highly gifted IQ and above : Question

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A hierarchical comparison suited the crap dressed up as gold fakeness I was getting across.

Sorry for that I think unique minds like yours just don't fit into such stereotyped categories.

^ For me ,being totally useless in a myriad of ways,it's a fragile attempt to prove there's one thing I'm passable at.

You have “people skills,” Firemonkey.

That’s for sure.

Gad, they sure are not "known" by me, and I make jewellery. I've never understood the "luxury" watch trade. People may think that they are showing off their wealth, but I have been using a strictly utilitarian home-made watch strap for years and I seriously doubt that anyone has noticed. I'd have replaced the whole thing, but the old sign of quality, a thin watch, really does have some practical value and nobody is even trying any longer to combine that with a few practical functions.

I had heard of Ratner before. There was one in a batch of watches for sale at an antique store. I passed on it as I collect Swiss movement watches when I can find them.

The luxury watch market is mostly about appearances. Some of them do not function well as a real everyday watches. They just do not last when put to the test. I destroyed an inherited Rolex when acid penetrated the rubber seals (long story). I bought a nice Bulova watch to wear and it has lasted much longer. It has been subject to the same conditions and has not failed me yet.

I use my best watches for special occasions only. My favorite is an old 18K Ernest Borel that I picked up at a garage sale for $2.50 when I was in high school. It almost does not fit me now, but I want to keep it original.

Sorry to go off topic. Watches are one of my special topics that I collect.

I bet many people use their phone as their "watch."

Firemonkey: you're at least a Citizen watch in my book

Happy you gentlemen having a space to chat here, it is fun to see

I do have a Citizen eco drive watch.

I can't dispute that--I've met a lot of Mensans (including the one I see in a mirror and the one I married). The ability to take IQ tests is exactly what an IQ score indicates.

When I said:I meant "intelligence" in a more general, useful survival sense. I'm thinking of, for instance, the ability to adapt to having a poor short-term memory.

One of the hardest things that I teach my students in chemistry is how to think adaptable. Many of them come into the course with the expectation that they will not be mentally challenged. I soon change that perception for them with a project that they must work on alone. Some do not do well on that part, so I usually see them again the next semester. They might have great memorization skills, but that will only carry one so far in science.

My goal is to foster the mental skills set inside of them to think outside of the box and to be able to do it quickly. If they want to survive well in grad school, they need that skill honed. Those that struggle and ask for help are the ones that I am looking for. They usually have time to work on those skills before they really need to use it.

I see so many students who go to classes and do not use their brains except to learn how to regurgitate the material. That is sad to me that they do not want to actively learn knowledge, only the minimum parts of it to get by enough to get a good paying job. You need creativity to be successful in science.

They expect not to be mentally challenged by quantum chemistry?
Lol.

Sadly, that is not the course that I mentally challenge them in. They have someone else teaching quantum (second semester physical chemistry). I wish that they would give me that course to teach, but my boss picks his favorites for teaching duties. It frustrates me to no end to see how badly that class is being taught here. They literally read out of the book to the students.

In my usual style, I typed out and edited three separate, different responses in this thread last night. Hit "cancel" on each, as I couldn't communicate what I was trying to say well. I'm still not sure I am.
Oh, one more quick thing: I don't have a professional diagnosis. I don't have the money to pursue one. I feel completely certain that I'm autistic, with a fairly textbook Asperger's presentation.

For me, my autism was fairly well hidden for most of my life. I was smart enough to fit into that "well, he's really smart, so of course he's a bit weird and socially inept" category. My sensory issues were just what the world was, to me. I didn't realize that others were experiencing light and sounds differently for a long time.
I could never figure out how to be, what to say, etc. but I also took that as the effects of IQ. Also, it was the 80s and I had no speech delay, no difficulties with learning, nothing that would alert anyone to anything at that time. I feel pretty sure that if I had been born anytime after about 1990 I would have been diagnosed with AS. All the signs were there, there was just no one who knew how to read them.
It felt very unsafe to be "too different" and I was pretty close to that point already, so my brain completely suppressed anything that would make me seem more different than I already was. It was never masking, realistically, as it was never a conscious choice, just suppression that was completely subconscious for the same reason it existed. Now I'm trying to do less of it, and it's hard trying to figure out who and what I really am, underneath the internal pressure. It's both good and terrible, many times at the same time. I'm glad to finally have things make sense in ways they never never never did, but at the same time I sometimes am not sure who I really am, and at others I feel like I'll explode if I even let up on the pressure. It's a work in progress. Feels like walking on a razor blade sometimes.

**Edited to add: And with all that, I barely touched on the answer to the question. Wall-o-text, check. Tangential communication, check. Still unsure exactly how I can communicate exactly what I'm trying to, check. I should just forward a copy of my AQ and Aspie Test along with this post to a psychologist, then I'd have a diagnosis letter...

Given we are talking about a certain type of intelligence: Yes, I can hide better. This is good and this is bad.

When I started going to school I quickly learned to hide my differences, which meant I hid myself near entirely: quiet and obedient. I was invisible. I appeared unintelligent to my peers. I found theatre and was taught how to emote "correctly". My family had a crisis and all of a sudden I appeared. My high school classmates commented on how intelligent I was... and strange. Still I was seen for my achievements (a feature in the yearbook junior year), but not socially (missing from any senior year activity). In college, alongside my engineering degree I studied advanced psychiatry and communication. As a female autist this was especially important given cultural expectations. I have been employed well and mostly passed (eccentric) but I have also suffered greatly (which is too often invalidated).

My therapist calls my intelligence a blessing and a curse relative to the ASD. I agree.

I have a non-verbal ASD friend --- she is mostly underestimated. I am a verbal ASD person --- I am mostly overestimated. Fortunately community resources are provided to aid her. Fortunately I find community resources to aid me. I found a spouse to take care of me (and I take care of him too: Benny and Joon).

So I look "successful" but just tonight my spouse came home late and my daughter and I were in tears b/c she was hungry. So smart sometimes and so ineffective sometimes. My spouse took care of it.

There’s always pasta and butter