Myths About Intelligence, IQ and Being "Smart"

So I recently had a conversation with someone about IQ. My friend has an IQ of 135, I myself have an IQ of 159, both measured out of 160. We discussed this at length and came to a conclusion: IQ, Intelligence and being "Smart" are three entirely separate things. IQ is a standard used to describe someone's learning capacity, hence why people under 70, less than half the entire scale, have such a disadvantage with learning. It does not automatically make someone smart or intelligent. People with high IQ are simply more advantaged when it comes to learning. Now Intelligence. Intelligence is related to IQ, but we decided intelligence is best described as the ability to reason, and apply reasoning and logic to things you learn. Finally, being "Smart" is simply the state of knowing a lot about a specific subject or field. What does this all mean? Just because some people have higher IQ doesn't mean that excludes people from being intelligent or smart. It just means you have to practice and apply yourself to become intelligent or smart.

My IQ is actually above average, but I think I'm pretty dumb in the grand scheme of things. https://24.media.tumblr.com/16c4bd0fc1c49686792dc106998138ee/tumblr_n5iwzdPob21sc4vago2_250.gif

Maybe you're just not applying yourself, or not being challenged enough with regards to your education. I've found people who don't get 4.0 GPAs and actually struggle to get good grades are far more capable because they're actually having to work their brains. I wasn't challenged at all in school in most subjects, and it hit me like a rock when I went to college.

It depends on how interesting and challenging the subject is for me, but I do fairly well if it's something I am not familiar with because I spend more time thinking about it.

Everyone has strong areas where they can grow the most. I'm decent with language, able to speak Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and some Japanese, as well as other fields like technology. For instance, I can tell you all the hardware specifications of the Nintendo 64 from memory because I happen to really be good at that sort of stuff.

I have a very good memory, and pick up languages quickly I know Japanese, some German, some Korean (can read hangu from seeing it in karaoke), Spanish, learning Tagalog and ASL. Logic is my strong suit, so science is another strong subject of mine. I also like messing with mechanical things, computer hardware, cars and stuff like that. I do get worried about taking things apart and not being able to put them together, though.

Oh thats easy, just do what I do - I fix cars and stuff so I usually after taking a screw out and lifting out the component it holds in, I screw the screws right back where they go in loosely so I know which ones go where. After that I just make a mental note of what goes where.

Heh, I recently replaced the steering rack on my Honda, and it was a challenge and a half to get it out, but fun nonetheless. It involved about 5 hours of me and my friend pushing and shoving shit in tight corners with lots of beer, swearing and cuts on our arms.

I'm sure, that is quite a bitch to work on. My latest project was drum brakes, they are a bitch but not as rough of a job as a steering rack. Good that you had a friend to help, but swearing and cuts on the arms sounds about right. Glad it wasn't a transmission. Then you'd be swearing and cutting your arms for even longer.