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Ha; you just described me. It’s true ... I do survive but barely.
I have two savant abilities & while they have a “cool” factor; they are not the type of thing one puts in a portfolio or resume. I’m sort of a Novelty Human.
I’m more proud of the ordinary accomplishment of being a college grad. It was was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, because I had to learn how to learn.
Savant abilities are not “teachable” & usually there are no memories of having “learned” them. Setting a goal of graduating meant making a commitment to learning. Pathways for learning that most will form starting in Kindergarten; were literally non-existent in me. So; it was huge for me to do something ordinary.
I’m not sure, though; if I would “trade-in” my bizarre talents in exchange for success as determined by society. I’m not sure I’d recognize the world without them.
I don’t even know what the IQ requirement is for Mensa but I might question whether or not I’d belong to an intelligence-based community that would actually have me . Sort of a “there goes the neighborhood” type of thing.
But you must have learned how to learn in order to get through middle school and high school? Writing essays for English and history classes? What was your experience learning a foreign language? (Just curious.).
Mensa is not what most people think it is. It is a social club made up of people with IQs in the top 2%. .
To sum it up, Mensa is a social group and not a think tank. It tends to attract people who like to play games that require intelligence or just like to talk to others like them once in a while. Job wise it has been responsible for over a million dollars I made from jobs I got by listing Mensa on my resume, so suck eggs for all those that told me not to do it.
I passed the test...maybe I joined for one year back when. I had an employee (the lowest on my totem pole) who was triple 9's - meaning only 1 out of 20 Mensa members might qualify (99.9%). He was a complete and utter failure in most every way.
One thing Mensa failed to teach you is how little a million dollars is....heck, without Mensa I made that a couple times over in my spare time after creating a web site. And I did it without selling anything or taking advantage of anyone...just by informing and educating people.
Almost by definition if you've had "jobs", you could have done much better...
I guess I never played games. I always put that same energy into my work (which was also generally my hobbies and my pleasures). It's funny to hear friends and family now say I had the "Midas Touch" when the truth is anything but. I just enjoyed solving different kinds of problems than games...like those in the real world. It's actually much harder because the "game" takes years and even decades...and you can lose and not just say "new game". You have to pay for the loss.
IMHO, those with an IQ from 110 to 140 are probably (in general) the best compromise...assuming they have common sense and emotional intelligence.
Oh, the pretty women! I have a cousin who was born way back and 3 months premature. He was always slow, but a nice guy. His GF's included top Brazilian models...to quote him "just like Playboy playmates". I can assure you that neither IQ nor looks had anything to do with it.
But you must have learned how to learn in order to get through middle school and high school? Writing essays for English and history classes? What was your experience learning a foreign language? (Just curious.).
I didn’t get through either middle school or high school.
My last passing grade was in the 1st semester of the 8th grade. I had been bored & frustrated for years when things like term papers & team projects were necessary & I had become very lazy. I attended only 50% of classes in the 9th grade/no passing grades, 35% in the first semester of 10th & 11% of the last semester with zero passing grades.
I was expelled from the district on my 16th birthday.
I took the GED within a month or so, without preparation & passed in the top 1-2% of the nation. This was only because one of my savant skills is Atypical Hyperlexia & all GED equivalency is based on information that can be read.
My reading level was tested at that of a HS graduate in the 2nd grade; the same grade that I was in when the school told my parents that I was “retarded”. I had learned how to tune out verbal instruction & was fundamentally inept.
I used my GED to gain admittance to a community college at age 18, established a GPA for one year & used that to transfer to a university.
That first semester in CC I scored poorly & was put on academic probation: I did not know how to study, thought that taking notes meant to write the lecture down verbatim & had no clue how to use highlighter pens in a textbook. I couldn’t use a calculator, any keyboard & was unsure as to what whiteout even was.
When a teacher did a quick review of the basic outline for essay writing; I almost fainted: It was literally the most ingenious tool I had ever seen & it was an epic discovery for me. Finally; the information highway inside my brain was not a one-way street & my 2nd semester; I scored all A’s.
I regret never having learned a foreign language & unless I was immersed in a community where one was spoken; I doubt I could be taught.
I'm a high school drop-out, took 12 years to finish college, and my highest ranking job ever was being a special education teacher which I struggled with due to organizational issues and admin thinking I'm too quirky. I can't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time and endlessly pay bills late but I just found out, due to interest stirred up by this thread, that I am qualified to join MENSA. LOL. Apparently being really good at analogies is enough. I am not putting them down b/c there is a lot to be said for being with people who can speak on your level, but there is more to good conversation than that. I tend to be most interested in highly intelligent people with a goodly dose of AD/HD and an interest in alternative lifestyles. I probably won't pay the fees to join MENSA.
