My new unfavorite Trope is mathematical genius who just does quick multiplication

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I’m tired of scenes like 21 where the protagonist adds up random figures,

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It’s 2020 & people have had graphing calculators readily available since the late 90’s

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21 is based on a book published in 1993.

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21 is based on a book published in 1993.

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Sarcasm noted but I feel like you’re still making my point.

ETA how much of a hardon did u get responding to my “late 90’s” post with “published in 1993” correction? It had to feel good right?

That is because people who write scripts don't know the difference between arithmetic and actual math.

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That’s more of a party trick than a sign of intelligence at this point.

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Most of the things used to signify intelligence are more or less party tricks.

Quickly doing simple math.
Solving a Rubik's Cube.
Spouting a litany of facts about some arcane subject.

There's nothing "hyper intelligent" about any of these things. Repeating lines of Shakespeare is no less impressive than repeating stats of monsters from D&D, or giving a detailed facts about Superman or Joe Burrow. There is nothing inherently intelligent about memorizing facts about things that interest you.

Want to solve a Rubik's Cube? Read the instructions.

To be fair, the reasons for this are simple:
1. Writers need to demonstrate the person is intelligent
2. They are given a very small window to do so
3. Most writers are good at writing, but probably not in things that could easily display intelligence


Think about smart people in your own life. How do you know they're smart? Was it a single moment, or situation? Or was it while the accumulation of many interactions, learning a bit here and there about them?


Hollywood decided, a long time ago, that demonstrating what intelligence REALLY is was hard. So these days it is all epiphanies (someone says something random, and the smart person deciphers it - like "My favorite color is red." "Red... that's it! The murderer READ the novel, and that's how we know who did it!" That's pretty bloody rare in real life. Also, Hollywood tends to treat smart people as just being SMART - as is in, smart at everything. Again, that's INSANELY rare (and usually involves a person learning skills that don't change rapidly but just require repetition to maintain, like learning languages or musical instruments, as opposed to constantly changing fields like Information Technology or Theoretical Physics).

What new movies are you watching that have this?

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Heist movies, Spy movies, comedies, etc whenever they have a genius level character it’s typically portrayed by them doing some BS addition “really fast”

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Sure, I guess I don't keep many mental inventories of this kind of trope. I wish you had answered my questions, though. Instead you have given me another: Okay, you expanded the trope, but what recent examples (more recent than 21) do you have of this?

This could also be a "careful what you wish for complaint." Would 21 have been much better if the movie had taken 20 minutes to thoughtfully and visually establish a character's intelligence? Would we have had to do that for each major character? Would that fit with how stupid the rest of the movie is?

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That is because people who write scripts don't know the difference between arithmetic and actual math.

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I feel like a lot of it is having to demonstrate to all audiences that a person is smart. If that person starts discussing high level physics, the vast majority of the audience will have zero clue what's going on.

They pick arithmetic so everyone in the audience understands it, and make that person really smart by just doing it really fast and really well.

Although I don't know how many movies like this OP is watching. There are like a handful.

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involves a person learning skills that don't change rapidly

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repeating stats of monsters from D&D

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By this definition (depending on your definition of "rapidly"), D&D monster stats is intelligence. I mean, it's on its 5th edition of rules since its introduction.

Those stats and rules change, bro! Come on!

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Compared to IT or Theoretical Physics, they don't change much at all. They certainly change more rapidly than, say, a language or playing a musical instrument, but still.

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I just wanted to be silly and talk about D&D. Haha.

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Sarcasm noted but I feel like you’re still making my point.

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I don’t think you know what “sarcasm” means. And no, that was not sarcasm.