A high IQ can be a brutal burden to bear

Hello Everyone,

 

I am assuming there may be some high IQs (I am a former member of MinD, or MENSA in Germany) in the Nexus? What have been the challenges you have faced in the world due to this? Has your IQ sometimes been a heavy burden to bear?

 

Any thoughts on this? Experiences to share?

Tags: IQ

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on April 20, 2010 at 9:33pm
Michael: There are different areas of intelligence. Existence of intelligence in one field has no affect on their intelligence in another.

Uhuh. And what nonsense self-help book did you fish that one out of ?

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Robert Heinlein

"Intelligence", your usage, not mine, in specific areas and lack of ability in everything else is Savant syndrome.

Intelligence, and this is where mensa falls over, is not indicated by your ability to play 20 simultaneous games of chess blindfolded, yet not having the ability to boil an egg. Intelligence is non-specific. As Heinlein so beautifully puts it - Specialization is for insects.
Permalink Reply by alexa penzner on July 24, 2011 at 7:15am
what  !!!!!!!!!!!
Permalink Reply by Rosemary LYNDALL WEMM on April 20, 2010 at 7:38pm
IQ tests were invented to predict how well children are likely to do in school. They continue to do a good job of this. The problems start when people expect them to measure something else.

There are a lot of different kinds of "intelligence" which IQ tests are not designed to measure. Social intelligence, visuo-spatial memory, ability to mimic someone's actions and learn by observation, ability to navigate an ocean without a compass or the stars, and so forth.

How well one does in life, and now well one can reason depends on personality factors which are orthogonal (= unconnected) to intelligence. Ben Stein, for example, is dogged by a bad case of dogmatism.
Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on April 21, 2010 at 12:55am
ADD is where this falls down. In fact, comparing academic proficiency to IQ and noticing a big discrepancy is one test for ADD.

Also, music, for example, has no 'center' in the brain. It appears to be one 'intelligence' that lights the brain up all over - reptile, emotional, analytic, intuitive. Autistic kids - sometimes incapable of even taking a test, excel at music - suggesting high functioning math/liguistic intelligence, emotional intelligence, etc. when, in every other way their behavior and interaction would suggest the opposite.
Permalink Reply by Phil Smith on October 29, 2011 at 4:11am
In Britain it is part of the psyche," I queue ergo I am."
Permalink Reply by alexa penzner on July 24, 2011 at 7:12am
hi james - absolutely - the IQ test was first used to test if people were retarded and how retarded they were.  now it's used to test intelligence - does this make any sense !!??  my ex does incredibly well on the tests, but hates them and all 'games' like that - we've both thought that, as you say, a "fuller, richer and more complex evaluation" is needed.
Permalink Reply by Douglas on April 20, 2010 at 10:14am
It simply became irritating for both my wife and I to deal with the same old BS.

Besides, what is more worthwhile? Spending time with people who are ultimately going to view you as a pompous person supposedly only interested in hurting their feelings? Or spending time with our son, and teaching him to neither neglect his potential nor be ashamed of it, but to fully realize its possibilities?
Permalink Reply by Douglas on April 20, 2010 at 10:49am
Please excuse the fact that English is a second language for me, Don.
Permalink Reply by Rosemary LYNDALL WEMM on April 20, 2010 at 7:50pm
That is a feature of Asperger's Sydrome, not high IQ. Aspie's are generally very bright but have brain pathology in the areas involved with social learning.
Permalink Reply by Isaac Jones on April 21, 2010 at 11:16am
I dunno about that. While that seems to be true of my younger daughter, it doesn't seem to be true of my older daughter. I think the perception that it is a rule stems from "IQ envy", the desire of many people to take smart people and "bring them down a peg." The perception that highly intelligent people have poor social skills in general is similar to the idea that wealthy people generally suffer from poor health and is, I think, equally untrue.
Permalink Reply by Isaac Jones on April 21, 2010 at 11:19am
I dunno about that. While that seems to be true of my younger daughter, it doesn't seem to be true of my older daughter. I think the perception that it is a rule stems from "IQ envy", the desire of many people to take smart people and "bring them down a peg." The perception that highly intelligent people have poor social skills in general is similar to the idea that wealthy people generally suffer from poor health and is, I think, equally untrue.
Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on April 20, 2010 at 9:49am
Check this blog called, "Why Smart People Feel Frustrated and Displaced"

http://www.atheistnexus.org/profiles/blogs/why-smart-people-feel

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