He has spent more than 30 years of his life without being aware of his giftedness

Photo Chantal Poirier
Vincent Carrier is a member of Mensa Montreal, a group of talented people who meet every month. The man, 36-year-old told his story to the Newspaper at a dinner meeting of the group in the center of town a few weeks ago.

Benoît Philie

Sunday, 21 January 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 21 January 2018 01:00

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Instead of playing with Lego blocks and figurines of Batman, Vincent Carrier programming computers at the age of 9 years.

Although he still found it different from the other, the thirty year old has just learned that he is gifted.

“When I was young, I begged my father, who is a computer scientist, for he shows me to program. He said to me : you’re not gonna understand… So I stitched her books in English, I understood very little, and I learned by myself, ” recalls Mr. Carrier.

He learned there a few months ago that he was part of the 2 % of the population with an iq of over 130, the average being 100. It is a ” genius “, according to the diagnosis of a psychologist.

Dinner Mensa

The Newspaper met him at a dinner Mensa, a global organization which gathers people with high intellectual capacity. They were nearly a dozen gifted to have a bite to eat at the restaurant Ruben’s in the city centre.

Many of them were discrete and somewhat open to participate in an interview. Others have refused to talk openly about their giftedness as if it were a taboo subject.

A man of sixty years who prefers to conceal his name, was said to have a lot of difficulty getting in touch with the other. “I feel especially misunderstood, lance-t-il. But here, I feel well. We have the same sense of humor and we can talk about any topic. “

Vincent Carrier does not see any problem to share what is going on in his head, even though he considers that intelligence is a topic that stirs up the feelings in Quebec.

“It has advantages to be gifted… I am good at solving problems, I understand quickly, I’m curious, and sensitive, but I am also very anxious. I analyze everything and I still see far “, he admits.

He also said never to have learned to make effort, since everything came to him naturally at the school. “Except in physical education. My favorite position in the teams, it was the bench “, he says, with a grin.

His new work as a consultant makes him particularly the hard life these days. It is said to be the difficulty of “climbing the slope” and ” surpass “.

As if it would hit a wall for the first time.

“I had an awareness recently. I have always been helped by the fact that I have a good head and that I think quickly, but the flip side of the coin is that I never learned to force myself and it comes back to me in the detour now, ” he admits.

However, it is passed through his youth quite easily, unlike other gifted children who were struggling to hold it in place on the benches of school.