IQ of 158 - Saturday, January 27, 2007

My friend Bill is not stupid. He is, after all, my friend, and I don't mix with stupid people.

He drew my attention to getting my Intelligence Quotient examined on the web. Bill knows that I'm smarter than him, smarter than anyone I know, but then, doesn't everyone know that by now?

• Here's my take on web-based IQ evaluations.

In the first place, an IQ score merely tells you how far above or below average you are. Average of what? Average of the group in which you were tested.

Test me in Chinese within a group of Chinese schoolchildren, and I will have a low IQ, below 100.

Test me in English with a group of English-speaking children from the desolate wastes of India, and I will suddenly rank above average.

Same me, different group, therefore different average, therefore different IQ score.

I am unchanged; I know no more no less than before (except how to order a drink of tea in Chinese).

In the second place, if I were offering a web-based service in return for money or an email address, I'd make sure that my (unseen) customers were satisfied. The basis would be: Answer these questions and I'll email to you a random number between 105 and 145, a score of 100 being, of course "average".

Everyone would receive an above-average IQ score. "Be sure to tell your friends about this site".

Smart people are too busy reading books or thinking about the universe to get their IQ tested.

For one thing, there's not enough time left to read all the good books, let alone all the books …

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