Is there a compromise between "intellectual" and "pretentious"?

[Evil Robot]

When I went to college in Cobelskill NY, there was a diesel engine major in the building across the street, an agricultural major with a 500 head cattle barn, a fish hatchery, an honest to god course on landscaping (not design, just maintenence!), and of course a computer science department in which I was able to maintain a near 5.0 average despite the fact that I was an alcoholic drug adict with only a passing fancy in these stupid white boxes with screen things.

I have never heared anybody talk like that EVER.