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Mensa: Is it a waste of human intellect?

Riddle101

I'm sure most of you know what Mensa is. Those who don't, Mensa is an organisation made up of extremely intellegent people with a high IQ. The the organisation is said to be the largest, oldest and well known organisation and it goals are
(1)To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity
(2)To encourage research into the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence
(3)To provide a stimulating enviornment for it's members

Here's my problem. We have an organisation mad eof of some of the smartest minds in the world and yet what exactly do they do. You would think that an organisation like Mensa would put their brainpower to good uses like researching a Cure for Cancer, Aids or developing othe types of cures. They discover new scientific wonders, or they could very much help mankind any different ways. But instead they rarely do anything. I mean it just seems like a waste of intelliegence and to be honest it's quite disappointing to see the lack of interest they have in other things other then themselves

Then again i may be wrong, if i'm wrong then please let me know where i went wrong. But my point is, Mensa for all it's smarts dosen't have the intelligence to put their minds together

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Marcus.Aurelius

chin_grin wrote: »

"PI IS EXACTLY 3"

Shhh, don't let the spacetime hear you say that. :eek:

getz

i am not a member of MENSA but i am a member of another less intelligent organisation called DENSA

Dave!

It's not like this is all they do all day.... sit around and talk about how smart they are..... They have jobs, and use their intelligence in various other ways.

Zulu

Nerds.

The lot of them.

EamonnKeane

Tawny wrote: »

Wasn't there an episode of the Simpsons where Mensa take over the council or whatever and are rubbish at it?

Really intelligent people are best left to their own devices. Fine line between genius and insanity and all that.

Indeed. Down with the bourgeois intelligentsia! A real leader has to be the mediocre son of a mediocre previous leader: nobility in the blood!

And what's all this crap about curing cancer? That's a job for research labs, not social clubs.

And as for your original question - is it a waste of human intellect - perhaps it is, but not so bad as school.

Nic'name

I went to do the test one day, the place was filled with a bunch of **** talking about their achievements...I was like er I was on Gridlock once (NET2 school quiz show with Mooney which was fixed I tell ya!). Anyways I went just to see...plus I've this embarrassing thing where I like tests. Then they announced if you qualify you have to pay something like 90quid a year for the priviledge of receiving 4 newsletters on about 2 subjects a year. I qualified but I was way too intelligent to pay that....:L:L:L

EdgarAllenPoo

Why would you join an organization who's only purpose is to show people how intelligent it's members are? Never really understood that, if you have a high IQ then good for you but unless merely knowing you have a high IQ can directly get you laid, pay your bills or otherwise improve your life then what's the point.

Nic'name

GDM wrote: »

Why would you join an organization who's only purpose is to show people how intelligent it's members are? Never really understood that, if you have a high IQ then good for you but unless merely knowing you have a high IQ can directly get you laid, pay your bills or otherwise improve your life then what's the point.

I was curious and thought it would look good on my CV. My dad who hires and fires engineers in his line of work said "Yeah if you want to look like a pretentious prick." Lol tis true plus you can learn how to do well on those tests and they only factor in logic intelligence...Which is stupid, what about emotional intelligence or social skills.

KnifeWRENCH

Decker Tasty Hangar wrote: »

Arguing on the internet isn't very smart...

I disagree.

consultech

All MENSA does is provide a membership card so its members - who ordinarily can't make friends - can ego-****. I had my IQ rated at 148 in 6th year in school and a teacher at the time was like: "Oh you should definitely join MENSA, fantastic organisation".

When I asked what they do, and how being a member could benefit me, she replied: "Oh, well I'm not really sure; But you can tell people you're a member and let everybody know how intelligent you are." - It would seem that this is about the extent of members' motivation for joining.

Plenty of "members" in MENSA alright...

javaboy

consultech wrote: »

All MENSA does is provide a membership card so its members - who ordinarily can't make friends - can ego-****. I had my IQ rated at 148 in 6th year in school and a teacher at the time was like: "Oh you should definitely join MENSA, fantastic organisation".

When I asked what they do, and how being a member could benefit me, she replied: "Oh, well I'm not really sure; But you can tell people you're a member and let everybody know how intelligent you are." - It would seem that this is about the extent of members' motivation for joining.

Plenty of "members" in MENSA alright...

Did the definition of irony crop up on the linguistics part of the IQ test?

