With permission from Kate granted to me, she asked me to plug my newest book which I wrote for highly intelligent people. It is not humor, nor tongue and cheek, but a sober assessment of problems highly intelligent people suffer living in an Idiocracy. YOu may find it here but I do strongly recommend it, especially if you have intelligent children who can’t stay awake in class.
Needs to be Kindle-ized.
Placed my order. Beware Amazon’s order place system. I had to take five minutes to figure out how to delete the previous two books I purchased from them from my order!!!
Yeah why no e-book?
Aaron Clarey is certainly intelligent and I enjoy his insightful observations. But if he got D grades in English, it could be because of bad grammar and spelling rather than a boring and inferior teacher. (To be fair, it could be both.)
Good grief!
Do you not enjoy the ability to be able to instantly flip to different pages. No need to fast forward or “add bookmark” until you have so many bookmarks you don’t know which is the one you want. With the physical book, you know it is about, ooh, just there. Open. Voila!
I can read a book anywhere … and I do! A file transfer is not as compelling a gift to one’s lover as a wrapped book! Bookshelves, of which I have many, are beautiful in their multi-hued vertical stripes. When you walk into someone elses dwelling, what is the first thing you do? Look for the books and study the titles.
I can trap and kill flies with my once-opened book. I can fend off felons with my heavy tome of the Oxford English Dictionary; not with a USB stick, though.
Since when do e-books become rarities and valuable? Books do. Even the most mundane of modern ones can surprisingly have a collector’s market, for whatever reason. Oh, how I’d love to have a hard copy of the Magna Carta, now available on-line no doubt. But data IS NOT INFORMATION and knowledge is not understanding.
Anybody who got a D in English isn’t smart. Clever maybe, but not smart.
I’m not smart enough to read it.
Would the counter-book be called The Blessing of the Low IQ? You know, ignorance is bliss?
Aaron, I love ya bud, but you need to find a highly intelligent proof reader. I found about seven spelling/grammar mistakes in the summary description. Doesn’t bode well for the actual book. Fortunately, I’m not highly intelligent. What I am is logical, thorough, and I make great decisions (when it counts), which gets me by.
toner, with that comment let me give you some advice, don’t buy the book, it’s quite probably about your IQ scale. Therefore you will not get full benefit of it’s lesson. A person with an IQ of 120 can not fully comprehend thoughts intended for those with higher IQ’s. Psychology 101. Even if you have such a lofty IQ (120) your dogmatic religious belief will obscure that intellect
PS; 120 IQ denotes idiot status
“Aaron, I love ya bud, but you need …” an editor and a “… proof reader.”
“Anybody who got a D in English isn’t smart. Clever maybe, but not smart.”
What about if they can not play the violin well, does that mean they do not have a high IQ ?
What if they do not have financial success, do you think this means they are not a high IQ person?
Or what if they can never remember their mother’s birthday, does that mean they are not that intelligent?
IQ is a brain-dead concept.
Just hit the “publish” button for Kindle. Should be available in 12 hours.
A person with an IQ of 120 can not fully comprehend thoughts intended for those with higher IQ’s.
One thing is for sure, a high IQ gives the person the ability to fool themselves more easily and thoroughly.
As well as have many,many insignificant opinions…
Agree completely. Clarey’s ideas are valid. But just when you start getting into his writing, the spelling errors and (especially) the malapropisms get distracting fast. Eventually, chuckles overtake as it devolves into Rickyisms…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfq3c4Cf1Fs
Too many people want to become victims of something or another.
Mr. Clarey:
To further some of the comments above…
I suspect your spelling and grammar errors are caused by your mind moving faster than your iteration.
To which I can only advise;
Take the time to fix it before you publish. Including blog posts.
Ya still gotta write for the audience, dammit!
And IQ is crap. I make silly boo-boo’s all the time. With a 132 IQ…
Cheers!
Mad Mike
Why is it that the people with the highest IQs often end up working for people with slightly lower IQs? Is there something about a high IQ that’s actually limiting?
“Is there something about a high IQ that’s actually limiting? ”
The people around…that can be quite limiting.
Ed:
It’s not that high IQ is limiting, it’s that a “well-rounded” human being wins more. High IQ is not everything, a solid person also needs a few other intangibles; such as “heart” and “courage” and most importantly…”empathy”. Meaning the ability and imagination to get into someone else’s head. We are all stubborn individuals, but we do not live alone on this planet.
Mad Mike
What people with high IQs need more than anything else is, tons of patience.
139, speaking from experience.
Sure, Al. Good observation.
Maybe look at it this way: The “tons of patience” you identify is maybe defined another way as “wisdom”. Better to lead them the way you’re going, than to become impatient and want to just kill them all…Or hide in the basement. Short term thinking instead of long term thinking… You can be emotional. Or you can be calculating. Which do you think will win out?
(Not that I wouldn’t go to guns when necessary!)
