What does it mean to be a member of Mensa?
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
Not much, apparently, if you take into consideration the grammar and punctuation of the member who is representing the organization in this thread!
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0bx wrote:
Having a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart. It just means you're good at some things most people are really bad at.
It it's that, really. Most people have either an in-depth knowledge of one or two fields (just football, or just gardening, or just computer coding), or they have a dabbling interest in many fields (they'll cook, knit, play World of Warcraft and strum a guitar, but only a little bit in all of these.) In my experience, Mensans tend to have a strong interest in and knowledge of many fields: they might be great cooks, have an excellent flower garden, be active in the local dodgeball league, read several books every week and sit on a couple of charity boards. It is not that we are good that things that most people are really bad at; its that we typically have more things that we are good at than is typical. Mind you, though, that doesn't mean we are good at everything, even though a lot of us like to pretend that we are. :rolleyes: We may have more fields of expertise, but outside of those we're just as ignorant as everyone else.
I like your explanations Gregory. :thumbsup:
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
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Not much, apparently, if you take into consideration the grammar and punctuation of the member who is representing the organization in this thread!
Jason Hooper wrote:
Not much, apparently, if you take into consideration the grammar and punctuation of the member who is representing the organization in this thread!
If you are talking about Gregory then I should let you know that IMHO he is a stand up guy. Being intelligent has nothing to do with spelling and grammar.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
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I may have poor sample, but it seems to me that it means your IQ is in the upper 1.95% - 2.0% of the population.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
I may have poor sample
:-D
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
It means you passed a test to qualify for membership. This test supposedly tells you your IQ. I'm a member, for the record. I looked through the membership directory at one point long ago and saw that Piers Anthony[^] was also a member. Of course, the people that have posted insults probably consider him a loser too, despite his dozens of best selling novels. I'd be willing to bet there are many respectable geeks that are members. The best thing about membership is being able to talk to other intelligent people that don't feel important by insulting people on message boards.
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it means you did well on their qualification test (a multi-hour logic, puzzle, reading, vocabulary and math test) and then you thought it would be fun to join a group of other people who likewise did well on that test. i took the test, because i like those kind of tests, and did well enough to get in. but i couldn't see the point of joining such a group.
I was fascinated by Mensa when I was a teenager and qualified to be a member by my scores on other tests, but then I thought, "Why would I pay money to be a member of this group?"
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
It's like a drivers license. (It has absolutely nothing to do with how well you can drive.)
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It means you passed a test to qualify for membership. This test supposedly tells you your IQ. I'm a member, for the record. I looked through the membership directory at one point long ago and saw that Piers Anthony[^] was also a member. Of course, the people that have posted insults probably consider him a loser too, despite his dozens of best selling novels. I'd be willing to bet there are many respectable geeks that are members. The best thing about membership is being able to talk to other intelligent people that don't feel important by insulting people on message boards.
I would guess that you are a regular member that is posting under a sock puppet account. Of course, I could be wrong...I usually am.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
It means you've spent a lot of time doing silly puzzles in puzzle books, because they equate intelligence with proficiency with that kind of silly puzzle. It doesn't take a genius to recognise that if a couple of hours practice with silly puzzle books before taking a mensa test can miraculously increase your intelligence, then there's something seriously wrong with the measuring system. Most of the mensa types I've met have been thick as bricks, and incapable of handling anything unexpected (a true measure of intelligence is to do with associative ability, which allows genuinely clever people to handle new situations by quickly and abstractedly cross-referring the new with the known to find possibilities), but they can finish silly puzzle books before their third spoonful of breakfast.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
Narf.
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
It just means you scored in the top 2% on an IQ test. It doesn't have to be a Mensa test; they accept the results of other tests that measure IQ, such as the Graduate Record Exam to get into grad school. Once you're in, there are a lot of subgroups for special interests that you can join.
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
I almost joined them, even drove over an hour to the nearest place they had the test (back when I had too much free time) Got there and waited along with the other testees to be told that the examiner (a member of mensa) had crashed her car into a wall while ringing the test center to tell us she would be late) I decided that if that was the level of intelligence of the members I didn't really need to be one!!.
