You may have guessed that Sir Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking have high IQs, but some of these may surprise you. This post gives some background on IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and has a list of people alive today with high IQs and estimated IQs of people from history. Link ~via the Presurfer
grouchosuave
It’s sooooooo tiresome for us geniuses to have to rehash the issue of the meaningless IQ. Just because mine is 247, doesn’t mean that I am twice as smart as you 123.5′s!
Uh… whoops …
Actually, uh, it means I’m twice the bowler you are cuz,… uh… heh, 247 is my bowling average.
Nevermind.
Jacob
My above-average IQ is pretty much canceled out by my laziness and lack of attention span.
Expectations are a burden.
l'elk!
i’ve never really payed much attention to standardized IQ test scores. “intelligence” is hard thing to properly define. this brings to mind a favorite quote of mine from the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy:
“Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.”
Sid Morrison
I always laugh when some knucklehead(s) try to do post-mortem IQ estimates on great men of history. Thomas Hobbes had a 165, whilst his contemporary, Descartes had only a 162, huh? Anyone with the confidence to estimate with such precision on long-dead people is a fool.
Miss Cellania
There is a difference between wisdom and intelligence.
Wisdom is what makes you keep your IQ a secret.
Vonskippy
@Sid
Exactly. I was going to say the same thing except mention something about “sore butts” and “pulling numbers”.
Vonskippy
@Miss Cellania:
“Wisdom is what makes you keep your IQ a secret.”
Why is it that people good at sports or music or art or acting can brag ad infinitum and people fawn all over them. But actually be smart (and have the IQ to prove it) and you have to keep that fact buried in a mayonnaise jar and never (ever) mention it in pubic?
So here in all it’s glorious folly is mine: 182 (so suck it James Woods)
Anonymous
I’ve consistently tested 148 since I was a child, but as an adult I’ve become fond of misc. intoxicants – and I’ve been taking Prozac for several years. Am I wasting my potential? Perhaps. One pill may make you larger and another may make you small, but the ones one ends up taking may dull one’s sharp edges.
I have few regrets, and I really had quite a wonderful run intellectually and commercially for the first 15 years out of college.
Sometimes now I find that my high IQ serves best as a precision tool to analyze and reveal to myself what a fuckup I’ve become.
I’m a good husband and parent, however, and sometimes I think that that is what’s most important. Good parenting, naturally, doesn’t require a high IQ.
Miss Cellania
Disclosing IQ and income are the two things that are guaranteeed to make someone else feel badly. If someone reveals theirs, everyone else is either going to be higher or lower. That can engender envy or guilt, needlessly.
Then you also want to avoid hearing this: “If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?”
Vonskippy
“That can engender envy or guilt, needlessly.”
But that’s true with any skill or talent – why is “being smart” such a bad thing in todays society?
As to the money aspect – that’s true in ANY profession. Why do most managers make more then most engineers? Why do Nurses that do all the real grunt work of patient care make less then the Doctors? Why does one ghetto kid make zillions in the NBA and the other sells crack to make a living? Just those few examples show that Money and Brains (or skill) are not tied together in any linear type fashion.
Jess
These days, due to error in the measurement, it is more accurate for the psychologist or psychiatrist(the only people qualified to administer true IQ tests, which go for about 3 hours +) to give the client a range rather than an actual score. E.g. “Your IQ lies between the superior and very superior range”, rather than “Your IQ score is 128″ – when it may actually be 111. The calculations involved in interpreting IQ raw scores are verrryy complicated.
Also, as Syd mentioned, it is IMPOSSIBLE to estimate a post mortem IQ. Besides, the population is constantly getting smarter and increasing in IQ, SO every 14-15 years or so, psychologists adjust for this be raising the bell curve, so that the average will still be 100. Are they taking this into account in post-mortem estimates?
Miss Cellania
Von Skippy, I wish being smart was not a bad thing. But I know from experience that men can be quite intimidated by a woman they perceive as smarter than they are. And a perception of intelligence sets up some high expectations. The dolphins had the right idea.
As far as income goes, I don’t mind that different jobs pay different scales. But its awkward to find out that a guy doing the same job with less seniority, less talent, and fewer responsibilities is making way more money.
Terry
I’ve always been fond of Shakespeare’s “Where ignorance is bliss, t’is folly to be wise.”
Too much time cohorting in the shallow end has left the grey muscle atrophied.
A mere 121. Alas, t’would be far better the fool and not know the diff.
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