relevant post
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“Feelings this strong” lmao it’s like you all read out of the “worthless reddit dumbfuck book” or something. My balls are a sample size, son. That’s my IQ.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Real biting retort. I'm taking notes as we speak.
I can only say I'm disappointed.
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I don't get why something like Mesa even exists. Like, what even is the moment where pulling out your Mensa card is a good idea?
Assuming you are inteligent, you should know that flashing a card from a gatekept "clever people" club will probably not impress many people, just like you should recognize that the test you did doesn't mean shit and IQ is not a good way how to measure people.
Well, the original idea behind Mensa was that if you got a bunch of really smart people together, they just might solve all the world's problems. Didn't quite work out that way, so I'd agree that it has no real reason to keep existing anymore.
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Do you remember how that con was supposed to work?
It was in an article about the real life incidents that influenced Terry Pratchett in the discworld series. So the con itself probably took place in the '80s or '90s, so quite a while ago. I can't really remember if the article itself went into any details but I ended up looking into it myself because I thought it was funny that people in Mensa had been conned.
I think it was some sort of timeshare scheme. The guy managed to sell timeshares in a property he didn't in fact own, not a very sophisticated con really. The utter geniuses didn't demand evidence that he actually owned the property before handing over cash.
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Yeah, no one "flashes a Mensa card" unless they are a jerk. We joined many years ago when we lived in Iowa for the social aspect. The parties are a lot of fun and the people are all fascinating. Not all people you want to spend time with, but fascinating. We let our memberships lapse when we moved back to Colorado.
Nearly universally, Mensans recognized that IQ is only measure of how well you do on an IQ test (which, as you may know, was never intended as a test for the upper end, only to find students who needed intervention) or the other allowed tests.
There were materially successful people and not, socially adept and not. People we learned to avoid and people who became friends. Cringe and connection.
I suppose it is like any other social club where you have something in common with the additional kicker that people were not holding back in conversation. You had the chance to rapidly be humbled in that case if you went on at length about some favorite topic only to find out the person you were talking to was an expert in it.
Plus there were cool speakers and field trips. "Dumb things smart people do" was one of our favorites.
Thank you, that makes perfect sense. It's easy to fall from the outside into the trap of judging it by the "smarter than you club" label, and forgetting that probably isn't the point for most members, and the club part is the important one.
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Thank you for your expertise, @WorldsDumbestMan
Unironically had to do a lot of (sloppy) research to try and treat myself.
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It was in an article about the real life incidents that influenced Terry Pratchett in the discworld series. So the con itself probably took place in the '80s or '90s, so quite a while ago. I can't really remember if the article itself went into any details but I ended up looking into it myself because I thought it was funny that people in Mensa had been conned.
I think it was some sort of timeshare scheme. The guy managed to sell timeshares in a property he didn't in fact own, not a very sophisticated con really. The utter geniuses didn't demand evidence that he actually owned the property before handing over cash.
I took a trip down the rabbit hole and tried to find any evidence - there is none. Even though this was happening before the www really took off there should be evidence on the net. A story hilarious as that would never die and would also be used as a warning against timeshare scams.
I don't think mensa members are immune to scams, but timeshare? Even the legit ones are scammy IMO.
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It’s worse than useless. It tells you literally nothing about anything, plus idiots think it’s meaningful.
Well, it helped me understand why people would very regularly not understand apparently simple stuff I explained. This happened on so many topics with so many people it was very frustrating.
I don't think that makes them lesser than me or me better than them (the people not understanding).. It just means I had and still have to work on adapting my messaging to my audience ← and that is something that everybody regardless of IQ should do.
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I don't get why something like Mesa even exists. Like, what even is the moment where pulling out your Mensa card is a good idea?
Assuming you are inteligent, you should know that flashing a card from a gatekept "clever people" club will probably not impress many people, just like you should recognize that the test you did doesn't mean shit and IQ is not a good way how to measure people.
it'd make sense if it was just a club to help people be social, since high IQ and social difficulties tend to come together
but no.. they charge you to be part of it..
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It's my impression that people tend to be more attracted to the unusual, so if you've grown up surrounded by big booty latinas, they're not as appealing as otherwise.
Not true. Latinos love big booty Latinas.
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In the process of diagnosing ADHS (dyslexia, other) disabilities, a IQ test is used to establish a baseline of what other people with a similar result can and cannot do and this is compared to what you can and cannot do.
IQ tests do have uses.
Oooooh that's why they tested me for that. They told me I was faking for drugs because I got a 140 something but I panicked and failed the left right thingy really badly and my MSE results suggested dementia (and I was like, 20). I did finally find a doctor who listened and I've been very functional on Strattera for many years now (which is ironic because it's not even a stimulant / it's functionally useless recreationally). I can't even take simulants because I have too much anxiety.
