I dug this out of the archives, written in 2007. I am uncertain if it was ever posted anywhere, but it is as relevant today as it was then, so I decided to repost it:
I've got enough IQ. No one ever says that (with good reason), but I'm breaking the taboo for a very specific purpose. Mention of your own IQ is taboo, because we have forgotten that it is an artificial invention of the human mind trying to understand itself, not a God given supernatural score so that the ego can say, "I win! I beat you by three points." Besides, in practical human affairs, the IQ isn't very important!
You are born with the essential IQ (Intelligence Quotient) that you are going to have going through life. It is a measure of your brain's potential to master academic matters, to reason. Unfortunately, having the horsepower to work through Relativity or Quantum Mechanics is irrelevant in most life situations. If I just want to take a trip to the grocery store, I'm probably better off taking my Honda station wagon than taking that Ferrari I have in the garage (fantasy is also part of the brain's activity). I need more groceries day-to-day than I do conversations with colleagues on spatial dilation as the speed of light is approached. Most daily activities leave me with IQ to burn! Add to that the fact that I can't really change that IQ much (although I can leverage it with education). I'm pretty much stuck with the cards dealt!
When it comes time to play that hand you've been dealt, there is a much more important factor in most situations. I recently worked my way through a very important effort to keep a top faculty member at my daughter's school, an effort that ended in the Superintendent's office around a conference table with the key players from the school district. A large number of people had failed to bring the situation to a resolution until it had devolved into full crisis. I went into the situation with only one determination -a total refusal to be stupid! Not to have day-winning insights, not to dazzle anyone with intelligence, hardly to use intelligence at all. 100 IQ points was plenty for this situation. The dogged refusal to be stupid won the day!
Let's contrast that with the behavior of some very intelligent people in the news. Larry Craig and his "wide-stance" nudging of the cop's foot in the Minneapolis Airport - stupid! The clothes police busting Terry Francona in the middle of a baseball game because he was wearing a pullover in the dugout due to a medical condition that causes him to become chilled - stupid. The Chinese Shaolin Temple (and, indeed the Chinese Government) are demanding an apology from someone who wrote in a blog that the warriors of the Shaolin Temple were once beaten by a Japanese Ninja, saying that they “strongly condemned the horrible deeds” of the user - stupid. Jimmy Carter, with a posted IQ of 175, a few years ago telling the press in Mexico that he was suffering from Montezuma's Revenge - stupid. Now, as we said, there isn't much you can do about your IQ, but your SQ (Stupid Quotient) is something that you can actively change. It is a matter of attention and discipline. You really can refuse to be stupid, thereby lowering your SQ.
So, let me give the kids out there some advice. The next time you find yourself in a job interview or around the conference table working on a project or sitting in front of the boss, be positive. Be friendly. Let your ideas and your creativity flow. But, in the midst of it all, REFUSE TO BE STUPID!
Now … I get to add the American Sequester! The most STUPID of all!
The lowest common denominator comes to mind. A concept I found vaguely depressing at age 11 or so. Still do. Though it does have its uses - if only as a safety net, a catch all so no one falls through the holes.
ReplyDeleteUnless you are the village idiot I find it tasteless, even embarrassing, when people tell me their IQ. The sort of personal and redundant information you don't know what to file under. Try S for 'stupid'.
So yes, Old Foss, what a splendid idea of yours: Let's lower our SQ. Will it work? I don't know. I rarely err on the side of being less than hopeful and optimistic but do have doubts on feasibility of this endeavour, Reminds me, apropos of nothing, of what my father used to say to me: "In order to get the right answer you need to ask the right question." Advice which keeps standing me in good stead. Yes, the RIGHT question. Pause for thought. Easy it's not.
U
@Ursula
DeleteSounds like a good path to some innuculation from just caving in to stupidity. The right question is a great start!
You chose a great topic, Consort. Love the "be positive" statement. It seems that most people who want to tell you their IQ tend to be negative. Negativity can lead one down a nowhere path in life.
ReplyDeleteblessings ~ maxi
@Maxi
DeleteI think you are right. I wonder if they are telling you their IQ as a way of showing superiority and putting you down, a very negative stance.
Was it a yr. ago that the Sequester was put in place? NOthing was done. Nothing was done a few days ago. Obama wants taxes raised, the House wants government over-spending to stop.
