IQ isn’t the huge thing people think it is. Theoretically, it measures and compares the potential to reason, problem-solve, use logic, etc. But even if you don’t factor in cultural distinctions and other biases which can influence the results, there are so many other kinds of intelligence-- social skills, emotional intelligence, mechanical knowledge-- and all are valuable.
Sure, I’m book-smart, I guess, but that only goes so far. I’m not-so-great socially, and my overthinking means I don’t always see the most practical solutions first. If my car’s acting up, I ask my uncle, who was taking things apart and putting them back together since he was a kid. He also worked as an auto mechanic, and if I can explain the issue clearly enough, he can usually tell me what part of the system’s involved and explain thoroughly how it works (and I’ll maybe understand half of that. ) He and I are smart in different ways, and that’s fine by me. We all have our own ways to contribute to the world, and it’s all valid.
Besides, even if you take IQ seriously, 110 isn’t that far above average (which is somewhere around 100, if what i’m seeing online is accurate.) It’s not that much of a brag to crow about. The only “smarts” I’d acknowledge in Musk is his ability to work systems for his own benefit, and he wouldn’t be able to do half of what he’s done without the family money behind him.
Exactly right. I think of IQ (the popularly understood version) as a horsepower rating on the brain. You may have a Ferrari for a brain, but if you can’t reach the pedals, don’t understand the steering and traction limitations, etc, etc, all that horsepower ain’t getting you to the market. I have kids with Down syndrome and very limited IQ who have such high social, empathic and emotional quotients that they can function in society far better than this asshat can. We all contribute, and anyone who thinks that certain “sorts” just cannot add to the value of our culture are flat wrong and need to shut the fuck up.
So much this. IQ very accurately measures a person’s ability to answer questions on IQ tests.
As you say: that’s one kind, out of many, of smart.
ETA: whenever IQ comes up in conversation, I steer folks towards “The Mismeasure of Man”, by Stephen Jay Gould.
Among other things, Gould points out that Alfred Binet, the inventor of the IQ test, pointed out three things when he published the test.
the test was meant to identify areas where school children were having trouble,
it was to be used to get help where children needed it, not to segregate based on test scores, and
results above 100 were not meant to indicate “higher intelligence”, whatever that was. Results above 100 only meant “you have no issues you particularly need help with”.
A very quick glance at how people talk about IQ tests shows that Alfred Binet should be spinning in his grave.
…yet I can’t help but recall that for a so-called “genius,” 110 wouldn’t get him into MENSA. (Depending on the type of test, that requires a score anywhere from 132 to 140.) If that’s the yardstick he wants to measure himself by… he’s still kinda falling short. (And yeah, I know it’s so wrong of me to point it out, but he started it. )
When Trump ran the first time, there was a very good article that came out about how he got access to the Republican database when he became their candidate and how his operation set up a data farm to tilt the election (Cambridge Analytica) and also to use the database to target his followers with his many scams.
Trump doesn’t seem to be a terribly sophisticated man about computers, so, it makes me wonder who is really in charge of all this malicious digital manipulation in the government. Elon isn’t really smart enough to do it; he’s just a wanker who pretends to know stuff about tech. There’s other people behind this who actually understand government computer systems and how they can be circumvented to thwart Congress’s power over the purse.
I think that was the point of the biographer’s statement:
From upthread:
Here are a few other items of interest from that article:
Musk founded Zip2, described as “a sort of digital Yellowpages” by Belmont Hill School’s The Panel Online, with his brother. The outlet reported that in an attempt to impress investors in the company, Musk “created a large, fake casing around the Zip2 computer to make it seem like an extremely advanced supercomputer”
The code used by the program, which Musk taught himself, “was soon exposed to be so scrambled that a majority of the program had to be rewritten by more advanced programmers.”
“If you assign intelligence to just spending money, you’re in a cult,” he also added. “If you attach intelligence to simply owning a successful company whose work on a day-to-day basis you have nothing to do with and who you are considerably more of a hindrance to than a help to, you’re in a cult.”
“I don’t find IQ to be a valuable measure,” he also clarified. “I introduced the term to this conversation because it’s used by you fans as some sort of supposed proof of Musk’s intelligence—though none of you have any proof whatsoever of any IQ test the man’s ever taken.”
This feels like a very Silicon Valley type of “genius.” Usually people either deliver or are unmasked as frauds and disappear from public view/go to jail. Musk, on the other hand, continually promises things that he doesn’t deliver and everyone (i.e. tech media) just seems to forget that he made the promises. Or it’s all forgiven when one of his companies delivers on something (event though it’s absolutely no thanks to him).
Yeah, I was going to have a caveat there about the meaninglessness of IQ scores, but since it wasn’t about his literal score, I figured the point was more that Elno is of just-barely-above average intelligence at best.
I think the thing about Elno is that there’s no evidence that he’s particularly bright in any way. Obviously he has no emotional/social intelligence, but also no real technical or analytical intelligence, etc. Just… nothing. He’s just this very mediocre guy who thinks he’s brilliant because he got insanely lucky and a lot of people have done the work of acting like he is.
I was tested in grade school with the expectation of disability but instead scored like 120 and something. I don’t feel very smart most times and places and probably come across like a bog standard suburban airhead.
All these things are meaningless signifiers imo. But maybe it can be helpful with people who are disabled sometimes in pinpointing the problem idk.
In grade school I was tested and confirmed genius according to IQ tests, which has given me a very good idea of all the things it doesn’t actually mean at all.
I’m not sure what my official IQ is. When I was in college, I took a very unofficial computer test (I think it was some shareware my dad got a hold of), and it gave me a score of 140… but I doubt it was right. And while I was (and am) curious, I never cared enough to take the time and trouble to get officially tested. I already understood book-smarts weren’t everything, and I was pretty well acquainted with the cartoon’s blue zone by then, so I just shrugged and moved on.
If my car’s acting up, I ask my uncle, who was taking things apart and putting them back together since he was a kid. He also worked as an auto mechanic, and if I can explain the issue clearly enough, he can usually tell me what part of the system’s involved and explain thoroughly how it works (and I’ll maybe understand half of that. 
) He and I are smart in different ways, and that’s fine by me. We all have our own ways to contribute to the world, and it’s all valid.
)
