Anyone ever heard of MENSA?

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jandrews

Golden Member
Aug 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: manowar821
HAHA.

I was offered a membership. My IQ is 186. No I'm not lying.

I'm really not interested, though.

Statistically, that would make you one of the three most intelligent people in the US. I believe PrinceofWands has claimed to have an equally high IQ, and of course Marilyn vos Savant would round out the top 3. How privileged we are here at Anandtech to have two of the three most intelligent people in the US posting on this forum. ;) Don't be offended if people don't believe you, but I can't say I've ever noticed a high level of intelligence behind your posts.

You can be anything on the Internet, you know. I'm Lance Armstrong. Want to see my moon rocks? ;)

*whispers* umm..er.. I think you meant Neil Armstrong...
 
Jun 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: manowar821
Well, I'm partially socially retarded and I can't think straight sometimes. I have ADD and I have a terribly hard time learning anything that isn't interesting to me. The only classes I outright aced early on were subjects like Astronomy, chemistry, and computer networking.

It's by the grace of one of my teachers in Jr. high school (middle school) that I passed. She thought that I was bored, instead of stupid. I kept telling everyone that I didn't want to learn boring crap I already knew, so they just assumed I had an attitude problem because I felt ashamed of being stupid. She believed me and had me tested professionally to figure out if I was retarded or a genius.

Well, here we are, IQ 186, and I actually spend most of my time on computers or reading books by theoretical astrophysicists. I actually thought up some theories before even reading about them back when I was a teenager. Granted, the theories had already been thought up by someone else, I just hadn't been exposed to them. I'm not talking string theory or M-theory here, but things like quantum tunneling and such. Obviously I'm not going to write up a full physics theory at the ripe age of 16... :p

Is that proof enough?

It's really hard to say without knowing you. I can relate to most of this, but in different subjects. I, too, would consider myself socially retarded. I may have developed ADD by my own doing; I can't do one thing at a time, I can't sit still and watch a movie, even a good one. I'm pretty sure I'm borderline OCD; obsessed with patterns geometrically; everything has to be even and perfectly aligned.

It was suggested to me by a couple of my teachers that I skip ahead in some of my classes, or take those of a higher level. The one that I remember most is English. I shocked the hell out of most of my teachers because I basically did nothing during class. I chewed tobacco, talked with friends, half-assed my work just to get by, but once essay/exam time came, I excelled. My teacher accused me of plagiarism on the end of the year essay because he had never seen that quality of work from me.

My math teacher said that I was brilliant, and that I could pretty much do anything that I really had interest in.

But do I think I'm a genius? Well above the average person? High ranking in IQ? No, not really.

But if you have the scores to back up your claims, who am I do dispute it? It's not like you really care if someone on the Internet really believes you, because that's not what matters.
 

Analog

Lifer
Jan 7, 2002
12,755
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Originally posted by: jandrews
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: manowar821
HAHA.

I was offered a membership. My IQ is 186. No I'm not lying.

I'm really not interested, though.

Statistically, that would make you one of the three most intelligent people in the US. I believe PrinceofWands has claimed to have an equally high IQ, and of course Marilyn vos Savant would round out the top 3. How privileged we are here at Anandtech to have two of the three most intelligent people in the US posting on this forum. ;) Don't be offended if people don't believe you, but I can't say I've ever noticed a high level of intelligence behind your posts.

You can be anything on the Internet, you know. I'm Lance Armstrong. Want to see my moon rocks? ;)

*whispers* umm..er.. I think you meant Neil Armstrong...

Lance Armstrong is missing one of his rocks.... :laugh:
 

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
57
91
How can you never have heard of MENSA before today?

That's like posting a topic: "Hey guys, I was reading about these guys called astronauts and did you know we have a government-funded space program called 'NASA?' Any of you guys ever heard of it?"
 

manowar821

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2007
6,063
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Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: manowar821
HAHA.

I was offered a membership. My IQ is 186. No I'm not lying.

I'm really not interested, though.

Statistically, that would make you one of the three most intelligent people in the US. I believe PrinceofWands has claimed to have an equally high IQ, and of course Marilyn vos Savant would round out the top 3. How privileged we are here at Anandtech to have two of the three most intelligent people in the US posting on this forum. ;) Don't be offended if people don't believe you, but I can't say I've ever noticed a high level of intelligence behind your posts.

You can be anything on the Internet, you know. I'm Lance Armstrong. Want to see my moon rocks? ;)

Perhaps my posts aren't so much unintelligent as they are disrespectful. I'm kind of an ass.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: jandrews
*whispers* umm..er.. I think you meant Neil Armstrong...

Shhh, it was a bad joke. ;)
<nitpick> for Lance it would be moon rock, singular :) </nitpick>

I joined for a year before college, then realized it was pointless and never renewed. I still have an (M) logo pin and coffee mug.

