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).)

Do you think rice pudding is nicer cooked with or without cardamom?

I think rice pudding is disgusting, with or without cardamom. But I would eat it with cardamom if I had to eat it at all.

Rocknrollstar · Today 16:18
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.

@Rocknrollstar
But you've not managed to learn how to use an apostrophe. Oh dear.

You can be a top 2 percenter in subjects other than language. Most of the people who I would consider maths geniuses have pretty shocking spelling and grammar.

Set the OP some tricky sums and lets see how he/she does on the maths front.

"Not that kind of intelligent"

To be honest, that might actually be the very thing that makes this thread interesting and informative.

Because the truth is that IQ, by itself, doesn't always translate into being interesting or insightful.

Yes, of course, it gives people the skills to be. It is so much easier to hold an interesting conversation if you are able to follow complicated reasoning and bring understanding of many concepts to the table.

But IQ needs to be developed in order to make the intelligent person insightful or interesting. You have to use it in the right way ...

This is very true. All IQ tells us is that someone is very good at doing IQ tests.

Which is probably quite a useful skill for someone who has set their heart on joining MENSA, but not terribly useful for anything else.

Herman Goerings IQ was notably high as I recall.

The fact that a MENSA membership card doesn't act like a blank cheque into any job, does rather suggest something about how society views "intelligence" and it's metrics.

Now if getting a MENSA membership meant you could swerve exams 😀

Most unlikely; they think they're too special to use it properly.

You don’t seem intelligent.

Haven't finished reading this strange thread, but the issue of social connections has been persistent so far.

I agree with OP on this. I'm not highly intelligent but am around the 95th percentile. I'm sociable, endlessly interested in people and almost everyone likes me (except on MN, natch).

Because I like talking with people, I tend to code-switch a lot. There's a woman I sometimes meet at the café. I don't mind that she wants to spend 15 minutes talking about what her dog likes to do on walks. I mind a little bit that she can't cope with any attempts to widen the topic out, and she'll mind a bit as well. She seems confused. I do mind that we have almost exactly the same conversation every time I see her. I start other topics, and she brings it back to her dog walks.

Dog lady's a real example, but something similar does also happen with people who've definitely got more going on upstairs. I'm really, really happy when I get talking to someone on roughly the same brain level as me: it's freeing and relaxing, and it's statistically unusual. Mental capacity notwithstanding, some of those people and I will simply not like one another so the potential pool of intellectual matches is quite limited.

For those with astronomical IQs, it must be tiny.

There's also the Dunning-Kruger effect! The bigger the intelligence gap, the less likely the lower-IQ person is to recognise it. They might think you're weird, stupid or standoffish. The only way to avoid this is to make sure you relate at their level. Then, if they catch you in a different mode with someone else, they'll think you're a fake.

This stuff happens all the time, it's just part of being human; no big deal. It is, though, true that being far from average - in any sense - makes social interaction a little more difficult.

OP, advice: if you suddenly had to go and live under a tyrannical system which there is no escaping from and are given 6h shift doing manual job, how would you keep mind and intellect entertained? This includes what would you do after the shift when you can live your life as you like

You sound a bit like a friend of mine. We were at school together and she was mikes ahead even in primary. She has two PhDs, is artistic, amazing at English, science (that’s her ‘subject’) and is great at arguing a point! We get in really well despite me being of average intelligence.
Are your friends on a similar level of intelligence and were /are your parents/sublings gifted too?
My youngest adult DC is very clever, but not super-intelligent- his MH isn’t great and nor is my highly intelligent friend’s. Do you think there’s a correlation there as they are both perfectionists and possibly ND.

you are on the spot now because I am talking to Chat gpt about it also

So, what is your IQ?

I have a pretty high IQ (158) and was in a gifted programme at school. However I’m not sure I consider myself more than normally intelligent, but I am evidently good at IQ tests. I have a couple of degrees and solve problems and puzzles very quickly, and understand most things I come across straight away. I’m very senior at work (scientific field) However my husband is more intelligent than me I would say (although he says the opposite), and we have two academically gifted children (both have full duel academic & sports scholarships to one of the most selective schools in the country). I think all 3 are cleverer than I am!

