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High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

scientificamerican.com

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Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#151

Post by tomjakubowski »

no_one_ever wrote: post #125
SavantIdiot wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. I joined and was immediately turned off by the group. The difference with joining a chess club is you get to play chess. So let's turn your proposal around: What do you get to do in a High IQ club that is different from any random collection of people? Besides talk about how you are in MENSA?

I don't really care one way or the other, but my impression is the group offers a setting for like-minded (read 'higher-IQ') individuals to come talk about anything and not just the thing they are there for.

No interest group or club that I've belonged to has ever stuck only to that topic in discussion.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#152

Post by rory »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #29
rory wrote: post #5

> It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health. Is Mensa really an "intellectual pursuit"? I'm not sure exactly what Mensa does…

I joined to have something to put on my otherwise bare resume coming out of university. Never renewed my membership. Their magazine was better than I expected but the local newsletter didn't inspire me to actually show up at any meetings. From the few other Mensa members I've met, it seemed like they were active members in order to be able to socialize with people who were of "birds of a feather" so to speak rather t…

I can relate to this. I put my SAT score on my resume until I was 23 or 24. Kind of embarrassing, but I was desperate for a way to show I was smart.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#153

Post by johnfn »

toyota86 wrote: post #143
rory wrote: post #5

> It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health. Is Mensa really an "intellectual pursuit"? I'm not sure exactly what Mensa does…

> people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club I don't understand this sentiment. There are race/ethnicity-restricted clubs, men-only clubs, athletic clubs, equestrian clubs, farmers clubs, car ownership clubs. However, when it's about IQ (something which you say you hold in disdain), suddenly out come the insults. Insecure nerds, right? They only have their insignificant test scores, they must be a despicabl…

I was just about to make the exact same comment, but I think you articulated it perfectly. People are fine with literally every other type of neurodiversity but god help you if you so much as mention intelligence.

I mean just look at all the negative sentiment going on in the rest of these comments. Guys, there’s nothing wrong about seeking out people similar to yourself.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#154

Post by donatj »

carabiner wrote: post #85
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #26

Long, long ago, I came to the conclusion that intelligence was inversely related to sanity. Not a scientific observation, just that people who I knew who were very smart also tended to have difficulties in more ways than the people I knew who had typical intelligence. Typical issues were depression, insecurity, difficulty relating or communicating with others, ... Certainly you can find people with these issues in al…

Meanwhile, we see significantly less depression in higher levels of educational attainment: https://figshare.com/articles/figure/Weighted_prevalence_of_...

I find this really interesting because they seem to be tightly linked in both directions.

I know from personal experience that one's mental wellbeing affects how well I can absorb information. I think it’s also pretty clear that being better-off financially, as comes with higher levels of education, lowers certain types of stressors in one’s life.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#155

Post by astrange »

toyota86 wrote: post #143
rory wrote: post #5

> It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health. Is Mensa really an "intellectual pursuit"? I'm not sure exactly what Mensa does…

> people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club I don't understand this sentiment. There are race/ethnicity-restricted clubs, men-only clubs, athletic clubs, equestrian clubs, farmers clubs, car ownership clubs. However, when it's about IQ (something which you say you hold in disdain), suddenly out come the insults. Insecure nerds, right? They only have their insignificant test scores, they must be a despicabl…

A score on a test doesn't imply enough for you to actually have things in common. (However, just being in a secret club might motivate you enough to find some things to talk about.)

You can get the Mensa experience without joining by having a Quora account - their AI always picks the oddest topics to send to you. For the longest time it would send me all the "what's it like to have a high IQ?" questions and I noticed 1. it wasn't really like anything, and 2. I didn't want to hang out with the people answering them.

You could also read rationalist-associated blogs, several of which are written by people who if you leave them alone for ten minutes try to reinvent eugenics.

e.g. I was linked this one yesterday: https://fantasticanachronism.com/2021/03/23/two-paths-to-the... and there is like no self-reflection on the concept that maybe optimizing babies for "IQ" will not get you what you want, and that maybe Singapore is not actually genetically better or worse than other places, and neither was John von Neumann.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#156

Post by 2-tpg »

mhh__ wrote: post #100
Consultant32452 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IQ is not distributed equally among men and women. The median is the same, but there are more men at the extremes for IQ (both high and low). Mensa membership is 66% male. https://www.us.mensa.org/learn/about/demographics/

This is a weird one. There does seem to be evidence in support of the variation hypothesis, but merely mentioning its existence while not being a woman is enough to get you sacked. The thing I don't get about that, or at least I obviously do get it but it lead to think, surely if you were hiring in volume you might be better off hiring women anyway since you can more precisely know what kind of candidates you want to…

For diversity and inclusion in AI papers, they bring up facts like "All of the top 10 most-cited AI researchers are men" and then posit this as bad, and in support of a 50%-50% gender representation in AI. Like in: The field still has a long way to go. Not: we judged these extremely rare geniuses on their gender, and when you do this, you get bad diversity-and-inclusion optics.

And how to solve that perceived problem? Judge other academics on their gender, place them in a victimized group, and then compose your reference list with that in mind? The top 10 starts doing exactly that, because the guilt they feel is real. So they say nothing when privileged researchers can use the LatinX-in-AI, Women-in-AI, Black-in-AI, Gay-in-AI, Jewish-in-AI backdoors to get in a prestigious AI conference publication.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#157

Post by SavantIdiot »

foepys wrote: post #110
SavantIdiot wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. I joined and was immediately turned off by the group. The difference with joining a chess club is you get to play chess. So let's turn your proposal around: What do you get to do in a High IQ club that is different from any random collection of people? Besides talk about how you are in MENSA?

Just like in a fraternity, you get connections. Mensa is basically a network of highly intelligent people (or at least people with high IQ) that help each other in different ways for further their education and career. Being part of Mensa can open doors that would otherwise be locked or very hard to open.

> Just like in a fraternity, you get connections.

Gender segregated groups in the year 2021 have just entered chat.

Nepotism has just entered chat.

You have left chat.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#160

Post by beaconstudios »

foepys wrote: post #110
SavantIdiot wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. I joined and was immediately turned off by the group. The difference with joining a chess club is you get to play chess. So let's turn your proposal around: What do you get to do in a High IQ club that is different from any random collection of people? Besides talk about how you are in MENSA?

Just like in a fraternity, you get connections. Mensa is basically a network of highly intelligent people (or at least people with high IQ) that help each other in different ways for further their education and career. Being part of Mensa can open doors that would otherwise be locked or very hard to open.

Is there a handshake or signal?

Perhaps people rub their temples or chins contemplatively.

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