It was a cheap lesson though, it cured me of paying for other vanity scams like "Who's Who of College Students With Decent Grades." Plus I got to torment my brother who didn't score quite high enough to join :) .
 

jjzelinski

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2004
3,750
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I've read Steve Jobs has an IQ somewhere on the order of 200. HOLY SHIT.

As for you manowar, if you have an IQ of 186 I suddenly feel very good about myself :) But are you sure you're not referring to the lesser known Irriational Quotient?
 
Jun 4, 2005
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While we're on the subject of Mensa and online IQ tests...is there a moderately legit test that has been published online? Something I can look over before actually going to be tested?
 

jjzelinski

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2004
3,750
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Browse teh innernets until you get a rad pop-up asking you how smart you are.

edit for "up"

S-M-R-T
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,924
45
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Originally posted by: LoKe
While we're on the subject of Mensa and online IQ tests...is there a moderately legit test that has been published online? Something I can look over before actually going to be tested?

I took an IQ test when I was 13 (for no reason other than that my dad was going to college at the time to become a school psychologist, and he needed guinea pigs for all of the tests he had to administer). It was not a written test, it was a series of exercises. One example I recall was a series of cards with a picture on one side and an unrelated word on the other side. The first time through I was allowed to see the picture, then the word. Then I was shown each picture and had to remember the associated word. This exercise tested one particular type of thinking/learning. There were other exercises that tested other types of learning/thinking.
 
Jun 4, 2005
19,733
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Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: LoKe
While we're on the subject of Mensa and online IQ tests...is there a moderately legit test that has been published online? Something I can look over before actually going to be tested?

I took an IQ test when I was 13 (for no reason other than that my dad was going to college at the time to become a school psychologist, and he needed guinea pigs for all of the tests he had to administer). It was not a written test, it was a series of exercises. One example I recall was a series of cards with a picture on one side and an unrelated word on the other side. The first time through I was allowed to see the picture, then the word. Then I was shown each picture and had to remember the associated word. This exercise tested one particular type of thinking/learning. There were other exercises that tested other types of learning/thinking.

Ah. This further convinces me that IQ serves no realistic purpose. I can associate words to images in a real situation, by stimulant or otherwise. But to sit down and "just do it", I'm not sure I could.
 

pyonir

Lifer
Dec 18, 2001
40,856
311
126
Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
How can you never have heard of MENSA before today?

That's like posting a topic: "Hey guys, I was reading about these guys called astronauts and did you know we have a government-funded space program called 'NASA?' Any of you guys ever heard of it?"

 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,924
45
91
Originally posted by: LoKe
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: LoKe
While we're on the subject of Mensa and online IQ tests...is there a moderately legit test that has been published online? Something I can look over before actually going to be tested?

I took an IQ test when I was 13 (for no reason other than that my dad was going to college at the time to become a school psychologist, and he needed guinea pigs for all of the tests he had to administer). It was not a written test, it was a series of exercises. One example I recall was a series of cards with a picture on one side and an unrelated word on the other side. The first time through I was allowed to see the picture, then the word. Then I was shown each picture and had to remember the associated word. This exercise tested one particular type of thinking/learning. There were other exercises that tested other types of learning/thinking.

Ah. This further convinces me that IQ serves no realistic purpose. I can associate words to images in a real situation, by stimulant or otherwise. But to sit down and "just do it", I'm not sure I could.

Hah. It serves the purpose that it is intended to server. That is, it measures how quickly you learn. Nothing more. Too many people think that having a low IQ might mean they're inferior, so they twist it to mean something entirely different or discount it as meaningless.

A person with a high IQ can do poorly in school and in life, but they can do it with less effort than someone with a lower IQ. :p
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
10,572
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Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
By moving one digit on the other side of the equal, and without further modification, make the equation correct


3013 = 10

3013^0 = 1

But you wouldn't add the ^, you'd just put the 0 to the upper right corner of 3013.
 

Juddog

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2006
7,852
6
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Originally posted by: Acanthus
186IQ 99.9999995062% 202,496,482

Apparently manowar is one of the top 30 people on earth in IQ. :confused:

He must be the founder of Giga Society then.

:p

But seriously, no way he has a 186 IQ, but what do you expect out of ATOT, where most people have 6 figure incomes, are in olympic athlete shape, and date supermodel girlfriends.
 

jjzelinski

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2004
3,750
0
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Another fellow 30 or 40 posts above mentioned how dumb folks tend to downplay the significance of IQ tests while emphasizing their own narrow strengths but I have to admit I find myself loosely in this dumb-camp (patent pending btw.) There really are several (if not many) different types of intelligence that cater to different practical functionalities in similar magnitude so I don't find lumping them all together that meaningful. Of course I might be biased because whereas I'm relatively eloquent and a decent problem solver, my shitty memory/attention span and impulsiveness prevents me from perceiving myself as exceptional and this makes me sad :(.
 

jjzelinski

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2004
3,750
0
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Originally posted by: mugs

A person with a high IQ can do poorly in school and in life, but they can do it with less effort than someone with a lower IQ. :p

lol, well put