Letsrunners with high IQs, how do you manage to deal with average Joes?

If that's accurate, my wife would qualify with her "OLD" SAT score, and while my wife is a bonafide genius, I wouldn't say a great SAT score necessarily shows brilliance. I'm glad to see though that only 100 people are in that society...means that a lot who could join decide not to. Seems odd to join a society that trumps your intelligence.

hey man wrote:

Flagpole wrote:The standard bearer should be the Prometheus Society which has a test that only about 1 in 30,000 can pass.

I never even heard of that before. Please don't tell me you're a member?

No freakin' way could I be a member. No freakin' way WOULD I be a member even if I could qualify.

I meant to write "trumpets".

mathematician wrote:

once a mathematician wrote:

This might apply to Grothendieck, But I think the majority of mathematicians tend more toward the second approach.

I suppose you might be right when considering extremely difficult concepts, but when it comes to everyday problems, I think mathematicians are readily able to abstract away unnecessary specifics.

Do you still work in an area which is mathematically-inclined? (assuming from your handle that you decided to stop doing mathematics)

You're right of course; one can't do mathematics without being able to abstract away unnecessary specifics, so to figure out the right questions to ask.

These days, I write software, for which a background in mathematics is generally useful, and occasionally a hindrance.

I'll reply to the original question. My estimated IQ is 135-140ish. I see myself as normal because to me, I am normal, which is why I get frustrated by other people when they say stupid things or can't see something that seems extremely simple to me. I have friends who I think are of roughly equal intelligence to me, some which are superior, and many who may not have an IQ as high but are far better than me at certain things. I don't see myself as much different than most of the other students in my upper division science classes. I also have friends who I like but think are idiots, who based off their ACT scores actually are likely to have IQs of 105-115, so they're above average... with the new information, I've kind of realized that I should be more patient with people, a problem I've had all my life. My biggest problem is when people try to argue over things they know nothing about, which unfortunately is very common, so it's more of a personality thing than an intelligence thing.

...

Most super smart people sacrifice social skills and other traits for their intelligence, and I think my intellectual capacity is adequate for what I want to do in life without hindering me too much socially. I love learning and want to be a scientist, but working at CERN or figuring out how to make cold fusion work has never been a dream of mine, and I think I'm fairly good with the ladies, though I know a lot of people probably view me as a little weird. I have no problem with that. I live my life how I enjoy living it, I am who I am, and I'm happy with who I am.

I do not deal with average Joes. In fact, I am a social recluse who finds his only daily interaction on Letsrun boards where everyone has IQ of at least 165, not to mention a 165mm johnson (see, an average Joe would not even know if this is good or bad).

Just completed an online IQ test and scored 150. Please note that I am the type of guy who would rather drink beer with my friends while watching a football game versus having an intellectual conversation or figuring out puzzles. Also, I have never been able to complete a rubics cube and it took me 2 weeks to create a basic website. - I think the IQ test says more about the test than it does about me.

Btw, I think the IQ test was perhaps a bit of scam because they made me give up a lot of information and tried to bait me into signing for a lot of crape before sending me my scores by text message to my cell phone. Unfortunately after spending 45 minutes to complete the test, it was difficult to just walk away.

TrackCoach wrote:

Just completed an online IQ test and scored 150.

Btw, I think the IQ test was perhaps a bit of scam because they made me give up a lot of information and tried to bait me into signing for a lot of crape before sending me my scores by text message to my cell phone.

I think you failed.

This made me want to vomit. Nobody gives a rat's ass. It's like you're writing a personal ad here.

go drink beer with ur frends wrote:

TrackCoach wrote:

Just completed an online IQ test and scored 150.

Btw, I think the IQ test was perhaps a bit of scam because they made me give up a lot of information and tried to bait me into signing for a lot of crape before sending me my scores by text message to my cell phone.

I think you failed.

I am by no means a super smart person, but I did score 150. The questions were kind of easy; there is a fee for additional information, but I don't think I missed more than 1 or 2. The questions were so easy that I don't think most people would miss more than a couple. Btw, I don't have any illusions that I would score 150 on an actul IQ test.

TrackCoach wrote:

go drink beer with ur frends wrote:

I think you failed.

I am by no means a super smart person, but I did score 150. The questions were kind of easy; there is a fee for additional information, but I don't think I missed more than 1 or 2. The questions were so easy that I don't think most people would miss more than a couple. Btw, I don't have any illusions that I would score 150 on an actul IQ test.

