The Harsh Truth about IQ

[Glacier]

[neilsimon]

It's only harsh if you have a low IQ and thankfully mine is just a bit below the perfect 100

It's a useful predictor of success, but only one of many. Parental wealth is about as good, as is EQ. Part of the problem is that it is a one dimensional metric for something which is certainly not one dimensional.

Also, as much as IQ certainly is difficult to manipulate, it is possible to provide people with strategies which allow them to get the most out of the IQ they have. This is of course one of the functions of higher education.

The one thing I have found is that most people who push the value of IQ are of above average IQ, but not exceptional IQ (Mensa members and above). Most very high IQ people I've talked to about it consider it about as good a measure of real intelligence as shoe size is of ...

[kgcayenne]

I've listened to the video a couple of times now, and will have to set aside some time to actually watch it.

When he discusses the drug problems, I find it incredibly interesting, as recently I've come to the knowledge that depression is often caused by inflammation, and that the immune system is intertwined with our neurological system.

I come away wanting to watch it a couple more times to research a little deeper into some socio-economic factors as well. We live in a time where an intelligent person with enough ambition can bypass the station to which they were born and subsequently pose a threat to the 'class' that is used to be in in power and holding the most influence.

[Grandan]

I've listened to the video a couple of times now, and will have to set aside some time to actually watch it.

When he discusses the drug problems, I find it incredibly interesting, as recently I've come to the knowledge that depression is often caused by inflammation, and that the immune system is intertwined with our neurological system.

I come away wanting to watch it a couple more times to research a little deeper into some socio-economic factors as well. We live in a time where an intelligent person with enough ambition can bypass the station to which they were born and subsequently pose a threat to the 'class' that is used to be in in power and holding the most influence.

I think I got it the first time through so I won't be wasting any more time watching it through again.
I was particularly struck by the concept that you can teach a smart person a task in 10 minutes and a dumb person can't get it in 10 hours. Also the idea that low IQ people don't think about a lot of stuff seems harsh because my brain won't shut up so I probably aren't there.
When I was in grade 6 I took the the school IQ test and had the highest mark in the school. It was attributed to the fact that I had come from a city school to a country school and was better prepared. I also learned that if you are a smart guy in a dumb school you had better be prepared for some good old fashioned bullying. Consequently I never wanted to stand out from the crowd or I was considered a suck up, a brown noser. To me that is the great tragedy in life for smart kids.

[Queen K]

<snip> I also learned that if you are a smart guy in a dumb school you had better be prepared for some good old fashioned bullying. Consequently I never wanted to stand out from the crowd or I was considered a suck up, a brown noser. To me that is the great tragedy in life for smart kids.

This may help me understand what the was really going on when I was growing up.
Know that English standards test we all took back in the day? I scored 99 percentile.

[Lady tehMa]

This may help me understand what the was really going on when I was growing up.
Know that English standards test we all took back in the day? I scored 99 percentile.

Wow! I only scored 97 percentile!

[Barney Google]

As a kid my IQ was tested many times and it was always very high.

I too like Grandan learned it was not always so wonderful living with that...better to be part of the herd.

In a lot of ways having a high IQ ruined my kid-hood. Professionals convinced my parents that I needed to be challenged

and I got excelled forward and placed into situations that now, as an Old Timer, I realize robbed me of some pretty

cherish-able times in my life. As a kid I was pretty P.O.ed that I lost most of the friends I had who were my age.

Sure my IQ was high but in a lot of ways I was and still am, very much as dumb as a *bleep*.

Having a high IQ is totally overrated.

My father was tested as a kid and found to be borderline challenged.

As a result, his teachers never challenged him. After serving in the Canadian Navy in WW2 he

went on to get a degree in Electrical Engineering and then later Nuclear Engineering.

To this day he was/is the most intellectually intelligent man I've ever known. Go figure!

[Graham Adder]

the harth truth about IQ is I ain't got many of 'em so I wears my bike helmet eberware eben in my sandboxth.

