If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(New Scientist) Interesting Clever fools: Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smrt   (newscientist.com) divider line 447
More: Interesting  
•       •       •

31185 clicks; posted to Main » on 02 Nov 2009 at 6:58 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



447 Comments   (+0 »)
   

Archived thread

First | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | » | Last | Show all
 
2009-11-02 01:40:50 PM
www.newscientist.com

For example: this man, although he may have a high IQ, will learn nothing by staring at a plastic brain.
 
2009-11-02 01:46:13 PM
IQ divides by age in some portion of it's formulation. A 5 year old who performs as well as a 10 year old will have a higher IQ.

Unfortunately, what this means is that a 50 year old who performs identically to an 80 year old will have a higher IQ even though, for all intents and purposes, tht 30 year age difference should not matter. Unless you are constantly getting smarter and better able to perform IQ tests (unlikely), the older you get your IQ will inevitably go down.
 
2009-11-02 01:48:45 PM
Talon: IQ divides by age in some portion of it's formulation. A 5 year old who performs as well as a 10 year old will have a higher IQ.

Unfortunately, what this means is that a 50 year old who performs identically to an 80 year old will have a higher IQ even though, for all intents and purposes, tht 30 year age difference should not matter. Unless you are constantly getting smarter and better able to perform IQ tests (unlikely), the older you get your IQ will inevitably go down.


That's true, but this article deals with the fact that some people that test out with high IQs cannot use them effectively.
 
2009-11-02 01:54:50 PM
I think the US is fairly obsessed with IQ. There's this idea that either you're born with talent or you aren't, and if you aren't, well, you might as well give up now and let your betters control things.

So there's all this business about "aptitude tests" and "general intelligence tests" rather than just straightforward performance tests or entrance examinations, and you have people saying "well, I guess I'm just not good at [whatever]" rather than thinking, perhaps I should put more effort into studying.

The comparison to height in basketball was interesting in that regard. People at least admit the need to practice in basketball, that height isn't everything.
 
2009-11-02 01:57:30 PM
IQ doesn't mean anything if you can't put it to good use.
 
2009-11-02 02:01:19 PM
As someone with (supposedly) a reasonably high IQ who's also kind of a dumbass, I can attest to this.
 
2009-11-02 02:05:02 PM
I really should get one of those IQ tests one day. I'd like to know what mine is. I suspect I'm somewhere between 110 and 130, and probably closer to 110.
 
2009-11-02 02:05:35 PM
ne2d: As someone with (supposedly) a reasonably high IQ who's also kind of a dumbass, I can attest to this.

Do you represent that remark?
 
2009-11-02 02:13:48 PM
My mom says I'm smart
 
2009-11-02 02:16:02 PM
MissFeasance: My mom says I'm smart

Mom always said I'm trainable.
 
2009-11-02 02:26:25 PM
I LIKE PIE
 
2009-11-02 02:30:09 PM
I'm smart but I'm ADHD. Pass the ritalin.
 
2009-11-02 02:30:18 PM
The English Major: I LIKE PIE

I prefer e.

/What double entendre?
 
2009-11-02 02:50:26 PM
My IQ (tested ~12 years ago) is apparently 129. I was so excited about this I spilled my drool cup.
 
2009-11-02 03:08:52 PM
Clever fools: Why a high IQ doesn't mean you'reyour smrt

Pet peeve.
 
2009-11-02 03:17:47 PM
Howie Spankowitz: Clever fools: Why a high IQ doesn't mean mien you'reyour smrt

Pet peeve.


FTFY
 
2009-11-02 03:19:31 PM
P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.
 
2009-11-02 03:24:33 PM
SpinStopper: P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.

www.mojoimage.com


And for Rhino.
 
2009-11-02 03:26:21 PM
St_Francis_P: MissFeasance: My mom says I'm smart

Mom always said I'm trainable.


Mom always did like you best.

/Was going to go with "Mom said that I was the best she ever had".
//It's not true though.
///She's had better.
 
2009-11-02 03:30:57 PM
The English Major: Howie Spankowitz: Clever fools: Why aan high IQ doesn't mean mien you'reyour smrt

Pet peeve.

FTFY


Better.
 
2009-11-02 03:35:32 PM
MissFeasance: My mom says I'm smart

So how do you explain becoming a lawyer? ;)
 
2009-11-02 03:36:12 PM
St_Francis_P: MissFeasance: My mom says I'm smart

Mom always said I'm trainable.


My mom said, some years after flushing tons of money down the toilet to send me to college so I could slack off and eventually drop out, "Well...at least you're a productive citizen."
 
2009-11-02 03:41:55 PM
MONGO PLEASED AT COMING PARADIGM SHIFT IN ATTITUDES VIZ A VIZ INNATE INTELLIGENCE
 
2009-11-02 03:42:30 PM
I'm like the living embodiment of this. My IQ has tested in the range of 140-155, but Darwin help me, I frequently can't remember what day the frigging week it is. My wife is constantly pointing out obvious solutions to problems that I think up elaborate solutions to.

Being able to apply my intelligence better than a drunk squirrel could... now that would be something.
 
