I can't believe I was impressed by his ''intelligence''...

Will saw no good use for the information. He had a photographic memory, so advanced knowledge to him was as natural as breathing. He was a savant, but he also saw no value in materialism, because to him it was all phony. He saw more merit in living a blue collar existence.

Wall street? Heck, just apply at a local temp service. A lot of good opportunities came my way by doing that. You're tested on your skills and hired out to a lot of jobs (most aren't great). But, after a while, you build a good relationship with a mediocre company and go from there. That got us out of the crappiest part of St. Paul. It helps to have a bike though. That sucker saved me a lot of money on gas and parking.

He didn't have the drive or direction to do that. He wouldn't have even made it through the interview process for a job like that because of his emotional problems.

This is a terrible movie.

You miss the point of the scene, Will was naturally gifted, yet humble so he felt no need to be pretentious.

The guy was trying to be a sick to his friend and at the same time claim to have intellectual superiority. Will was just trying to embarrass the guy who was trying to embarrass his friend.

Sorry, but anybody who only sees a genius didn't get the movie.

During the park bench scene, Sean told Will how he stayed up all night, thinking about what Will said to him the other day, but then it "occurred" to him: "You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about. [...] I look at you, I don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky, scared shitless kid.". Will was raised by abusive foster parents. He's naturally gifted, but he's also emotionally stuck in childhood.

Later, when Sean asks him what he wants to become, he answers with "shepherd". Will simply doesn't care for his future. He's broken. "He pushes people away before they have a chance to leave him. It's a defense mechanism".

The "It's not your fault!" scene shows how guilty he feels. Not because he did a mistake, but he thinks "I am the mistake". That kind of thinking is common in children of abusive (alcoholic) parents.

There's no way he could do career planning, doesn't matter how smart he is. He has to resolve his emotional issues first. Sean saw that and knew what's going on inside Will because he had abusive parents himself.

I think it's safe to say:
You don't get what's going on with Will? That's because you most probably come from a relatively healthy family, feel lucky.
You do understand how Will feels? That's because you most probably had to go through some of that yourself (just like Sean).

Btw, that was also the biggest difference between Sean and the other therapists; they didn't have a clue how to reach Will, because they simply didn't know about "that shit".

I'm wondering though since one can't just make these stories up; whoever wrote this (Damon and Affleck?) must have gone through similar difficulties themselves.

He had no expectations of himself.

Frankly I like that scene as that guy he argues with was an idiot who was incapable of just taking info out of a book and putting it into his own words. He might not have gotten through college if he's plagarizing books in his papers.