Thank you, but the person you’re congratulating was a little kid who ended up having different educational opportunities as a result. I don’t know that there’s a lot left from him. It certainly wasn’t intended as a brag, just an explanation for my perspective on the subject, which is very different than these egotistical grifters.
I didn’t think you were bragging. I wasn’t trying to brag myself, just sharing a bit of trivia from earlier days. And yeah, I think you and I have a healthier perspective about “intelligence” than somebody like Musk, who’s desperately trying to prove he’s someone special to mask his own insecurities.
(I’ve got plenty of insecurities of my own, so maybe I shouldn’t throw too many stones. But there’s healthy ways of dealing with doubts, and there’s what Musk is doing, which is malicious and downright dangerous to so many people…)
The social worker I saw weekly at the public high school was livid when I said I didn’t know my IQ. “They never told you?!”
She had a copy of my results the next week. It said I’m between 131 and 134, and that was when 130 was considered gifted.
I looked at it and said, “That can’t be right.” She looked at me like she was afraid I’d say it was too high, but I said, “Were it that low, I’d have an easier time finding people I can really talk to.”
She smiled and said it would be much more accurate were I to take the test again as a teenager.
I’ve known people with 160+ IQs, and most of them were much more emotionally fucked up than I am. One of them was unimaginably cruel.
I think of it as a privilege more along the lines of symmetrical features, full breasts, height, a nice head of hair, being fast, etc.
Mixed blessings all.They convey some privileges: maybe something I figured out faster that saved my ass, maybe some one took pity on me because they thought I had a cute smile. But they aren’t miracles in and of themselves unless you truly believe every life is one in the first place.
At times people can be so envious of these things that they don’t even see their own advantages.
And holy shit life is a war of attrition against it all.
Also I think these individual factors diminish quickly in importance the more you look at the statistics.
Skill and diligence can compensate for a lot. Nutrition probably plays a greater factor at the global level.
Wealth takes all Nobody beats wealth. It is better to be dumb, ugly, and rich than damned near anything else.
Oh… we’re back on topic now.
And with enough momentum to drive a huge generator.
I started to write a little comment, but then found that two paragraphs from the Jimbopedia entry about Binet quite nicely address the points I wanted to make. Emphasisopodes are mine:
Binet and Simon were forthright about the limitations of their Binet-Simon Intelligence Test. They stressed the remarkable diversity of intelligence and the subsequent need to study it using qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, measures. They also stressed that intellectual development progressed at variable rates and could be influenced by the environment; therefore, intelligence was not based solely on genetics, was malleable rather than fixed, and could only be found in children with comparable backgrounds. Given Binet and Simon’s stance that intelligence testing was subject to variability and was not generalizable, it is important to look at the metamorphosis that mental testing took on as it made its way to the U.S.
While Binet and Simon were developing their mental scale, the business, civic, and educational leaders in the U.S. were facing issues of how to accommodate the needs of a diversifying population, while continuing to meet the demands of society. There arose the call to form a society based on meritocracy while continuing to underline the ideals of the upper class.
In 1908, H.H. Goddard, a champion of the eugenics movement, found utility in mental testing as a way to evidence the superiority of the white race. After studying abroad, Goddard brought the Binet-Simon Scale to the United States and translated it into English.
Thank you for those highlights. I’m rather glad that I’ve never taken an IQ test (and if I ever did, that I’ve forgotten the results). I always twitch and grimace a bit when I hear about someone’s “IQ score.” Usually, a whiff of classism and racism are part of the sudden bad smell that I’m detecting. I’ve been called “smart” sometimes, but I’ve also been observant enough to see that many people, who most others would never label smart, can display far higher levels and forms of intelligence than my own.
I’ve also thought about what I label both concentration, and work, or effort. Much of what appears smart, as a result of high intelligence, is juat as much or more a result of being able to (and having the resources to, and the confidence to) put one’s nose to the grindstone (heh-- ouch!), with a lot of pressure for a long time.
Charlie Chaplin is nodding in his grave.
By default, “unhinged” mode curses, insults, and belittles the user non-stop using vulgar language. Other modes include “Storyteller” (which does what it sounds like), “Romantic” (which stammers and speaks in a slow, uncertain, and insecure way), “Meditation” (which can guide you through a meditation-like experience), “Conspiracy” (which likes to talk about conspiracy theories, UFOs, and bigfoot), “Unlicensed Therapist” (which plays the part of a talk psychologist), “Grok Doc” (a doctor), “Sexy” (marked as “18+” and acts almost like a 1-800 phone sex operator), and “Professor” (which talks about science).
OMFG, he is really out of his fucking mind…
As is anyone who uses those services, and I didn’t even need to consult “Unlicensed Therapist” or “Grok Doc” to reach that conclusion.
Thank heavens he didn’t wear a tan suit! And I’m sure he has a flag pin there somewhere.
Also, every person in my family over about 40 would be snatching away my soul for daring to wear a hat inside, let alone in a setting like that.
In other words; the people who know how things work.
A “Tech Support” tee shirt? If he’s tech support, you’re much safer just buying a new computer.
Stupidity, incompetence, cruelty, arrogance, idolatry, and ideology all in one room.
Of course, Musk is that guy in the meeting who just has to stand the whole time.
Yes, and perhaps that’s the main reason to fire them, in Musk’s addled mind.
He is tanking the brand, and I am concerned that with all it’s faults, the Tesla was groundbreaking in popularising EVs; is this going to set back the adoption of EVs and the climate movement?
Or maybe push it forward, as cheaper AND better brands fill the vacuum?
(Trying to see the other side of the coin again…)