This is a slightly old post, but why not dive right in.
Define your definition of "high intelligence". I have seen numerous well educated, and "intelligent", people drive vehicles with less skill than a one-armed half blinded chimp.
I have always looked at it this way - intelligence is your ability to comprehend. Not your book smarts.
Let's keep with driving for an example; let's say you can't parallel park without taking the rear & front fenders off, hitting the curb, or likewise doing something non-correct in your attempt. Now, despite all your fancy degrees, you're really not that intelligent because you can't comprehend turning the stirring wheel one way, turns the vehicle the other way. Similarly, tailgaters, speeders, etc., etc., etc. all show limited intelligence because they can't comprehend setting the alarm 30 minutes earlier will keep you from been late somewhere. Another example, I had one colleague with a PhD at an environmental lab and he continually whined about how he was checking in with seconds to spare because he kept getting caught at the train tracks that bisected the town. If he was really intelligent he'd have long since realized the train has a well-established schedule [something I realized within the first week] and plan his drive properly.
If you're going to turn around and say chimps can't drive - sorry, one of the major "attractions" at one point were indeed chimps driving at circuses, go-karts but they still have wheels & an engine of sorts. You are instead "smart" - the same way animals are considered smart after they learn through repetition. And what is education but the pounding of the same stuff over & over into your skull until you can recite it in your sleep.
Now let me pull this original piece apart a little.
I know a number of very intelligent individuals:
1) a close friend who is a Mensa member, his PhD completed by 27.
2) My father completed his Bachelors and his Masters within half the standard time. He had his Bachelors, in psychology, done within just 2 years due to overload of courses [and he was an honours student].
3) My 2
nd cousin is considered something of a genius in his field as well as being capable of speaking seven different languages fluently by age 28. He’s in the art field by the way, given your last comment.
4) Another close friend, likewise Mensa member.
We have seen in this thread that IQ is strongly hereditary, that children with highly educated parents also tended to have higher IQ's, and especially that male hormones significantly increased IQ (because IQ only testes typically male reasoning skills, like logic and spatial skills). We saw that the higher the IQ, the bigger the gap in numbers between men and women.
Because IQ is so intricately linked to male hormones, it is normal to see a correlation between very high IQ and masculine social behaviour.
The higher the IQ, the higher the sense of individuality and the independence of mind. Exceptionally gifted people care (much) less about what other people think of them, and are less sensitive to praise, and even less to flattery.
Let’s clarify something here. Higher IQ is, potentially, linked with HIGH testosterone. Nothing else. As there are numerous factors that can influence testosterone – including genetically inherited problems – this “find” is ultimately irrelevant. Not to mention the backlash of having HIGH testosterone would probably handicap any benefit to so called “high” IQ.
By the way, IQ tests are widely considered useless nowadays. Only the spatial test is considered legit for intelligence testing; the written / math part is merely how well you can recount information and not true intelligence.
Because they care less about the opinion and esteem of others, they tend to be less socially oriented, but also feel less easily lonely. Maybe it is because they have a very heightened sense of the "self".
This would be correct of truly intelligent people and not merely book smart people. I am truly intelligent as I can comprehend information within seconds of receiving it. Like dad I have never had an accident in my life while driving [he is likewise truly intelligent and has never had an accident in 50 years driving all around the world].
I am also considered gifted in the artistic field and also with technology as I learn with startlingly ease and alarming speed. I work in a very diverse field that requires considerable focus, multitasking skill, time management, and team work knowledge.
They feel pressed to tell openly what they think to others, especially when they hear something that conflicts with their reasoning or knowledge. They value more truth, facts and logic than friendship or emotional relations.
Gifted people therefore only care about social conventions they agree with, and (harshly) criticise the others. They live in an inner world where anything that is not rational is wrong and should be changed. It is unconceivable to them to bask in mediocrity. They are born perfectionists (for what they care about).
Their disregard for conventions, combined with vivid, creative and independent mind, often make them coin new words (often just for fun, to see the reaction of those who care about conventions), or use rare words (not by pedantry at all, but just because they like them better). In other words, they recreate the conventions for themselves.
Hardly. I suppose your mother never told you of arrogance? Someone who is truly intelligent knows that one is only as intelligent as their knowledge. If you limit your knowledge base with an attitude of “I am mightier than you” or my belief “is better than you” you learn nothing new and will, when someone better comes along, be much like a fish out of water trying to compensate.
I mentioned I am regarded as something of a gifted individual correct? I had two university degrees completed by the time I was 20, one honours and the other just below honours standing. Completely unrelated fields by the way so it wasn’t as if I could transfer half the credits/courses into the second degree afterwards.
