I can't comment on your intelligence but as a general rationality issue this sets off warning bells.
As written sounds like: No offense, but the fact you said this makes me think you're dumb.
Better: Fictional characters (especially those in works of propaganda) are designed to seem super smart, super rational, super moral and so on. Don't make yourself feel stupid by comparing yourself to impossible ideals - even Einstein didn't do things as impressive as Galt, the fact you feel inferior to them doesn't tell you much about how smart you are.
Interesting. I'm a bit confused as how it does that especially given that I specifically am talking about rationality not intelligence (and those are very much not the same thing). I can see that your rewrite is fine but I can't see what is bad about the original.
If this post is inappropriate, I apologize.
I stumbled upon this site after reading "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". The story so far has really moved me on multiple levels and sent me here in a quest to learn more about rationality as a philosophy/way of thinking about the world. I have read Ayn Rands published works and loved the stories and most of the message. The characters always seemed like titans that were far and above me, but now, I've seen a character that is a bit more approachable.
I've started to go through the "Map and Territory" section of the "Core Sequences" and this whole project and community makes me ecstatic. I'm currently working my way through the Bayes's Theorem article with some success. The more I read, the more I realize I may have a problem.
I'm pretty dumb.
Is higher level reasoning "use it or lose it" ? I like learning new things and love reading but any new ideas require a ton of thought and re-reading. I think I have enough interest to keep plugging away at it, but I'm not sure I'm going at things the right way. Is there a "Kid's Table" for lesswrong.com?
For "Priors": I'm 28 years old, white male, married, no children, poor economic upbringing, solid emotional upbringing, currently lower to middle class, high school diploma, US Navy, currently a civilian electronics technician, raised Baptist currently Agnostic/Atheist (recently).
I guess that's it. Thanks!
--John