How do people with high IQ think?

[SonoranBob]

My IQ runs to the high 130's but I do not consider myself a particularly fast thinker. I tend to make better connections and have more of an idea what to do with them than most people, but the connections don't come especially fast, especially under stress. For me at least, integration and synthesis of information and verbal expression is what I'm "better" at, if I can work at my own pace. I suspect it's different for everyone. Also, I know people with high IQs who have terrible judgment. Knowledge and wisdom are very different things.

My wife's IQ tested to 180 on the old scale back in high school in the late 60's. Statistically there are only about 75 or so people in the US who are that smart at any given time. I called it "scary smart". She seemed to be able to see right through stuff that distracted me, and get right to the heart of matters. It is hard to know how much of it was brains, how much of it was heart, and how much of it was her intuitive side. But it was mind-boggling.

Neurological illness knocked her IQ down to 102 eventually. As her health deteriorated, she lost short term memory and had a lot of "brain fog" and it was terribly frustrating for her. At the end there were times she couldn't remember what my name was. The interesting thing though was that up to the day she died, there was still some part of her intellect intact and it was still extraordinary. In moments of lucidity she still had keen perception. It just wasn't sustainable or reliable anymore.

In my experience most extremely intelligent people (IQ > 145 or so) tend to have missing personality circuitry, lousy relational skills, or are very impractical in applying their thinking. Linda's combination of smarts and wisdom is very much the exception. Very few blind spots. In that she was even rarer than her IQ suggested.

Sh_t. I still miss her, don't I?

--Bob

[Doku]

Here's a question that I have, looking back through this thread.

Why do people who claim to have high IQs decide to zombie threads that everyone else would consider last year's news, and not worthy of further comment?

[SonoranBob]

Originally Posted by Doku

Here's a question that I have, looking back through this thread.

Why do people who claim to have high IQs decide to zombie threads that everyone else would consider last year's news, and not worthy of further comment?

I'm not familiar with the term "zombie" in this context but I assume you really mean to ask why do smart people do things you consider stupid.

It's really like I said ... even assuming you consider rightly, which is a rather large assumption, knowledge is merely the possession of facts. Wisdom is knowing what to do with them for the greater good. "Smart" people may find it easier to acquire facts and a surface understanding of them, but can be just as self-centered, egotistical and unconscious as anyone else.

And evil. As CS Lewis (I believe) said, "Educate a devil and you get a clever devil".

"Stupid" is an inexact pejorative that doesn't help understanding here. It is usually spat out as an insult when its original meaning was much more limited -- to someone with low intelligence and an inability to comprehend things most people can. When we say "stupid" we really most often mean "unwise" or "unaware" or "foolish" -- and unwise, unaware, foolish people can be found at all IQ levels. In some ways maybe even more so at high IQ levels. It takes a lot more than IQ firepower to make a well rounded, effective person. It takes other qualities to insure that high IQ doesn't just get in a person's way in life, rather than being a tool to help them.

--Bob

[Doku]

Originally Posted by SonoranBob

I'm not familiar with the term "zombie" in this context but I assume you really mean to ask why do smart people do things you consider stupid.

A zombie is a re-animated corpse. A person, animal, etc. that is brought back from the dead. A zombie thread, therefore, is a thread that is considered to be dead that someone brings back to life. I would have explained that in the original post, but I didn't think that it would take much intelligence to figure out, even for someone who hasn't spent much time on the net.

But no, I was not asking why smart people do things that _I_ consider stupid. I was asking why people who claim to be smart will often do things that the general public considers taboo.

[SonoranBob]

Originally Posted by Doku

A zombie is a re-animated corpse. A person, animal, etc. that is brought back from the dead. A zombie thread, therefore, is a thread that is considered to be dead that someone brings back to life. I would have explained that in the original post, but I didn't think that it would take much intelligence to figure out, even for someone who hasn't spent much time on the net.

But no, I was not asking why smart people do things that _I_ consider stupid. I was asking why people who claim to be smart will often do things that the general public considers taboo.

If there is any relationship between raw intelligence and social cluefulness, it's probably an inverse one. So it wouldn't surprise me that people with high IQ might ignore hints that others have lost interest in a topic more often than persons of average IQ.

I think you are confusing claimed intelligence with things that it either has nothing to do with, or with which it is not directly connected.

But for reasons of ego, high IQ persons often make the same mistake because they like to make high IQ into something more than it actually is -- just one more distinguishing characteristic that can be both one's greatest strength AND one's greatest weakness.

--Bob

[Plato]

IQ is a fairly meaningless concept.

A more meaningful question is "How do successful people think?" (Or whatever quality you would seek to emulate).

[PerDev]

Originally Posted by zpivat

Yes I agree with you Deb. While having a high IQ helps us to process information better, that doesn't mean we'll be successful in life. Another equally important determinant, EQ, plays a larger role, I think......

Anyway, keep your IQ stories coming people!!

EQ is even more important than IQ - As if you have EQ and good communication skills and able to make friends quickly - You can take Advice from your High IQ trusted friends

SO being successfully you would require both IQ and EQ.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Doku

I was asking why people who claim to be smart will often do things that the general public considers taboo.

Doing things that the general public considers taboo is one of the things I love most about intelligent people.

[PerDev]

Originally Posted by Plato

IQ is a fairly meaningless concept.

A more meaningful question is "How do successful people think?" (Or whatever quality you would seek to emulate).

then the more meaningful question would be "How do Peaceful & Bliss people think?" - We do not haveto be judgemental too much ..

[Anichels]

I happen to attend a linguistics camp this summer, and I daresay it is important to note that my closest friends from that camp, are all exceptionally brilliant people. I think the general trend was; intelligent people would stick together, because they can intellectually stimulate each other with philosophy, and non-stupid, non-banal thoughts.

Of the four people, there is one girl who is attending arts at UofT (top school in Canada), the other does not know what she wants to study, but is studying a wide variety of subjects, and the third could easily attend Yale University if she wanted to. And myself, I am interested in medecine, so I can base my thesis on the correlation in diseases and the advancement of evolutionnary biology, for a Ph.D.

There was no common interest between the group, and we all had very different perspective on religion, life philosophy as well as many other subjects, but the one thing that remained consistent was how open to other ideologies we had.

We all had different religious beliefs, Catholic, Dieist, Agnostic, Atheist.
And we all thought of different discoveries of life, and what is within life.

I miss them very much, because I felt a strong connection with them, one that I do not have with my friends at home.

And to answer your question on how do we think.

We did not. It simply came to us, we are dreamers, wonderers, philosophers, people with no great ambition, who strive intellectually effortlessly.

To imply that people who are intelligent think differently than you is complete nonsense. They just think more. They spend more time on things that are interesting to them, always attempting to gain knowledge on a subject that they are comfortable with. They are not erronated, they are not weird. They can simply analyze things in a better way than the average person can.

The true question is, how do people with low IQ think?
Because people with low IQ do not see themselves in 5 years, and are often mislead by society and are offended by its stigmas.

Now just to give you an indication of my IQ, I am not born english, and have not studied english until I was 15 years old. (I am now 18)