I know him. He made a 3.8 in college without trying. He graduated from Medical School with honors.
Wait, he played rugby, lost a quarter (pronounced 'qatah' if we're sticking with the Good Will Hunting theme today) of his brain cells on the field, another quarter of them chanting "shoot-tha-boot" and swilling beer at post-game rugby parties and STILL got into a top-tier law school.
Or maybe you never knew she had a full ride to college- you never would have guessed because she was always at the best parties, with the prettiest people and was too approachable to be a genius.
I know her too. They're the smart kids.
I've had an unhealthy obsession with intellect. Partly because I'm intrigued by the human mind and partly because I dwell on insecurities regarding how smart I really am. Apparently, I'm not unlike a lot of Americans when it comes to questioning where I rank.
Lately, I've been inundated by ads telling me that I can quickly find out my IQ if I click on this link. Then, I'm transferred to a website where I take a ten-to-twenty minute test. And if I feel good about my results, they will text them to me for the low low cost of $1.99 plus standard messaging fees, of course.
This sounds familiar.
Do you remember Hotornot.com? Has anyone ever tried Hotornot.com? Come oooonnnnnn.
Surely you sir, the "Afflicted" one, you must have logged on to check out how much the internet community thought of your awesomeness. No?
Ok. Fine. Hard to believe, but I'll take your word for it.
BTW, the cell-phone-in-the-mirror-trick: classic.
You ma'am? Oh, I didn't mean to scare you. Yes, of course I think it is a good picture.
Nothing exudes confidence like the "reflective-phone-cam-booty-shot".
At the end of the day, we look to these tests for the same instant reassurances that we seek from sites like Hotornot.com.
Spanish Daily Vocab: "Mensa" is Spanish For Moron
MENSA, who only admits people with IQs in the top 2% of test takers, charges $13 for an at-home test you can use to approximate your IQ score.
They feature a joke on the first page of their website now,
"A man walks into a bar with a lizard on his shoulder. He looks at the bartender and says, "a double whiskey to me and" pointing to the lizard, "a half pint of Guinness, for Tiny, here."
The bartender asks, "Why do you call him Tiny?"
The man replies, "because he's my newt."
(Love it)
MENSA then suggests that if you got the joke upon the first reading, you're smart enough to join.
I think the smaht kids are trying to take our money again.
My advice: none of it really matters. In addition to intellect, one must also have the ability to goal set, manage time, remain motivated, etc, etc. Determining a person's IQ can be useful, especially when evaluating children. But it is only an accurate predictor of success in a very controlled environment. For all situations outside of academia- it don't mean a whole lot.
So the next time you feel the compulsion to find your intellectual percentile, don't bother. Look in the mirror and tell yourself how smart you are- that's much more productive.
Disclaimer
... but if you find yourself telling yourself how smart you are in the mirror while taking a cell phone self-portrait: put the cell phone down and check the lead content in your public water system.
4 comments:
Firsties!!
And great read on this one
I have two thoughts. My first is that I fully believe in multiple intelligences (first introduced by Howard Gardner in the 80s in a book of the same name). Back then, seven intelligences were identified including verbal/linguistic intelligence, mathematic, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra personal, visual/spatial and musical. Since then a few others have been identified, I think. I fully believe that some people are truly gifted in some areas and can claim to be "smart" while being simply average or even below in other areas. I think this helps explain why there are "school people" (nerds) and those that can't wait to get out. Public primary education is mostly geared toward those that excel in verbal and/or mathematical skills.
Secondly, I don't think intelligence is as much of a measure of potential success as we expect when we're younger (somewhat unfortunately - ha). You know that saying "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure." (I think Mark Twain said this?) I think too much thinking, being overwhelmed, perhaps, by understanding how much you DON'T know is more a hindrance than helpful...
I agree with both points. I just think that while there may be a strong correlation between IQ and lets say, an LSAT score, the IQ score itself doesn't guarantee success.
The quick counterargument to my premise is the example of someone who scores exceptionally low on the test. It is hard to argue that someone with a 60 IQ will have accomplishments that are comparable to a person with a 130 IQ. Therefore IQ is a valid indicator of success.
I wanted the reader to disengage from any need to validate their potential, based on an IQ number.
If we abandon the faith that we can define and determine our own success- we can only succeed in realizing any limitations that we perceive as associated with our scores.
In conclusion, we just said the same thing. You just did it better than I did :) nerd on.
Yep, we pretty much did the same thing. I wasn't arguing your point at all. I was mostly lamenting the fact that my (reasonably?) respectable IQ does not directly correlate to grand success...or dolla billz. (yep, i said it)
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