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AMA

I am highly intelligent, ask me anything

858 replies

nolinkname · 22/02/2026 09:01

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).)

OP posts:
853ax · 22/02/2026 15:30

Do you play any sports? Which sports did you play as a child
I'm wondering if game IQ reading the game & plays would compensate for not having as high athletic abilities

largebrimmedhat · 22/02/2026 15:32

Without fail, everyone on MN who posts a thread about how intelligent they are, or how Differently they see the world, always writes in a tone that ranges from 'sarcastic office mug slogan' to 'Patrick Bateman'. Do you get taught it in Seeing Things Differently school?

freakingscared · 22/02/2026 15:32

dontcallhimpunch · 22/02/2026 14:26

offended by her high IQ
😂😂

Sorry but that's such an odd thing to write.

Is it ? Yesterday I saw a post where someone claimed people were jealous of op being a prostitute . I think most people episodes prefer to have a great job with a high IQ than sell their body 🤷🏻‍♀️. Personally I prefer my kids to be super intelligent so it’s a perfectly example of a good reason to be jealous imo .

Sisandbro81 · 22/02/2026 15:32

I have a feeling @nolinkname has left the thread.

Questions about personal life and relationships….

freakingscared · 22/02/2026 15:34

JustSawJohnny · 22/02/2026 15:13

I have a high IQ too.

I have never thought it makes me special and I don't tell people about it because it would, IMO, make me sound more than a bit of a twat.

I have no idea why you think anyone would even have questions for you.

Really I think it’s a great thread . It can help those like me with high IQ kids as an example , to achieve more .

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 22/02/2026 15:38

freakingscared · 22/02/2026 15:34

Really I think it’s a great thread . It can help those like me with high IQ kids as an example , to achieve more .

If you do have kids who are lucky enough to have high IQs, please don't focus too much on this aspect of who they are, and focus as much of your attention as possible on helping them to develop effectively in other areas - they will likely sail through academia, but their future success and happiness will be largely dependent on their emotional and social development.

NotnowMildrid · 22/02/2026 15:39

Having a high IQ is very different from everyday common sense/intelligence.

It really doesn’t necessarily mean you are canny or emotionally intelligent.

As an example, I have witnessed a few people with high IQs making some very serious financial blunders.

Namechangerage · 22/02/2026 15:40

What is the point of this thread? What is your motivation for posting?

dontcallhimpunch · 22/02/2026 15:42

nolinkname · 22/02/2026 14:15

It is very different going to school in a system where many people consider you as having failed if you don't do well when you're 15 compared to a system where what you do at 15 does not have much of (or any) an impact on your later educational options. It is also very different being in a system where there is such a strong, and unhealthy, in my view, focus on starting at university at young age. 'Mature' at 21..? In many parts of Europe it is very common for young people to take 1, 2, 3, 4 years to decide what they want to study. I've had colleagues here who have been concerned about their 20 years olds who haven't started studying yet/have dropped out. It is linked to the educational pressure.

No idea why the Augsburg link didn't work - was there a hidden blank?

https://www.uni-augsburg.de/en/studium/bewerbung/bewerbung/verfahrensablauf/open-admission-degree-programmes-without-nc

You asked is there a hidden blank? How is that lightening fast, razor sharp, super clever - recognising patterns and inconsistencies? It was instantly obvious that the bracket messed it up🤓

Are you German or Danish as your examples are from these countries? It would be most peculiar as most Germans and Danes speak and write English almost as well if not at times better than native speakers.

Yet your written English leaves a lot to be desired.

Are you an actual academic or a PhD student?

dontcallhimpunch · 22/02/2026 15:43

freakingscared · 22/02/2026 15:34

Really I think it’s a great thread . It can help those like me with high IQ kids as an example , to achieve more .

How? What advise do you take form this thread that will help your dc?

dontcallhimpunch · 22/02/2026 15:44

freakingscared · 22/02/2026 15:32

Is it ? Yesterday I saw a post where someone claimed people were jealous of op being a prostitute . I think most people episodes prefer to have a great job with a high IQ than sell their body 🤷🏻‍♀️. Personally I prefer my kids to be super intelligent so it’s a perfectly example of a good reason to be jealous imo .

Edited

ok

Uricon2 · 22/02/2026 15:44

largebrimmedhat · 22/02/2026 15:32

Without fail, everyone on MN who posts a thread about how intelligent they are, or how Differently they see the world, always writes in a tone that ranges from 'sarcastic office mug slogan' to 'Patrick Bateman'. Do you get taught it in Seeing Things Differently school?

If the OP isn't also the author of the other thread about their high intelligence (linked several pages ago) I'll eat my giraffe, tie and all.

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 22/02/2026 15:49

Uricon2 · 22/02/2026 15:44

If the OP isn't also the author of the other thread about their high intelligence (linked several pages ago) I'll eat my giraffe, tie and all.

I must have missed the post with the link. Was it the thread where the OP was complaining that there weren't enough resources in the UK for highly intelligent people to help them understand how their brains work? I did think there were some similarities.

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 22/02/2026 15:52

Thanks, and yes, that's the one I was thinking of. There are definitely some parallels!

scottishgirl69 · 22/02/2026 15:53

I was actually really excited when I saw this thread. Ask me anything - then it just turned into some odd thread about how spectacularly intelligent they thought they were - what's the point of that?

Sake

dontcallhimpunch · 22/02/2026 15:53

I’d love to see the other thread.

OP has faced a fair bit of grilling here, and I hope they can find comfort in their talents, career and supportive friends.

