Interesting discussion going on over here at Vox Populi about the plusses and minuses of high intelligence. The comment thread is large so I haven't read them all, but I found that this particular comment by Vox really hit home:

It's always interesting to witness the blindness of the 2 SD crowd, who don't seem to understand that 3-4 SD intelligences see them as being every bit as stupid as they view normal people. I'm not a gambling guy, but I would bet $500 that Dawkins has an IQ below 3SD.

I had the benefit of knowing two people in the 5 SD+ range pretty well, which is one reason why I never got overly carried away with my own intelligence.

I've long been used to being the smart nerdy kid, getting flogged for that little bit of social outcastery many times growing up. I always knew that I was brighter than most of the dicks who took delight in pummeling me. Even surrounded by other nerds in college who also majored in physics, I felt that intelligence were a footrace, I could keep them in sight. A couple of them might be way ahead, but none of them would disappear from view. And then I reached graduate school, whereupon I was reminded of just how smart someone really could be, and how stupid I was by comparison: I met Bo.

Let me state for the record that I came to know just how inferior in intelligence that I could be to another person. I was completely outclassed in every way in terms of raw, native intellect. If our brains were in a footrace, I wouldn't have even laced up my shoes before Bo would have accepted the trophy, gone home, taken a nap and then come back to run again. And he would have finished first, second and third against me. With only the two of us running. It was a completely humbling experience. However, everyone should experience such a thing once in while to remind you that no matter how good you are, there's always someone faster, stronger and much much smarter.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 11:47 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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