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Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#101

Post by pkroll »

mrcsparker wrote: post #96
thaumaturgy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried out Mensa briefly some years ago. I was just looking for new social circles. I have some pretty sharp older buddies that I play Go with weekly, they're a blast to talk to, and I thought I'd find some more of that. It was bad. Really, really bad. The local chapter had a tiny handful of post-retirement members. I knew a ton of folks in my community at the time, a bunch of them were smart, active people, and non…

Just out of curiosity, which super hero did they pick? I would imagine that Superman wouldn’t have to be too bright but I don’t know much about his character.

Depending on who happens to be writing him, Superman ranges from "smart guy but not THAT smart" to super-genius level. He's the last of a race of genetically optimized people and his parents were scientists so, I'd go with "he's much, much smarter than Batman, but Batman's power is to always have planned for everything whether or not the writers thought of it at the time."

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#102

Post by brookside »

taneq wrote: post #50
dqpb wrote: post #36

People who do well on standardized tests of intelligence—IQ tests—tend to be more successful in the classroom and the workplace. Where is everyone taking these IQ tests? In my entire life I've never come across one in the wild, just SAT, GRE, etc.

I dunno, my dad took us to get tested at one point when we were in school, iirc I was ~130. Low enough to still be pretty common, high enough to feel the pressure to do something with it. Then again, when I got to uni I was classed with people who scored way higher than I did and they were... I dunno, "intelligent" but not "smart". I didn't see any correlation between entry exam scores and subsequent performance.

I think kids get such scores when they are ahead of their age in areas of mental development. I think in my case, because of attentive parents who had me reading early, etc.

As I got older I realized I'm not actually smarter than other people, I was just a little ahead, and the false belief that I am somehow exceptionally clever was damaging in a number of ways.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#104

Post by boomboomsubban »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #100
nzjrs wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This means our concept of IQ > is likely inherently flawed. Equally flawed, taking one outlier as evidence of something inherent.

FWIW, I have studied the space some. I was Director of Community Life for The TAG Project for a bit. http://tagfam.org/ The last time I had this argument in a big way with people telling me I had no clue what I was talking about, some forum I belonged to was having a heated argument because they had the habit of posting ridiculous tests, like "What kind of dog are you?", and someone had posted an online IQ test and t…

They aren't saying your wrong about IQ tests. Pointing out one outlier isn't proof that it is flawed.

Plus, this study doesn't care if IQ tests are a good way to rate intelligence, people who score well on them also are more likely to suffer disorders.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#105

Post by zerostar07 »

evilduck wrote: post #7
warent wrote: post #3

Their entire high IQ sample comes from Mensa. So this should be restated something like "Inclination to join Mensa correlates with mental and physical disorder"

That was acknowledged in the article.

and handwaved away as if it's nothing

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#106

Post by vostok »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #78
llamaz wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How good you are at Go (or chess for that matter) has no correlation with your IQ. There are plenty of examples of people extremely good at chess that struggle, seriously, with academics (e.g. world champion Jose Raul Capablanca, and the youtuber and grandmaster Eric Hansen). Kasparov doesn't have 180+ IQ, which is a common myth. At some point he took the test and it turned out he had a respectable but definitely sub…

Richard Feynman, one of the most respected geniuses of our era, tested as only having an IQ of 125. IQ tests are far from perfect, to say the least. This means our concept of IQ is likely inherently flawed. Feynman seemed to take glee in sharing his "low" IQ of only a 125. He was one of the smartest men on the planet in the last 100 years. Surely, we should defer to his opinion that the concept IQ is sort of a joke.…

To be fair, success has a lot to do with luck, circumstance, hard work, and political/social skills too.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#107

Post by DoreenMichele »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #104
DoreenMichele wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I have studied the space some. I was Director of Community Life for The TAG Project for a bit. http://tagfam.org/ The last time I had this argument in a big way with people telling me I had no clue what I was talking about, some forum I belonged to was having a heated argument because they had the habit of posting ridiculous tests, like "What kind of dog are you?", and someone had posted an online IQ test and t…

They aren't saying your wrong about IQ tests. Pointing out one outlier isn't proof that it is flawed. Plus, this study doesn't care if IQ tests are a good way to rate intelligence, people who score well on them also are more likely to suffer disorders.

Mensa does not actually base membership exclusively on IQ tests, so your assertion doesn't accurately reflect the content of the study. There are other ways to get into Mensa, such as submitting your SAT scores. I was coached in gifted classes on how to take the SAT. Is it any wonder I did better than average? Should we not expect kids with training in test taking to perform better than those without, generally speaking?

If we are going to discuss some correlation between supposed high IQ and various disorders, is it meaningless to talk about how one ascertains IQ and what on earth that even means?

I think it is not terribly different from asking "What color is your aura?" but I am quite sure that if I went around asking that on HN (or, you know, posting articles about auras, chakras, etc), it would be flagged to death. Yet, IQ is equally invisible. You cannot look at someone and say "brown hair, 6 feet tall, IQ of 145." That just isn't a thing.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#108

Post by nzjrs »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #100
nzjrs wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This means our concept of IQ > is likely inherently flawed. Equally flawed, taking one outlier as evidence of something inherent.

FWIW, I have studied the space some. I was Director of Community Life for The TAG Project for a bit. http://tagfam.org/ The last time I had this argument in a big way with people telling me I had no clue what I was talking about, some forum I belonged to was having a heated argument because they had the habit of posting ridiculous tests, like "What kind of dog are you?", and someone had posted an online IQ test and t…

For a smart person you sure missed my point.

You could have just conceded that you jumped too far from too few data, but whatever.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#109

Post by [deleted] »

nzjrs wrote: post #108
DoreenMichele wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I have studied the space some. I was Director of Community Life for The TAG Project for a bit. http://tagfam.org/ The last time I had this argument in a big way with people telling me I had no clue what I was talking about, some forum I belonged to was having a heated argument because they had the habit of posting ridiculous tests, like "What kind of dog are you?", and someone had posted an online IQ test and t…

For a smart person you sure missed my point. You could have just conceded that you jumped too far from too few data, but whatever.

[deleted]

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#110

Post by ralfd »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #78
llamaz wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How good you are at Go (or chess for that matter) has no correlation with your IQ. There are plenty of examples of people extremely good at chess that struggle, seriously, with academics (e.g. world champion Jose Raul Capablanca, and the youtuber and grandmaster Eric Hansen). Kasparov doesn't have 180+ IQ, which is a common myth. At some point he took the test and it turned out he had a respectable but definitely sub…

Richard Feynman, one of the most respected geniuses of our era, tested as only having an IQ of 125. IQ tests are far from perfect, to say the least. This means our concept of IQ is likely inherently flawed. Feynman seemed to take glee in sharing his "low" IQ of only a 125. He was one of the smartest men on the planet in the last 100 years. Surely, we should defer to his opinion that the concept IQ is sort of a joke.…

http://infoproc.blogspot.de/2008/07/annals-of-psychometry-iq...

Stephen Hsu argued there that Feynmans school iq test must have had a low ceiling. From what we know about the consistently high IQ scores of other incredibly bright theoretical scientists that sounds likely.

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