Mad Mike
What we all need is a big IQ dick show … seems it’s already started.
Skippy grades was common at one time … when I was a youth. How many kids are skippy grades now? Everyone is equal now … stupid or smart … same thing
see – I can’t even spell skipping.
nothing new to me.
1957 Im getting whalloped 1st time ever for daring to read ahead in those ghastly dick and jane things, desperate to find something of interest, and panicking to see its just more of the frightfully same stuff.
dangerous move.
fast forward to 1965, the guidance counselor is beaming. ‘significant above average analytical skills’ she says.
don’t tell me that, tell these idjits at the front of the classroom to provide something other than years of filler.
what is it they teach now? I don’t know, but it will be more useless filler.
50 years and nothing has changed.
Oh, it’s a curse for sure. Correlates with higher depression rates and such… but more belief in God.
So it’s got that going for it. Which is nice.
What would he say about people who manipulate IQ tests?
50 years and nothing has changed.
True.
It’s not that I am easily impressed by those that read,
I am dependent on them..
What if you walked into a doctors office, looked at his degree from Harvard Medical School,
and then asked him if he had read anything this/last week ?
“Oh, I don’t read- My office assistance reads all my continuation education.”
“I’ll just guess at what is wrong with you, and we will try to figure something out,
it’s on the computer…”
I would run out of his office like a healed man..
Think about a doctor, surgeon, pharmacist, or lawyer that cheated on his/her final exams?
Nothing has changed..
stradivarious >
“As well as have many,many insignificant opinions…”
Now that made me chuckle!
Ed >
“Is there something about a high IQ that’s actually limiting?”
Speed of thought is irrelevant if you don’t come up with the right answers, or arrange them coherently. As others pointed out “wisdom” is earned through experience, and not necessarily linked to “processor speed”.
i.e. I’d rather have the correct answer arrive slowly “with forethought”, than the wrong answer(s) handed out quickly.
So, what’s the spellcheckers IQ?
Do you have a high IQ or Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
“IQ is a brain-dead concept…”
Precisely. I’m on board with Stephen Jay Gould and his school of thought that the whole IQ thing is pseudoscientific. When you think about it, the idea that something as wonderfully complex (and uniquely individual) as human intelligence could, by responses to contrived and biased processes, be reduced in a meaningful way to a number on a curve, and that this number is a valid measure of mental worth, is absurd.
It’s been observation over the years that some of the biggest idiots I have ever had the misfortune of encountering were Mensa kings and queens; and the most profound truisms often come from unlettered blue collar boys and girls who could never make it to the snow line on the bell curve.
All fine and dandy Robert….but I have yet to read a book with adjustable font size…and to me my friend, that is what matters at this stage of the game..as does finding enough room and shelving to put said paper types….Read them for years, but I’m hooked on my kindle thanx,..
I have a Niece with an extraordinarily high IQ, a registered member of Mensa …who excelled through all her schooling. An A+ Honors student throughout. She is really quite brilliant, and fascinating to dialogue with. However, her adult life is a total mess. She has never managed to have a life independent of her mom and dad (still lives at home well into her thirties). She suffers from various mild forms of mental illness. She has never been able to hold a job … usually getting fired for reminding her superiors how much more intelligent she is … and recommending a wholly different way of doing their jobs.
Her life is a reminder that using IQ, alone, as a predictor of success is not very smart. It is very much like using statistics without context. Your statistical argument may “sound” persuasive … until you discover the full context of the statistics. Much like leftists quoting the high number of gun deaths in America in an effort to demonize guns in general, without expressing how many of those deaths are caused by inner city gang bangers.
The Capt. May have a VERY HIGH IQ … but I will ONLY take measure of a man(woman) by the productivity of their lives. That productivity doesn’t mean solely financial success … but it could be volunteer work, interpersonal relationships, or simply raising a family well. Or even … having a very popular blog. What I have come to value even greater than IQ … is “character”. Which is why so many butt-licking Hillary disciples make me physically revulsed. They all praise her as “the smartest woman in America” while ignoring the entire context of that apparent intelligence. That she has a rotten soul directing that intelligence. A woman who will literally do ANYTHING for the aggrandizement of money and power. Thus rendering her IQ as irrelevant
your niece appears to have Aspergers. find out and go from there.
I wish her well, she needs to keep looking for a ‘niche’ and don’t give up. assume it is out there, she just has to find it.
IQ tests have only one purpose: to test the ability to take IQ tests.
What do people do with the results? Does one put it one their resume? Ever been asked by someone doing the hiring? Do you even know your own IQ? Some bureaucrat in Ottawa does, it’s in your permanent file, but at least when I was going to school it was policy not to let kids know their own scores.
I was going to go in to the Canadian Armed Forces when I was in my early 20s, so I figured I’d try the Officer Candidate Training Program, why not? I went through a background check, full physical, turn your head and cough, the whole nine yards. Then they gave the group of us an IQ test and two hours to do it. I finished in 20 minutes, so they marked it right away, and told me I got the highest score they had ever seen. And that was the last I heard from the CAF, they never called me back in the 25 years since.