2009-11-02 04:01:13 PM
I've tested in the 135-145 range, but I dropped out of high school, had a GPA barely above 2.0 in college, and can't stay at a job more than 2 years before I get fired.
 
2009-11-02 04:18:40 PM
St_Francis_P: The English Major: I LIKE PIE

I prefer e.

/What double entendre?


Now you're just i-magining things.
 
2009-11-02 04:24:26 PM
itazurakko: I think the US is fairly obsessed with IQ. There's this idea that either you're born with talent or you aren't, and if you aren't, well, you might as well give up now and let your betters control things.

The fact that you're a nation largely run by C students belies your hypothesis.
 
2009-11-02 04:25:13 PM
I'm such a geek, they gave me my results in hex.

/ #000087
/ So, navy blue, I guess...
 
2009-11-02 04:35:56 PM
i363.photobucket.com
 
2009-11-02 04:36:59 PM
unyon: The fact that you're a nation largely run by C students belies your hypothesis.

But the very idea that there is such a thing as an "underachiever" says it all.

Either you achieve (with C grades OR not), or you don't.
 
2009-11-02 04:39:06 PM
Intelligence is not the same as wisdom.
 
2009-11-02 05:06:48 PM
monkeyman3875: IQ doesn't mean anything if you can't put it to good use.

Ever since I discovered -- accidentally -- that I had the highest IQ in my high school, I have made it my life's mission to prove that IQ is pretty much useless.

So far, so good.
 
2009-11-02 05:26:24 PM
We're off to a pretty good start here, but just so I can make sure everyone understands how these IQ threads work. You can't just come out and announce your exceptionally high IQ. You have to predicate it with some sort of of explanation as to why you don't really care about the number. It's even better if you can manage an explanation that actually makes your number seem lower than it should be. For example, this works well:

"I don't really care about IQ. I mean, I think it's silly to try to boil down a person's intelligence into a single number. How can one test tell you that? Like, I was hungover and stoned when I took my IQ test, and it came out in the 160s. So I just take everything with a grain of salt."

And, with that, do remember that it works best if you express the number as a range rather than a single point. For example, you might explain that you don't care about how your IQ was tested in the 155-175 range, and then someone else might come in and say that they don't care that their IQ was tested at 162. You could then come back and explain how, yeah, you understand why someone wouldn't care about a 162, because you don't care about how your follow-up test placed you at closer to 170.

You should finish your explanation of how you don't care about your high IQ range with a self-deprecating story showing your whimsical lack of common sense. For example, you might talk about how you accidentally knocked over your Coke when you were working on that fractal equation the other night, and you were all like, "Oh my God I'm so stupid and such a clutz!" Or how you don't know how to change a tire, and thank God you make so much money that you can just have people do that for you. Just something to make you seem more like the common man, who might be intimidated by you otherwise.

Have fun!
 
2009-11-02 05:29:23 PM
Thing is, people generally have certain expectations of how smart people will behave and what smart people will achieve. But those expectations are stupid.

The fact is, humans only very rarely behave rationally. This is true of dumb people and also true of smart people. Smart people often come up with better rationalizations for why they do what they do, but that's the main difference.

You know what succeeds? Luck and gall and persistence. Pour enough of any of them or of any combination of them into a cup, and you've got yourself a cup full of Win. The gutters are full of failed geniuses.
 
2009-11-02 05:33:04 PM
Pocket Ninja: We're off to a pretty good start here, but just so I can make sure everyone understands how these IQ threads work. You can't just come out and announce your exceptionally high IQ. You have to predicate it with some sort of of explanation as to why you don't really care about the number. It's even better if you can manage an explanation that actually makes your number seem lower than it should be. For example, this works well:

"I don't really care about IQ. I mean, I think it's silly to try to boil down a person's intelligence into a single number. How can one test tell you that? Like, I was hungover and stoned when I took my IQ test, and it came out in the 160s. So I just take everything with a grain of salt."

And, with that, do remember that it works best if you express the number as a range rather than a single point. For example, you might explain that you don't care about how your IQ was tested in the 155-175 range, and then someone else might come in and say that they don't care that their IQ was tested at 162. You could then come back and explain how, yeah, you understand why someone wouldn't care about a 162, because you don't care about how your follow-up test placed you at closer to 170.

You should finish your explanation of how you don't care about your high IQ range with a self-deprecating story showing your whimsical lack of common sense. For example, you might talk about how you accidentally knocked over your Coke when you were working on that fractal equation the other night, and you were all like, "Oh my God I'm so stupid and such a clutz!" Or how you don't know how to change a tire, and thank God you make so much money that you can just have people do that for you. Just something to make you seem more like the common man, who might be intimidated by you otherwise.

Have fun!


My IQ tests have returned scores ranging from high to holy-fark-that's-high. I don't consider my self smart, as I regularly display poor decision making skills. But I have decent problem solving abilities and that keeps me gainfully employed. I believe, as the article states, that IQ is similar to being tall.

/I'm also 6'3" and suck at basketball, fwiw...
//how was that?
 
