Ever sat in a coffee shop and wondered if the person at the next table is actually a literal genius? Probably not. We usually imagine the smartest person on earth living in a high-tech lab or solving equations on a window pane like a scene from a movie.
But here’s the thing. Being the "smartest" isn't a single title you win like a heavyweight belt.
Intelligence is messy. You have people who can calculate the trajectory of a comet in their heads but can’t figure out how to parallel park. Then you have the folks who hold the world records for IQ—numbers so high they almost sound made up.
The Mystery of the 276 IQ Score
If you look at the charts today, one name pops up more than most: YoungHoon Kim.
This guy from South Korea reportedly clocked an IQ of 276. Think about that for a second. The average person sits around 100. Einstein was estimated at 160. A 276 score is basically like having a supercomputer where everyone else has a calculator from 1994.
Kim isn't just a number, though. He’s the founder of the United Sigma Intelligence Association (USIA). He spends his time advising world memory championships and hanging out with Nobel Prize winners. Honestly, it’s a bit intimidating.
But is he the definitive "smartest"?
It depends on who you ask. Some experts argue that once you get past a certain point, IQ tests stop being about "intelligence" and start being about how good you are at taking very specific, very difficult tests.
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Why Terence Tao is the Mathematician’s Genius
If you ask a scientist or a professor who the smartest person on earth is, they probably won't point to a leaderboard. They’ll point to Terence Tao.
Tao is often called the "Mozart of Math." By age two, he was teaching five-year-olds how to spell and add. By 24, he was a full professor at UCLA. Most of us were just trying to figure out how to pay rent at 24.
What makes Tao different is what he does with his brain.
He doesn't just sit in a room and think deep thoughts. He solves things. In 2025 and 2026, he’s been at the forefront of merging artificial intelligence with pure mathematics. He’s trying to see if AI can help humans find "new" math that we’re currently too slow to see.
The Famous "Ask Marilyn" Column
Then there’s Marilyn vos Savant. For years, she was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest IQ (228).
She became famous for her column in Parade magazine. People would send her the hardest logic puzzles they could find, and she’d dismantle them with ease. You might remember the "Monty Hall Problem" controversy. She explained why you should always switch doors in a game show to win a car.
Thousands of people—including PhDs and mathematicians—wrote in to tell her she was wrong.
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She wasn't. She was right.
It was a classic example of how "raw" intelligence can see through a problem that trips up even the most educated experts.
The Difference Between High IQ and High Achievement
We love a good prodigy story. Take Ainan Celeste Cawley, who was giving public lectures on chemistry at age six. Or Sho Yano, who became a doctor by 21 and is now a pediatric neurologist in Chicago.
But then you have someone like Christopher Langan.
Langan is often cited as having an IQ around 195. He’s spent a lot of his life working as a bouncer and a forest ranger. He’s a "self-educated autodidact." Instead of working for NASA, he spent decades developing his own theory of the universe, the CTMU (Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe).
It’s a reminder that being the smartest person on earth doesn't always lead to a traditional "successful" career.
Sometimes, the smartest people are the hardest to find because they just want to be left alone. Kim Ung-Yong is a perfect example. He was a child prodigy who allegedly worked for NASA as a kid. Eventually, he quit. He wanted to go back to South Korea, live a normal life, and work in civil engineering.
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People called him a "failed genius."
He basically told them to get lost. He argued that he was happy, and that’s what mattered. Kinda hard to argue with that logic, right?
What We Get Wrong About Intelligence
When we talk about the smartest person on earth, we usually ignore things like:
- Emotional Intelligence: Can you read a room as well as you can read a spreadsheet?
- Creativity: Are you just good at following logic, or can you build something new?
- Persistence: Does it matter if your IQ is 200 if you give up after ten minutes?
The World Genius Directory and the Giga Society keep these lists, but they are just snapshots. Someone like Christopher Hirata, an astrophysicist who was working on Mars colonization projects at age 16, uses his brain for the "big" questions. Meanwhile, someone else might use that same brain power to win at poker or trade stocks.
How to Think More Like a Genius
You’re probably not going to wake up tomorrow with a 200 IQ. That’s just biology. But you can borrow the habits of the people who actually use their brains effectively.
Most high-IQ individuals share a few traits that anyone can copy. They are obsessively curious. They don't take "that’s just how it is" for an answer. And they read. A lot.
Edith Stern, another genius with a 200+ IQ, had read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica by age five. While you don't need to do that, the habit of "deep diving" into topics is what separates the thinkers from the scrollers.
Practical Steps to Level Up Your Thinking
- Stop accepting the first answer. When you see a headline or a "fact," look for the source. Marilyn vos Savant suggests reading news from two different political sides to see how the same "fact" is twisted. It trains your brain to see the gaps.
- Learn a "hard" skill outside your comfort zone. If you’re a math person, try painting. If you’re an artist, try coding. Genius is often found at the intersection of two things that don't seem to belong together.
- Practice the "mental age" trick. When faced with a problem, try to look at it without your adult biases. Why would a kid think this is broken? Usually, the simplest explanation is the one we’ve over-complicated.
- Value "quiet" time. Almost every person mentioned here—from Terence Tao to Kim Ung-Yong—values the ability to focus deeply without distractions. In 2026, that’s a superpower.
Intelligence is a tool. Whether it’s a hammer or a scalpel depends on how you hold it. You don't need a certificate from the Giga Society to be the smartest person in your own life. You just need to keep asking "why" until the answer actually makes sense.
Next Steps: To sharpen your own cognitive skills, start by analyzing your information diet. Audit the sources you trust and purposely seek out a complex problem this week—like a high-level logic puzzle or a basic primer on quantum mechanics—to stretch your mental boundaries.