Mensa? Useless to society. Very tentative people, self-important, and generally quite dull.
I've only known a few people who admitted interest in Mensa-type groups. Found these few to be self-absorbed, pedantic, sanctimonious, and frankly, boring. Now if one of these folks used those brilliant faculties to solve one of the planet's burning issues, they would have my heartfelt respect.
Last edited by Parnassia; 06-23-2018 at 05:43 PM..
Wow, wonder just where these Mensa Clubs were located? Any city or state that really stands out for the club(s) really being egotistical or perhaps pompous?
I had to take an IQ test back in the mid-80's for a position of employment. It was done by a clinical Pyschologist, so the results were not those of High school or college testing, nor the Mensa testing that can be taken at the Mensa club ( or so the site for MENSA states? )
So I got in due to that test result...actually I was a bit surprised at the result...sadly I did not live up to my capacity...per my mother!!!
Anyway, I have attended the Gulf States Mensa get together in Houston, Texas and a group while living in Geneva, Switzerland.
I have attended some of the lectures with my DH, and one or two events with a co-worker/ higher-up executive where my DH used to work. He did not want to go alone, wife said...tsk, not for me...and took off to play in a bridge tournament!
I never met anyone obnoxious or snobbish regarding the intellectual aspect of the club...the chat tended to flow more along the lines of current events, what the topic of the lecture was, what you did on vacation( some members took some of those National Geographic travel tours and had great info to share.) Family, jobs, the weather ( which is quite a topic in and of it'self in the current year) etc.....
Pretty generic, safe topics...younger people wanting to network and connect socially more so than those above 50 or so.
Although I can imagine if you get too familiar with the In crowd that you might have to walk away from some of the "we are superior nonsense". People with a attitude similar to those privileged/well heeled members of a exclusive country club?
If someone is of high intelligence, I would imagine that there's a strong chance that spending your time with those of lower intelligence could become rather mundane without some sort of cerebral outlet.
Not really. I have a very high IQ, and joined Mensa because a man at work says that he can call up random fellow-Mensans and have a drinking buddy when he travels for work. He also told me a fun story about being involved with a Mensan group that entered a sand castle competition.
I attended a national Mensa conference talking about consciousness that I found very interesting. I was in my mid 40s at the time. I was involved with Mensa activities for several years, in two locations - a city and a suburb of that city.
Most of the peole in Mensa are not that smart. Most of them are very very narrow minded, and think they know everything. That was a real problem for me. They were not capable of having interesting conversations because once they got out of school, they quit learning, and were close-minded to new information. So most of the Mensa meetings I attended were game night, or getting drunk, or eating chocolate. The few discussion meetings were dominated by wanna-be alpha males who bullied everyone into shutting up who didn't agree with their 20-years out-of-date, conservative points of view.
I gave it a go for about four years, and finally gave up.
Not really. I have a very high IQ, and joined Mensa because a man at work says that he can call up random fellow-Mensans and have a drinking buddy when he travels for work. He also told me a fun story about being involved with a Mensan group that entered a sand castle competition.
I attended a national Mensa conference talking about consciousness that I found very interesting. I was in my mid 40s at the time. I was involved with Mensa activities for several years, in two locations - a city and a suburb of that city.
Most of the peole in Mensa are not that smart. Most of them are very very narrow minded, and think they know everything. That was a real problem for me. They were not capable of having interesting conversations because once they got out of school, they quit learning, and were close-minded to new information. So most of the Mensa meetings I attended were game night, or getting drunk, or eating chocolate. The few discussion meetings were dominated by wanna-be alpha males who bullied everyone into shutting up who didn't agree with their 20-years out-of-date, conservative points of view.
I gave it a go for about four years, and finally gave up.
I've not been to a MENSA meeting but I know the type and I'd be outta there too. Actually, the most intellectually interesting crowd I've met was at a CHADD meeting (Children and Adults with ADD), which was in direct contrast to what most people think it would be. It turns out that folks with ADD, or at least the ones who would attend a support meeting, are highly intellectually curious, more so than most groups I've associated myself with. I think the reason is because if we're listening to an interesting lecture, we appear to lose focus b/c our minds are traveling down "rabbit holes" and making interesting associations with other random bits of knowledge that we have in our backgrounds. I think we also continue on a lifelong learning pursuit b/c we seem to be better at learning things on our own than learning them at school and we are well aware that we don't know it all.
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. Sort of a “there goes the neighborhood” type of thing.
