Question Are you gifted ?

That was an interesting read. The story about William James Sidis seemed pretty incredulous, though. It's hard to believe that someone could be so smart. In a way, the article reminded me of the Too Many Aptitudes problem.
 
I find it quite ironic that human kind characterized by its ability to handle the two types of tasks of symbolic reasoning (language, communication) and quantitative reasoning should have excercised negative selection on its members endowed with positive abilites in these two axies.

I think the formation of large societies in human (pre)history may have been the beginning of this negative selection of the upper extremes as well as the lower extremes, resulting in a constant or leveled state of intelligence capacities.

For small groups of serveral tens to several hundreds, these exceptionally bright members were valuable resources that often held the key to survival when faced with a major technical challenge. As larger alliances began to bundle together a number of these small bands of people, the scarcity of highly intelligent members disappeared.

Hence no special treament was necessary to keep the majority of them within the in-group. Only a handful of them could provide all the solutions they needed. In this regard the highly gifted individuals were naturally (socially to be exact) left out in the elements to wither as human history went on its course of progress.
 
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Brooker said:
Let's make them president. :D
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Nah, we already did that. How about religious groups?

Doc
 
twistedmac: your version is the more accurate one, i think. i know many 'gifted' people.

when i was younger, we used to sing this song:
i don't wanna grow up
i'm a special ed kid
my sister dropped me on my head,
and look what it did!
i'm a gifted kid!

we even had a special bus, us 'gifted' youngsters. ironically, the special ed students who were mentally retarded als used the same sort of special bus. we were teased for that when we were younger.
 
Glenn said:
That was an interesting read. The story about William James Sidis seemed pretty incredulous, though. It's hard to believe that someone could be so smart. In a way, the article reminded me of the Too Many Aptitudes problem.
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Thanks for the link. Now I know that I am a TMA bearer too. And not just a bit... :yeahh: :(

Not all TMAs are unsuccessful. TMAs seem to function best at frontiers--intellectual, social or physical. These are the places where learning and doing are the same thing. They can operate well at interfaces between different parts of society--liaison and translation. They often do well as troubleshooters, innovators or problem solvers, in research or investigation, and in product or method development. They also seem to do quite well in situations like the Alamo, fighting long odds and staving off the inevitable.
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So that's why I am in Japan then. :relief:
 
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Am I gifted?

No. I refuse the nomination.

If I am good at anything it is because I have been doing it for a very long time and competance tends to come with repetition. I have no natural latent abilities of which I am aware.

I admit that there are occasional Mozarts out there in the world. I am not one of them. I suspect that there are few-if-any here on the Forum. They do not pop up every day. For the rest of us, it is not a gift that gets us first chair in the orchestra, it is practice, practice, practice.

Labor omnia vincit
 
Of course I'm gifted, I'm English (enough said) :)
We just let the rest of the world feel better than us. In other words were all smug ba$tard$.
I'm not a spelling nazi, and as for special, I've seen T-shirts for sale in this country that have on them "I'm special, because my social worker say's so"
(Or hould that be social wank*r) :blush: :wave:
 
Speaking of the british being smug, I love the supposed headline of some newspaper or other in England.. "fog in the English channel, continent completely isolated"
 
Hummm????

The only time I'm gifted is Christmas, and then it's only ol socks and underwear!

Crazy Ol Guy

:blush:
 
Hum...I'm definetly not gifted ^^
The only traits that'd fit me are these ones:

Has an unusual sense of humour.
Has unusual ideas or connects seemingly unrelated ideas.
Learns new things rapidly.
Is very compassionate.
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Gifted...? Uh, well, I can sense when a spirit is around but that's as special as I get. :p
 
74%, just on the edge, as usual :sorry:
 
Has strong moral convictions.
Is highly sensitive, perceptive or insightful.
Fascinated by words or an avid reader.
Feels out-of-sync with others.
Is very curious.
Has an unusual sense of humour.
A good problem solver.
Has a vivid and rich imagination.
Feels overwhelmed by many interests and abilities.
Is very compassionate.
Feels outrage at moral breaches that the rest of the world seems to take for granted.
Has passionate, intense feelings.
Can't switch off thinking.
Feels driven by creativity.
Loves ideas and ardent discussion.
Needs periods of contemplation.
Searches for ???? in their life.
Feels a sense of alienation and loneliness.
Is very perceptive.
Feels out of step with others


well these apply to me but maybe im just a very thoughtful & creative person

because my academic skills (memorizing/math etc) are not outstanding in any way :))
 
About 70% of them applied to me, so I suppose I'm not too gifted either ^^; Just like Shas said, I'm just probably a thoughtful and creative person... I suck in math, too >_< I can be a really curious person, though. In both senses of the word :p
 
Hahahahaha!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

All of the things on the list apply to me. But I'm not in the least bit gifted. :(

Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read on the internet... :eek:kashii:

Wish I *was* gifted, though... In reality, someone with all the characteristics on the list is just plain damn irritating! :p :p
 
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