Hacker News Reader

Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

What about having an IQ in the top 2% isn't a big deal?

Intelligence alone doesn't make you special. I myself have a pretty high IQ, but for the first 20 years of my life, I squandered the time and resources that were at my disposal and now I'm 30 years old, still in college, and in a position that is way below my potential.

There are people of average intelligence who have created billion dollar companies because they worked hard, and there are geniuses who never contribute anything to the world. Hard working, intelligent people should be celebrated, not intelligence alone.

EDIT: Just to make sure I'm not being misunderstood. Being a member of Mensa isn't a bad thing, it's just not that big of a deal.

Didn't see any contact info in your profile.

Just wanted to say, keep it up. It gets a lot better if you keep plugging away at it. Was in your spot 7 years ago, finished college at 34 and life is amazing now. Good luck.

Thanks. I actually just landed my dream job yesterday, which I'll be starting soon. It's entry level, but it's in the field I want to spend the rest of my life in.

Agreed - and an IQ score is just the result of someone who is able to do well in an IQ test, not a mark of intelligence. I know have fiends who have "very high IQs", and are fully functional adults with full lives - but who would not be able to run a business, manage a team or even remember errands they are sent on.

They hold down great jobs, have phd's and are amazing in their fields, but in many parts of their lives you wouldn't consider them 'bright' or 'smart'.

You can also do well on IQ tests by practicing doing IQ tests, though I'd argue that this doesn't necessarily make you much more intelligent over all - certainly not for things that aren't similar to IQ test questions anyway.

IQ isn't a big deal, but neither is degree pedigree. He's making up for a deficiency in one signal by providing another, in effect saying "don't think I'm stupid because I didn't attend college."

If you have an elite degree and a technical major, you probably shouldn't include Mensa.

I don't disagree with the author putting it on his resume. I probably would have done the same in his situation (if I were clever enough to think of it).

The mensa application is not an IQ based threshold per-se (or at least, not anymore). They basically take any standardized test, and the thresholds are top 5%, not 2%. So mensa just means something like a top 20 school. Seeing the variation of output of even the better half of those schools, it sort of lowers bar for the "Brand Mensa". The 150ish IQ threshold (public imagination) would be a bit more strict in many regards.

http://www.us.mensa.org/AML/?LinkServID=005EB3F7-B83A-44BA-B...

> Being a member of Mensa isn't a bad thing, it's just not that big of a deal.

I argue that it kind of is, in that only 2% of the population qualifies for it. And the idea is that it's not something just anyone can change about themselves and achieve.

I agree that success is very dependent on many factors, and intelligence is not a required one. But it is correlated with success in many areas (such as intellectually or mentally-oriented fields) and it gives a good base line of potential. Like in your case, you say you are currently working short of your potential. I wonder if your clone, minus, say, 30 IQ points, would be able to say that.

It's kind of like being a fast runner (not a perfect analogy, but I don't need it to be perfect here). That will help a lot in some sports, it will help a little in some, and it won't in others. But if you can run the 100-meter dash in a top 2% time, that's a useful bit of information, especially for a prospective coach.

More than 2% of population qualify. This is a great interview question for any data analysis related job: Explain why Mensa's brand claims are false, then explain why you thought joining Mensa would impress me.

Wrong question. Why is Mensa no big deal? Because the demographic is high-IQ non-achievers. They like to get together and chat; that's all you know about Mensa members.

It's not _having_ a big brain that matters, it's what one does with it.

Because it isn't indicative of anything. If all else was equal it might be relevant, but if you had to pick between someone in Mensa and someone who has shipped a product the decision seems rather clear.

Rather, intelligence doesn't correlate with getting anything done, nor does it correlate with being a pleasant person.

I got into Mensa in high school (sophomore circa 2003), but quit as soon as I had gotten what I wanted. The people in Mensa are extremely varied.

After high school I went to an engineering university, hoping to find a lot of bright happy smart people, and was amazed to find the sheer number of people who were intelligent but incapable of interacting with society or being productive. Great minds and personalities who were self-sequestered from the world. It felt tragic sometimes.

As I remember, they want IQ above 130, which isn't such a big deal if you are into math, logical puzzles etc. I did one IQ test myself and scored 135, while around 75% of questions were kind of small puzzles I used to solve on math competitions in basic and secondary grammar school. (Then there were also some tough questions towards the end of the test).

One of my university classmate scored "above 150", and that I would call a big deal - he has quite a sharp mind.

Funny how "mensa" is the feminine of dumb in Spanish. One would think these "smart" people would have done more research before picking that name.

It's from the latin for table. One would think you'd have done your research before criticising others for not doing their research.

Especially Mensans. Don't ever try to outsmart Mensans.

It's not just IQ, but one of 200 different tests [1]. For example, if you score an 800 on the math portion of the SAT, you're in.

[1] http://www.us.mensa.org/join/testscores/qualifyingscorefaq/

And an 800 on math requires comprehension of age 16 math, on a test taken as many times as you like before age 18.

The fact that having a high IQ is not an accurate measurement of the impact you will have on the world. There are plenty of people with high IQ's who don't contribute anything meaningful and many more people with "normal" IQ's who are changing the world.

It's true. A high IQ is like having a car with a lot of horse power. Its effectiveness depends upon how and where you drive it, and even then it won't be enough to get you everywhere.

The part where you're an insecure underachiever who feels the need to join an elitist club based on having an IQ in the top 2%, really.

Because it's a metric that doesn't wholly reflect what you have done or will be capable of doing in the future.

the fact that 2% of the entire world has one

It is top 2 percent "equvalent" scale score on any one instance of an intelligence or aptitude test, not top 2% overall, and that is a score that anyone remotely qualified for a relevant job would be able to do. It is entirely game able.

And it is douchy to boot. If you want to advertise your 1560 SAT, do that. Why send away for a Mensa membership and brag about that? It adds no value and shows you waste money and effort tracing meaningless tags. Are you listed in Who's Who in US Business too?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com