How do people with IQs of 140 - 200 think?

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
Aaz, the average person of today has much more knowledge than the average person of any generation prior. We have this in spite of the piss poor schooling system, that's because a real education can be had on the streets, and through the net.

An education in what, someone in school in 1920 would be given a much greater education on WW1 than I was. I agree we're more educated than at any prior time in history but usable knowledge has gotten more and more specialized and that's the result of objects and processes becoming more complex as part of their natural evolution. In the past I could take my knowledge of anatomy as a doctor and apply it on a basic level to veterinary care such as fixing a broken bone, and while I can still do that today I cannot take my knowledge of medications which are formulated for human biology and use it to treat my dog when he gets sick.

The internet is a great tool for learning, it's more instrumental than it's predecessor the printing press was in 1445. However, in order to use the internet properly you still need to be able to look up information and apply it to your problem. Just having a bunch of facts and questions/answers shoved in front of you doesn't actually teach a person how to think and solve their problem.

I'd actually say our rate of advancement is increasing at what appears to be a much quicker pace than any other time in history as well, though we must take into account more human beings kicking around than any other time just the same.

People being smarter on average is part of this but computers are the real driving force. One of the biggest hurdles to solving our problems is calculation speed and computers are trillions of times faster at this than humans are. We simply have much more efficient tools at our disposal today.

I've seem plenty of high IQ that seem to lack genius, at least by my qualification. Damned good at maneuvering within a laid-out system... of scavenging information to be stored and accessed... crap for ability to make intuitive leaps, discover solutions in vivid lucid dreams, unwillingness to experience and grow through unconventional means... stupid smart people.... lots of them around.

There's a big difference between IQ and genius. IQ increases on average by about 3 points per decade (and then gets normalized back to 100). Which is to say that someone who scored 133 in 1905 would score 100 today. This is part of why I find IQ to be such a ridiculous concept, it's all relative, and someone with a sub 100 IQ (which half the population possesses) can understand Einstein but at the same time Einstein's purported 160 IQ would only be in the mid 120's today but I wouldn't say the 8% of the population that has that IQ or higher is on Einstein's level.

IQ is really only useful at suggesting how a person places relative to the rest of the population at that time, but even then combining everything into a single number leaves out a lot of nuance. Being an actual genius on the other hand is something different. People who are a genius have a certain type of creativity where they can take diverse concepts and build solutions to problems from concepts that appear to be unrelated. Essentially, they're able to see how different concepts in the world are interconnected in a way that most cannot such as observing riding a train and discovering how the universe works.

originally posted by: Annee
I always say I come from a family of useless geniuses. Brilliant minds that don't seem to care beyond their own personal wants/needs. Like my uncle. He had 3 degrees, just cuz he liked learning. But, he was a city bus driver. It made him happy.

I have spacial thinking. I see things in boxes and how everything is connected in some way. Unfortunately, I did not get a talent for math. It would have been a great combination.

I have 4 degrees, and eventually 5. Not because I enjoy learning but because it's necessary for what I want to do. I'm actually a terrible student and I absolutely detest sitting in a classroom. If your uncle enjoyed driving a bus then more power to him. I'm sure he never got rich doing so, but he probably had a comfortable enough home life and liked the work he was doing, that's what everyone should strive for.

As far as thinking goes, I have both. I see a lot of connections between objects and I can extrapolate a lot of more advanced concepts on just about anything from a quick run through the basics (for example, understanding 3 hour lectures from the 10 minute summary at the beginning of it). I'm pretty good with numbers too, as is probably evident in any post where I really get going. The number thing actually caused me a lot of trouble in school because when I see problems and solve them I don't go through the steps, I just arrive at the conclusion. I'm certainly no genius though, there are many more subjects in which I am completely clueless than I actually understand.

originally posted by: Aazadan


There's a big difference between IQ and genius. IQ increases on average by about 3 points per decade (and then gets normalized back to 100). Which is to say that someone who scored 133 in 1905 would score 100 today. This is part of why I find IQ to be such a ridiculous concept, it's all relative, and someone with a sub 100 IQ (which half the population possesses) can understand Einstein but at the same time Einstein's purported 160 IQ would only be in the mid 120's today but I wouldn't say the 8% of the population that has that IQ or higher is on Einstein's level.

I'm pretty sure you're misapplying the "flynn effect". I seriously doubt Einstein would have a significantly lesser IQ today.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
I'm pretty sure you're misapplying the "flynn effect". I seriously doubt Einstein would have a significantly lesser IQ today.

Well, today Einstein would be drugged up and no one would ever take him seriously so any actual intelligence he possessed wouldn't be recognized.

Additionally, IQ tests are really only accurate at certain levels, the further you deviate from 100 the less accurate it gets unless the test is designed to target a specific value. I don't know what test Einstein took but there's a pretty good chance his score was never accurately measured.

Hm ... how I think ... weird to describe.

I read everything. And I mean like really everything. Every traffic sign, every adv. poster, every Information on the walls of the train. At the same time I have probably a thousand thoughts in my mind. I think in several languages (at least 13), and compare the thing I am thinking about in all of them, and try to find a common root.

Then I think about the design of that little advert I am looking at right now, the composition, the layout, is that Helvetica?
Reminds me of the project I am working on right now (software development) and a solution for a problem there. But also of the painting I am working on right now (I am a painter as well), and then I notice discrepancies in the background color of the image in the ad -- and think of the Astrophoto of the Rosette Nebula I was going to take tonight (yes, I am also an amateur astronomer).

