IQ - Intelligence Quotient, what does it really mean, and why does one group say it is the most important attribute and why does the opposite say that it is complete false, made up, stupid, how dare we put people in those kind of boxes…
IQ greatly correlates with how well you will do in your job / career. So much so that the govern-cement banned companies from using IQ tests in their hiring. (but the military still uses a type of IQ test when you apply, and you can't get in if your IQ is too low.)
However, a high IQ does not mean that you will have a high paying job. And, if you have a really high IQ, it almost always disqualifies you from being a CEO of a large corporation.
What is IQ? Is it really all that it is made up to be? Is it evil as many neo-liberals claim? Is it so important that China is willing to gene-splice human ovum to get it? How much of your life is determined by your IQ?
What is IQ?
Well, some say it is a measure of cognitive ability. Some say it is the measure of someone's ability to solve problems. It could also be called the ability to remember trivia.
But, basically, any list of questions can be used to gauge IQ. People who can answer more questions are of higher IQ.
Now, the questions can seem normal for one group, and unintelligible for another. So, questions that seem normal for a school educated North American person are almost meaningless to a Sub-Saharan African. So IQ tests have been attacked for their "innate bias". "Americans have higher IQs because it is written for Americans, so everyone else gets incorrectly scored lower"
And IQ specialists have tried to work out IQ tests that are all symbolic (all symbols, no words). Others have tried to work on getting questions specific for each region and adjusting things so they are all uniform.
Despite what Wokians shout, the psychologists, who work with IQ, are trying really hard to get accurate measurements.
What does IQ mean?
Basically it divides people into four groups. Of which, i can't use their old names because they are too inciting.
- Really slow, Below 85 IQ
- Average, normal, 85-115 IQ
- Really Smart People 115-130 IQ
- Scientist, Big Brains, People who like Calculus classes
Even if you hate IQ, these four groups are painfully obvious
Really slow
At the bottom, you have people who have trouble tying their shoes, all the way down to people who can't exist in the world without having people to help them. We all know some of these people, and it is very lucky that only 10% fall into this area.
The US military will not recruit people from this group. Their words - "There is nothing that can be taught to them that will be a net positive without other's constant supervision." This from a group of people who talk about "cannon fodder".
Average
These are your average people. They like TV, movies, sports ball…
Really smart people
These are the people you find at the top of organizations. The go getters. The people who make CEO. Who make partner in a law firm.
They usually get things before others can figure them out, AND ACT On them. Giving them a huge advantage in a competitive environment, like large corporations or capitalism.
Scientists
There is a weird divide in IQ, where you go from a smart person, to something else. You don't just get a little smarter, your view of the world changes. Sports ball seems… you have problems understanding how other's find this entertaining. Whereas Calculus classes are exciting. Solving problems is exciting.
Scientist type people can rarely be CEOs. Comprehending people and their motivation to get them to do meaningful work is just not something that they have. And normal people do not understand, at all, what it means to be very high IQ. Normal people are like, wow, Calculus is hard. Not realizing that Calculus is just the first class of many to understanding mathematics. To the normal person, "There is something after super-hard? What is it? Insane-hard? impossible?"
What good can we use IQ for?
It could probably be put to good use separating people into these 4 categories early in life. Finding which group the child belongs to and training them in that way.
For me, school was boring and impossibly slow. I thought college would be better, but it turned out to be what i expected high school to be. I could have learned it all by the time i was 18. However, most teachers aren't smart enough to teach this kids (yes, average school teacher IQ is relatively low) I, and most people at the scientist level IQ, could have saved 10 years of our lives.
For average people, it is so very sad that we try to stuff them into calculus classes. Something that they will never use, never understand, and never need to comprehend. It is just shoved down people's throats because the school administrators think that it "sounds cool". "Our students take mandatory calculus". These children would be better served learning, and having it drilled in, how to balance a checkbook. How to do accounting. How to comprehend contacts, especially loan contracts. But these important things are swept aside, cause 'calculus'.
Really smart people are actually the hardest to teach. They really just need the basic tools, and then to be turned out into the world. All of the people who you have heard "dropped out of college and started a multi-million dollar business" are mostly in this group. (Billy Gatez is not that great of a programmer, but he was smart enough to realize the importance for the future of computers, and so, bought up the basis of what we be the operating system of most computers)
For this group, advanced college classes are a stupid waste of time. They will usually not be able to do advanced calculus, and they will never need to. They can hire people to do that, if it is essential for the business they are running. This group of people need to have classes that are a wide overview of things, technologies, and communication. They need teachers that can get them up to speed, and then let them run out into the world to really learn.
The Really Slow should be kept out of school. I know this sounds harsh, but forcing them into schools has cost all the other children immensely. Wasting 90% of 90% of student's time. Because the teachers have to spend so much time getting them to understand the basics. These children should be taught on a case by case basis. Sure we can teach them all to read, but they are not going to read a mortgage contract and comprehend it. And their chances of buying a house by themselves are extremely small.
We really have to recognize a person's ability, where they are, and to teach to that.
Now, there is a LOT of things that are important in life that are not covered by IQ.
Things like wisdom. However, to have a really high wisdom, you cannot be really low in IQ.
Things like EQ, emotional quotient. However, you cannot have a high EQ without being at least average in IQ, and scientist level IQ usually have low EQ. Emotional Quotient gets a bad rap, because it is not a scientific number, it is very imprecise. And you could accurately say that EQ is the ability to understand and communicate with average people.
Just like we have helpers for people who are slow, we might need helpers for people with really high IQ. The top scientists can really be helped by someone who can manage the mundane things, like choosing appropriate attire (and shoes) and help take care of scheduling, and conflicts. All of our scientific advancement comes from this group of people, and supporting this 5% of the population would give us much better gains.
We could really do a much better job of raising children to their potentials if we used IQ wisely, instead of trying to sweep it under the rug and ignoring it because we do not like being compared (and the belittlement that might come with that)
Also, if we knew our cognitive limits, we could sidestep problems like getting 90% to our education goals and realizing we can never finish. There should be no shame in this, and often the burning desire for working/studying in a certain area is far more important. But knowing your limits can help you choose more wisely.
Not everyone can be virtuoso, but, as long as you can hold a bow and draw it, you can get to the level where you can join an orchestra.