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	white_tean 2013-03-24 10:55 am UTC (link)
	What is it with this persistent delusion that being in the top 1% of intelligence is remotely comparable to genius? 1 in 100 people are bright, but they're far removed from Einstein, Tesla, or other geniuses. The top one or two percent of intelligence is just like, average grad student smarts (and to even get into grad school you still have to work). (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ladyvyola 2013-03-24 03:25 pm UTC (link)
	I believe it's one manifestation of Special Snowflake Syndrome. Gotta cling to something in the face of all other evidence. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	white_tean 2013-03-24 04:37 pm UTC (link)
	You're quite write, and Snowflake Syndrome is just the perfect name for that; "Sure, I've never achieved anything in my life because I have no work ethic, but I'm innately special so it's okay!" mentality. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	duraniedrama 2013-03-24 05:13 pm UTC (link)
	"Sure, I've never achieved anything in my life because I have no work ethic, but I'm innately special so it's okay!" And thus we illustrate the hazards of the self-esteem movement. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	white_tean 2013-03-25 11:03 am UTC (link)
	Ugh, *right, not write. I'm sorry, my brains are trickling out of my ear today... (Reply to this)(Parent)

Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius."

queencallipygos
2013-03-24 07:40 pm UTC (link)

What is it with this persistent delusion that being in the top 1% of intelligence is remotely comparable to genius? 1 in 100 people are bright, but they're far removed from Einstein, Tesla, or other geniuses.

Actually, there's a credible thing that they're probably mangling to get that - the high-IQ society MENSA limits membership to people who are in the upper 2% of IQ scorers, or who score similarly on other similar intelligence assessment tests. In the minds of many, "MENSA" means "that club for geniuses," so it's understandable that if you score in that percentage on an IQ test, then...yeah. And, "genius" is in fact the term for people whose IQ is above a certain score as well.

Of course, those particular definitions of "genius" are only technicalities, and the common understanding of what "genius" is depends on a hell of a lot more than just what your IQ score is. I mean, technically, I'm a genius too -- I qualified for MENSA myself and was a member a few years back. But, as I told everyone at the time, IQ only measures potential - if you have an IQ like that and don't do much with it, then....so what.

I only joined for the social aspect ("I'll meet people I wouldn't have met otherwise, what the hell"), but quit when I got a little sick of running into people who thought that their IQ score meant that their shit didn't stink. Yeah, they were technically geniuses like me, but...they weren't doing a hell of a lot with it other than bullshitting at member meetings, so who cares?

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	Re: Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius." deadrose 2013-03-25 12:41 am UTC (link)
	Hooboy, no kidding. From my experiences, MENSA's a club for people who want to whine about how unfair the world has been to their special snowflake selves. I can get plenty of that without paying money for it. Still, for a few months of my childhood I was their youngest ever member. That and a couple of dollars might get me a cup of coffee. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius."

queencallipygos
2013-03-25 02:36 pm UTC (link)

I only joined after learning that my SAT scores qualified me, and the whole idea of my actually being eligible for MENSA gave me a solid two-minute giggle fit. I figured that was a good sign that I would be able to keep my membership in proper perspective.

I only ever told people I was a member after I'd done something really stupid and I could tell that they were wanting to laugh but trying to hold it so they wouldn't embarass me - I'd tell them "what makes this even worse is I'm in MENSA," so it'd be even funnier for them.

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Re: Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius."

white_tean
2013-03-25 10:25 am UTC (link)

I think that must be an issue with over-application of the word "genius" then, because I was scored at like... a 145 or something? And I could present a very credible (but not a genius) argument about why I'm actually not that intelligent.

I don't think there's anyone who ever read the academic work I do in my chosen field and thought "Wow, that girl's a genius!" even though it's work I have expended nearly every kelvin of brilliance I have on.

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	Re: Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius." white_tean 2013-03-25 10:27 am UTC (link)
	And by "not actually that intelligent" I mean, not a genius. The scoring on intelligence tests has actually been reasonably consistent. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius."

queencallipygos
2013-03-25 02:41 pm UTC (link)

Well, you are a genius in the technical sense of the term. But IQ doesn't necessarily have as much to do with "intelligence" as conventionally understood; I described IQ as a capacity thing. It's like, the size of a pitcher; most people have a half-gallon size pitcher, and we have, like 3/4 gallon pitchers.

But what you do with the pitcher actually is much more interesting to people. No one's gonna care about a 3/4 gallon pitcher if it's full of rancid strawberry yoo-hoo, for instance. Fortunately most people do fill their pitchers with something better, like lemonade or sangria. But conversationally we just reserve "wow, that person's a genius" for someone who's come up with something really interesting for their pitcher, regardless what size it is. And coming up with something super for your pitcher involves many other factors aside from just its size.

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	phosfate 2013-03-28 05:33 am UTC (link)
	"Pitcher" will never seem like a real word again. (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius."

franzen
2013-03-28 05:44 pm UTC (link)

Once you're in the short tail, the difference between 145 and 141 is noise. If the test is normed at ~100, you're several standard deviations out to the right, so unless you really, really care about IQ scores as a measure of self-worth, you're not going to get useful information from testing. You may not perceive yourself as a "genius" relative to your peers or the luminaries in your field, but that's when "different kinds of smart" and "an IQ score is not everything" kick in.

For the record, consistency is a good sign, at least over time, since childhood and adolescent scores are normed differently. If you break the test in one skill at eight because your parents stressed it in the home, you may not keep that score a few years down the line -- if you're no longer exceeding your peers, your score will drop. You didn't get dumber so much as that what used to make you a prodigy is now expected.

But, yes, "genius" is a loaded term. If self-applied, even more so.

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