Rev Hellfire

I think mensa is great, in my experience to date reviewing cv's anyone who's put it down on their cv is typically someone you don't want to hire because they have been without exception egotistical nut job.

Without it I might actually have to interview them.

consultech

javaboy wrote: »

Did the definition of irony crop up on the linguistics part of the IQ test?

Point taken, but I'm hardly carrying a membership card. My reference was to lend weight to my opinion of MENSA, as opposed to spouting un-informed conjecture.

Nic'name

I would love for a member to post! Any of you out there?

From the Mensa.ie faq

Is Mensa an elitist organisation? While it is true that some of the members of Mensa are at or near the top of their chosen field, we are still governed by the same social rules and norms that apply across the rest of the population, so the short answer is - No.

EdgarAllenPoo

Nic'name wrote: »

I would love for a member to post! Any of you out there?

From the Mensa.ie faq
Is Mensa an elitist organisation? While it is true that some of the members of Mensa are at or near the top of their chosen field, we are still governed by the same social rules and norms that apply across the rest of the population, so the short answer is - No but we'd like to be.

Fixed that for you.

Nic'name

Brilliant!

Or "No, but we pretend to be at our awkward soirées during role playing it beats making eye contact with the opposite sex."

somethingwitty

Well theyre not really there to DO anything as such!
Its just a group for people of a high IQ to get together. And just because they have a high IQ doesnt really mean that they would be intelligent enough to go out an solve all the worlds problems!
A persons IQ suggests more their ability to learn, and not what they know already.

Their members range from binmen to teachers...what exactly could THEY do to cure cancer??!

There are many different types of intelligence too...

Sure isnt the person with the highest IQ known of today a lazy bum who has no job and just sits on his couch all day and eats??!!

Insect Overlord

So, for anyone who's just arrived in, the point of this thread goes something like this:

People who like sports join sports clubs and everybody's fine with that.

Musicians get together in bands and that's just dandy.

But people who have strengths in more obscure areas shouldn't have their own social club because that celebrates their intelligence, which makes them all egotistical, elitist snobs.

:rolleyes:

EdgarAllenPoo

somethingwitty wrote: »

A persons IQ suggests more their ability to learn, and not what they know already.

Not necessarily true, my IQ has tested at 136 and I find it very hard to learn/retain,reguritate information.

Nic'name

What obscure areas though? None of us are in sports teams because we'd potentially be able to play sports.
It does seem egotistical. It's like, I dunno, a bunch of people who get together because they look great.
Can they not join clubs relevant to their obscure abilities so rather than sitting around boasting.
People who get into Mensa are people who can do well in IQ tests.
I qualified for Mensa when I was 18 and the only obscure thing I can do is basic arithmetic real quick in my head which is great when you're broke in Tesco and don't want to disgrace yourself at the till and I don't fancy spending the evening chatting about it and making jokes like, "there are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not."

ejmaztec

Was going to mention Mensa on my CV, but decided that "Omnipotent Fucking Genius" was better, Needless to say, I work for myself.

joenailface

Wagon wrote: »

...I wonder how Stephen Hawking has sex?

Via some kind of baster i imagine.

Mensa is a sad organisation in my head, it's sole purpose is to exclude people they deem to be less intellegent than they are and i'm not a big fan of segregation. I'd much rather meet someone with 100 iq that i can actually hold a conversation with than these people who want to stroke their ego's. I remember i the last time i met a mensa member he bragged about it, i said 'what's your iq then' and he said it was 130 something, i didn't give him any stick over it, i asked what they did and we talked about it for a while. The impression i got was what they mainly do is play chess and solve puzzles, so you're essentially paying (smarter people than yourself) to play games with people who're the same level of intellegence as you...sounds pretty moronic to me but again i made no bones about it. Then my friend said to me 'would you not join, you love playing chess and you'd definatly get in with your iq' i kind of mumbled with reluctance and he asked her 'what's his iq' and she said 'its 150 something i think' and his jaw dropped...then for the rest of the weekend he adopted a pompous attitude and treated me like some prick, the only reason i can imagine for this is that he thought i stole his thunder or something, but in any case, that kind of mentality is pathetic and moronic. I felt the need to tell you that firstly and most importantly, it's so funny, secondly because it's sad and thirdly because now everyone who read it now knows of the existance of 'arrogant d*ckhead repelant'

please use with humour involved

javaboy

joenailface wrote: »

Mensa is a sad organisation in my head, it's sole purpose is to exclude people they deem to be less intellegent than they are and i'm not a big fan of segregation. I'd much rather meet someone with 100 iq that i can actually hold a conversation with than these people who want to stroke their ego's.

