Fast brain development since birth. I started walking early, and when I was told to identify a car I even mentioned that "It's Mr Bean's car!" at a very, very young age. Needless to say, they were stunned by my intelligence.

So yeah, I think it has a lot to do with my heritage, but also the environment, obviously. I don't believe in free will though, so I wouldn't give myself any credit. I simply consider myself fortunate.

I had that too.

Even when you could only see the wheels on a car I knew exactly what car it was, brand, model everything.

I don't know squat about cars today.

Hehe, well to be fair my car knowledge has decreased a lot too.

(Though since I stopped playing Need For Speed...)

I could just play around and be funny, but there's plenty of people in here already doing that. I thought I'd be a little more serious, just for variation.

First, I wanted to clarify - are you seeking actual intelligence or knowledge? I ask because they're often conflated (don't mind me, I just like using my vocabulary - loquaciousness and all that).

I'm going to assume intelligence, rather than knowledge. It is actually my personal opinion that intelligence is primarily a combination of a genetic/environmental factor that I'll speak about in a moment and the way that a person is taught. When taught correctly, almost anyone can be highly intelligent, but the method by which they must be taught varies from person to person depending on that other factor.

What most consider to be "intelligence" can really be considered to be a combination of two elements - love of learning, and strong capability to reason. Both of these can be taught to all bar those with actual physical mental deficiencies.

The "factor" I spoke of is what I'd describe as the person's innate learning style. The subtleties of how a person learns means that, for instance, if you're a very physical learner, requiring hands-on learning, then you're probably going to do far better at manual activities, but struggle with, for instance, mathematics.

There are multiple elements to this factor - it's not just the style of learning, but also how it is presented, the process of solidifying the things being learned, and how to recall the information when necessary.

Me? I actually got really lucky, in terms of that "factor". I'm very much an abstract learner (learn very quickly from descriptions and reading of texts, for instance) and a self-learner (I do best when I learn for myself, rather than having someone else explain/demonstrate it to me). As a result, the way that others tried to teach me really didn't matter, as I learned on my own.

I also had the benefit of a grandfather who was very scientifically-minded, although not a scientist. He basically instilled the love of learning into me, and the use of reason. He and my father both helped to establish that.

I've never taken an "official" IQ test, but on the "High IQ Society" online test designed to be accurate for higher IQs (the one that they used to have, before they decided to have trivia in the test - stupid idea, that), I scored, as I recall, 145. That was about 9 years ago, now.

One anecdote, just to wrap this part up - when I was young, like 4-5 years old, my uncle was at my family's house, and while he was watching TV, I was laying in front of an open newspaper, looking at it quite carefully. My uncle turned to me and asked "What you are reading?" with the expectation that I'd respond "The newspaper". I started explaining the article I was reading. I don't actually know with certainty that I had actually been reading it, or if I was making up the information, but either way, it does well to demonstrate the kind of person I was when growing up, I think.

Of course, that's only one component of intelligence, and in other elements of real intelligence, I'm quite stupid, I'll admit. But I happen to be someone who has "traditional" intelligence... and a love of using it whenever I can, probably to compensate for those things I'm so bad with.

OK, seriousness finished. Funny answer: I invented a smartening ray, and used it on myself. Unfortunately, I need some Red Kryptonite to power it, and used all of the stockpile I had just to get me to this level. The other downside is that it makes me weak to anything that glows green - not just Green Kryptonite, but anything green. It's really quite bad, that green stuff that makes me think bad... damn, some of that stuff near now. Me have trouble thinking. Me stop now. Me hungry.

Beingable to walk early doesn't mean you're smart.  The reason many babies can't walk until a certain age is because their bodies cannot support it.

Not solely. My brother had a much lighter body than me, yet he started walking later than me. That indicates a faster developing brain.

It's not the weight of the body, but the strength and coordination of the muscles. As in, actual physical capability of holding the body up.

Perhaps he had weak legs?

Now that you've made this joke, can you change your avatar back?

And then there is the sense of balance. Also, doesn't the brain deal with the coordination of the muscles?