It is hard not to be condescending here (Phoenix, Young: homes, university)

[blisterpeanuts]

OP, I recommend that you present all potential friends and acquaintances with a brief IQ test. If they pass, great. If not, you can just move on. It could be as simple as asking them what a branched chain amino acid is, or how many nanometers fit in an inch. In this manner, you can filter out all of the inferior people and surround yourself with the intellectual elite that you crave.

By the way, people in the northwest valley have the highest IQs. Don't listen to what these other people say.

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

Cause I really do not think most people here are intelligent. Of course if you go to particular settings you could be around people who are smart and successfull, but I am talking about the overall environment. The intellectualness of the people in the Phoenix area is seriously lacking compared to other places I have resided in. I am an educated college graduate and I wonder why people here seem so rude, prejudice, and uneducated?

The majority of the people I encountered here are.....I DONT KNOW. I don't know about you, but it is not fun to have that feeling that you are so much smarter then the person you are interacting with. Apparently I will just have to adjust...

Which goes back to my biggest gripe about Phoenix. The school systems are horrible here. From Elementary to College. People don't think it's a problem now, but in ten years, you will have a totally under educated population. Phoenix apparently thinks it's OK to dumb down the kids here. Drives me nuts.

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

Which goes back to my biggest gripe about Phoenix. The school systems are horrible here. From Elementary to College. People don't think it's a problem now, but in ten years, you will have a totally under educated population. Phoenix apparently thinks it's OK to dumb down the kids here. Drives me nuts.

Well, this just means more job opportunities for out-of-staters who want to come and work here!

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by blisterpeanuts

OP, I recommend that you present all potential friends and acquaintances with a brief IQ test. If they pass, great. If not, you can just move on. It could be as simple as asking them what a branched chain amino acid is, or how many nanometers fit in an inch. In this manner, you can filter out all of the inferior people and surround yourself with the intellectual elite that you crave.

By the way, people in the northwest valley have the highest IQs. Don't listen to what these other people say.

Hmmm, IQ tests measure a range of things, so to base someone's IQ on one question that your average person might not able to answer isn't necessarily a good indicator, but I am sure you were just kidding.

I'm interested in your assertion that people in the NW Valley have the highest IQs? Care to substantiate this with a link of some sorts?

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by movin'on

Well, this just means more job opportunities for out-of-staters who want to come and work here!

That is true, but it doesn't help the area in general.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

I guess I must be one of the "less smart" people because I think so many of the people I know are smarter than me.

My grandkids are very intelligent and I used to tell them they got the smart genes from me, and the good looking genes from their grand mother.

Now I've got to tell them it must be the other way around!!!

Geez, it's terrible to be dumb. I don't know how I've made it this far.

I just wish I could know how it feels to be smarter than every one else. Up to now I've been content with life knowing that I'm not the smartest kid on the block. But now I'm thinking I must be missing out on life by not being one of the smart ones.

But the more I think about it, if I were that smart and had to be around so many people who wouldn't be at my high intellectual level, then I'd be miserable like the OP. So I guess I'll remain happy, knowing that I'm dumber than others.

Well you know what they say Bill.......Ignorance is bliss

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by Plin

I hate this kind of comment. For what it's worth, I'd probably qualify as a Socialist here in the U.S., but I happen to know quite a few extremely intelligent conservatives. (Not coincidentally, all of them despise Bush, but that's another matter.) The political spectrum can't be overlaid on a range of IQ scores. There is no right answer to most political questions, as much as each of us would like to believe that our way is the best.

Did I hit a nerve? How can I say this without getting flamed and not to offend? Anyone who still supports Bush and has children is in my book not smart at all. If you don't have kids and are only thinking of yourself, maybe there is a slight justification to it, as in "I have mine and just want to eek my way through this world until I die." Having said this, any reformed republican is ok in my book and no doubt their IQ jumped a bit for having seen the light. Liberals, OTOH, pretty much always saw the light, so I will say they are a lot smarter than their conservative counterparts. Now, I happen to have two very smart brothers who support Bush, but they are also checking the Dow daily and that tells you were they are coming from.

