How smart are you?

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Smart enough to wish I wasn't.

Truth?
1. I don't know!
2. I don't really care.
3. The question itself is interesting by itself.
4. This likely seems rude and stiff as a kindly response.
5. It's none of "5", say "my internals."
6. It's quite the opposite.
7. It's the "feel", and a don't sayable "else."
8. Qwirky these "Truths" can be. Appologies!
9. Go to "3" and recycle yours.

I'm in Mensa and smart enough to know--firsthand--that isn't as impressive as some might think.

How smart am I in real life? Well, I'm an Aspie, so I guess it's sort of a mixed bag. Though I would definitely agree that IQ points could help an Aspie muddle through this NT world. (And, with me, there is definitely a lot of muddling involved!)

My take on Mensa is exactly the same. Too many people bragging about their score, as if it was a contest. If you want to show off your mental abilities, do it to better the world in some way. Otherwise it is like owning a Ferrari, yet never driving it.

I read once a page which said that AS people can survive better, higher IQ they have.

While AS people can't have an intellectual disability, being under 100 IQ and AS will surely be debiliating, especially if coupled with any mental illness or substance abuse.

Ps. I'm personally rather anxious to comment, I took lots of booze to even make this comment.

That smart, except I've never been accepted to college.

Since I was pretty young, there have always been adults keen to make some kind of ruling about how smart I was. I guess when your kid is different than others, the unspoken question on every adult's mind is "different good, or different bad?"

Personally, I get kind of fed up with the whole nonsense of comparing my capabilities to those of others, or to the average. Society tells you one minute to act normal and the next minute to think outside of the box. Which one makes you smart? The former? The latter? -or is it the ability to jump though both hoops on command that they are looking for? Run and jump and play dead. No thanks.

I got so fed up with Mensa one-upmanship that I hacked their database and deleted my membership.

This has not been my experience though I suppose different chapters might have different cultures.

In my experience only people new to Mensa seek to talk about IQ there. In general, it has absolutely not been the topic of discussion--what would be the point? An elevated IQ is common to all members. Boring. You are more likely to get discussions on food, music, games, home repairs, science fiction, bicycles, etc. (I suspect in the future I might slip the Autism Spectrum into the conversation, too.)

Though I don't recall a lot of talk about sports. I even went to one party during the Super Bowl ^{which is a very big deal to American sports fans}...and we watched Fantasia.

Mensa and WP are two places where I am more likely to find someone I can relate to. In general, I feel more comfortable in those two areas than I do elsewhere.

What is, in my opinion, unimpressive about Mensans is how mundane they are. Being really good at taking IQ tests doesn't necessarily translate into being particularly good at anything else.

I'm a smart-ASS......that's for sure

I'm pretty good at taking IQ-tests, I usually get around 150.
Not entierly sure how that translates to intelligence though.

/Mats

I’m only a little above average, in junior high I tested just a couple points below the “gifted” range, whatever that number is (I don’t recall being told a specific number, just that I was close, but not quite close enough. Story of my life, that is.). I was put in the “gifted” class but given different assignments, as if I didn’t already stick out like a broken thumb

As a kid I had the stereotypical Aspie memory, but severe, long-term depression took that away from me, and burnout/ECT have wrecked what memory I still had.

They did let me into Mensa.

But that just means that I can read comic books without moving my lips!

Last edited by naturalplastic on 09 Apr 2021, 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you took an IQ or other aptitude test as part of your ASD assessment? I might have to ask my mom to unlock the filing cabinet to get a peek
I don't think IQ is a definitive measure of a person's entire intellect, but it can come in handy for gauging one's potential in different areas and fields.

I was told that with my IQ, I should have been doing better in school. However, I wasn't smart enough to be popular, so I assumed that those kids were just pretending to have trouble with academics, and kept trying to hang out with them. It wasn't until I was sorting through the wreckage of my career that I learned that there is also Emotional Intelligence, and my scores there are about half to one-third my IQ. My childhood heroes all advised finding a partner for the less-technical work, and I never found a good one.

It smarts every time I'm aware how stupid I am