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Old 03-10-2009, 03:04 AM   #165 (permalink)
jaamkie
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vegeto View Post
The last IQ test I took was in 2001-2002. I scored again at around 142-144.

I am terrible at getting a career going. I dropped out of high school when I was younger...

I've noticed I think much slower than other people and cannot keep up with conversation often. I thought this was strange, considering my decent IQ, until I realized that my scores on the IQ test were all about higher level reasoning. I really don't have a good short term memory, nor do I process language quickly, I don't have any real skill at all. However, my reasoning is off the charts, and I suspect that my IQ scores would be even higher if the questions that test reasoning had even less on the spot processing skill and acquired skill/'mental fitness'.

Sounds ridiculous at first, but in actuality, the way I think is much faster than most people. It's when I'm bothered to convert those lightning fast complex thoughts into the primitive English language, I loose a ton of speed and accuracy. I have visions. The same problems that quantum physicists work out in the language of math, I just see being solved in my head as a conceptual scene. I end up with the same answers as them, but I can't write it in the language of math to save my life.

IQ tests aren't about having strong language centers of the brain, they aren't about having strong memory, or even talent for math. It's just that people with high a IQ often have those things as well I don't. I can't do anything well, but I usually know what I'm talking about because my reasoning is fantastic. When people try to convince me that they are smarter than me because of their skills in math, language, conversation... I basically see a bunch of monkeys saying 'if you're so smart, then how come you can't swing from tree to tree as well as me'. They just don't get that their skills don't mean as much as they think they do, they don't have the reasoning to figure it out.

Sigh, but they still win because this is their world. The nerds may overcome the Jocks, but when do people like me overcome the nerds?
You can't reason your way to any productive avenue for your reasoning abilities? =P in good fun, because I feel my "work" as a dev team lead is the mental equivalent of doing crossword puzzles with my family... not exactly fulfillng any great life purpose and often a matter of chasing down details not a grand intuitive leap, but it is more mentally stimulating and pays better than waitressing while I'm figuring out what next...
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