What is the meaning of IQ smarts for the everyday?

[Gaze]

I had to take an IQ test for work, and so i'm trying to understand why it was necessary and whether level of intelligence really makes that big a difference in our lives everyday.

Valuing an IQ score too highly can be limiting or offer a false sense of security or lead to more insecurity if it's not as high as we want it to be.

So, my question is, what do IQ smarts really mean in the grand scheme of things? How do you think your IQ (without necessarily revealing it) affects your life, your everyday communication, happiness, ability to relate to others, quality of life, etc.?

Now, i'm not talking about the actual score but ways in which your level of intelligence seems to affect how you process things and situations, relate to people, or your level of awareness everyday. Give specifics. Thx.

 

[Norton]

I have a high IQ, but I believe that what is tested by the IQ test is unrelated to my most important talents and abilities that I've relied on most in life. I think IQ is a narrow metric that tells little about a person's ability to think IRL and to synthesize, integrate, and communicate. I'd hire a reasonably intelligent, hard worker over a brilliant slacker any day.

 

[Reon]

I had to take an IQ test for work, and so i'm trying to understand why it was necessary and whether level of intelligence really makes that big a difference in our lives everyday.

Valuing an IQ score too highly can be limiting or offer a false sense of security or lead to more insecurity if it's not as high as we want it to be.

So, my question is, what do IQ smarts really mean in the grand scheme of things? How do you think your IQ (without necessarily revealing it) affects your life, your everyday communication, happiness, ability to relate to others, quality of life, etc.?

Now, i'm not talking about the actual score but ways in which your level of intelligence seems to affect how you process things and situations, relate to people, or your level of awareness everyday. Give specifics. Thx.

IQ smarts really means nothing in the grand scheme of things in my opinion. Most IQ tests only examines a few specific things (Verbal ability/ Analogy work and spatial ability/math stuff) and pretty much counts anything else as inert. To function in life, you need more than just those few things. My IQ tends to vary based on the dynamics of the test. If an IQ test is based mostly on verbal ability, logic, analogy work, and other things, I do extremely well but if the test is dependent on my spatial recognition and rotation abilities, I will fail it.

With that being said, having an high IQ in the typical sense can affect your life in a really broad way. I guess it's kinda like asking what would life be like if you weren't born with a pinky finger but I'll try to answer the question. Life wise, you see and 'get' a lot of things most other people don't. Usually by having a high "IQ" you tend to focus on your intellectual life and that can lead to social seclusion. Everyday communication...well...quite frankly, you'll likely have to talk at the level of the audience you are talking to or you're going to have to explain things and give definitions as you bring them up. With that being said, that's a life skill, everyone should be aware of the audience they are speaking too. Oral comm 101. Happiness...I think intellectual people tend to have a flight of existential depression every now and then, more so than people who have average intelligence. Well, interacting with people can be a crux of someone with a high IQ. They can feel as if most people don't get them and shy away from people or they could also alienate people who aren't as "smart" as them. Of course, by having such a high IQ, then can also learn adequate social skills and perform in society just like the rest of us.

If you need more specifics, just ask. I, by no means, have an high IQ. I just know a few people who do and I am offering my observations of them.

 

[enfp can be shy]

Before all, there's no IQ. There's "I scored this much on this particular test at this particular moment". To claim that IQ changes with time, which is the usual excuse for why each testing produces quite different scoring, is a shallow attempt to keep the concept meaningful. It's not.

Such test cannot even cover the basic mechanical properties of a brain, because a severely limited brain could be trained in sets of patterns close enough to those in the IQ tests, and beat a physically flawless brain which was kept undeveloped "in a jar".

Anyway, I'm not going to continue, but if my employers were to try to "test my IQ" they'd certainly lose credibility in my eyes.

Now, to be on topic, how does a result from a test affect your ability in life, work, results? It doesn't. Some people are great at scoring high on tests, and not so great on the long run of their work. Testing in itself is flawed. It presumes very limited perspective on human development. Testing should span your whole life, in order to be meaningful - of course, that's impossible, so they use this approximation. But they tend to forget how incredibly inaccurate it could come.

If you ask me, people should strive to develop for the sake of it, and not into the rails of particular tests. It seems to even be counter-productive, not just deceptive, when testing becomes a major objective. (iq crime - i talk in rhyme)

 

[Reon]

Before all, there's no IQ. There's "I scored this much on this particular test at this particular moment". To claim that IQ changes with time, which is the usual excuse for why each testing produces quite different scoring, is a shallow attempt to keep the concept meaningful. It's not.

Just an aside but, from my understanding, your IQ is a comparison of how you score based on your age group.Hence why someone with an IQ of 200 when they were in the first grade might have quite an average IQ when they grow up. Outside of that, I pretty much agree with you

 

[durentu]

Originally, IQ is a way to measure how far you are away from the retarded spectrum of intelligence. High IQ = very not* retarded. Which is a huge distinction from high intelligence.

In modern times, it's either used correctly by the self (personal development) or incorrectly used by an authority (to segregate people).

If one studies happy / rich people, IQ alone means less than nothing. The happy people and rich people come in all varieties and the common elements among them have nothing to do with IQ, EQ, inheritance, skin color etc. It has everything to do with one's mindset.

"If you think you can't or you think you can, you're right" - Henry Ford.

There's a Book by Wiseman that explains the common traits of 'lucky' people and it turns out to be a certain mindset.

 

[Faye]

Supposedly IQ is a strong predictor of academic and work success. I don't know where i got that from though.

 

[slant]

I have never taken an IQ test. I think the main reason for that is because I am far too impatient.

IQ, apparently, might have an effect on the grand scheme of thing seeing as there is an actual medical term called 'Mental Retardation' in which a person scores on an IQ test less than 70 and is unable to complete most mundane tasks due to this.

 

[invisible]

there are a whole range of cultural components that can determine your ability to perform well on it but i don't think it's completely meaningless. i've hardly taken a hundred IQ tests but when i have taken them i have tested reasonably high and my score has been fairly reliable (apart from some very challenging math-based quiz that decided i was totally retarded). i've noticed in some classes i've taken that i've been the only person in the class who has been able to approach certain problems.

i also grew up with a friend whose IQ measured significantly higher than mine, well into the traditional genius range, and a couple of years ago he won a full scholarship to write his phd at oxford. he worked hard for what he got but i'm unconvinced i would have been able to achieve that. he seems to analyse things more quickly and through more dimensions than i am able to. i can get to the same point as him given more time to work on the problem, and i can come to unique conclusions that he is not able to because of the experiences i've had and the person i have worked to make myself, but in general he's always ahead of me.

but then again, at a party one night i met a lot of his friends who supposedly have similarly stratospheric IQs, and i quickly grew tired of them. they were very intelligent and made distinctions i was unable to but they had no functional social skills or insight into the feelings of others. they seemed to have experienced no hardship in life and they had very little personal character. i felt that they were knowitalls without having come to actually know anything. eventually they shut me out of conversation when i couldn't remember off the top of my skull the critical high modernist year that ulysses was published. it was as though they were laughing at me. everything i said and did seemed to be wrong somehow. i suppose i must have bored them terribly but when i left i wasn't sorry to be stupid. it seems like a waste of time.

in the bookstore i work in, we have a shelf devoted to psychometric testing. i realise a lot of organisations are very into it but i don't see the point. everyone with normal abilities is capable of bringing unique perspectives to bear on the work. i think it's total rubbish.