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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.
I'm smart, maybe not mensa smart (don't really care either way) but fuck hanging out with other aholes like me!
You insulted my carrot sir!
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.
The word 'genius' should be reserved for a rare occasion where a person shows extraordinary insight and brilliance, not the smartest person of a random group of 50.
Before someone asks, yes, I am "Mensa material". I do IQ tests as a pastime. It's fun to watch shrinks stare in awe. So I could join them. As could, I'm certain, most people around here. Being in the 2% bracket isn't THAT difficult when you look at it. There are actually clubs out there with far tighter joining criteria. Also not really something I'd consider joining.
I mean, let's be honest, why should I? Yes, it's fun to have a discussion with people who can think beyond next breakfast but it's no fun having them with people who consider themselves so "smart" and aloof to join a club that selects its members by intelligence. I mean, imagine you're good looking, would you want to join a club that only lets beautiful people join? Ponder what kind of self absorbed, shallow cunts such criteria attract. And then ponder whether you want to be part of that.
And even more, ponder whether you want to spend at least part of your life with someone like that. And now let's imagine the worst case, just think that kids would be the results of such a union. What kind of person do you think such a child would become? Either you'll have a completely broken person who snapped under the pressure of being the expected "pinnacle of intelligence", or you get the ultimate self-absorbed asshole, or a combination of both.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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 think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the geranium. The carrot has mystery. Flowers are essentially tarts. Prostitutes for the bees. There is, you'll agree, a certain 'je ne sais quoi' oh so very special about a firm, young carrot."
Reality is politically incorrect, thus observation is unethical.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the study revealed NO CORRELATION.
There is a high correlation of 0.90 to 0.95 between the prestige rankings of occupations, as rated by the general population, and the average general intelligence scores of people employed in each occupation. [1]
The correlation between income and IQ scores is 0.40. The correlation is higher at higher levels of education and it increases with age, stabilizing when people reach their highest career potential in middle age. Even when education, occupation and socioeconomic background are held constant, the correlation does not vanish. [2]
Your move.
[1] Schmidt, F., & Hunter, J. (2004). General mental ability in the world of work: Occupational
attainment and job performance.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
[2] Jensen, A. R. (1998). The g factor.
. Westport, CT: Praeger
I have an IQ that repeatedly tested somewhere between 150-170. I crashed out of two universities, spent most of the 90's off my face one way or another and now work in IT support for a government department. High IQ doesn't always correlate to greater success - though it has helped me find a niche where I can slack more efficiently and still pull in a decent salary so I guess I'm not doing too bad.
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
the study revealed NO CORRELATION.
Zippo. Nada. None. Zilch.
Most studies have found an IQ to income correlation of 0.4 to 0.5. That is not particularly strong, but it isn't zero. The correlation is weaker for people with very high IQs. Someone with an IQ of 100 (normal) will earn much more than someone at 60 (mildly retarded). Someone with an IQ of 120 will do significantly better than someone at 100. But someone with an IQ of 160 (genius) will do little better than someone at 120, on average.
I bet there's a stronger correlation between family affluence and career success.
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
I have no idea what my IQ is. I'm definitely very smart, but also very lazy and don't want to struggle on a test. I also have good days and slow days and I've let my brain vacation too much over the years (IQ is most definitely not a constant). I only had one IQ type test but it was when I was a kid and I never learned the score but some people seemed quite impressed.
Overall though the intelligence helps but I'd much rather get rid of it and replace it with a strong work ethic and ambition. Intelligence meant that I could slide through a lot without too much effort, school was easy, college was easy, and I never had to study. Whereas keeping my nose to the grindstone is hard, stepping up and taking charge is hard, keeping organized is hard, managing my personal affairs is hard, and so forth. In the big overall pictures, I am very much below average I think except for that one thing.