Originally posted by mellisamouse
I don't know but my IQ is 169 and I don't feel smart....

I just feel like 2 people in one...... my mentally challenged half that dosen't have a clue about too many things to mention, and my airhead half that is socially a big dummy......

Put my two personality traits together the 69 one plus the 100 and you get 169....... not some smarty pants here!

also, on the "are you smarter than a fifth grader" quizzes, I usually get ranked below a chimpanzee, and even once was the level of a sea sponge.....lol

When I was 6 years old, I was informed by the School Vice Principal that I scored 155 on some random Los Angeles Unified School District IQ standardised test (random is the operative word here) so it was decided that I was to be 'separated' fom my former 1st grade compatriots (who all seemed bright enough to me at the time) to be thrown into 'special classes', which was (basically) a room full of four-eyed bookworms (mostly sisse-boys who like myself had the charming habit of throwing a baseball like a girl -- NB: only a little less than half of the original 'accellerated' class turned out to be homosexual, though).

And so there I was: stuck in (more or less) the same group of over-achieving over-parented, emotionally retarded children for the next 9 years of my life - which was stimulating enough intellectually but let me tell you, the little overinflated egos in those classes were enough to light up Fire Island.

One thing I noticed was that (like myself, admittedly) very few of these high IQ test scorers had any common sense at all (my mother's mantra to me as a 5 year old) or the ability to get on with 'average intelligences' (whatever the crap that means) for very long (they thought through things quickly and had zero patience with people who could not keep up).

I also noticed that the orchestra I played in as a child was full of academic under-achievers who had 'way above normal' musical talent, seemingly at the near genius level - which clearly indicated to me that these persons were overly developed in the musical part of their brain (wherever that is) but seeminly below average in just about everthing else in life (i.e. they were simply not interested in anything but music, with one or two exceptions).

That weird dichotomy seemed weird (I always figured a musical prodigy would be brilliant in everything - but I saw with my own eyes this is NOT the case: I guess you could say my 'Mozart' bubble popped a little at the time)

At any rate, I came to see that there are highly talented and very intelligent persons who are 'geniused' in many different ways, and not just in some standardised IQ test taking talent way.

There are in fact so many different types of 'genius' out there in the wild, that it beggars description.

There is a kind of talent which can only be called musical genius (the Mozarts and Handels of the world) there is athletic /sports genius (or 'physical' genius, where neuro-muscular coordination is hyper-developed to a near-unique degree) there is mathematical or calculational genius (including those wizards of the so-called 'idiot savant' syndrome) , there is theological genius, building-conceptualising-mechanical genius, poetic genius, narrative (writing) genius, there is also the famous artistic (drawing/painting/sculpting type) genius, philosophical genius, &tc &tc. as well as the genius (or any uncommon hyper-abilty) to do common things un-commonly well, e.g. like super-models and actors who often have what I call 'the uncanny ability to wear clothes' (i.e. know how to put choose ONLY most flattering outfits to show off to best advantage) which is a remarkable talent in itself (living in Los Angeles lets one see many of these persons in action - and let me tell you, the hot house plant-kiddie wizards in my so-called 'accelerated' grade schools had none of the latter talent at all).

I do not think standardised IQ tests (most of which are culturally biassed at any rate) tell us much about the potential of the child who is subjected to such an ordeal : maybe in future, we'll be able to be plugged into a machine and told exactly what we should be best at !!

Or maybe (as a scrawny six year old) I would resent being told what I should be good at, come to think of it !!

Anyone saying they have no friends because of their IQ is just blaming their lack of social skills on something that makes them feel good.

I know plenty of geniuses with tons of friends. Try using your IQ to better understand human nature and use that to improve your social skills. Study social models, make your own, etc. Interacting with people is actually really fun when you treat is as a problem to solve and try to understand how, what, and why they think and act.

I've created sort of flow charts that I look at in my mind for every social interaction I'm in. Learning to create the most efficient ones took thousands of trials for each (like trying out each situation thousands of times).

Naturally, I had terrible social skills. I was a dork growing up. But by forcing myself to get out there, I learned a lot. I didn't have any friends because I was too smart; I didn't have any friends because I was socially retarded, much like other people may seem intellectually retarded to you.

That's literally how people view you if you act like a typical dork: retarded in a similar sense how you see people that can't think close to your level of reasoning skills. And they're right because social skills are a form of social reasoning and if you have no friends, you probably have no social reasoning.

Nothing that can't be improved though. It just takes lots of work. One thing I've learned in life is that blaming things on other people is useless; you can't change other people. If there's a problem in your life, you have to change it yourself. If you want more friends, you need to change yourself and the change that you need to make is to increase your social reasoning ability.

And by the way, dorks usually don't know that they're dorks.

If you find yourself talking to people about intellectual topics all the time, you're going about it the wrong way. You're just trying to impress other people. Let go and relax.

As Tyler Durden said, live outside your head, not in it.


[edit on 4/21/10 by RedDragon]

What I mean is that we're all human and as such, we all have common interests.

I have friends with IQs in the 80s range. I can't talk to them about my theories on human intelligence models, explain why they're wrong in certain logical problems, etc. So, I talk to them about the things we have in common: girls, music, etc. We'll sit around and talk about girls that we're chasing, play guitar together, drink together, etc.

On the other hand, I also have friends that are clearly geniuses and with them, I'll talk about the affore-mentioned.

You've got to learn to respect people as human beings.

Having some sort of superiority complex is just going to make you a miserable person.

Back to the topic: How do lower IQ people think? Exactly the same, just with less variables considered.

Most people have good reasoning skills; the difference in intelligence comes from how many variables you can reason out at the same time in one string of thought.

Realize that and learn to connect with the people around you.

[edit on 4/21/10 by RedDragon]

I have lots of friends.... more than average probly...


My lack of people skills used to get me ripped off or taken advantage of in the past, but never prevented me from haing friends.

oops, double post...




[edit on 23-4-2010 by mellisamouse]

They are probably wondering how people with higher and lower I.Q's think. Over the years I've met people with very high I.Q's who've spent thousands of dollars on getting as many letters after their names as possible, yet when all is said and done, they haven't a nickle's worth of common sense.

I have to agree where a lot of people stated that individuals with high IQ tend to be emotionally dumb or socially inept.

My IQ is rather high (Not that I trust testing methods) but Socially and emotionally, I lack. I am charismatic, but I have no idea what to do with it.

I have know some PHD Scientist with many multiple degrees that at times based on the subject matter were as dumb as a box of rocks. Then again I have known some non-GED types that couldn't write or speak very well that if asked the right question at the right time would come up with a solution that would make Einstein blush.

It is odd to have some a dichotomy of intellectual differences, but such is life. Welcome to the jungle.

Thanks for the posting.

I often wonder this myself.
I tested very high (can't remember the actual #) in 2nd grade.
They were actually testing to see if I was autistic and that's what they said.
People call me crazy because of my beliefs but I created them myself.
I believe in every religion yet I believe in none.