I never took a Mensa test, though the government / military (when I was 17) evaluated my IQ as 149, because simply put I couldn’t careless. What am I going to do – flag down the taxi driver and scream at him get me to JKF Airport ASAP as I’m a Mensa member.
Now I love getting “down” and “dirty” with the “lesser intelligent” people, or the not so gifted, individuals I work with. Would you like to know how many times I’ve made some newbie jump out of their skin after responding to someone higher in the totem pole [e.g. employer] calling my name? I scare the “crap” out of these “not so gifted” because they think me just another “grunt”.
But guess what your arrogance will keep you from ever learning techniques and knowledge these “lesser” people have through their own hands-on experience and which you will be hard pressed to learn in school.
As for the last bit, yes it is very intelligent to use a word no one but you would understand. I wonder how many “intelligent” people have to tell the grunts something twenty times using high tech / rare words before it gets through to the “intelligent” person to dumb down the conversation.
Typical high-IQ people are constantly thinking about something, worried about a problem, thinking about solutions... So they end up having little time and energy left, and little motivation, for ordinary chit-chat. Because they are constantly "navigating in their thoughts", they tend to be more forgetful of trivial things ("damn, I forgot to remove the clothes from the washing machine last night !").
Ask a truly intelligent person – we’ll call our brains compartmentalized, which they are. Important, somewhat important, irrelevant. However, some of us truly intelligent people can train our brains to pull up that trivial information before leaving the house. Some less “intelligent” put checklists on the fridge; we can put checklists in our brains – it is part of that needed above-average focus of intelligent people.
I said I work in a field that requires considerable focus. I can still recall the license plate number & the truck color of the transport that went sailing off the ledge of one of the roads that cut through the Rocky Mountains, brakes overheated, nearly 18 years later. I can draw you to an extremely accurate blueprint, as long as there are no changes, of sites I worked at up to 12 years ago. To the whole of my life, that information is as irrelevant as having stubbed my toe last year.
And no I don’t have a photographic memory. I am horrible at remembering names, which to me is irrelevant. Simply put I don’t care if I work with people that have the same name (I have worked with five women each a variation on the name Rose) or call themselves CoffeeStain … what is relevant is what is their task and how can I apply their skill. But I can remember people’s faces years later and place them where I worked with them.
Their strong independence of mind and deep intellectualisation of things results in exceptionally gifted people having stronger individual interests than average ("passions" for some topics or activities). Once they get into something, they want to know everything about it (which can make them look like geeks or freaks to ordinary folk).
High IQ correlates strongly with exceptional concentration abilities. The problem is that it makes such people quite stubborn until they know or understand what they wanted. Such children are known for always asking "why" questions, and never give up until they get a satisfactory answer.
Yes, I have exceptional concentration abilities, however, when I didn’t get a satisfactory answer, I figured it out myself. It was something dad taught us because guess what – people lie, facts lie, etc. Unless you see something, learn something or experience something with your own eyes, your own hands, and your own mind you are getting nothing more than 2
nd, 3
rd, 4
th, etc. hand information.
One reason when I am researching anything – as I do write books in my science field – I have so much reference material I could be lost in a sea of paper.
Truly intelligent people NEVERtake anything at face value, rather, they
ALWAYS look for what is beyond the written word, the image, the hype.
Now I tore about and rebuilt my first computer out of spare parts when I was 15 years old; that would be the only time I have ever actively followed anything resembling an instruction manual.
One thing that normally irritates people with high IQ is asking them to explain something (complex), then stop listening in the middle of their explanations. Exceptionally gifted people just can't understand why one would ask a question and not care about the answer, when they visibly do not understand that topic.
I love teaching people things. If someone asks me to clarify something I have never stuck my nose in the air and said go bug Boris, I’m busy. This is a trait I picked up from my cousin who is the LEAD researcher in MAJOR neurological research and has been for 12 years. He has his own team at his beck & call.
If someone is getting “bored” during your explanation, it means you really got to step down a peg and try again. My professor was a genius from India, absolutely brilliant man – could do advanced calculus, trigonometry and algebra of 7 lines in his head. If someone didn’t get it then he started all over again, because as he said a
truly intelligent person is someone that EVERYONE in the room can understand.
At school, exceptionally gifted children are easily bored by lessons, because they understand before everyone else and get irritated when the teacher has to repeat for slower people. If it is a subject they are particularily interested in, they usually have learned everything by themselves before, which can create conflicts with the teacher, as gifted children do not mind correcting the teacher's slightest mistake in front of the whole class (that's their way of showing that they shouldn't be sitting in that class in a humiliating position of inferiority - well, you know how wild and vain kids can be !).