2009-11-02 05:58:18 PM
monkeyman3875 IQ doesn't mean anything if you can't put it to good use.

There some janitors that are quite happy not having to exploit their 180 IQ status.
 
2009-11-02 06:01:04 PM
i'll take a crack at it

/133
//fumbled through life
///still fumbling
 
2009-11-02 06:01:39 PM
WhyteRaven74: MissFeasance: My mom says I'm smart

So how do you explain becoming a lawyer? ;)


Poor judgment.
 
2009-11-02 06:19:19 PM
Pocket Ninja: We're off to a pretty good start here, but just so I can make sure everyone understands how these IQ threads work. You can't just come out and announce your exceptionally high IQ. You have to predicate it with some sort of of explanation as to why you don't really care about the number. It's even better if you can manage an explanation that actually makes your number seem lower than it should be. For example, this works well:

"I don't really care about IQ. I mean, I think it's silly to try to boil down a person's intelligence into a single number. How can one test tell you that? Like, I was hungover and stoned when I took my IQ test, and it came out in the 160s. So I just take everything with a grain of salt."

And, with that, do remember that it works best if you express the number as a range rather than a single point. For example, you might explain that you don't care about how your IQ was tested in the 155-175 range, and then someone else might come in and say that they don't care that their IQ was tested at 162. You could then come back and explain how, yeah, you understand why someone wouldn't care about a 162, because you don't care about how your follow-up test placed you at closer to 170.

You should finish your explanation of how you don't care about your high IQ range with a self-deprecating story showing your whimsical lack of common sense. For example, you might talk about how you accidentally knocked over your Coke when you were working on that fractal equation the other night, and you were all like, "Oh my God I'm so stupid and such a clutz!" Or how you don't know how to change a tire, and thank God you make so much money that you can just have people do that for you. Just something to make you seem more like the common man, who might be intimidated by you otherwise.

Have fun!


I have an IQ of 81, which is barely enough to power my enormous genitals.
 
2009-11-02 06:21:32 PM
h2ogate: Intelligence is not the same as wisdom.

No, but you get a better saving throw.
 
2009-11-02 07:00:54 PM
I have a new word.

Incurious. If I wasn't so incurious, I would already have known that wurd.
 
2009-11-02 07:01:43 PM
services.juniata.edu

It's all very well spelled out in here.
 
2009-11-02 07:01:53 PM
G.E.D in vaginaology
/eats, shoots, and leaves
 
2009-11-02 07:02:19 PM
rikdanger: Pocket Ninja: We're off to a pretty good start here, but just so I can make sure everyone understands how these IQ threads work. You can't just come out and announce your exceptionally high IQ. You have to predicate it with some sort of of explanation as to why you don't really care about the number. It's even better if you can manage an explanation that actually makes your number seem lower than it should be. For example, this works well:

"I don't really care about IQ. I mean, I think it's silly to try to boil down a person's intelligence into a single number. How can one test tell you that? Like, I was hungover and stoned when I took my IQ test, and it came out in the 160s. So I just take everything with a grain of salt."

And, with that, do remember that it works best if you express the number as a range rather than a single point. For example, you might explain that you don't care about how your IQ was tested in the 155-175 range, and then someone else might come in and say that they don't care that their IQ was tested at 162. You could then come back and explain how, yeah, you understand why someone wouldn't care about a 162, because you don't care about how your follow-up test placed you at closer to 170.

You should finish your explanation of how you don't care about your high IQ range with a self-deprecating story showing your whimsical lack of common sense. For example, you might talk about how you accidentally knocked over your Coke when you were working on that fractal equation the other night, and you were all like, "Oh my God I'm so stupid and such a clutz!" Or how you don't know how to change a tire, and thank God you make so much money that you can just have people do that for you. Just something to make you seem more like the common man, who might be intimidated by you otherwise.

Have fun!

I have an IQ of 81, which is barely enough to power my enormous genitals.


"Guard number one is a senior on Klahn's mountain, and aspires to be a research chemist. Welcome, please, Hung Well! Guard number two is a real skating buff. A warm welcome for Long Wang! Traveling comes naturally to guard number three, as he's a licensed airplane pilot. Welcome, please, Enormous Genitals!"
 
2009-11-02 07:02:53 PM
SpinStopper: P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.

awesome.
 
2009-11-02 07:03:01 PM
>9000
 
2009-11-02 07:06:23 PM
www.ep.tc
 
2009-11-02 07:07:44 PM
IQ tests arn't all that smart. I've taken the same one at least 10 times, now I'm a virtual mathematician....

Kindof fun though when you apply for a job and they give you the same IQ test then just say... "Um wow!"

/didn't get the job
 
2009-11-02 07:07:48 PM
Asia Carrera is a Mensa member

/that is all
 
2009-11-02 07:08:23 PM
WhyteRaven74: MissFeasance: My mom says I'm smart

So how do you explain becoming a lawyer? ;)


Like the rest of us, Flunked PE...
 
Displayed 50 of 447 comments

First | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | » | Last | Show all


This thread is closed to new comments.

Continue Farking
Submit a Link »