Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post

TexasSky · 05-18-2009, 10:21 PM

My IQ once tested at 157. I'm much older now, and the last few tests have come in around 140. I lacked 10 points having a perfect SAT, and I did have a perfect ACT.

I once expressed this to a friend who is a professional psychologist, and added, "I think that has done me more harm than good." He laughed and said, "Probably. People with a high IQ cannot avoid looking at more of the picture than people with IQ's that are not quite as high. Therefore people with high IQ's annoy the rest of the world, and the people with High IQ's are frustrated with the supidity around them."

He elaborated on this by explaining it this way. If the world is a giant set of dominoes lined up to fall, the average person will notice the falling of approximately three of the dominoes and conclude that this is an adequate represenation of what happens if the total line is toppled over. The person with a higher IQ will instantly realize the more likely probabilities of the entire string. They will understand that one dominoe turned just a fraction one way or the other could result in the other dominoes never falling, and that if the dominoes fall on something else, they can trigger a chain reaction in something else. They'll follow the line of the dominoes to the end, and locate the trigger, they'll recognize where the line is likely to break.

They will also be irritated by those who don't bother to examine the line, while simultaneously irritating those who don't want to hear the whole story.

In real life this matters when you get into the world because your comment at a business meeting may be 100 percent correct, but others in the room won't be able to see it. Since three of the four members see only the 3 dominoes, they assume that you are an idiot or the wrong person. When you are proved correct, they are not thrilled and repentant, they are more annoyed.

I believe my friend was mainly correct. I don't think of other people as stupid, but I do get frustrated that people don't look at more of the picture, and they get frustrated that I want to hold them back from their roller coaster rides. I want change and progress. They want the comfort of what they've always known. I want them to understand the limits of time and labor, they want to hear there are no limits. I want them to understand that when the budget you have to operate on for a year is $1,000,000 it does not mean you have $1,000,000 to just blow in any willy nilly way you want. That you have to factor in things like salary obligations to employees, utilities for building operations, maintenance fees, typical supply costs. They want to hear, "Sure, buy that new machine you've always want to try, and don't worry about the cost, you have $1,000,000."

I meet very few people of high IQ who are willing to (perhaps able to) play the games of inner office politics well.

I meet many people who wrongly assume that high intelligence quotion scores equate to instant genius in all fields of study. It does not. Einstein was brilliant at math and science, but you never hear that he was a fantastic english student do you?

We have our limits also. If I had a dime for every time someone told me, "That's the best I've ever seen, but it isn't as good as you could do with your IQ," I'd be as wealthy as Bill Gates. I'm sorry, but these people have no clue what my personal mental limits are. I do have thresholds. My IQ does not make me perfect at anything. It just makes me a little better at some things.

I also get frustrated with people who assume that if I'm not filthy rich, or if I make a typo on a document, or if I answer honestly that I really don't know how to do high level trig, that I must not "really" be smart "after all".

05-18-2009, 10:21 PM	#181 (permalink)
TexasSky Junior Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 27	We do think differently My IQ once tested at 157. I'm much older now, and the last few tests have come in around 140. I lacked 10 points having a perfect SAT, and I did have a perfect ACT. I once expressed this to a friend who is a professional psychologist, and added, "I think that has done me more harm than good." He laughed and said, "Probably. People with a high IQ cannot avoid looking at more of the picture than people with IQ's that are not quite as high. Therefore people with high IQ's annoy the rest of the world, and the people with High IQ's are frustrated with the supidity around them." He elaborated on this by explaining it this way. If the world is a giant set of dominoes lined up to fall, the average person will notice the falling of approximately three of the dominoes and conclude that this is an adequate represenation of what happens if the total line is toppled over. The person with a higher IQ will instantly realize the more likely probabilities of the entire string. They will understand that one dominoe turned just a fraction one way or the other could result in the other dominoes never falling, and that if the dominoes fall on something else, they can trigger a chain reaction in something else. They'll follow the line of the dominoes to the end, and locate the trigger, they'll recognize where the line is likely to break. They will also be irritated by those who don't bother to examine the line, while simultaneously irritating those who don't want to hear the whole story. In real life this matters when you get into the world because your comment at a business meeting may be 100 percent correct, but others in the room won't be able to see it. Since three of the four members see only the 3 dominoes, they assume that you are an idiot or the wrong person. When you are proved correct, they are not thrilled and repentant, they are more annoyed. I believe my friend was mainly correct. I don't think of other people as stupid, but I do get frustrated that people don't look at more of the picture, and they get frustrated that I want to hold them back from their roller coaster rides. I want change and progress. They want the comfort of what they've always known. I want them to understand the limits of time and labor, they want to hear there are no limits. I want them to understand that when the budget you have to operate on for a year is $1,000,000 it does not mean you have $1,000,000 to just blow in any willy nilly way you want. That you have to factor in things like salary obligations to employees, utilities for building operations, maintenance fees, typical supply costs. They want to hear, "Sure, buy that new machine you've always want to try, and don't worry about the cost, you have $1,000,000." I meet very few people of high IQ who are willing to (perhaps able to) play the games of inner office politics well. I meet many people who wrongly assume that high intelligence quotion scores equate to instant genius in all fields of study. It does not. Einstein was brilliant at math and science, but you never hear that he was a fantastic english student do you? We have our limits also. If I had a dime for every time someone told me, "That's the best I've ever seen, but it isn't as good as you could do with your IQ," I'd be as wealthy as Bill Gates. I'm sorry, but these people have no clue what my personal mental limits are. I do have thresholds. My IQ does not make me perfect at anything. It just makes me a little better at some things. I also get frustrated with people who assume that if I'm not filthy rich, or if I make a typo on a document, or if I answer honestly that I really don't know how to do high level trig, that I must not "really" be smart "after all".