I am highly intelligent, ask me anything

[nolinkname]

Using standard IQ scales/assessments I am highly intelligent. I have also done some research into high intelligence. Being highly intelligent has advantages and drawbacks. Ask me anything :-)

(Just to preempt some comments: No, I don’t think intelligent people are better human beings than other people. I think qualities such as being kind are more important for example. No, intelligent people are not always ‘better for society’, there is some evidence, for example, that really highly intelligent people carry out proportionally somewhat more crimes (white collar). No, I don’t look down on less intelligent people (sometimes I envy them), but it can obviously be a bit difficult to connect if you have very different frames of reference. No, intelligence does not have any direct links to social skills (positive or negative).)

Honestly - I think this thread is more likely to be manic episode than mensa related.

What advise would you give to posters with cleverclogs teens?

Gracious, I got 136 when my mother had me tested as a child because she hoped I might be gifted, and I can attest that I'm not really that bright! Certainly not smart enough to begin my own AMA. I'm so disillusioned regarding Mensa now.

(Not really, I always thought Mensa was a little self-congratulatory, honestly.)

Yet you're critical of school systems which focus on results?

Your genius is evident from the Geordie transcript! Love the Geordie accent!

sadly I’m in the dunces corner, as in any IQ test I’ve taken…well quite honestly it’s extraordinary I ever learned to walk! But I rejoice in my thick-I-tude (that’s like attitude but applies to thick people like moi!)…now back to the all important question of what came first the chicken or the egg…
oh oh oh OP question for you; what did come first the chicken or the egg?

What makes you think you are not intelligent? You sound like a clever person to me.

On why super intelligent people can't have influence: one reason can be that people struggle to connect to their thinking (quite a few examples in history of people who have had a theory about something, people have laughed at them, but after x period of time people have seen that they were right).

Re money - money has never been my driver. I live in a modest home, don't need or want 'expensive things' so it isn't something that is interesting to me, as long as I am ok. Maybe some other academics think similarly?

How can we solve the conflict in the Middle East?

This feels like the right answer.

Here's another question for the OP: would you rather be stuck in the woods in the close vicinity of a bear, or a random man?

I hardly ever watch reels, they are sooo sloow and take up too much time. But I spend too much time reading not very interesting stuff and watching not very important TV programmes (the latter, admittedly, normally while doing something else too).

I honestly can't think of anything worse than joining a society full of people who are unhealthily preoccupied by their own ability to score highly on deeply flawed intelligence tests.

Why do you think emotional intelligence is a weird concept? What do you think emotional intelligence is?

I have an IQ in the 160 range. I also have adhd….its made for an interesting combination 🤣.

In my experience intelligence on its own means absolutely fuck all with regards to how well you do in life. For me it just means that all the people around me get super surprised when I pick a new thing up in minutes when it’s taken them days.

There are many many many people who are more in the average intelligence range who perform much better at daily life than I ever will.

I think so, and I'm not as highly intelligent as the OP.

Conversations that bore me: slow conversations where I have to spend most of time waiting for people to get it (not when I am teaching - the focus then is to teach someone and the challenge is to help them learn). Endless work meetings where I have to stop myself from presenting 'the conclusion' immediately because a) people wouldn't understand it yet b) they would find me arrogant. Education - classes where I have to wait and wait for people to get how to solve something in maths or understand the German cases.

I asked Chatgpt for a question that only a very intelligent person with an IQ of over 150 could answer. It said this:

Question:
A sequence of numbers is defined recursively as follows:

• a1=1a1=1
• a2=1a2=1
• For n>2n>2, anan is the smallest positive integer not already in the sequence such that gcd⁡(an,an−1)=1gcd(an,an−1)=1.

What is the 10th term of this sequence, and explain the reasoning

ETA: no asking chatgpt for the answer, that’s cheating ;-)

You say:

my life would clearly be easier if I were able to spend less time thinking about difficult things/the state of the world etc.

But you also say that you don't have a view on the trans debate as you've not looked into it... but, have you really given it no thought? I mean, what with all the different ways in which trans issues have impacted academia - the sector in which you work? I'm thinking of things like academic freedom, freedom of speech, platforming and de-platforming, research, the tension between DEI and the protection of sex-based rights such as access to single-sex dorms/colleges and participation in sports?

I have another question...

So I consider myself of average intelligence in most ways. I can have good analytical skills with things like literature, film, media, religion and humanities because that is what interests me.

Subjects like science and maths, I don't 'get' (and I'm not terribly interested. I'd like to be as obviously they are important, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

I'm fairly well spoken and have a great vocabulary so people often assume me to be more intelligent than I perhaps am.

There's the context, now for my question OP, I am very slow in a new job. It takes me ages to learn new systems and I'm usually the slowest to learn/remember new things (it often also feels dumb to me at the same time!)

Does that make me stupid as a brush? Or am I just very inconsistent?

Can someone be clever if their short term memory is awful?

No thanks. I can look in the mirror and ask myself questions

Now that’s a a high iq. For Mensa 1% you only have to scrape 135.

Would you say you have emotional intelligence too?

If you're "bored waiting for someone to understand the German cases" then you're either not explaining it properly, not giving effective support and exemplar material, or giving poorly structured activities.

Do you think you'd have more fun and get invited to more parties if you stopped thinking of yourself as a highly intelligent person?

I'm a little baffled by the thread tbh. AMA topics are usually about very rare life experiences and to provide insight to others who don't have similar experience).

It's clear that there are a lot of very intelligent posters on MNs (they just don't highlighted it but it's evident in their responses).

Therefore, my questions are:

(1) Do you think high intelligence is rare? While I understand averages etc, I'm surrounded by highly intelligent people.

Do you think that may not be the case for you? Perhaps you are in the wrong place in life (socially, employment wise etc)?

(2) Do you drive? If do, did you struggle to learn? (Ime, many highly intelligent prople do?)

(3) Do you struggle in situations where you actually have to learn?

Again, in my experience so much tends to come naturally and effortlessly to highly intelligent people - they hear or read something once and easily grasp the concept, have an ability to intutitively grasp most concepts but where something is really outside of their normal realm, which is rare, they struggle, especially if it's not an area or interest or curiosity?

I too am highly intelligent, according to the usual scales. It’s a very strange place to be. I don’t feel intelligent at all, I just feel overwhelmed. My family like to point out, very helpfully, that all my mental health episodes are a result of ‘thinking too much’. I’m also autistic and yes, I think the two things are linked. Absolutely nobody that encounters me would ever guess that I could comfortably join Mensa.

Of course you can be "clever" with a poor short term memory.

There are so many different ways in which people are "intelligent". Personally, I find IQ tests a very poor measure.