Slashdot Mirror
Match.com, Mensa Create Dating Site For Geniuses
mpicpp writes in with news about a new dating opportunity for Mensa members. It takes a special person to join Mensa. For one, the elite society only takes individuals with IQ scores in the 98th percentile, meaning just 1 in 50 Americans is eligible. This exclusivity — some might say snobbery — is part of Mensa's lore. Early Mensans in Britain walked around with yellow buttons, organizational publications once referred to non-Mensa members as "Densans," and last year, a top Mensa member and tester called anyone with an IQ of 60 a "carrot." In short, you don't always join Mensa because you think you're smart. You join to be set apart from most people, who are, as one member put it: "mundane." But a new partnership between American Mensa and online dating giant Match.com offers a new, enticing reason to join the society of geniuses: true love. Beginning this week, members of the brainiac group can connect through a separate, exclusive dating service called Mensa Match. In addition, Match.com members can add a special Mensa badge to their profiles, signaling a specific interest in connecting with a single person with a confirmed genius-level IQ score.
Match.com's press release includes a hilarious "heat map listing where the smartest singles live," by mapping where Ivy League grads live. Apparently graduates of Stanford, U Chicago, CalTech, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, etc. aren't as smart. More likely, they're just not as rich and historically connected to Daddy's alma mater. http://blog.match.com/wp-conte...
Really? I don't find the legitimate ones bad at all. Much better than the SAT for testing raw, innate intelligence.
IQ is like a brightness of a flashlight. It's potential. Brighter is better, but it doesn't guarantee you point it at a useful direction, or even use it for anything useful at all other than to study playboy under the bedsheets.
I would think if they took recent Nobel Prize winners in the hard sciences, they would be trending above average and by a margin.
I used to be in Mensa back in the 80s. When people found out I was in Mensa, they'd frequently express some surprise because they thought Mensans were a bunch of jerks because they'd met somebody who said he was in Mensa and who was very obnoxious, making himself out to be superior. I was surprised because most of the people I met in Mensa weren't like that. I remember throwing a party and invited people from my job and friends from Mensa, and the people from work commented later about how the Mensans at the party were down to earth regular folks and not at all like what they'd expected. I suspect that the jerks giving Mensa a bad rep don't actually go to Mensa events because what they want to do is brag and try to impress people but they can't do that if everybody else is a Mensan. But these same jerks are the ones making the most noise everywhere else and getting noticed. I will admit there are probably more nerdy, asperger's syndrome types in Mensa than the general population, but it's not that bad.
You know what was an exaggerated but based somewhat on truth depiction of Mensa? The one done in a Simpson's episode with Stephen Hawking as guest voice at the end.
I'm smart, maybe not mensa smart (don't really care either way) but fuck hanging out with other aholes like me!
OP is a bit snobbish itself.
People (by and large... certainly there are exceptions) join MENSA so that they can converse with other people with similar mental character and interests. Just exactly how some people join motorcycle clubs because they like motorcycles and want to discuss them and appreciate them with people of similar interest, someone might join MENSA because they like talking about physics -- or even crossword puzzles -- with people who are like themselves.
There is no need to try to suggest that is "snobbery" of any kind. Would you call a motorcycle gang "snobs"? Or stamp collectors? MENSA is a social club, nothing more.
And by the way, a bit of history: MENSA members did sometimes wear small yellow pins, like tie tacks but about 1/8" diameter, like those little pins you stick in maps -- not badges -- simply so that they could find each other in a crowd. It wasn't snobbery, it was subtle (very subtle) identification. The reason was because more obvious identification made them targets of violence for bigots and other idiots.
Way too much truth here. I passed their exam to satisfy my curiosity but figured I'd find them as boring as I find myself after surfing their forums at the time. As far as the chicks go (recalling my days in Uni), a well-maintained genius is so outnumbered by men I would have better luck going for supermodels interested in money. The truth is everyone is an idiot in a demonstrable way, and the ideal match is the one who can find the humor in the ways their partner is just bloody hopeless.
There is no need to try to suggest that is "snobbery" of any kind. Would you call a motorcycle gang "snobs"? Or stamp collectors? MENSA is a social club, nothing more.
Exactly. I don't know much about Mensa, because I've never felt the need to join. I'm pretty sure most of the people around me would qualify, but that also means that we already have plenty of smart people to have intellectual discussions with. My sister, however, studied sports, got surrounded by other sporty people, and eventually started to miss contact with other smart people, so she joined Mensa, and now she talks about all the game events and motorcycle trips they have and all the interesting people she meets there. It fills a need for her that for me is already filled in other ways.
> Though it's arguable how useful an IQ test is. It's a poor metric of intelligence, it's just commonly used because all the other suggestions are worse.
I agree, One time in line at a grocery store one man remarked about how it was stupid they had "retards"[sic] working there. I told him "You can learn from anybody, even this so-called 'retard.' for example, notice he is treating everybody with respect. You know, come to think of it, I never met anyone with Down's syndrome who is a nasty and judgmental prick like you. Maybe we can all take a lesson and learn to treat others nicely."
Besides, he was doing a great job and was taking pride in his work. What's to judge? What if that asshole were in the position of being mentally challenged - I'd love to see him wear those shoes for a day.
What good is intelligence if all one ends up doing is thinking they're better than everyone and treat others like shit?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
That is why hanging out with mensa people drove me crazy, not only are they arm-chair everything but their organization encourages their belief that they understand things they do not and non-members don:t.
I'll agree with you on...
Want success? Learn how to SCHMOOZE and be a salesman.
But you lost me at...
Corporate success is 90% bullshit and 10% smarts.
If you're so smart, can you back that up? :-)
I'd argue that except for those who got there via nepotism, it's extremely rare that someone is a successful businessperson w/o generally having their shit together. Sure, we hear about f-ups all the time, and everyone loves to criticize the boss because we think we know better, but in the big scheme of things, the frequency of those bad decisions is generally outweighed by the smart ones that you don't hear about because they're not newsworthy.
Maybe I'm just speaking from my own experience, and maybe it depends upon your definition of success. My dad was a small business owner, and I've known several others, all of whom I would call intelligent and successful. FWIW, I qualified for MENSA back in the 70s, but never joined.
Just another day in Paradise