It is funny to see all the hostility ( or is it jealousy? ) directed at high IQ people in this comment thread
it is the same type of hostility I received in the sixth grade when I got the highest IQ score of the entire school and that I still occasionally get now in my 50s.
I will not mention my score but I will say this ; I scored higher than my mother, and she scored 147 ( I was tested 7 times so it is not a “fluke” or luck or whatever )
I can relate to what Captain Capitalism complains about
I am very familiar with the hostility, jealousy and the booby traps set by regular people to make me fail so they can point and laugh and say that I am not “that” intelligent.
No wonder I am almost an hermit, I feel like an alien.
Ok hate me now, throw tomatoes , have fun…
Not always the case (although, yes, it can be — it can also be the hallmark of a lazy student too).
I’ve met many children who are quite bright, but they have difficulty integrating what they see or hear into written thought (dyslexia/perhaps some variant of autism spectrum), this later turns into not being able to integrate their thoughts with coherent spelling/grammar patterns. I do find that many of them are quite good with other systems, like math, but something in the verbal centers of their brains isn’t quite firing as it should. This in turn leads to frustration and avoidance, which compounds the problem.
I’m an English teacher by the way.
I will say though that I have met many very intelligent people who have become rather nasty and hostile themselves (and they usually take it out on the mentally handicapped or deficient). This is a rather poor way to be: they did you no harm. Intelligence can be a wonderful thing to have, just like physical prowess…but it cannot replace having a good character. This is something everyone needs to remember — smart or not.
Yes, I got the highest IQ score in my classroom, so did my husband, so have my children and other members of our family…it is a blessing and a curse, and in the end is but a passing thing, as we all die eventually anyway — no sense worshipping a high IQ! His nephew was in the 150 range — several tests — and his nephew is a rotten, entitled behaving little git…the type who would likely enact a final solution, so in love with his own smarts is he.
Being smart is nice, but being wise and kind I think might be even better.
The thing that concerns me most about electronic media as opposed to books is this: writings go through many reprints and editions, including translations. The wording shifts, and this can eventually shift so much as to lose much of the original’s content and meaning. This has been the case with the printed word; think how much easier it is with electronic media!
Electronic media can have its place (like adjusting font size, which can be quite handy), but I have to agree: there is nothing quite the same as an actual book.
Does that ever sound like me. In Grade 1 after skipping ahead on all my Dick and Jane books, I was told that our group was joining a slower group, the Bears. We would start again with the first Dick and Jane book. I am afraid my 6 year old self could not stand that and I called the teacher a cow. I got the strap. Then I was told I was joining a new group, the chipmunks and did the next three four years in three. That was great until in Grade 5 they found I could not multiply or divide. In Grade 8, I was told I had a Grade 11 level in reading and a Grade 6 level in math. However I did end up with a BASC after all that mess in teaching.
I might beg to differ. Every time I stepped into an English class, it was
like a visit to the dentist for a root canal. I got high marks in math,
history, geography etc., but I absolutely sucked at English.
There was a old guy in my computer club back the 90’s who had a degree in
Electronics engineering. He worked for a major corporation. From time to
time, he would sit in on meetings to judge potential hires. Some of his
peers would deduct points for bad spelling and grammar. He eventually
managed to make them understand that the best people in these positions
were those who could not compose or spell worth a crap on their resumes!
Ed, I tested for a full week at St.Jean many years ago. Scored very well. I wanted to be jet jockey and I was more than qualified. I was told that my math was not strong enough to be a pilot but they were prepared to offer me an aircrew position, that position, navigator. The end. I left never to return. people wonder why I use the word stupid a great deal, that is just one reason.
The Kindle version is not available on amazon.ca yet. Only amazon.com. 🙁
Kenji said: “I will ONLY take measure of a man(woman) by the productivity of their lives.”
You might take a moment to consider how the world looks to your niece who “can’t keep a job.”
She’s surrounded by -idiots-. People who do things soooooo sloooooowly it makes her cry. The jobs she is assigned are futile, and she knows it. Any problem she comes across she can solve usually by looking at it for a minute. But nobody listens. Ever. And they blame her when their idiot problems blow up in their faces, after she told them how to fix it.
That’s what it’s like for a highly intelligent person in any company. It’s -torture-. Hence the mental illness. You beat somebody up their whole life, they go a little weird after a while.
I’d say she’s doing extremely well if she can still put one foot in front of the other. Go her!
Zootopia sloth trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY73vFGhSVk
My favorite high IQ joke was when Homer accidentally jammed a pencil in his brain, making him super intelligent, and he is at a Julia Roberts movie looking around at the people laughing, mystified.
OMG ! ROTFL … I must have missed that episode … what deliciously crafted subtle humor.