I was a super senior at high school graduating at age 20 and I never went to university or college although I would like to.
“Were the results a surprise?”
Yes they were.
“And most importantly, has it affected your self-esteem at all”
I’m not capable of low self esteem. It’s more like I feel shame and anger for it.
“or do you know how little an IQ test actually means?”
I hate people saying this. It’s like if you were blind and everyone who could see told you that vision doesn’t mean anything. I have seen first hand how IQ affects you. I remember how different I was to the other kids in my school. The way they could just learn things I couldn’t. I’ve experienced how my IQ has singled me out from everyone else. Do you know what it’s like to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard you try you’ll always be slower then everyone else? Do you know what it’s like to come to terms with the fact that you’ll never be a nurse, programmer or go to university/college no matter how hard you try? Do you know what it’s like to come to terms with the fact that you’ll never develop over the mental age of a teenager? No, you won’t so fuck off with this corny bullshit about trying your hardest. Real life is not some cheesy sports movie where you really put your mind to something and overcome all the odds. That doesn’t happen in the real world. Kid.
Right on - are there any jobs you’d rather be doing? I’ve been thinking of retraining to become an animal handler, lately 😆 I think you might be able to do that with a low IQ! Maybe that’s more satisfying than flipping burgers… Though I got a craving for a whopper now.
Even if the IQ tests you took were accurate (probably weren’t), they test a very specific type of problem solving intelligence. That type of intelligence may be required for abstract reasoning like physics and maths, but it’s not necessary for being a successful human.
There are many other types of intelligence that are not tested for in that test. Other types of intelligence that can have a much bigger impact on one’s success.
One example is physical or spatial intelligence. My brother for example is just good with his hands, taking things apart, putting them back together. He’s a mechanic now, but this trait was apparent before he could talk - he used a screwdriver to take apart a chair, and he would pull out drawers to use them as a ladder to get up on the kitchen counter.
Another type of intelligence is social or emotional intelligence. Some very high IQ individuals would test very very low if this one had a test. But this can have a bigger impact on your relationships, on your life, and even on your career than the IQ type of intelligence.
Artistic and creative intelligence, athletic intelligence. There are many other kinds. Some people are really good at gardening or farming.
You can read and write, which would make you a genius scholar a few hundred years ago. Don’t worry about a number on a test. Just like your grades in school they don’t matter. It absolutely does not indicate that you won’t mature or that you’re inferior to anybody.
It’s like if you were blind and everyone who could see told you that vision doesn’t mean anything.
It’s more like if you were blind, tested your running speed, performed poorly, attribute all your problems to being a bad runner, then everyone tells you that running speed doesn’t mean anything.
I acknowledge that there’s things that are more difficult for you and that negatively affects your quality of life, but it doesn’t sound like those problems are the same ones that IQ tests are measuring. If you care to work on improving your situation, it’s important to know what the actual problems are before you can even start trying to address them.
I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m autistic and much older than you, so yeah, I do actually know what it’s like to have to come to terms with my own limitations. I know exactly what you mean about being angry and ashamed of those limitations. Every time I fail to extract myself from a situation and have a meltdown, screaming and hitting myself in the head - sometimes in public - and having to face that, what everyone saw, once I’m calm and quiet and lucid again. Every time I look gullible because I fall for some obvious bullshit (satire or parody news, for example). Knowing I could be more if I could just understand people, and get them to understand me.
That’s what I mean when I say IQ tests don’t really mean anything, they measure just a few aspects of intelligence and it doesn’t tell you anything meaningful about a whole person. My partner has been told by people she thought were friends that she’s dumb and she doesn’t bring anything to the table, and it destroyed her self esteem, but it was absolutely not true or fair and I’ve spent years undoing that damage. I was hoping you don’t suffer that too, that’s all.
I didn’t once say anything about trying your hardest, but if you really want to expand that last half of my last question into a whole point, then it should be this: you are perfectly capable of living a good life, being happy, and making others happy, regardless of a score on a test.
That’s what I mean when I say IQ tests don’t really mean anything, they measure just a few aspects of intelligence and it doesn’t tell you anything meaningful about a whole person
Are parts of someone’s intelligence not a meaningful part of them? And I don’t mean in the “other people should judge them for it” sense, just, in general it seems like a pretty notable piece of you.
Are parts of someone’s intelligence not a meaningful part of them?
As meaningful as any other fraction of a part of a person by itself, and no - it’s not as notable as most people would like make out.
Are just a few aspects of someone’s intellect (working memory and speed/accuracy in information processing) the whole of who they are as a person?
Are the only valuable parts of a person those aspects of intelligence a given IQ test is designed to measure?
Is it impossible to live a good and fulfilling life, if you score poorly on such a test?
