Two thoughts to add to those already here:
I used to be very snobby about "smart" people who didn't just go where the smart people are (which, in my world view at the time, was of course academia). The term "gifted adult" drove me crazy, I thought it was a cop-out.
As I've gotten older I've realized how very very lucky I was. I grew up in an academic family who educated me, assumed I would go to college, knew how to help me choose the right one for me, and could pay for it. I went to a small liberal arts college that specializes in brilliant quirky misfits. I found a terrific thesis advisor who helped me get into a top-notch Ph.D. program, in spite of my rather unpolished social skills at the time. And I've had to learn that it's not like that for everyone.
Second point: I TOTALLY get it about the impatience with people who aren't swift. There was an episode of Friends where Joey is slowly cluing in to something obvious, and Chandler jumps up and down and says "Get there FASTER!" That's how I feel a lot of the time in my daily life, interacting with people. I want to jump up and down and scream "Get there faster!" What can I say? As you get older, you learn generosity, and kindness, and not taking oneself too seriously.