ReplyDeleteThe deficit went up from 10 or 11 trillion$$$ to 15 or 16 trillion$$$. Not DOWN as we (Republicans) wanted. Sorry Conrad I probably shouldn't have responded.
bikehikebabe
@bhb
DeleteI know that is how the Republicans feel and they are right as far as they are taking it. We do want the deficit down. However, they are too one-dimensional in their approach. Economists say that austerity during a recovery is self-defeating. And closing loopholes should accelerate the deficit reduction, yet the Republicans resist that and this makes Democrats and Liberals feel that they are not nearly as interested in reducing the deficit as they are in supporting the rich.
The rich, meanwhile, are doing much better than the rest of us anyway and the gap between rich and middle class is widening daily, a very dangerous American trend that must be resisted. I lay that problem at the doorstep of reliance on supply-side economics.
I AGREE WITH YOU 100%. There is TOO BIG A GAP between the rich & the poor. That's why I voted for Obama the 1st time. It hasn't happened yet but it takes time. Whoa Cynthia! I'm Much too impatient.
Deletebikehikebabe/Cynthia
Well color me stuck-on-dumb for admitting my IQ in a post - even though I was using it to do much the same thing you just said. My SQ has nowhere to go but down but then again I take heart in the fact that I try to find the positive side of most situations - trying though that may be occasionally - and make a concerted effort to be fair in most things. Now where are those SQ tests so I can narrow my focus and bring that sucker down?
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, Shackman. The first person who imparted his IQ to me was my very own father. I distinctly remember a feeling of helplessness at receiving this piece of information. YES? SO? Was I supposed to be in awe? Was he trying to reassure me as to my genetic potential? Was he trying to establish remnants of his authority over me?
DeleteAlso, Shackman, obviously lights may dim but as far as I am aware IQ can't go down. You are stuck with what nature dished you. Though you could have fooled me: A few years ago the Angel got it into his head to test my IQ. What brought this on I never asked. It was the middle of the night (say three in the morning). I was half asleep, I'd had a lot of wine the evening before. Still, if the Angel wants an answer or one hundred I'll give them to him. The upshot being, causing some hilarity on my part and consternation on his, that his mother is an idiot. Worse: He is the son of an idiot.
U
@shackman
ReplyDeleteLOL If there was ever a man who wasn't playing his IQ with his ego it was you! That is what both of us were getting at. We would have done a better job if we hadn't had so many concussions on football fields.
@Ursula
ReplyDeleteThat's a very funny take!
Back to the STATE OF OUR NATION. How many more decades are we going to kick the can down the road when there's no more road? Keep borrowing & printing more money? What comes after trillions, quad-trillions of $$$ spent ?
ReplyDeletebikehikebabe
@bhb
DeleteI'm agreeing with you on this. I am disagreeing on a one-dimensional approach is all. I also disagree with anyone who thinks it is to our advantage to ravage people and environment in the process.
I think it is always a question of balance, discipline, every able-bodied person doing their part and every truly disabled person being cared for. For every able-bodied person to do his or her part, they need reward for doing so, but they do not need as much of a greedy portion as some think.
I believe in the free market. However, I do not believe that the free market solves some issues, especially issues that do not provide symptoms that, when experienced directly, are much worse in their disease than when caught early. That, to me, is where science comes in, with the ability to foresee consequences rather than suffering every negative consequence available, including extinction of our species and most of those around us.
Our extinction would be bad for our economy in my opinion! :)
P.S. I also feel that disenfranchising whole classes of people always comes back to bite you in the butt! The balancing act is in not disengranchising while not weakening them with dependence.
DeleteIt is all a balancing act.
I hear, read you. The whole world is a mess.
DeleteWe couldn't become extinct for a Looooong time with the extended life of old people & all the babies coming in.
bikehikebabe
@bhb
DeleteActually, we could! All it would take would be a well placed asteroid that we did nothing about.
TOF, this may come as a surprise to you but I don't even know what my IQ is. I never sat for a test to determine that. Most Indians do not. We and I in particular are therefore blissfully ignorant about our intelligence or lack of it and go through our lives by muddling our way through rather than take intelligent steps. You know my story enough to agree that it is a nice way to live. During my corporate days, I used one formula repeatedly and was notorious for it, that was to be effective instead of efficient or intelligent. It worked, it continues to work even now.
ReplyDelete@Rummuser
ReplyDeleteWell, you are a very wise man. Somehow, I think IQ is a very American or perhaps European concept. It is a fake measurement in any case and we now know just how narrow the part of the spectrum it measures.