Does anyone here really believe that IQ tests have any value?
[NB For my own amusement I did sit a test as a teenager and got a stupidly high score, which I can actually explain pretty easily, that rather demonstrated how shallow the tests seemed to me]
I've also never directly encountered anyone discussing their IQ - which would strike me as very silly indeed.
For example, I used one of these programs to spend half my highschool career playing Doom on school computers, and spend the other half of my highschool career taking courses at the local branch of the state university.... Yeah, not a perfect system.
Using IQ tests during hiring is legally risky in the US because it puts you at a high risk of discrimination lawsuits. Subsequently, where you see them in the US, they are masquerading as something else (think "puzzle"/"outside the box thinking" interview questions for programmers).
I beg to differ, and I have this quote to rationalize it:
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth." -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Would I rather be stupid and happy? No! And maybe I'm not of "large intelligence" in the first place, but I'm intelligent enough to often feel very disconnected and alienated from the society around me. I learned how to tell people what they want to hear, but inside I often feel like I'm trapped in some kind of zoo. The heat death of the universe is the only grown up thing I actually get to deal with, and I get to deal with it alone, while most everybody else is either drunk on brain chemistry or not playing in that league. I feel like I'm sitting in some kind of waiting room where there is nothing to do. If it wasn't for things like music, dancing, cats, dogs and toddlers, there is no way I would have made it this far. Flowers and sparrows nourish me, people are a chore. Capitalism? Don't even get me started, unless you're willing to give me an army with which to solve the issue.
And now I'm going to completely contradict myself and say that intelligence is like the horse power of an engine; yeah, it matters, you cannot go anywhere without an engine, and you can't go fast or far with a crappy one. BUT what might matter even more is the steering wheel, and I totally suck at using that. I speed around a lot and end up in ditches, and I think there is something to the "saying" that more intelligence makes bigger mistakes possible; I am a living example of that.
I know I am just whining. My personal inability to enjoy life and other people doesn't have to mean intelligence isn't generally positive; but still, when it comes to society and living and working together, it's all rather relative, and being too smart or too stupid both can easily lead to inefficiencies and heartache. Humanity as a whole might have better outcomes if it was more intelligent as a whole, but individuals being too far ahead cannot do much other than acknowledge all the beautiful things that could and should be but never will.
That said, I would never ever want to swap. I'm sure less intelligent people have things they are sad about as well, while being worse equipped to reflect on them, and I do not envy that at all.
Such measure must have some value.