This is a question that has haunted mathematicians and physicists as well those in other high IQ professions. In 1927, physicist Paul Dirac, who won a Nobel Prize at age 31 for his work in quantum physics, wrote the following quatrain: Age is, of course, a fever chillThat every physicist must fear.He’s better dead than …
To all you friends who visit, contribute or merely read the posts on this Quora Space, I wish a Happy New Year. For many of us 2020 has been a challenging time. Some of us have lost loved ones to Covid-19, and others have suffered severe economic hardship. While our discussions on this site usually …
In 1936, John C. Raven attempted to address the criticism that the prevailing IQ tests were culturally dependent, because people from educationally deprived environments may not have been exposed to an expansive vocabulary or knowledge specific to a particular culture. To address this criticism, and make tests of intelligence independent of knowledge, he developed the …
Can IQ tests actually measure your personal intelligence instead of your knowledge? Read More »
In an 1886 publication, Sir Francis Galton graphed the heights of 205 adults and 928 of their adult offspring. From these data, he asserted that the height of an offspring deviates from the average height in the adult population by only two thirds of the parent’s deviation from the average. In other words, children of …
An IQ of 140 is a mixed blessing. On an IQ scale for which the mean is 100 and standard deviation 15, a person with an IQ of 140 is in the 99.616957th percentile. This means that they have scored higher than 99.6% of the population on the test, an achievement equalled or bettered by …
I know a 140 IQ is good, but what does it really do? Read More »
It’s very difficult to assess someone’s intelligence during a brief meeting, but the longer you share conversation with that person, the more accurate will be your assessment. Here are some characteristics I have found in the very high IQ people I’ve met although these are, of course, generalizations that will have some counterexamples. High IQ …
How can you tell if someone has a high IQ based on their behavior? Read More »
To answer your question in a nutshell: the human brain grows rapidly throughout childhood reaching a peak in early adulthood. Research suggests that our fluid intelligence (a major portion of our IQ) stabilizes between ages 16 and 20 and then goes into a gradual decline. Throughout adulthood, we gain experience, and depletion in our fluid …
Why is IQ so much more variable in childhood than in adulthood? Read More »
Many questions that come to this Quora space ask whether it’s possible to change your IQ. To address this question, I searched a wide variety of journals for the latest research in this area. Some of what I discovered is presented here, in the following snippets from my book titled, Intelligence, IQ, & Perception. The …
Actually, a higher than average IQ is probably necessary for the development of wisdom, so one cannot lose too many IQ points and still gain wisdom. Before elaborating, I will provide Aristotle’s distinction between IQ and wisdom. In the quote below, Aristotle uses the term “Prudence” to describe wisdom. Although the young may be experts …
Is it a good deal if you lose your IQ but gain wisdom? Read More »
In my upcoming book titled, Intelligence, IQ, and Perception: Unpopular Truths Exploding Popular Myths, I devote a chapter to the question, “Are Smarter People Wealthier?” An excerpt is included below: In a research paper published in 2007, titled Do you have to be smart to be rich? The impact of IQ on wealth, income and …