Smart people often feel isolated because of their intelligence. The clever kids in school are easy targets for bullies. That continues to a certain extent into adulthood. Intelligent people are less likely to watch shite like Big Brother and so will have less to talk about with the people around them.

So just think of Mensa as a support group for people who feel isolated because of their intelligence. As for your friend, there's always one gob****e. I know a couple of Mensa members and I had to drag it out of them that they were in it. So they're not all big headed boasters.

consultech

Wow, what a peculiar anomaly: It seems most people posting in this thread have IQ's in the top 1-2 percentile of the human race. You'd get some odd's on the chances of that.

What the hell is that smell?

Nic'name

consultech wrote: »

Wow, what a peculiar anomaly: It seems most people posting in this thread have IQ's in the top 1-2 percentile of the human race. You'd get some odd's on the chances of that.

What the hell is that smell?

Possibly because if they are in that IQ bracket they would maybe have been approached by a teacher in school or a friend at some point may have suggested Mensa to them therefore have an opinion on the subject which is why they were drawn to this thread in the first place. I think you'll find in a thread relating to handbags the majority of posters will be female. It's the same kinda thing, ya dig?

javaboy

consultech wrote: »

Wow, what a peculiar anomaly: It seems most people posting in this thread have IQ's in the top 1-2 percentile of the human race. You'd get some odd's on the chances of that.

What the hell is that smell?

Bull**** I reckon. I also find it amusing how many people here feel the need to mention their high IQs in the first place while giving out about Mensa being elitist and egocentric.

P.S. My IQ is 99 so screw all y'all! It's out of a hundred right?

Nic'name

Yes it is out of 100 pity you only got 99....lousy.:D

joenailface

javaboy wrote: »

Smart people often feel isolated because of their intelligence. The clever kids in school are easy targets for bullies. That continues to a certain extent into adulthood. Intelligent people are less likely to watch shite like Big Brother and so will have less to talk about with the people around them.

So just think of Mensa as a support group for people who feel isolated because of their intelligence. As for your friend, there's always one gob****e. I know a couple of Mensa members and I had to drag it out of them that they were in it. So they're not all big headed boasters.

Haha yea he was a gob****e, to be honest i've only met a few mensa members, off the top of my head one is really nice, the other three i can think of were ****, but maybe i just got an unfortunate number. The fact that you know people who hide it is strange though, but i guess that goes back to your point about being isolated and bullied.

To whoever was going on about the probabilty of people in the top 1-2 percentile with regards iq scores being on boards, we already covered isolation, boredom would be another factor, the likelihood of someone with a high iq seeing a thread about the usefulness of mensa and then clicking into it is quite high, the probability of people with high iq's using computers is also quite high and the probability of an irish person having a high iq is much higher than say in america because of our education system and the fact that most people here in the last decade or so go to college which means there are probably more than 80000 people in ireland with iq's above 140 so it seems quite likely that there are at least 2 people in that group who use boards...

Nic'name wrote: »

Possibly because if they are in that IQ bracket they would maybe have been approached by a teacher in school or a friend at some point may have suggested Mensa to them therefore have an opinion on the subject which is why they were drawn to this thread in the first place. I think you'll find in a thread relating to handbags the majority of posters will be female. It's the same kinda thing, ya dig?

for "ya dig?"

consultech

joenailface wrote: »

...the probability of an irish person having a high iq is much higher than say in america because of our education system

Wrong - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

joenailface wrote: »

...and the fact that most people here in the last decade or so go to college which means there are probably more than 80000 people in ireland with iq's above 140

Wrong - Ireland's average IQ of 93 ranks 36th in the world by country (drink kills brain cells) behind Bulgaria, Romania, Isreal, Slovenia etc, 7 points lower than the global average.

The rest of your statement is basically just presumptuous conjecture based on an unquantifiable sample.

ejmaztec

consultech wrote: »

Wrong - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

Wrong - Ireland's average IQ of 93 ranks 36th in the world by country (drink kills brain cells) behind Bulgaria, Romania, Isreal, Slovenia etc, 7 points lower than the global average.

The rest of your statement is basically just presumptuous conjecture based on an unquantifiable sample.

Probably more due to the lead in the water than the demon drink.