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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

#71

Post by DoreenMichele »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #62
oppositelock wrote: post #4

I've met plenty of incredibly intelligent people in my life, and very few mentioned Mensa. Those who did had a yearning for being recognized as smart or exceptional. Perhaps using Mensa membership to draw inferences about smart people in general isn't statistically applicable. It could be that people who want to be recognized as smart have those mental issues, which other smart people don't.

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…

I never applied to Mensa. A cousin of mine (that I barely knew) was in it. He encouraged me to apply on the theory that they had a small scholarship that would help me return to college. He felt my SAT scores would qualify me.

I have seen some discussions on the internet that fit with your hypothesis that many people join Mensa to have their smarts validated. There are other ways to validate that, like getting additional college degrees. These other ways tend to result in real world achievement, like better jobs. CEOs and the like don't seem to spend a lot of time trying to get their smarts validated. They are too busy getting their business model validated.

So, I tend to see Mensa the same way you do: It primarily appeals to people who need validation they are incapable of getting via other avenues, such as pursuing their Master's or PhD.

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

#72

Post by thaumaturgy »

Alex3917 wrote: post #64
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…

> Probably anybody who reaches the level of 1 dan or higher in Go has at least a Mensa-level IQ. I've never been able to get past 4k. But from having watched a bunch of Bats go lectures on YouTube, he says (and proves) that it's possible to get well past 1d on direction of play alone without having any problem solving ability. https://www.youtube.com/user/dwyrin/playlists

And yet there are a ton of folks who have watched many of his videos and have played tons of games and not made it to 1d. Including me, I'm just a lowly 4k.

Maybe you're right, but my experience playing both in small local tournaments and a lot online has been that the folks 1d and above are pretty sharp generally.

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

#75

Post by patall »

Interesting discussion going on here. One thing I want to add that might serve as a confounding variable of intelligence and genetic disorders is parental age at birth. It has extensively been shown that especially the fathers age is linked to the chance of denovo genetic diseases in his children, due to mutations occuring in the ongoing cell replications. One the other hand older parents tend to have children that are better at school (on average), are more successful in their career etc. and therefore might be more likely to take an IQ test and join Mensa.

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

#76

Post by Manglano »

Math is a language for describing anthropic systems and perceptions. The brain is neither an anthropic system nor a perception, per se. So naturally, attempting to quantify it would select for eccentricities at either pole.

Researchers say that "superior IQ" also correlates with lower-income and higher achievement, but greater happiness. The question of what IQ actually signifies is a good one.

Maybe we should create some more competing metrics to study...Who knows what the data will find?

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

#77

Post by Gargoyle »

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 was given one at around age 12 in school to see if I qualified for an accelerated program, and then another one around age 28 as part of a university research study (on user interface related topics) I volunteered for.

I'm not surprised if people are tested in grade school, but I suspect running into them outside of research after your school years is rare.

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

#78

Post by DoreenMichele »

llamaz wrote: post #67
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…

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. ;)

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

#79

Post by jansho »

alexasmyths wrote: post #46
colek42 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption that people reading HN are above average intelligence is probably accurate.

"but if you can’t reasonably quantify it based on anything empirical," Simply the writing quality, grammar and sentence structure of the comments on HN would easily be enough to prove that HN readers (well, commenters) are above average. I spend enough time glazing over headlines, stories and comments from other sites out of casual interest and I'll bet any amount of money this is true.

Maybe it’s also the culture around here. I’ve seen a few casual lololol comments that get downvoted a lot, so it creates an impression that if you’re going to say something, at least do it stylishly. (Of course value is important too..)

I like HN, but can’t see it as a social space like most forums are. (And yes I like HN for that reason too!)

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

#80

Post by zardo »

Alex3917 wrote: post #64
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…

> Probably anybody who reaches the level of 1 dan or higher in Go has at least a Mensa-level IQ. I've never been able to get past 4k. But from having watched a bunch of Bats go lectures on YouTube, he says (and proves) that it's possible to get well past 1d on direction of play alone without having any problem solving ability. https://www.youtube.com/user/dwyrin/playlists

Even if it is a good indicator of intelligence, it's also a good indicator of dedication.
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