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RE: Hello, STEEMIT: Let's Talk About IQ
I have always been of the opinion that people who are good at tests get a great IQ score. This score does not necessarily translate well into real life situations and 'street smarts'. For example there was another boy in my year at high school who was at the top of every class he attended, consistently high exam and test results. He was, they said, destined for great things. I saw him again 5 years after we had left school pushing a broom around a shopping center. His qualifications and test results didn't stand him in good stead.
As to your point about intelligence being genetic, I agree totally. All my children are as smart as their father 😜
I had a friend that took our Knowledge Bowl team in High School to State all four years he was on the team. He is one of those that could likely win jeopardy pretty easily with the sheer amount of rote knowledge he had. Yet he was a science, and math whiz too. He excelled at all his classes. He was a guy that walked into our Trigonometry class forgetting we had a test and aced it and the extra credit. He was usually done with any assignments in that class by the end of the class if we knew about the assignments early enough.
Yet, I was the one coming up with all the weird ideas and things to try. He would do them with me and could think of things that likely would take me awhile to solve if they were tied to normal knowledge. Yet, he wasn't as inspired to do such things. I'd get Cs and Ds in Physics mainly because I was always writing about other ideas in a notebook, whether it was cryptography, robots, programming, etc. My notebook was full of that stuff. Later in life I kind of gave my classes the attention necessary to get through them while I was busy teaching myself other things. Hindsight as far as grades and GPA go, had I focused my life likely would have gone some other path. It wasn't that I couldn't do it. Most of the time I thought it was easy. I just had discovered computers at an early age and I devoted a ton of my mental time to them, even while sitting in say an English class. :p
Anyway, this friend did receive a full ride scholarship to Caltech. We live in Colorado.
He called me once from there talking about Acid (LSD) and such as though I'd be interested. I had friends that did LSD in H.S. I may have been a long haired metal head, but I didn't do drugs, I didn't drink alcohol, etc. I still don't. I figured he knew me well enough to know this, so I was surprised he called me talking about these things. I was actually surprised he called me, as we didn't really hang out outside of School and this was several years after I had last seen him. At least I knew I meant something to him. Though I do remember being concerned.
When I last saw him I wouldn't have been surprised to see some think tank flying him around in a helicopter.
A couple of years after that LSD incident I encountered him at a local grocery store bagging my food. I'd see him in various departments in that store over the years. Life did not go how I thought it would for him. In his case, he is one of those that he likely got into experimenting at drugs at the wrong time. He got into it during a time he probably needed to be most focused.
He went from being someone I thought would be one of the main assets in some think tank, to bagging groceries.
The only positive I saw is he was still smiling and seemed cheerful every time I saw him. So he may have been content. If that is the case then I can at least be happy for him in that way.
I also don't know exactly what he did outside of work. I was a father and had a family by then.
totally agree with you. one's life completely depends on his actions not IQ. Great Post.
From what I've seen, there's a "golden" IQ point that makes you intellectually capable of doing or understanding most things but not so lofty that things like interpersonal relationships are inconsequential. I think they say that it's around 130 IQ, which is, I guess, the range of most people in high leadership positions in the private sector.
Regarding the anecdote of your high-school friend: Yes, I'll bet most of us known people like this. However it doesn't seem to affect the statistical results. In studies with large groups of people over long periods of time, there is a correlation between IQ and economic position.
Lol, I sure hope it isn't! I'd feel bad for my son XD
Now now my good Sir, don't go putting yourself down
😜
Parents of smart children believe in heredity.
That's actually a good joke!