In that very millisecond, naturally the 37th verse of the 55th Chapter of the Qur'an pops up in my mind ("And when the heaven is split open and becomes rose-colored like oil"), so I make a mental note to not forget to analyze the data patterns related to this verse, it's word usage, position in the book and its relation to the mathematical system, for my latest article (I am an author as well).

Then, I am at the train station where I have to disembark, continuing with a thousand thoughts about literally everything, every imaginable knowledge in my mind, from quantum physics to the sonata I am writing for my daughter to the latest posts I read here in ATS.

The last time I measured my IQ (15 years ago, in an official scientific institute, I am 39 now BTW.) it was 208. And I was a refugee, without a work permit and without any money, and that institute wanted so much to help me but I got deported shortly after, sent "back" to a country which was not mine, where 1 month later a war started and I was in the middle of all that for the next 4 years.

So, yeah ... plenty to think about.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
I'm pretty sure you're misapplying the "flynn effect". I seriously doubt Einstein would have a significantly lesser IQ today.

Well, today Einstein would be drugged up and no one would ever take him seriously so any actual intelligence he possessed wouldn't be recognized.

An assumption, but fair. I grew up as a 90s kid and few of us crazies were on ADHD meds. I wonder how many would be put on them today. Certainly many oddballs manage to escape the grasp of BigPharma.

Additionally, IQ tests are really only accurate at certain levels, the further you deviate from 100 the less accurate it gets unless the test is designed to target a specific value. I don't know what test Einstein took but there's a pretty good chance his score was never accurately measured.

I don't think he ever took an IQ test. It's probably one of those things where we assume something is true because it's repeated ad nauseum.

a reply to: LiquidationOfDiscrepancy

My IQ was 139 when tested at school...so I don't know how 140+ people think

Wow i'm really late. My ideology is that idgaf.
My other ideology is that if you ask 'how do people with really high iq scores think?', you will receive 700 irrelevant responses, such as 'i've never taken an iq test! Here's ten paragraphs about my life tho", or "aaaaactually the iq test has been shown to be a less ideal form of measuring intelligence due to cultural bias", or, "i have an iq of 200. I think people think that i am a jerk. But no. I am
Not a jerk. Also at times i feel upset and i begin to get bothered. I am very very smart tho." Lol ok. Ok.
Yes, intelligence tests are biased. And in the past ten years, you have probably noticed that a high iq score does not actually make people wiser or more interesting. Many geniuses are self-absorbed, tedious, lame lame desperate individuals. I hope in the decade since you wrote this question, you've realized that it is kind of foolish to ask geniuses how they think. TLR - We suck at measuring intelligence. And we suck at explaining ourselves. Basically, being intelligent is less useful than being kind, or creative. See, it's 2015. Google is smarter than everyone. We have most of the knowledge. There's no need to know things. But there is a need to create, and there is a need to love. And google can't do either of those things. Fuuu. ( u probably got run over by a bus in 2008 and I'm talking to myself. )

So, as someone that actually has an IQ of 163, I can say that the way we think FEELS the same as anyone else. We can 'pick things up quicker' and we 'can read between the lines better'. But me - along with my friends in the MENSA - all have the ability to read things quicker, memorize information faster than light (that's a joke...don't roast me) and we can generally perform calculations in our heads at pretty phenomenal speeds. Bu then again, that's just when you look at people with IQs as high as mine. I'm sure that if you looked at someone with an IQ in the realm of 140 they wouldn't be able to do somethings that I can, but that should be obvious.

BTW, I'm 12 years old and a child genius so...


When I retake my test in March, I aim for (and am estimated to get) approximately 175

iq test is a new-age hoax to earn money. Einstein never had any IQ test as many think and Einstein never been the best scientist... lol

As for me, I am severe (over) dyslexic and I know for sure I am over 110 than the average of clever humans have. I know that officially. I took these tests in order to diagnose my dyslexia but I need to be honest, never interested for how much IQ I got and never asked my doctors. I only took my diagnosis for dyslexia and left. In order to qualify for dyslexia itself, because there are many categories of study/written and verbal disabilities, you must be over the average IQ. If you are under 110 in my country, you dont get the dyslexia qualification, but a different kind of diagnosis/disability.

PS: So I believe I am clever than that, to fall into some fixed numbers, I am a wild spirit

originally posted by: LiquidationOfDiscrepancy
How do geniuses with IQ's Of 140 - 200 think? How do you geniuses feel emotionally, socially, and what are your ideologies in life?
I would like to hear from posters who have official test results, and other forms of IQ test.

There have been studies that show benefits of up to 130 in terms of on-the-job performance. However, above that level the benefits seem to stop. I would suggest that its indicative IQ tests stop being useful or are faulty above 130. These people do not really seem to accomplish more than their peers except if they focus on one area as a savant.

I have an IQ far above average, though I doubt 140. Socially I'm unusual in that I don't care if I socialize at all. I could go at least months without human contact without feeling lonely. I probably have gone a week without human contact without so much as noticing it happened. I have only a small emotional connection with music or dancing. I'll only be in the mood to dance if drunk, and I only drink anything at all a couple times a year.

I hate changing my mind after I've made a plan.

I'm frustrated that almost everyone seems like a religious cult member, and their religion is Nationalism. Today's governments share the same features as religious cults do.

Emotionally I can go through all the same emotions as other people, but I feel like their effect is muted most of the time. But I simply do so very rarely. That said, I have developed a very strong spiritual side, but that is something I've developed quite late. Years back as a young adult I was one of those "cold atheists" that people seemed to be so against in the US.

So, I was always the odd one out as a child and didn't have many friends, although I did have friends. I think its probably common with people of high IQ to have fewer friends due to being an odd person. Most people like me, even though we both know I'm a strange person and not at all normal.