If you answer those questions “No”, then you get it. For myself and my own experience, I find plenty of joy and meaning in my life despite my deficiencies; whether I can remember a factoid instead of having to look it up, or whether I can calculate a percentage tip in my head vs using a calculator, hasn’t impacted that at all.
“What do you do for work?”
I’m a burger flipper at Burger King.
“What level of education have you completed?”
I was a super senior at high school graduating at age 20 and I never went to university or college although I would like to.
“Were the results a surprise?”
Yes they were.
“And most importantly, has it affected your self-esteem at all”
I’m not capable of low self esteem. It’s more like I feel shame and anger for it.
“or do you know how little an IQ test actually means?”
I hate people saying this. It’s like if you were blind and everyone who could see told you that vision doesn’t mean anything. I have seen first hand how IQ affects you. I remember how different I was to the other kids in my school. The way they could just learn things I couldn’t. I’ve experienced how my IQ has singled me out from everyone else. Do you know what it’s like to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard you try you’ll always be slower then everyone else? Do you know what it’s like to come to terms with the fact that you’ll never be a nurse, programmer or go to university/college no matter how hard you try? Do you know what it’s like to come to terms with the fact that you’ll never develop over the mental age of a teenager? No, you won’t so fuck off with this corny bullshit about trying your hardest. Real life is not some cheesy sports movie where you really put your mind to something and overcome all the odds. That doesn’t happen in the real world. Kid.
Right on - are there any jobs you’d rather be doing? I’ve been thinking of retraining to become an animal handler, lately 😆 I think you might be able to do that with a low IQ! Maybe that’s more satisfying than flipping burgers… Though I got a craving for a whopper now.
Who knows I may be serving you burgers on the week days. I would love to become a nurse or maybe a game developer.
Even if the IQ tests you took were accurate (probably weren’t), they test a very specific type of problem solving intelligence. That type of intelligence may be required for abstract reasoning like physics and maths, but it’s not necessary for being a successful human.
There are many other types of intelligence that are not tested for in that test. Other types of intelligence that can have a much bigger impact on one’s success.
One example is physical or spatial intelligence. My brother for example is just good with his hands, taking things apart, putting them back together. He’s a mechanic now, but this trait was apparent before he could talk - he used a screwdriver to take apart a chair, and he would pull out drawers to use them as a ladder to get up on the kitchen counter.
Another type of intelligence is social or emotional intelligence. Some very high IQ individuals would test very very low if this one had a test. But this can have a bigger impact on your relationships, on your life, and even on your career than the IQ type of intelligence.
Artistic and creative intelligence, athletic intelligence. There are many other kinds. Some people are really good at gardening or farming.
You can read and write, which would make you a genius scholar a few hundred years ago. Don’t worry about a number on a test. Just like your grades in school they don’t matter. It absolutely does not indicate that you won’t mature or that you’re inferior to anybody.
It’s more like if you were blind, tested your running speed, performed poorly, attribute all your problems to being a bad runner, then everyone tells you that running speed doesn’t mean anything.
I acknowledge that there’s things that are more difficult for you and that negatively affects your quality of life, but it doesn’t sound like those problems are the same ones that IQ tests are measuring. If you care to work on improving your situation, it’s important to know what the actual problems are before you can even start trying to address them.
Thank you for your works. I do have other problems in my life I’ve never denied that.
I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m autistic and much older than you, so yeah, I do actually know what it’s like to have to come to terms with my own limitations. I know exactly what you mean about being angry and ashamed of those limitations. Every time I fail to extract myself from a situation and have a meltdown, screaming and hitting myself in the head - sometimes in public - and having to face that, what everyone saw, once I’m calm and quiet and lucid again. Every time I look gullible because I fall for some obvious bullshit (satire or parody news, for example). Knowing I could be more if I could just understand people, and get them to understand me.
That’s what I mean when I say IQ tests don’t really mean anything, they measure just a few aspects of intelligence and it doesn’t tell you anything meaningful about a whole person. My partner has been told by people she thought were friends that she’s dumb and she doesn’t bring anything to the table, and it destroyed her self esteem, but it was absolutely not true or fair and I’ve spent years undoing that damage. I was hoping you don’t suffer that too, that’s all.
I didn’t once say anything about trying your hardest, but if you really want to expand that last half of my last question into a whole point, then it should be this: you are perfectly capable of living a good life, being happy, and making others happy, regardless of a score on a test.
Are parts of someone’s intelligence not a meaningful part of them? And I don’t mean in the “other people should judge them for it” sense, just, in general it seems like a pretty notable piece of you.
As meaningful as any other fraction of a part of a person by itself, and no - it’s not as notable as most people would like make out.
If you answer those questions “No”, then you get it. For myself and my own experience, I find plenty of joy and meaning in my life despite my deficiencies; whether I can remember a factoid instead of having to look it up, or whether I can calculate a percentage tip in my head vs using a calculator, hasn’t impacted that at all.