Statisticians Blues - Todd Snider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUK6zjtUj00

They say 3 percent of people, use 5 to 6 percent of their brain.
97 percent use just 3 percent and rest goes down the drain.
I'll never know which one I am, but I'll bet you my last dime.
99 percent think they're 3 percent 100 percent of the time.

They say 60 percent of all the world's statistics are made up right there on the spot.
82.4 percent of people believe them whether they're accurate statistics or not.
I don't know what you believe but I do know there's no doubt.
I need another double shot of something 90 proof, I got too much to think about.

[neilsimon]

What do people consider to be a high IQ?

[Barney Google]

What do people consider to be a high IQ?

The top of the IQ scale is 140

Smart cookies score between 90 and 100

[neilsimon]

What do people consider to be a high IQ?

The top of the IQ scale is 140

Smart cookies score between 90 and 100

IQ is actually a normalised scale around 100 as the midpoint. An IQ between 90 and 110 is basically average. IIRC, below 70 used to be a reason to consider someone mentally deficient (I believe times have changed and we have a more complete view of things).

Since all IQ scales are a little different (and there are a few of them), I believe that most people who talk about IQ professionally use the percentile as the best way for comparisons. Therefore, I guess my question should have been, at what % would you consider someone's IQ to be high? The top 10%, 5%, 2%, 1%, 0.1%?

[hobbyguy]

The record highest is 228. Only 1% score 136 or above.

That said, in my opinion IQ scores are a very narrow definition of intelligence that is unreflective of real intelligence. It is highly focused on "academic" abilities that often fail to translate into real world pragmatic scenarios.

The school of thought that defines intelligence more broadly is closer to the experience of real life. http://www.brainmetrix.com/intelligence-definition/

"Intelligence is defined as general cognitive problem-solving skills. A mental ability involved in reasoning, perceiving relationships and analogies, calculating, learning quickly… etc. Earlier it was believed that there was one underlying general factor at the intelligence base (the g-factor), but later psychologists maintained that it is more complicated and could not be determined by such a simplistic method. Some psychologists have divided intelligence into subcategories. For example Howard Gardner maintained that it is comprised of seven components: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Other definitions are: “Intelligence is what you do when you don't know what to do.” “Intelligence is a hypothetical idea which we have defined as being reflected by certain types of behavior.”"

That wider type of intelligence definition partially explains why teamwork is more successful in virtually every endeavor. It also explains why an engineer might not be able to build a garden shed. Or a grade 3 educated person might be a wiz with CNC machines and their programming. (Both things I have seen.)

Our systems, and IQ measurements themselves, are biased toward perhaps 3 of the 7 characteristics that Howard maintains congeal into real intelligence. Very rare is the person who can combine all seven. Is a person who is strong in the characteristics musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal, but weaker in the characteristics logic-mathematical, linguistic and spatial any less intelligent than the person with the reverse component set?

Is Einstein any more of a genius than Max Martin? http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/blank-space-what-kind-of-genius-is-max-martin

[kgcayenne]

There's a lot to consider. It's also worth evaluating which part(s) of an IQ test a person displays proficiency. For example, pattern recognition plays a great role in problem solving.

[Glacier]

There's a lot to consider. It's also worth evaluating which part(s) of an IQ test a person displays proficiency. For example, pattern recognition plays a great role in problem solving.

Indeed. Jordan Peterson in another video is asked about his IQ (or was it this one... I can't remember). Peterson says he can't remember what it was exactly since it was decades ago he took it, but it was north of 150, but more specifically, when it comes to certain aspects of intelligence like spacial recognition (I think that was his example), he was only the 70th percentile. Better than average, but not through the roof by any stretch of the imagination. But when it comes to the verbal intelligence, he scored in the 99th percentile, which means he's in the top 1% in that area.

[Silverstarqueen]

I found it interesting that my three kids tested exactly the same level IQ as I did. It can be quite a challenge parenting three little smart *bleep*. But they make really neat adults. All three very different.
THis is why God made intelligence inheritable, because Lord help us if our kids were smarter than we were.