Mensa

[Tokyo Slim]

Plus you get discounts on car insurance...

 

[globetrotter]

I think that it comes down to this - I have a group of friends who used to all be infantrymen, about 20 years ago. we get together, we talk about kids, work, popular culture, current events, etc., we hardly ever talk about the military.

I have a group of friends (some overlapping with the previsous) that are all pretty smart - lawyers, doctors, engineers, and a few business people. we all get together and talk about kids, work, popular culture, current events, we never talk about how smart we each are.

I have a friend who power lifts with me. we get together to fish, we never talk about weights and power lifting, we talk about kids, work, popular culture, current events.


I think that it would be a little boring to get together with a group of people and talk about how smart you are, and talk about puzzles and riddles and so on.



that said - congradulations on getting in.

 

[j]

MENSA is actually a secret government program that allows people who think they are smart to preselect for the mind controlled assassin program run by the agencies with no name. I hear when you make it 5 years, you get your own silent black helicopter.

 

[Fabienne]

Not trying to be meaner than those who have posted already, but I would have thought twice about leaving my journal exposed.

 

[tsloop]

Quote:

(dusty @ June 29 2005,04:15) I guess it would be alright if there were actually functions you attended, but otherwise I don't see the point.
Apparently Mensa clubs do hold parties and mixers for their members. I can't even imagine how gruesome that would be.
From what I've recently heard at the get-togethers they mostly sit around and play scrabble, which is definitely not how I would choose to spend my saturday nights. When I first joined I thought I could learn a thing or two from being around a bunch of "smart" people but I've since learned that just because someone is in mensa doesn't necessarily make them smart, and even if they are smart, it definitely doesn't make them very interesting.

 

[ATM]

There are lots of high IQ societies. Here's an amusing page about them: http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/history.html Be sure to read about the Giga Society.

 

[PHV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gorgekko,June 29 2005,01:23

Originally Posted by dusty,June 29 2005,04:15

I guess it would be alright if there were actually functions you attended, but otherwise I don't see the point.
Apparently Mensa clubs do hold parties and mixers for their members. I can't even imagine how gruesome that would be.
From what I've recently heard at the get-togethers they mostly sit around and play scrabble, which is definitely not how I would choose to spend my saturday nights. Â When I first joined I thought I could learn a thing or two from being around a bunch of "smart" people but I've since learned that just because someone is in mensa doesn't necessarily make them smart, and even if they are smart, it definitely doesn't make them very interesting.
from what I understand, Mensa is not very exclusive. It's like 1 in every 100 people. There are other intellectual societies that are far more selective, I believe one of them is called the Mega society. Anyone with a 130+ IQ can join, and that to me makes it meaningless if you want to talk about "smart" people. I agree with Globe... it's really stupid. I applied for a mensa scholarship and was a finalist, but never got the final contact to tell me if I got any money, so i guess I lost. That had nothing with being a member though.

 

[tsloop]

Not trying to be meaner than those who have posted already, but I would have thought twice about leaving my journal exposed.

Why is that? There isn't really anything there that I would be ashamed of if someone read.

All of these responses are exactly what I was looking for, I think I've got a good grasp on how people feel about mensa and that is what I wanted. If I had asked someone who was a member I probably would have got some nice answer about how "it's a good group" or something similar and thats not what I needed. I wanted a realistic view of how other people see mensa.

 

[johnapril]

Biggest question:

Is being a member going to interrupt the drinking?

 

[tsloop]

from what I understand, Mensa is not very exclusive. It's like 1 in every 100 people. There are other intellectual societies that are far more selective, I believe one of them is called the Mega society.

It's not even that exclusive, it is top 2%, so one in 50 people. I think being smart is all relative, being able to tell that a samurai doesn't belong in group of knights or being able to make correct change quickly doesn't really show that you're smart. I realize now that everyone is good at different things, most of the people in mensa are good at taking tests, so they were able to get in. In my opinion that doesn't necessarily mean that they are smarter than someone who is bad at test taking but can rebuild an engine or design a car, etc.

 

[PHV]

Quote:

(PHV @ June 29 2005,09:25) from what I understand, Mensa is not very exclusive. It's like 1 in every 100 people. There are other intellectual societies that are far more selective, I believe one of them is called the Mega society.
It's not even that exclusive, it is top 2%, so one in 50 people. Â I think being smart is all relative, being able to tell that a samurai doesn't belong in group of knights or being able to make correct change quickly doesn't really show that you're smart. Â I realize now that everyone is good at different things, most of the people in mensa are good at taking tests, so they were able to get in. Â In my opinion that doesn't necessarily mean that they are smarter than someone who is bad at test taking but can rebuild an engine or design a car, etc.
There are many smart people who I admire greatly, and doubt very much that they would ever get into Mensa. I test reasonably well (I've done SATs and 2 IQ tests), and I have friends who did not test as well whom I defiantely consider to be quite intelligent people. I prefer the well read and eloquent to people with just a lot of brain power. I think that whatever intelligence I posses relies on the former. I don't think Winston Churchill had an exceptionally high IQ, but I admire him a lot. I don't think the numbers mean anything.

 

[Bradford]

My guess is that there are a wide variety of people in Mensa, but tsloop will be one of the few who has ever attended the Adult Video Convention in Las Vegas. Along those lines, I also seem to recall that adult film actress Asia Carrera is in Mensa. This should give you something to talk about with her if you attend this year's show

Bradford

 

[Steve B.]

(She later decided to scrap that plan in favor of finding someone funny with great hair)

Chuck, who was that?

BTW LOVE the ties.

 

[Cliff]

Funny Story - Shortly before I started dating Jill she went out once (ONCE) with a guy who talked down to her and explained that he was in Mensa so she might not understand... Jill asked him how he scored on the test, took it, beat him by 10 and politely informed him that it was time for her to find someone with an intellect equal to hers. (She later decided to scrap that plan in favor of finding someone funny with great hair)

Did she ever find him ??

 

[dusty]

I don't think the numbers mean anything.

Exactly. IQ is all but meaningless as far as I'm concerned.