This is my answer to this question that was asked in the IQ section of Quora. I must say that I really love that they have an IQ section over there. You are not really allowed to talk about IQ at all in US society, and you are not allowed to write about it either, especially if you are writing about yourself. It is seen as bragging. However, society more or less allows or even cheers on bragging about all sorts of other things, so I think the hatred of IQ-talk and the labeling it as bragging is just sour grapes coming from people whose IQ’s are not that high. Also the US is a very anti-intellectual country and we have always been that way.
Personally I do not think there is even anything good about a very high IQ, and I think it has as many drawbacks as benefits. I would question whether it is even a good thing at all. It often seems like more of a bad thing. I like the idea that it is a bad thing because that means that you can’t brag about it no matter how much you talk about it. It’s like bragging about being poor or fat. It’s not possible to brag about a bad thing.
On the positive side, a very high IQ is a talent. There are many talents. Mechanical, artistic, athletic, musical, mathematical, social, thesbian, literary, photographic. I mean it goes on and on. There are people who are great fishermen and hunters. And when it comes to acquired talents like the last two, the possibilities are endless. I have great admiration for handymen who can fix anything and shade tree mechanics. I am always in awe of these people. I have tremendous admiration for anyone who can show me that they are very good at just about anything because it’s never easy to be an expert in anything.
Anyway, Quora is so cool because it is one of he few places anywhere in life where I can actually talk about IQ! You can read and talk about IQ all you want to on there and no one will accuse you of being a social retard or bragging. I love it!
The original question was Do People with 140 IQ See Normal People (IQ 100 to 130) as Stupid? which is a rather dumb question. First of all, normal IQ is 90-110, not 100-130. 120-130 is considered bright and even 110-120 is called high normal. 130 is getting very close to gifted and maybe ~5% of the population has an IQ of at least 130. Also it should have been phrased 140+.
In truth, I do not see people with normal IQ’s as stupid. However, to me a lot of them are simply not very interesting. That being said, the two best friends I ever had in life both probably had IQ’s of ~100, and I got along with both of them immaculately. However there were surely things that I could not discuss with them. We mostly just joked and talked about rock music, drugs and women. That’s really all there is to life anyway, right? Sex and drugs and rock and roll?
However, around here we have a lot of Mexicans. Their average IQ is ~90. The average Mexican does not strike me as stupid at all. However, there are some who seem less intelligent than the others. I assume that their IQ’s are in the 80’s. I see some of those lower IQ Mexican working class men in stores sometimes, and to me, someone like that almost seems like a retarded person. I know they are not retarded at all, but from my POV, they seem that way. Perhaps a ~100 IQ person would be more likely to see them as more normal than I do.
Also I worked for a local Indian tribe for a while. I remember that I used to get frustrated with the leadership because they seemed to make what appeared to me to be stupid decisions. It was very frustrating to sit back and watch higher ups make one dumb decision after another and not be able to do anything about it. Those Indians had average IQ’s of ~87 I would imagine.
The answers to this question on Quora were mostly dumb and probably disingenuous. Most of the very high IQ people on there answered by saying that they did not find people of normal intelligence to be stupid at all. However, I think they were lying and genius IQ types do find normal IQ people to be stupid at times. I would say at times. Not all the time. And a lot of us work very hard to avoid feeling that way or at least I do because it makes me uncomfortable to think that way about the majority of my peers.
Anyway, feel free to comment.
I have an IQ of 147. I will be completely honest here. I do find most people to be idiots, but I don’t necessarily break it down by IQ, mostly because I do not know most people’s IQ’s. What bothers me about humanity in general and causes me to think that most people are morons is that most people seem to me to lack wisdom.
However, this does include thinking emotionally rather than logically, and I have to admit that lower intelligence people are more likely to think emotionally than logically. However, the number of highly intelligent people (IQ 140–150) I know who also think emotionally instead of logically is quite high. It seems that most people period simply cannot get out of the trap of thinking emotionally and therefore illogically about things, regardless of intelligence level.
But as you get up the IQ scale, you will find more and more people who value logical thinking and disparage emotional and illogical thinking, and yes, they do tend to think that the average person thinks with their heart and not their head and therefore gets the wrong answer.
I really care nothing at all about people who know fewer things than I do or whose brains work slower than mine. That doesn’t bother me one bit.
I do resent being misunderstood, and lower intelligence people do tend to misunderstand me more and either not get the joke and/or the allusive comment and therefore think that I am weird, crazy, dangerous, or maybe all three. I don’t like that, but I guess they can’t help it. If people don’t understand something, they think it is weird and scary, so if they don’t understand someone, they think that person is weird, scary or crazy. That’s a dumb way to think, but that’s just how people are.
I finally figured out that the reason I think the world is full of idiots is because I think that most people lack wisdom. As I said, I could care less about their IQ score or how well they did in school. I don’t care whether they know a lot or a little. None of that would make me dislike another human.
But I do fault people for lacking wisdom because to me, most humans ought be able to figure things out enough to arrive at the wise answer and to reject all of the unwise and therefore incorrect answers.
The problem really is society. Society fills your head with lies, not only lies but stupid and dangerous lies. Most people conform to society, so they simply incorporate all of society’s lies, even the stupid and dangerous ones. You can’t really fault them for that because people want to be accepted and a good way to be accepted is to accept all of society’s lies and go along with them.
If you start rejecting society’s lies, then you will probably be rejected by most people, and you will always be getting into arguments and fights with people if you challenge them when they spout off the Society Lie Du Jour.
Can you blame people for taking the easy way out?
Nevertheless, I admit that I do resent unwise people because I feel that they probably have the capability to be wise but they refuse to do it. I think the people who believe society’s BS actually cause a lot of damage to society and even to people like me. They are always passing judgment on others for silly and crazy reasons, and that makes the world a not so fun place to live in.
So if you want to be my friend and not have me resent you, it’s pretty easy. Just be wise, and don’t be unwise! How hard is that? Come on, you can do it. I know you can.
