What Do You Think Of The Smartest Man In The World?

[Tck13]



there's also this guy:

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

This guy has issues...

 

[LawrenceMD]

^ still very similar cases of people who had incredible intelligence scores and worked in bars as bouncers (and as a male stripper as well!) - basically just wasting their talent.

 

[speedy4500]



basically just wasting their talent.

The thing is, to people with such high IQs, they perceive EVERYTHING as a waste of their time... not on purpose, and it really isn't their "fault," it's just a symptom of having such cognitive ability. They are doomed to obsess in only the most abstract thought processes that have little to no applicability to the real world.

It's really no different from elite athletes who want to compete in the Olympics. Is the 100m breaststroke really applicable to the real world? No, but they can only be satisfied by competing with the best; dropping Ryan Lochte in the pool with 15 folks off the street and he'd be "wasting his talent" and become bored in a couple minutes, just like these super-geniuses are bored with "everyday" problems in the real world. There is no Olympics for geniuses, so they are relegated to the world they create in their mind.

 

[LawrenceMD]



The thing is, to people with such high IQs, they perceive EVERYTHING as a waste of their time... not on purpose, and it really isn't their "fault," it's just a symptom of having such cognitive ability. They are doomed to obsess in only the most abstract thought processes that have little to no applicability to the real world.

It's really no different from elite athletes who want to compete in the Olympics. Is the 100m breaststroke really applicable to the real world? No, but they can only be satisfied by competing with the best; dropping Ryan Lochte in the pool with 15 folks off the street and he'd be "wasting his talent" and become bored in a couple minutes, just like these super-geniuses are bored with "everyday" problems in the real world. There is no Olympics for geniuses, so they are relegated to the world they create in their mind.

nobel prize, fields medals, advanced degrees, most of the bigtime hedge-fund managers are math/physics advanced degree holders.

there are plenty of ways to apply intelligence.

plus there are math olympiads/physics olympiads/chess championships... tons of stuff like that. My wife was a math and physics olympiad geek throughout highschool and college.

with langan's (and countless others) mental muscle capacity its a waste if all they do is kill intelligence tests.

 

[Tck13]

I'm not sure that their extensive intelligence is the only issue. It sounds to me like some of them have some emotional issues as well. I don't think one can just circumvent an abusive childhood just by being smart. I guess I could be wrong but some of these guys sound like they have some strange things going on in their lives...

 

[3cyr3]

Also this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Ung-yong

 

[Master Milano]

i don't understand calculus and i'm 16 what the hell.

 

[LawrenceMD]



Also this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Ung-yong

whats interesting with that guy is that he became disenchanted and went back to korea. only for some administrative reasons he had to go through the whole college process again and do over college and grad school to finally get his phD in korea.

not dissimilar to rick rosner going back to high school (but not 3x). maybe there was the same feeling of trying to go back to school to maybe have a chance to be more normal and even cool as an older more mature student.

 

[DBoon]

I pity any of you who seriously believe in the relevance of IQ exams in anything other than to appease those insecure enough to try and join MENSA

 

[Unbreakable]

Langan is an annoying turd.

 

[Daseinflaw]

Whenever I read these stories I reiterate that most people who matter agree that IQ tests are pretty arbitrary and mostly bullshit.

....or I'm just a jealous ****. Pick one

 

[tagutcow]



Whenever I read these stories I reiterate that most people who matter agree that IQ tests are pretty arbitrary and mostly bullshit.

....or I'm just a jealous ****. Pick one

I think there's been a teeny amount of overstatement in some of these responses. It's true that IQ does not necessarily correlate with accomplishment, but it's also true that a person's IQ score roughly, more-or-less correlates to what we would demotically identify as smartness.

 

[Pennglock]



It's true that IQ does not necessarily correlate with accomplishment, but it's also true that a person's IQ score roughly, more-or-less correlates to what we would demotically identify as smartness.

Are you quite sure about that? I don't feel like grabbing any citations, but Im almost positive that IQ's correlation with accomplishment is extremely strong.

 

[tagutcow]



Are you quite sure about that? I don't feel like grabbing any citations, but Im almost positive that IQ's correlation with accomplishment is extremely strong.

It could very well be, I was merely pointing out that IQ does not necessarily correlate with accomplishment.

 

[boogaboogabooga]



Are you quite sure about that? I don't feel like grabbing any citations, but Im almost positive that IQ's correlation with accomplishment is extremely strong.

It isn't. I remember reading/hearing about this set of brilliant kids with genius IQs that were monitored over the course of their life by an academic type. A lot of them ended up having fairly average lives with fairly average incomes. I can't remember the exact particulars, but I know it was mentioned in a Malcolm Gladwell book(Outliers to be exact), if you want to investigate.