Again arrogance.
I tutored those “slower” kids because yes I already knew the information.
However, again, it comes down to the true indicator of intelligence – comprehension. What are you gaining by been arrogant [rude] or simply put a bear-sized pain in the arse of the teacher who is merely doing as best as they can … assisting that teacher will get you through that class faster, easier and with less interruptions.
On the whole, exceptionally gifted people tend to be hyperactive, eat a lot and sleep a lot (because the brain uses so much energy), or on the contrary eat and sleep very little (these are exceptions, like Napoleon, probably due to a different metabolism).
A category for both? How about active intelligent people?
I have gone 72 hours with barely a cat’s nap worth of sleep at times due to time crunches – such as when the employer decided it was a “fantastic” idea to change his ideas / request halfway through the project.
I would be more the exception like Napoleon a supposed different metabolism. More it came down to the simple fact – too busy to stuff face with food and as the brain is indeed always working for those truly intelligent it makes sleep very difficult. However, he was, by the way well known to suffer stomach issues and be insomniac so he was not an alien child with an alien metabolism.
At work, they have difficulty understanding why other people can't do as much as they do in the same amount of time, or don't do things as well as they should. They are usually unsatisfied by others, demanding, strict, and feel like they have to do things by themselves if they want them to be done properly...
You have problems understanding why people take more time? Really? The supposedly “less intelligent” person is oftentimes very unorganized and lacks focus; it really is, eight out of ten times, that simple.
That last bit about wanting to do it yourself – again overhype of “rare words” to seem “intelligent” thus breaking down the communication between the “intelligent” person and the not so “intelligent” person. If the people are not following your directions properly it isn’t because they’re stupid – it is oftentimes because your directions leave much to be desired.
Again indicator of true intelligence – comprehension. If you can’t comprehend that your colleagues are misunderstanding what you are saying, well, just how is one really “intelligent”.
High-IQ people are very individualistic, but they usually strive for the common good (as well as their own interests). Their passion for things, their sense of logic, and their desire for perpetual improvement, make of them good politicians and philosophers. On the other hand, they usually dislike routine jobs, with predefinied tasks and little space for creativity and a sense of intellectual challenge.
Given their individualism, they rarely bear the authority of other people, and are therefore more often self-made people, free-thinkers and entrepreneurs, rather than conventional academics or professionals employed by a company.
Never heard of a hobby by chance? Most truly intelligent people get hobbies because it does keep their mind active instead of going stagnant.
I mentioned the guy from India, who was a Professor, he could wipe the floor without breaking a sweat with most of those “highly intelligent” people you mentioned. He was a photographer by the way, that was his hobby.
In fact, he did once, by crushing the “life” out of a racist with his responses. The “intelligent” racist, a local businessman by the way who had done well for himself, thought because he had a multitude of degrees he actually had something worth saying. That Professor from India, with the dull mundane job, got a standing ovation when he was done from everyone in City Hall. If he hadn't owned businesses in the city I am quite sure we'd never have seen "intelligent" businessman again - just hanging his head.
Having a high IQ has little influence on most of the arts, as IQ only testes rational, logic and spatial skills. It may help for sculpture (spatial skills), or classsical music (rational and spatial).
I’d like to see an “intelligent” businessman do some of the jaw-dropping art that can be found around the world.
High IQ has nothing to do with art, you better believe it because the IQ test is irrelevant to the testing of TRUE intelligence. Everyone has known since last year, if not earlier even for it was rumbling around the science field in 2012, that standard IQ tests are utterly worthless for testing TRUE intelligence.
IQ tests – except for spatial – tests how well you can recount information. How good your education was, how well you can memorize information… and nothing resembling real intelligence.
I work in the artistic field, technology too. I said, above, my second degree was in a completely unrelated field - biochemistry. Intelligence has "nothing" to do with art, uh-huh; if anything artists are above average intelligence because their brains are constantly working differently than average joe mundane jobber.
A good artist can turn anything into a masterpiece because our brains are ALWAYS working, always testing new ideas, always looking at things from a different angle. A book smart "intelligent" person needs to consult a few books before he even tries.
Sorry, mean no insult, but for a post about "High IQ" there doesn't seem to be a single cent of knowledge that the IQ tests are deemed widely invalid.
xD....that is frailty of genius, it needs an audience.....and yeah, that is copied from the sherlock series....but it is the truth...at least until ur mature enough or maybe not....either way....i'm 21 which is not too old enough to be wise enough xD..atleast not for me haha...
...XD....thanks for reading 