I think we should stop focusing on the cognitive elite at the expense of everyone else, actually.

Why should people that think folks like me are failures deserve the bulk of our attention?

Because somebody needs to keep things running for the rest of us?

Seriously, we need all the bright people we can get, working on the tough problems and solving them. And we need even more basically competent people educated to keep what we have got figured out running smoothly. Life isn't some role playing game where everyone who wants to should get a turn being a surgeon or flying the jumbo jet. Competence actually matters.

Man. I understand you are not in a good moment (given your handle). But a lot of those people who think you're a failure are not the smart ones, but the powerful ones.