, not everything happens for a specific reason, and sometimes we have no clue why it happened. Bad things can happen for no reason. Intelligent people know that, and that’s why this phrase bugs them so much.

Tradition as an argument

Some of the worst kinds of phrases are the ones that end discussions before they’ve started. ‘We’ve always done it this way’ is a great example of that. There’s no explanation about how the old way is faster or cheaper, maybe just plain useful. No, somebody using this phrase is just relying on tradition as proof.

People with higher intelligence are much less likely to go along with a group simply because everyone else does. That’s why, when someone uses tradition as the entire argument, they’ll start to get annoyed. There’s no actual answer or explanation there. How irritating.

Working isn’t the same as optimal

It’s easy to think that the saying ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ sounds sensible. There’s no point in messing with something that works, after all. But only smart people know the difference between ‘working’ and ‘working well.’ They see that they’re not the same thing.

Smart people are always looking to see how things can be improved, and they’re not going to support an existing option just because it already exists. No, they want to know how it could work better. It frustrates them when people assume that improving something means fixing it.

Thinking isn’t a defect

Let’s face it, anyone who says ‘You’re overthinking it’ is probably someone who’s not thinking enough. They’re the kind of person to just accept things as they are, without any need for analysis. 

Smart people love using their brain and, sure, maybe they sometimes are overthinking things. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. They’re questioning everything they see around them instead of accepting it as fact, and hearing that it’s somehow ‘wrong’ to do that is annoying.

A clue isn’t proof

‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire’ is the kind of saying that some people seriously take to heart. Not smart people, though. They recognize how this sort of saying turns suspicion into evidence without any kind of basis for it.

Just because you have a hunch or suspicion that something’s wrong doesn’t mean that it is. A bad feeling can sometimes simply be a bad feeling, and a mistake can sometimes simply be a mistake. There’s ‘smoke’ all the time. That doesn’t mean there was a fire that started it.

Money really does matter

There are some people who love saying, ‘Money can’t buy happiness.’ They tend to think it makes them wiser or somehow better than people who don’t see life that way. But smart people know the truth. Yes, they know that, actually, money can buy you happiness.

At least in a sense, as money can buy you stability and can buy you comfort. It’s very easy to feel happy once you have those two. That’s not to say that every rich person is happy. Yet intelligent people understand that rich people’s worries are nothing like those of ordinary people.

The shield around a claim

There’s nothing technically wrong with saying, ‘I’m entitled to my opinion,’ because, yes, you are. What annoys smart people, however, is when people use that sentence to end a factual disagreement. They get irritated with people who think owning an opinion makes it supported. 

Newsflash, it doesn’t. Intelligent people are more willing to change their beliefs when better evidence appears. That’s not to say that smart people change their minds every five minutes or anything. It’s just that it annoys them when other people don’t know the difference between ‘this is my opinion’ and ‘this is well supported.’

A badge of confidence

There’s quite a bit of irony to the line, ‘I’ve done my research,’ and smart people know that. They know that most people who say this sentence have usually just asked ChatGPT or read something on Facebook. 

They’ve not actually read a study or looked at real sources. It frustrates intelligent people. They know there’s a big difference between doing genuine research and finding sources that agree with your opinion.

The single-cause shortcut

‘It all comes down to one thing’ is one of those sayings that simplifies things, but way too much. Real problems are usually a lot less easy to deal with. There’s very rarely one single issue or one single cause that creates issues, and smart people get that.

There are times when there is a single problem, sure, but it doesn’t apply to everything. Intelligent people feel annoyed when they hear other people treating every problem like it has one cause. It doesn’t.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

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