I did a comprehensive survey today in a bid to determine how many people knew their IQ. The survey took a large group of test subjects and asked an exhaustive set of questions and the results were quite interesting. I have concluded that 100% of people, based on the aforementioned comprehensive testing, do not in fact have any idea what their IQ is...
...What I actually did was ask three people at my office if they knew their IQ and none did so maybe my research is lacking somewhat in depth.
For the record, I do not know what my own IQ is either, nor has it really ever come up as something I’ve needed to know. It came up today though, as the lady at the optometrist stated how much more intelligent I appear with my [new] reading glasses on and that they raised my IQ by 20 points! In case you didn’t know, a couple of weeks ago I was prescribed reading glasses and I just collected them today. I thanked the lady of course and gave her a smile; She was making a joke of course and I played along commenting that I was pleased and that now meant I had a total IQ of 25! We had a laugh and moved on.
It made me think about IQ though; About what is considered normal or average and what is considered high, so I did some research. I don’t mean dodgy research like my initial IQ survey though; I mean real hard-hitting research of a reputable nature. Yes, that’s right, I Googled it. Come on, you can’t tell me that’s not legit research! So I found the following:
IQ level and cognitive designation
40-54: Severely challenged
55-69: Challenged
70-84: Below average
85-114: Average (68% of test takers)
115-129: Above average
130-144: Gifted
145-159: Genius
160-175: Extraordinary genius
I read that Australia has an average IQ of 98 which means the country sits as the [jointly] 9th ranked country in the world along with USA, Spain, Latvia, Hungary, France, Denmark and Czech Republic. The top spot goes to Hong Kong and Singapore [jointly]. I’m not sure how accurate these figures are however they look legit. I saw it on the interwebs so it must be true. Google knows everything.
I thought it would be cool to look up the IQ of a few famous people and found a few surprises. Take a look:
- Stephen Hawking 160
- Dolph Lundgren 160
- Quentin Tarantino 160
- James Woods 180
- Arnold Schwarzenegger 135
- Charles Darwin 165
- Albert Einstein 160
I know Dolph Lundgren isn’t that famous but he has a high IQ which I wasn’t prepared for. Anyway, I don’t know what my IQ is as I’ve never taken the test. I think I probably won’t either as it’s not really that relevant to me. I mean take James Woods for instance; An IQ of 180 and he drops out of MIT to pursue a career in acting. That doesn’t make him a genius actor, or a stupid one either. It just makes him someone who pursued his dream of acting rather than wherever else his IQ may have led him. I don’t feel especially gifted or genius, nor do I feel overly challenged so I suppose if I was to test my IQ I’d fall into the average somewhere. I’m ok with that.
Today I increased my IQ by 20 points according to the optometrist. I could feel the IQ rising when I put them on. All of a sudden I could comprehend all manner of things and...Ok, so that didn’t actually happen at all. Having said that I LOOK smarter apparently and hopefully I can bumble my way through with that!
[- Design and create your ideal life, don’t live it by default - DM on Discord 
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash