POLL: How smart do you think you are?

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I've always wanted to ask these questions. Respond.

(Obviously, intelligence is a very nebulous trait, and different people will have different conceptions of it. I am referring, of course, to general intelligence. Interpret yourself what it means. Surely you're smart enough.)

(Let me make an abitrary clarification on the frequency of intelligence as defined by the 3-18 rule. Let's put the mean at 10 (although it's really 10.5), and the standard deviation at 3. With mean = 10 and st. dev = 3, we can say 68% of people are 7-13 Int, 97% are 4-16, and .25% are 17 and above . This seems to vaguely match D&D rolls.)

(Yes, I am taking liberties with this, since in real life, mean IQ is 100 and st. dev. is 15, meaning that .25% of people have IQ's of 145 or more. But please, try not to mention IQ tests - they're not exactly reliable, and as Stephen Hawking said, "People who brag about their IQ are losers.")

[ August 01, 2005, 00:30: Message edited by: Oaz ]

Poll Information
This poll contains 3 question(s). 67 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: How smart do you think you are? (67 votes.)

If general intelligence were quantitative, I would have... (Choose 1)
* Low intelligence (6-9) - 3% (2)
* Average intelligence (10-13) - 9% (6)
* Above-average intelligence (14-15) - 34% (23)
* Very good intelligence (16-17) - 34% (23)
* Excellent intelligence (18 or more) - 10% (7)
* Abstain - 9% (6)

Compared to people I know personally, I have... (Choose 1)
* better intelligence - 51% (34)
* similar intelligence - 34% (23)
* worse intelligence - 7% (5)
* Abstain - 7% (5)

Compared to the people who frequent the SP forums, I have... (Choose 1)
* better intelligence - 16% (11)
* similar intelligence - 46% (31)
* worse intelligence - 15% (10)
* Abstain - 22% (15)

 

I'm just average, really. I got mostly Cs for my last lot of exams, and I'm predicted mostly Cs for my A-levels, although I'd say it's mainly due to having a very shory attention span and an appalling memory. People here seem to be rather bright, so I'd say I'm below average here.

EDIT: I did a proper IQ test a while ago, which came out at about 130. I think my main problem is my apathy.

[ August 01, 2005, 00:27: Message edited by: Alavin ]

 

I'm smarter than most people I know, but I feel I've found kindred spirits (and minds) here on SP. Most of the frequent posters, anyway.

 

I suppose I'm a little over the average persons intelligence and I would say the same for my friends, but there are a lot of smart cookies on the boards here and I doubt I have the brains to match many of them.

 

When I'm being honest; low, worse and worse I suppose.

 

@Alavin: an IQ of 130 isn't bad considering that Einstein has the same

 

I have above-average intelligence. But when it comes to common sense I would rate that low. In comparison to the people on the board I chose 'similar'. There are people here smarter than I am and who know things I don't know. That is great because I keep learning knew things.

 

Enough.

 

Too smart for my own good

(Plus, lazy as hell )

 

a bit above average imnsho as I've been a consistent honors student in college, starting to get lazy though. same as the people i hang around with and i'm not sure about the SP question

 

I see I would not be alone if I said I was in the higher intelligence range, but I'm also not alone by saying that I'm an under achiever. I guess I find that to those around me, the majority don't really put much value on the things I consider myself good at...

 

I have no idea how I 'rank'.

I would love to know who put their intelligence scores at 'excellent' though.

I will say that people here are far more intelligent that other boards that I have visited, and I give credit to Tal's rules on using correct grammer, etc.

 

I thought that was wisdom?

 

Well, I consider myself of very good intelligence - my education so far was a piece o' pie, and it is the highest level of secondary offered in this country, and I usually don't have much trouble with logic puzzles and such.

Seeing the amazing amount of stupidity displayed by those around me on an every-day basis, I also chose 'higher' on the second question - I only know a few people IRL who can match me word for word, only one of whom is of my own age (he also happens to be my best friend, heheh)

However, I frequently see on these boards people who match and even exceed me in 'cleverness', so I put myself on similar in the third question - I don't know if I'm above, below, or spot-on average here, but I'm not too much of a deviant, I think.

 

Depends on where I am at the time.

In an average sporting event I feel on the upper end of the spectrum. However, having met a Nobel Prize winner in my field (and several who have been nominated many times) I realize I've still a long way from the top.

 

Honestly, I don't know.

 

As Dogbert once said, "I'm the smartest creature in the universe and you are all dolts."

 

I am a Chartered engineer, have a Masters degree from the top UK engineering university (IC) and usually score highly on IQ tests. Supposedly that puts me in the top 1% or similar, so I would same I have a high inteligence. A lot of my friends are also from said university and most have gone on to do doctorates in interesting topics such as Lazer optics, Chip design, Infectious diseases and Solvents. Compared to them I feel less inteligent!

On here, I really haven't thought about comparing myself in those terms - it's too difficult to know someone from a few missives on a public forum. Inteligence isn't measured by communication skills alone and internet research can make anyone look knowledgable on a subject.

 

Intelligence is such a hard thing to measure. When it comes to regular "iq" and schooling intelligence I would just rate myself slightly above average. I would not want to try out some higher scientific education or anything of the kind.

I do however view myself as "smarter" than pretty much the entire human race and find most people to be complete idiots whether they have wicked degrees and 200+ IQ or not. People are morons and intelligence seems to have little to do with it. I do not know if I have this attitude due to some superior insight or because I am an arrogant narcissistic jerk with delusions of grandeur.

 

I think I know Joacquin...........

So thats at least one thing I know that you don't

I wont even mention football