What does IQ mean in the real world?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by makeshift, Apr 3, 2006.

  1. makeshift Registered Senior Member

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    197
    IQ doesn't say everything about a person's intelligence, but it can say a lot, namely the person's g, or general intelligence. G quantifies the tendency where if a person does well at one cognitive function, he also does well at another.

    Economists and statisticians who know and work with arbitrary trends and correlations know that IQ correlates a lot with other things, such as a person's (quoting from memory) "overall health, family stability, salary, and so on"

    I read another thread about "being a jew" which kinda spurred me thinking about IQ and what it means in the real world. After that, I started reading up on Ashkenazi Jews. Really interesting animal. Supposedly there are some populations of Ashkenazi that have AVERAGE IQs of 120, which is insane. There's a 4% chance that any given white person will have an IQ of 140 or more, where for Ashkenazi Jews, it's more like 24%. In other words, a quarter of these particular Jews are near geniuses.

    But IQ doesn't mean anything, right? It's just a number.

    Wrong.

    About half of all world chess championships are won by Jews, despite that fact that they constitute about a quarter of a percent of the world's population. About a third of Nobel prizes go to Jews. The list goes on.

    I've read a little about why this is. Very fascinating stuff. Here's an article in Wikipedia about Ashkenazi Jews that briefly touches upon their unusual cognitive abilities. CLICK HERE What's interesting about it is that they're the only brand of Jew that exhibit this incredible intelligence. Supposedly other Jews are like regular white people. About 80% of all Jews are Ashkenazi though.

    Here's a study done at University of Utah that goes into greater detail about their proposed theory of their [Ashkenazi]'s amazing intelligence. CLICK HERE It's very controversial, understandably, but also very fascinating. Very recommended reading.

    Of course, there are alternative explanations for their high achieving, such as their culture promotes them to acheive more -- which I'm sure it does. Parents put great pressure on their children to achieve more than they had, which, perhaps is a consequence of smart parenting.

    I have made other observations of the world that suggest that IQ matters a whole lot. But I will refrain for now.

    What do you think? What does IQ mean in our world? How does it translate into our everyday lives, culture, or whatever you want to mention? Does it matter at all?
     
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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    IQ is one of several important measures of a person's ability to succeed in the real world. Ambition, social skills, and temperament are others, and those are just traits that have some innate basis. Education and location of birth also have a lot to do with it. People with a lot of raw intelligence don't always succeed. The ranks of civil service--the employer of last resort--are rife with really "bright" people who are hiding out at the bottom of the system because they can't seem to cope with it.

    Four percent over 140? I don't think so. Mensa takes the top two percent and they go down to something like 135. I think 140 puts you in the 99th percentile.

    Somebody's going to bring up the problems in testing for intelligence. IQ tests are designed to measure cognitive skills that are acknowledged by academic "experts" as indicators of overall intelligence--in 20th century Greco-Roman ("Western") civilization. I wonder if Marilyn Vos Savant would have been regarded as really bright if she'd been born among the Incas 1,000 years ago. Or in Europe 12,000 years ago. Or on this planet 2,000 years from now.
     
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  5. draqon Banned Banned

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    35,006
    IQ means nothing. type of person means everything. In the end all that counts in this world are the actions that define humanity, a definition of which humans define themselves.
     
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  7. bluej_x Registered Member

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    9
    Seems that Adolf was actually trying to get rid of the real master race.
     
  8. Facial Valued Senior Member

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    2,225
    IQ means nothing. Period.
     
  9. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    wat does 'iq' MEAN?
    It means more conflict. more people imagining they are superior to others, and/or others believing-- led to believe --they are inferior to others. itis Darwinist elitism
    checkout
    Darwinist Elitism is Idiotic
    www.thrivenet.com/articles/iqidiocy.html
     
  10. przyk squishy Valued Senior Member

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    3,203
    I'm sure there's a correlation between IQ and mental abilities, but IQ is not the whole story (it doesn't measure creativity, for example).

    Richard Feynman was one of the leading physicist of the 20th century and won the Nobel prize in 1965, and his IQ, measured while he was in school, was apparently only 124.

    Basically, never judge someone solely on their IQ.
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2006
  11. SoLiDUS OMGWTFBBQ Registered Senior Member

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    1,593
    Actually, Feynman's IQ was much higher than that. He took a test involving verbal and mathematical abilities: while his latter score was much higher, his verbal was so poor it dragged him down when they created the composite.

    As for the actual topic, there is value in knowing about your efficacy in certain cognitive areas, but it's not the final word: anyone claiming that IQ is meaningless obviously doesn't know a thing about the subject.
     
