here’s how you know somebody’s intelligent and this is a simple observation about intelligent people that goes back to the inventor Nikola Tesla where he says the more intelligent you are the fewer friends you have and what he meant is that intelligent people tend to be very discerning when it comes to their friends they’d rather have a small select group of friends than be friends with everybody but he also meant that if you’re intelligent it can be more difficult to make friends intelligent people often tend to be a little bit more socially awkward and so fundamentally even though this is of course a generalization the fewer friends you have the more intelligent you are an intelligent person is very careful in how they choose and select their friends they want to talk with people who can enrich them who can actually enhance their life not simply to be liked by everybody and so Tesla says that the more intelligent you are the fewer friends you have Tesla on friendship