As a PP said, despite my high IQ level I can still be floopy, unmotivated at times, and forgetful (she used the words ‘a bit of a flaky dick’, but I think we mean the same thing!). I wish I was better organised in life. Is there anything you wish you were better at?

To be honest, op, I am kind of surprised to hear about having to "constrain" yourself if you live and work with other intelligent people.

The truth is, yes, of course top two percent is statistically very intelligent: it's the top two percent.

But the very vast majority of highly intelligent people I know mix in a warped milieu - and I should have thought academic work would have put you in that type of environment.

To provide context, "average" IQ in independent schools tends to hover (depending on the school) in the top 10-20 percent worldwide. Those are children who are just considered "average" in that context, and often are non-selective (though admittedly sometimes self-selective). Many of the top senior schools don't take applicants who fall as "low" as that - and they are just the students at a school, before you even start on the ones who move on to academic environments. I shouldn't have thought you would be many percentage points different from others in an academic profession. FWIW I know lots of - yes really quite a few - people in the top 1 percent - and they mostly all seem to manage to not have to constrain themselves unduly. Yes, of course, if they went to a manual labourers association or similar, they may find their conversation wasn't the norm, but very few academics would be much lower than you.

I suppose what I am really saying, is that in an academic context, you are unlikely even to be the cleverest, let alone wildly unusual.

Academia is a skewed environment, and top 2 percent isn't all that astonishingly bright for that milieu.

This is my life! I love this post thank you @GarlicBound I am ever so good at speaking with virtually anyone at their level and have friends who cover a wide spectrum of society. But the friends I have lost over the years are those who suddenly feel like I’ve not been me, that I’m lacking interest in their stuff. But honestly, there is only so much one can do. I can meet these friends, but not frequently as I cannot do the things they expect of me all the time. If it’s once every 6 months then the finer details get lost.

For instance, I can feign a passing interest in Traitors or whatever but I can’t watch the bloody thing. So if asked specifics I struggle.

But that has nothing to do with intelligence, really? Surely that's just different personality types and different interests?

For one thing, people who are highly gifted in some field tend to be aware of their own shortcomings. For example, an Oriental professional concert pianist once came to stay in my neighbourhood.
When I first met her, I sad something along the lines of ' I understand you play the piano' and she virtually shrunk away and said 'Oh no, I only know the piano a little.' That's probably a bit extreme.
But one annoying thing about the OP is that she claims to be 'highly intelligent' without giving any indication of this skill having been measured, or of having used her intelligence to develop any particular knowledge or skill.
Finally her airy claims to be a researcher and lecturer don't seem at all specific.

As for being an 'intellectual' , you need to be an intellectual ABOUT something eg 'I have a great interest in the Trade Union Movement'; 'I am very interested in philosophy.'

It is true that UK has an anti intellectual tradition, but I don't think anyone has it in for OP. She (he?) simply needs to be able to back up her opinions better and show herself being intelligent ABOUT something.

There are obviously a lot of triggered people. Like you, I found the idea that posters were jealous of someone being a prostitute quite laughable, particularly as they were mainly posters who disapproved of prostitution. I think a lot of people are jealous of highly intelligent people and it makes sense.

I think there's a probably a jealous group and then another group that just thinks nobody should ever 'boast' and that even though OP hasn't been boastful, just her writing that she's intelligent is enough to trigger them. Perhaps they're also very intelligent, but were taught to never mention it to others and it annoys them that OP can somehow get away with that.

like some others....OP, why short, not very intelligent sounding replies without any detailed and robust content...?

I thought this was going to be an interesting thread, but it's quite dull. This person hasn't really shared any aspects of their life, and how being so intelligent has impacted them. Also, I do think there's a language barrier and this person hasn't fully understood some points, and certainly doesn't have a grasp of things they have talked about.
It would be interesting to hear from a real high achiever with an interesting life.

Some people are obviously reacting as if her posts were sneery, but I think there are a lot of defensive people on the thread. Those of us not triggered by her aren't seeing it in the same way.