  12. Facial Valued Senior Member

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    2,225
    How?
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2006
  13. SoLiDUS OMGWTFBBQ Registered Senior Member

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    1,593
    Wow, I didn't see that reply coming...

    There's plenty of literature on the subject but if you want something informative with minimal bias, I recommend "IQ and Human Intelligence" by Mackintosh: excellent introduction to psychometrics with plenty of data to satisfy your curiosity. I might be overly optimistic though, as you seem to have already made your mind up...
     
  14. Odin2006 Democratic Socialist Registered Senior Member

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    I'm the opposite, my verbal IQ is through the roof, but I suck at math.
     
  15. curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

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    More IQ means more pressure....... High-IQ people are often expected to be omnipotent, doing this and that, while in truth who knows, they just want to enjoy the little bit of life.
     
  16. Pi-Sudoku Slightly extreme Registered Senior Member

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    IQ is increasingly used in the UK for university and job applications. Qualifications are increasingly disputed and discredited and IQ tests remain an effective way of measuring somebodies ability to compute problems.
    However they have flaws, peopole with High IQ's can still lack in leteracy skill. I personally am poor at English and a B-student, despite a measure IQ of 143
     
  17. SoLiDUS OMGWTFBBQ Registered Senior Member

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    1,593
    I agree. While it can say something about your ability to solve (for example) abstract problems, it won't measure your willingness/motivation: a lot of talented people take their skills for granted and procrastinate... that's a recipe for disaster.
     
  18. Mickmeister Registered Senior Member

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    That's me too. My general knowledge and verbal are extremely high. In fact the last IQ test I took in 2009, I scored perfectly on the general knowledge. It's the logics that bring my score down considerably.

    And yes, IQ does mean A LOT! I was an average person years ago before I started taking IQ tests. Once I realized I was in the top 1 percentile, I became much more motivated to learn, very confident, and I advanced fast in my career.
     
  19. Dream_Eater Banned Banned

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    10
    most of the people who claim IQ tests mean nothing are being dishonest about their own sketchy past. they're usually the ones who take the test in good faith, answer the questions to the best of their shitty abilities and get scores like 87 and think to themselves "wow, 87 out of a hundred, that's like an 'A'! I can totally live with that, high five man, right on ... right on ..." and then they find out an IQ of 87 is right in between a grasshopper and a dildo and they say, "dude, these tests mean nothing ... wtf, what supremacist even designed this biased bullshit". hypocrites.

    IQ has been demonstrated to be a trustworthy measure of success and achievement, however there are exceptions of course, but one wonders if these "exceptions" ever really had a high IQ to begin with, or whether they studied typical IQ test questions and took the test over and over again until they got the score they wanted. then it's like "hey guys check this out, this IQ test at cooltests.com says my IQ is 186, just like newton!" but then his or her astute friends note "why does the internet history say 'thanks for completing our IQ test!' seventy-eight times in a row, dumbass?" you're not fooling anyone, pal.

    or you'll get those people who will say, "yeah man, i got 105 on the test even though i was awake for fifty straight hours and had a bad case hemorroids (hemorroids!), that's pretty good considering the circumstances", surrreee... as if a good night's sleep and no veiny bumps on your ass is suddenly going to make you intelligent.
     
  20. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    That just means that self-confidence means a lot. It says nothing about IQ.
     
  21. Mickmeister Registered Senior Member

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    That is true. Where my IQ gave me that advantage was with my creativity and able to learn rapidly.
     
  22. John99 Banned Banned

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    Well first of all, an IQ test needs to be entirely unique AND the person taking the test should not have taken similar tests before because then they are learning to take IQ tests. So basically an internet IQ test, i am certain, would just be a cut and paste from other IQ tests, perhaps if the drafter\drafters of the test happened to have an incredibly superior IQ\IQ's they can come up with something unique. Does such a test exist? I dont take IQ tests randomly because i want the most accurate measure of my IQ. What is the de-facto IQ test? Assuming these test are different than each other.

    Here is one of my own questions: Is each other one word or two words? Iow's my spell checker tells me to put each other and i initially put eachother. Yet my spell checker tells me it is wrong and suggest two wrods therefore am i smarter than my spell checker?

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eachother
     
  23. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    Actually the results show that people can become test-sensitive up to a limit of about five IQ tests. After that your results don't improve.

    And your own link also indicates that it's wrong to use "eachother":
    Note that as a single word it pre 12th Century and the usage throughout the definition is as two words.
    So no, you aren't smarter than your spell checker.
     

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