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Scored the exact same figure when I was in school. Joined (well it was very cheap if you were a student.) Some nice folks and some nerds and some real tossers. Unjoined about 20 years ago! Rich
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it means you did well on their qualification test (a multi-hour logic, puzzle, reading, vocabulary and math test) and then you thought it would be fun to join a group of other people who likewise did well on that test. i took the test, because i like those kind of tests, and did well enough to get in. but i couldn't see the point of joining such a group.
I'd consider that Mensa membership/participation might put you in touch with people who have similar interests. However, Mensa membership is spread over a large array of people and job types. Some people like to use their intellect at work, others don't. When I think of Mensa I always remember the episode of Bob Newhart where Emily is going to a hi-IQ gathering and Bob mentions that his IQ is 130. Emily replies with, "Why, Bob, that's almost gifted." I love to use that line on my roommate.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office
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I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
It means you've scored in the top 2% on one or more of a number of standardized tests or achieved a high enough score on e their proctored tests. To equate that with intelligence is incorrect; I happen to have scored in the top 1% nationwide on college and graduate school entrance exams, which means: a) I qualify to be (and am) a member of Mensa b) I take standardized tests well neither of which suggest I'm in the top 2% (or even close) in intellengence. I have my moments, and am certainly above average, but I'm no genius. That being said, it's not my belief that Mensa has ever made statements to that affect. Their literature says pretty much what I say above; the rest of the world has interpreted "scoring high on tests" to be "a group of really smart people." From a personal standpoint, it's a social group. While I'm pretty inactive, my local group meets for a monthly dinner, and there are occasional other get-togethers for games, movies, et cetera. Generally pretty geeky sorts, but they're fun too.
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Each national organization has their own tests, and qualifying tests can be very different. About seven years ago, I took the American Mensa proctored test rather than a "standard" IQ test. It started out with a passage being read to us, then several tests that measured our ability to decypher patterns, perform basic computational skills, work logic puzzles and the like, then a final test about what we remembered from the read passage we heard about an hour and a half earlier.
I'm not sure that memory should be a part of IQ metrics although I don't reject the importance of memory. My IQ is about 20 points higher than my boss' but he has a better memory. It seems to serve him well enough since he makes more money than me. On the other hand I used to have a roommate who claimed 170 and I make more money than she does. It's not an indicator of ability to succeed. IMS, IQ tests were developed in France as a means to cull out the lower class from being able to attend public schools. Some people pooh-pooh the idea of IQ tests as being culturally slanted but I'm not so sure that holds in a society where television tends to flatten the cultural barriers. I do question exposure to the use, and subsequent understanding of their meaning, of some words in conversations within sub-cultures but everyone certainly has access to the same exposure in today's technologically oriented world.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office
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It means they can pass some IQ tests which generally mean nothing; having a high IQ does not make people intelligent.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
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I am a member of American Mensa. All it "means" to be a member is that I have a qualifying test score (national organizations have varying lists; here is the US list[^]) that places me in the 98th or 99th percentile. In general, Mensans have a kind of intellectual ADD: if you listen to a group of us talking, the conversation might well start out about cars, then move to the theory of interstellar space travel, to cosmology, to stellar physics, to nuclear power, to global warming and back to cars, all in about ten minutes time. It is a given that sex and food will be mentioned several times during that same ten minutes. This doesn't mean we're "retarded", just that our discussions are given more lead to wander where they will. A lot of people find such conversations difficult to follow; to be honest, we feel just as frustrated talking you. The result is that many high IQ people (Mensans and not) tend to be socially maladjusted: we don't get the kind of practice and positive feedback that you get for being social. That is why Mensa exists, to be a social organization that makes it easier for us to meet one another and engage people at our level.
Gregory.Gadow wrote:
A lot of people find such conversations difficult to follow; to be honest, we feel just as frustrated talking you
I'll have to agree with that. Despite having a 155 score (but never joined) I get into conversations with one of my co-workers who's mental processes seem to work on more than one level at a time. Conversing with him is difficult because he can't focus on the conversation we're having without interjecting his thoughts on whatever else is occupying his thoughts.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office