James Rogers wrote:
>
> On 8/26/01 9:52 AM, "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com> wrote:
> > John Clark wrote:
> >>
> >> The man had a mind the size of a planet but his book was about
> >> collecting paper streetcar transfers coupons as a hobby.
> >
> > Okay, and Marylin Vos Savant (with an IQ of something like 210) does
> > nothing but write an advice and puzzle column for the newspaper...
> > obviously an entirely worthless endeavor in the Clarkian scheme of
> > things.
>
> I dislike IQ discussions in general, largely because the people who are so
> proud of their "high IQ" don't ever seem to do much beyond carnival sideshow
> games (e.g. Mensa). Useless intelligence. The *really* smart people are
> actually doing stuff and are simply too busy to tell you how smart they
> actually are...
Yes, but look at it from a utility sense: if an individual is not
especially driven to accomplish something in the world, they are instead
going to try to make the most of their intelligence with the least
effort (which is not a dumb strategy for getting through life, just not
very ambitious). Writing an advice column and inventing puzzlebooks
sound like they fit the bill. I slightly fit that bill - my excuse for
never finishing college for years has been that getting a union card for
its own sake doesn't motivate me, nor does curriculum requirements, that
I only want to learn stuff as it interests me. I'm smart enough that
I've always been able to quickly get up to speed on any occupation I've
pursued, no matter how much anyone thinks I wasn't 'qualified'. I lost a
lot of ambitions years ago, impressing or getting the approval of others
being at the top of the list (as if you couldn't tell that already). Its
not worth the exasperation trying to meet other people's expectations.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:24 MDT