Some of the oddness in their posts might stem from language barriers, especially if OP presents themselves as a “genius.” We all have room to keep learning, though.

The thread got a bit mad, but I genuinely hope you were able to take something useful from it.

Wishing you all the best@nolinkname

ElizaMulvil · 22/02/2026 16:00

Have you read the papers in the 1960s by Professor Brian Simon debunking Burt's concept of intelligence that can be easily tested but is not influenced by social background eg. ( A concept btw based on research by Burt which Simon debunked by discovering how Burt had falsified his own research and had written papers under pseudonyms praising his own work etc etc.)

The collapse of the basis of Burt's research led to the establishment of the Comprehensive school system.

Incidentally a Head Master in Birmingham realised that when he was streaming children in his school as they entered Junior School at 7, in reality he was just largely selecting them by age. Seem obvious now as children with eg September birthdays had spent 3 years in an Infant school but eg August born children only 2.

The 11+ consigned the vast majority of children, especially those of working class origin, to leave school at 15 with no possibility of sitting O levels ( later to become GCSE), let alone A levels. It was only when Heads in poorer areas began to keep these children on so they could sit the exams that the whole system was seen as ridiculous and began to crumble. The grammar school system discriminated against girls as there were generally the same number of places in boys' and girls' grammars but girls outperformed boys at 11+ so many who would have passed had they been boys were condemned to Secondary Mods.

LovingLimePeer · 22/02/2026 16:02

Background: Postgraduate membership of 2 royal colleges and sub-specialism in a very niche area needing additional qualifications.

Question: What do you think of mensa?

I've always worried joining is like putting '5 metre swimming badge' on a CV, in that people with meaningful intelligence/achievement don't value it. (I find that it's usually footballers who use IQ/mensa as a talking point in interviews).

Even though my daughter is switched on, I would never get her IQ tested, or support her joining NAGTY (or whatever the modern equivalent is) as I find it all rather smug and meaningless - my aunt made all her children join and they ended up being relatively low achievers. I remember feeling that it was a real shame they were subjected to such pressure.

I am interested to hear another perspective as I appreciate I have appraised it rather negatively, which may not be fair. Does mensa offer meaningful real world development opportunities, or is it (as I imagine) a group of people who are very pleased with themselves that they can do well on pattern recognition quizzes without any real world application?

ParmaVioletTea · 22/02/2026 16:05

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 22/02/2026 15:52

Thanks, and yes, that's the one I was thinking of. There are definitely some parallels!

I assumed it was the same goady fucker of an OP.

Who is amazingly both supremely intelligent and very stupid, simultaneously.

Now that’s what I call doubly exceptional.

Uricon2 · 22/02/2026 16:05

We all have room to keep learning, though.

Quite and I really think that true intelligence may be based on knowing enough to know how little you know, or can do. There's nothing like finding one of your lecturers (who spoke or at least read 8 or so languages, some with wildly different alphabets and structure) translating cuneiform in the pub to make you realise that you're really not that clever.

I was taught by quite a lot of people like that and pretty much all of them were really quite functional people by any standards. Modest, too.

anonnanonn · 22/02/2026 16:05

Very entertained by this thread, and I'm glad the OP started it.

When I was younger I was 'bright' though that has largely gone now with age! When talking with people a few levels smarter, I used to feel battered in conversation, racing to keep up, and needing a break by the end.

Crucially - I didn't really envy them! It's like envying someone who can see ultraviolet. If you can't see it, you don't know what it is that you're not seeing, even if you know well that it exists.

Besides that, my observation of the very clever was that they had plenty of can-do, friendships, happy relationships, being practically-capable and so on. I couldn't console myself with out-performing them in other areas, the ones that 'truly matter'. We all have contributions to make, and it's fine to be unexceptional.

Since it's an AMA, I wondered whether the OP has ever had the experience of feeling exhausted in discussion with domain experts or even more gifted. Perhaps not, but I thought I'd ask!

ParmaVioletTea · 22/02/2026 16:11

Well in her other thread, the OP maintained that most people were boring and most conversations were boring.

Rocknrollstar · 22/02/2026 16:18

nolinkname · 22/02/2026 09:07

I'm a researcher and lecturer so it helps to have a job that is fairly independent.

I don't have children. An interesting PhD thesis was written maybe 10 years ago where highly intelligent people had been interviewed and a majority of them did not want children because they did not want to put anyone through their experience at school.

DH and I are both in top 2% and had no qualms about having children. Both of our’s were also in that range. We all enjoyed school - when we weren’t bored - and yes we all play musical instruments.

HormonalRollercoaster · 22/02/2026 16:22

Nevermind17 · 22/02/2026 09:08

What is your understanding of ‘intelligence’? I also have a high IQ (156), but to me it means nothing other than being extremely good at IQ tests. I can still be a flaky dick at times!

Other than getting right through the 1% Club every week, I’ve never set the world alight with my ‘genius’. How has it helped you in life?

My IQ is 173 (Mensa testing) which I am told is top 0.1%. I feel I must have a lot of unused potential somewhere 🤣

I am a civil servant, not into academia at all but I am definitely emotionally intelligent. Not gifted in any particular way - maybe I have undiscovered talents…. Any tips on how to figure that out?

I do tend to pick up concepts quickly - when I am interested. And the only time I have really made proper use of the 173 was when I was at a Mensa meeting (forgive me, I was a teenager and trying to figure out where I fit in) and all the boys were boasting about how clever they were (I was chatting to someone’s exchange student who has been dragged along) and then when they reached me, they were all most put out to have me top the list.

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