I think real tests will ultimately lead to questions like the light switch one posted a few weeks back. Unless you already knew about Bayesian math, the chances of getting it right are zilch. Honestly, I've found a lot of these "societies" are looking for an extreme breadth of knowledge and experience as much as raw ability. To me raw ability comes out more clearly when you give someone something they have never seen, have no capacity to solve by analogy from some previous method used to figure out a problem (i.e., cut and paste an answer), and, they still get it (or come very close). Basically, this shows the ability to understand the nature of the thing in question, grasp what is being attempted, and, finding a (or if there is only one the) correct answer. In short, they demonstrate a full understanding of the thing. Understanding and the application of knowledge are two different things. The former is like a form of intuition, something logic tends to assist with but by itself not answer. The latter is a matter of quick calculation, analysis and computation. It's not only that, but, I am trying to say these are two different things. The first, to me, indicates more powerful mental capacities than the latter. Again, it goes back to that basic definition that floats around here of talent being 'the ability to perform a task well with little or no training'. This is the kind of person I want solving our most complex, puzzling problems because they are the ones most likely to figure it out.

TrackCoach wrote:

go drink beer with ur frends wrote:

I think you failed.

I am by no means a super smart person, but I did score 150. The questions were kind of easy; there is a fee for additional information, but I don't think I missed more than 1 or 2. The questions were so easy that I don't think most people would miss more than a couple. Btw, I don't have any illusions that I would score 150 on an actul IQ test.

Pretty sure that go drink was telling you that you failed the IQ test by giving up a lot of information to see your score.

I'm telling you that you just failed one more IQ test by failing to understand what go drink was telling you.

TrackCoach wrote:

go drink beer with ur frends wrote:

I think you failed.

I am by no means a super smart person, but I did score 150. The questions were kind of easy; there is a fee for additional information, but I don't think I missed more than 1 or 2. The questions were so easy that I don't think most people would miss more than a couple. Btw, I don't have any illusions that I would score 150 on an actul IQ test.

Dude, really? Online iq tests aren't real iq tests. It was easy because it was a scam (not an actual IQ test) to get stupid people (like you) to give up their information and then possibly pay money.

I always knew that I was smart; school always came easy and I always aced the standardized tests, but I never really considered how smart I was relative to everyone else.

When I look at these numbers and find out that my scores on those tests--SAT, ACT, GRE--consistently place me ahead of 99.9% of people, that is a somewhat scary fact. I'm not sure how to react to it.

I do think sometimes that if I were a little less intelligent, I would be happier, but maybe that is making excuses.

Some problems with being a "genius":

1) You make connections quickly, so that you understand a point that is being made much more quickly. By the time a person says something to you, you have already formulated 3 or 4 possible responses, and you don't know which to choose.

2) People seem very repetitive and slow.

3) Reading works of literature, philosophy, etc. is pretty fun because you see a million connections. But then when you go to talk to people about it, they have a hard time following what you are saying.

4) You are constantly misunderstood.

5) You see others working very hard to make it where you are, and you begin to doubt yourself because academic or work success comes very naturally and without much effort.

6) Your own mind is always a threat to become more interesting than the world around you.

7) You lose interest in meaningless tasks very quickly.

As far as problems go, I recognize that these are pretty trivial, but if left unchecked, they can lead to some bad psychic juju.

Many "geniuses"--most?--are able to overcome these issues through effort and ingenuity. I do believe that these are the principles hurdles that extraordinarily bright people have to overcome to live happy and productive lives.

Acknowledging them as problems, being conscious of them as weaknesses, is generally a helpful strategy.

i suppose the list is based on personal experience?

lol, I suppose. I was mostly just thinking aloud.

Fear the singularity

yyy wrote:

i suppose the list is based on personal experience?

Pretty much, yeah, it is obviously limited but it's what I got.

A running analogy: You're a 15:00 guy whose easy pace is 6:30 or 7min/mile. Everyone else is running 9min/mile. It's fun to go for runs, most of the time, but sometimes you just want to stretch out the legs a bit, you know. But if you do, you risk alienation--the group is gonna start getting sensitive and worried about having you in it, etc.

A lot of us here have competed at high levels and are blessed with natural talent in running, so we know what it feels like after college is over and your options are to run with folks who don't have talent. It's good, but there's something a little missing. Unless you find a group of fast guys where you live, most tend to give up running because their talent kinda torments them.

In the same way, at some point in life, you have to make a decision about your intelligence--do I just keep it in 3rd gear all the time so I can have friends even though I feel a little amputated? Or, do I open it up and see what I can do?

The second option leads you into neurotic spaces like academia--full of anxious people that don't fit in, for some of the reasons I've described. But this may end up being a more comfortable place than, say, working at a bank or in a high school or any other number of normal jobs.

Either choice, you are going to struggle a bit with personal relationships for the reasons I described above. I'm not trying to paint it like a curse or anything because a) a lot worse things can happen to you and b) it's really fun to have talent (as any talented runner knows.)