I also know a lot of smart people who aren't very politically minded at all, so your argument that political groups are where the intellectuals hang out isn't very well supported.

Hmmm, yes, this is true. I have a friend like this - very smart and politically apathetic. Sigh. I wouldn't call her an intellectual either. She is only looking at today and her world. I think to take an intellectual approach demands that one look at the big picture - not only "how does this current situation affect me?" but "how does it impact the world in general and what are the ramifications going to be down the road given the current course of action?" And those in politics (hopefully) do look at the big picture. I guess I am not referring to your everyday Democrat, rather the kind of individual who gets actively involved in change in the ways that matter. These would be the folks who are involved in End the War Coalition or who take the time to stand in front of McCain's office and demand an end to this senseless and very destructive war, on so many levels.

I haven't moved there yet, but in the short time I've spent in Phoenix I've encountered quite a number of smart and/or intellectual people. On top of that, I don't think that intelligence is the sole measure of a person's worth: I'd rather my next-door neighbor be kind-hearted and simple rather than a brilliant jerk, for example. (Not that one can't be both brilliant and kind-hearted, or a simple jerk. There's room for everyone.)

Well, maybe you should reserve judgment until you have lived here for awhile. BTW, I whole heartedly agree with your take on the next door neighbor thing.

In my experience, people who bemoan the lack of intellectual equals around them are simply egocentrics with an overinflated sense of their own importance, and who make little effort to truly engage with their environment (because it would be beneath them, you see). I personally think that you get back of your environment what you put into it. I expect to love living in Phoenix.

Ok, guess you are entitled to this opinion. I disagree. I think everyone who works at this particular radio station in Phoenix would qualify as intellectual (there again, applying the definition I provided earlier) and they are quite far removed from what you mention above.

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

That is true, but it doesn't help the area in general.

An infusion of talent and education helps any area. Now, it might not be good for those who choose to live and raise their children in AZ, but it's still good for the area that the best and brightest might choose to live here. It just might not be AZ natives who end up getting the best jobs. Survival of the fittest and all that other good stuff. BTW, I have no children here, hence my rather objective input.

[rogetsthesaurus]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

Which goes back to my biggest gripe about Phoenix. The school systems are horrible here. From Elementary to College. People don't think it's a problem now, but in ten years, you will have a totally under educated population. Phoenix apparently thinks it's OK to dumb down the kids here. Drives me nuts.

Londonbarcelona, I have noticed a trend on the board where you pronounce a very grim view of education in Arizona. I am moving from Indiana to teach in Phoenix. I do not expect better schools, but I'm also wondering what can be worse than in the school where I currently teach. Would you be able to share some specific illustrations of how apocraphyl education is in the Phoenix area because I am lacking specific details to form an informed context.

I would propose a sloppy argument, easily contested, that what those who don't work in education would view as sub-par education nationwide. Young people (I'm 26) are not hungry for knowledge or a better life. They are consumers of entertainment and social aggrandizement. I don't bemoan this fact (you wont' find me railing against the ills of MySpace, MTV, etc.) Instead, I think the way we've been doing education - quietly sitting in nice rows, doing #1-50 as homework exercises out of our textbooks, and saying "yes, sir" to the teacher are extinct. Those methods simply do not address the gestalt mind of today's young person. If you have a child who is a school student and DOES ENJOY reading The Scarlett Letter, doing three hours of homework a night, can sit at your dinner table and extrapolate a long narrative of what s/he learned at school today, you have an exceptional child - not the norm in today's schools from the shores of California, to the big-brained burbs of Minnesota, to the closed steel mills of Pittsburgh, to the ivy-covered walls of New England.

Arizona ranks near the bottom of education reports and measurements, but I cannot find any illustrative details/exmaples of what that means per se.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[movin'on]

I don't know if you've seen this before, but it's an article published in the Phx Business Journal.

Arizona ranks as the dumbest state:

Arizona ranks as dumbest state in the U.S. - The Business Journal of Phoenix: