Obsessed with IQ,anyone else?

I know I shouldn’t be but it’s like a reoccurring itch that needs to be scratched. Throw into the mix insecurity and low self esteem. The whole “Am I really stupid?” thing.

The stupid thing is I am not even sure how well an IQ test (online or professionally administered) can predict the overall intelligence of someone with a ‘spiky’ profile.
What I do know from online testing is that my nonverbal/spatial ability is markedly inferior to my verbal ability .

I guess I should hold onto the fact I am as I am. Intelligence, or lack of it, neither makes me a bad or a good person.

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You may read this book about idiocracy as a consequence of development.
Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations (Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence) by Richard Lynn

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I think intelligence is a fairly useless construct that results in dividing us looking down on others or ourselves. I can see why you’d get obsessed, I was for a while too, we place a lot of value on such an arbitrary score, but it helped me to read criticisms of IQ.

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I was obsessed with IQ tests for a few years myself. It’s something I blame on my youth and inexperience, and a desire to feel superior.
I still have that inner desire to feel superior, because I have grown in an environment that cultivated comparison and hierarchy. But it’s oh so wrong. I am taking steps to change my frame of mind.

Nasty person.

Why is he nasty?

For his support of eugenics and racism.

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dude considering IQ as relevant just messes with my head.

I know I’d get above average scores, but I’d constantly be intimidated by the fact that I wasn’t getting higher and that their are individuals out there who outclass me at my self-favored facet of intelligence.

Could be considered a dose of healthy modesty to expose myself to it, but I’m insecure enough as it is. Therefore, IQ tests are considerably unhealthy for me on a psychological level.

That’s the emotional side of my bias, beyond that there are issues with the IQ testing system in general that prevent it from being anything but a game of loose approximations and a very faulty accolade to stand on.

My mom will occasionally go on about her 140 IQ and I don’t want to discredit her brain power, I know a lot goes on in their and she has a Master’s in education. That said there are a great number of things that simply escape her. Computer interfaces, mathematics and physics, comfort with bureaucracy and paperwork, she’s horrible with money and is a considerable materialist. Like things that she can have just for show. Love big ol’ fat expensive Jeeps that really aren’t very good cars.

Beyond that she is a musician and an aspiring writer. She has a high IQ but it is mostly in the realm of creativity. Unfortunately my internal bias doesn’t consider that as relevant as realms of intelligence that revolve around concrete rational and technical thinking.

I mean I know I’m smarter than she is. She wouldn’t argue with that. She only argues with me because I don’t show her respect. (Rightfully so in most cases.)

There isn’t much reason to need IQ scores. They have performance exams in academia and a lot of professions have their own sets of exams to gauge someone’s mental worth. Those are far more accurate, precise, and standardized in ways which are applicable to professional evaluation.

It’s best to just talk with people. You’ll find that even the most intelligent of people have realms where they are totally lacking. For some it’s emotional maturity, for others it’s the capacity to be empathetic or show concern for others, some have all the mnemonic capacity in the world and the ability to speed-read yet can’t do math what-so-ever.

The clout of an IQ score, whether high or low, should not be something that folks should live by.

I know PhD in History who can’t remember dates. Go figure? She’s highly intelligent and has an exceptionally gifted child. Still it escapes her to see the chronology of things numerically. She simply just knows what happened in a way that I’d imagine is like a big imaginative movie reel in her mind.

Exactly dude, what the world needs more than anything else is a major push in the importance of people just refusing to be mean. Be nice to people and just take the social bullets that they spit in response.

Bullying doesn’t end at high school. That crap continues on everywhere. Everyone wants to have the bite of sarcasm, irony, and the capacity to be snide so that they can feel cool. It renders them all ■■■■■■■■.

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I am happy being perfectly normal and average.

It would probably depend a lot on which domains are included in the test, how well it covers the entirety of them, and how they are weighted. I would guess that the overall IQ score you obtain would be less informative and the differences between your subtest scores would be more informative than for the average test taker.

Honestly if you are happy or content, it should not matter to you.
I can not do the online IQ test. It asks about info on USA, cities etc. How does that determine my intelligence, coming from who knows where. I think knowledge is power so it is nice to go to school and study and learn skills but good judgement in life and choices is what is important. To me at least.

I have a thing for iq tests too but haven’t taken too many. If it doesn’t say 142 I generally don’t believe it

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There was a book called “emotional intelligence” that came out a few decades ago. It said that qualities like altruism, industriousness, loyalty, and whatnot are more important in determining success than your raw intelligence. Also, I don’t think IQ tests measure creativity. Einstein thought that imagination was more important than intelligence. Also, I’m a little skeptical that all the mental activity we call intelligence can be quantified in a single number.

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One time I came across this guy who had an IQ of 158 and who was totally dysfunctional. (I believed him when he told me his IQ score because he had a substantially bigger vocabulary than me, and I have a pretty good vocabulary.)

@crimby I think both you and I have mentioned our difficulty in applying what intelligence we have to real life,practical situations .

For want of a better analogy; it’s like batting .300 in practice sessions only to bat .230 in actual games .

I’ve know a guy with a super high IQ, high EQ and could speak public ally very well, lots of friends, went to Harvard undergrad and law makes boatloads of money and is happy. His family also has a ton of money and his parents are both authors, one in finance and the other a dr. Think on that

What exactly are you trying to say?? Trying to make me jealous…Lol

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I just saying that sometimes your strong in one area and not another (I put myself in this category) but then there are those rare few that can do it all

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We were born with a marvelous brain.

It reminds of software programming. A programmer who use programming language is greater, or the programmer who invent the programming language greater?

That’s me all over, except that I bat more like .150 in real games.