So What is your IQ?

[bpat1434]

Found this really funny.... and informative... here's an excerpt:
Full Story (http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/AdultLearning/?article=IQmain)
A few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco and a bunch of Mensa members were lunching at a local café. They discovered that their salt shaker contained pepper and their pepper shaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only the implements at hand? Clearly this was a job for Mensa! The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution.


"Ma'am," they said, "We couldn't help but notice that pepper shaker contains salt and the salt shaker--"


"Oh," the waitress interrupted. "Sorry about that." She unscrewed the caps of both bottles, switched them, and said, "Will that be one check or separate?"

[madwormer2]

About now, I feel it's around the 3 mark.

Maybe when I'm feeling a little less miserable.

Oh, and as for IQ tests, the multiple choice ones don't really work, because no-where in the "adding it up" does it account for "pure luck".

I took one the other day, online, guessed every single one. Got an IQ of 130.

Okay, I'd say my IQ is more around the 90 mark. (190 that is ;-))


I'm going to go to sleep, see if I feel more sane in the morning. (If I get up at all that is)

[piersk]

I think this shows the difference between being very clever (i.e. having a large IQ) and common sense. I work for a students union in the UK and have to deal with lecturers, researchers and professors. These men and women are the owners of some of the most brilliant minds in the world, but they have no common sense or (in some cases) social skills. It's really amusing how a guy without even a Bachelors (hey, I'm working on it, ok?) can make someone with 2 Ph.Ds and has the word "Professor" in front of his name look dumb :)

[Weedpacket]

I've long considered there to be a fundamental difference between "knowledge" and "wisdom".

You know, you've got this hierarchy that starts with "data". "Data" plus its interpretation makes for "information". But it's not enough to have a load of information - you have to actually know it for it to be any use. Hence "knowledge".

What I think distinguishes wise people from people who are knowledgeable (or at least, distinguishes the concepts "wisdom" from "knowledge", since there are no doubt quite a few people who are both) is that wise people know things "in the right way" - that in some sense what they know is better arranged than it is in other people (and they're better at knowing what it is they don't know). They don't necessarily know more than other people (though it helps), but what they do know is more useful; they can, for example, cope better when things spiral out of their experience.

Phew, what was in that drink?

[vaaaska]

Weedie, you been drinking wheatgrass again?

I think wisdom is a good thing for people like me. I doubt that I'm technically very smart (I'm stubbornly naive and intuitive about doing things) but getting older gives me *some* wisdom.

Last week on the subway I was talking to a bunch of kids about music and they started making fun of a friend of theirs because he liked Bob Marley. I told them that it's not fun if everybody likes the same thing and they all thought that was pretty cool. I felt like Papa Smurf.

[dream.scape]

This thread reminds me of the one chapter of the ZhuangZi where Knowledge wanders north to speak with Do-Nothing-Say-Nothing and then goes south to find Wild-and-Witless. I dunno why. I guess Weedpacket's post triggered the recollection more than anything...

oh no, a philosophical programmer... run away, run away

[Doug G]

I'm curious how changing the lids helped anything when "salt" and "pepper" were on the container, not the lids. Seems like the waitress is the logically challenged one :)

[piersk]

Some salt and pepper pots don't have anything written on the sides... only on the top (or the salt will have just one hole and the pepper multiple)

[Weedpacket]

The ones in cafes are often made of glass so that you can see what's inside them before you use them. But then of course it doesn't matter what it says on the lid. If you even notice.

[bpat1434]

Yes, salt shakers normally have 3 holes, and pepper 4 holes. The container is the same, the lid is different. What makes the story humorous is that a waitress switched the lids, when the MENSA guys wanted to remove the contents.... work smarter not harder guys....

I do agree to there being a difference between common sense & knowledge. I had a physics professor that was a moron (couldn't tell left from right) but was brilliant (knew everything about physics you could want to know). Ah well.... it's interesting to see views on wisdom vs. knowledge....

[Elizabeth]

They don't necessarily know more than other people (though it helps), but what they do know is more useful; they can, for example, cope better when things spiral out of their experience. And that's when we call you. :)

[Doug G]

Yes, salt shakers normally have 3 holes, and pepper 4 holes.
This isn't particularly true. I'm basing this on observation of my Mother's 100+ salt/pepper collection I inherited. The number of holes is pretty arbitrary, some shakers are labeled, some aren't, and many don't have lids at all, they have corks or stoppers on the bottom.

The original description of the situation was missing some necessary facts, and therefore was really not particularly relevant to much of anything, certainly not suitable for a foundation to speculate on some group's knowledge or lack thereof.

Wisdom includes not trying to increase your own stature by attempting to lower another's stature. You get what you have earned.

[bpat1434]

I agree, but it is safe to assume that Salt shakers have 3 holes, and pepper 4. It's also safe to assume that salt has fewer holes to pour from than Pepper. That was the point of my 3 to 4 hole observation. I'm not a Salt & Pepper shaker guru like you, nor can I speak for anything over seas.

Wisdom includes not trying to increase your own stature by attempting to lower another's stature.
That was not my objective at all....

[laserlight]

Yes, salt shakers normally have 3 holes, and pepper 4 holes.
I dont think there's any set rule, or if there is, it varies geographically. When my family went to Turkey for a holiday last December, my mother noticed that different parts of Turkey have different conventions for the number of holes to denote salt or pepper. Basically, she added salt to her soup when she expected pepper, simply because the convention at Istanbul was different from the convention at the Cappadocia region (I think). I think the number of holes are also subject to differing conventions too.

What makes the story humorous is that a waitress switched the lids, when the MENSA guys wanted to remove the contents.... work smarter not harder guys....
Well, I cant deny that they did achieve their objective (i.e. to swap contents). Interestingly, this is like a case of pointers and the contents pointed to. The Mensa members implemented the swap by swapping contents, the waitress implemented the swap by swapping the pointers.

[RyanJones]

According to the IQ tests we had to take in school in order to come back and study A levels, I have an IQ iof 178 - then again the ones online say anywherebetween 170 - 190 so I don't know how accurate they are...

IQ tests are pretty useless when you get arround to it :)

Cheers,

Ryan Jones

[Merve]

One online IQ test (www.iqtest.com) that I took told me that I had an IQ of 145: borderline genius. However, I have doubts about the legitimacy of those results. The only way to actually know is take a real IQ test.

And I agree with has been said about the difference between common sense and intelligence. I might be smart, but I have absolutely no common sense. :D

[bpat1434]

heh... says I'm a 121... is that good? I never really cared...

[Weedpacket]

I wouldn't trust a cafe salt (or pepper) shaker I couldn't see inside. It would slow the staff down, too, when they're checking to see if any need refilling. So would having shakers that didn't have screw-top lids.

Maybe I just frequent the wrong cafes.

[dartcol]

At times I feel like my IQ dips below the official idiot level (80 I thnk). You know, when you're struggling to remember that the last variable you wrote in the 173rd line of code of the page you were editing 5 seconds ago and then you can't find the page you were editing.

After blinking furiously at the computer, commandeering the remote and muting the TV, taking a deep breath and shouting 'sort it out moron' mantra-like' you give up, look at the clock, realise it's 4:32am and you've got to get up in 2 hours 28 minutes to do a full day's work ... you (or rather I) FINALLY reach to turn off the computer.

That's being an idiot. Especially 4 days in a row. Does lack of sleep affect the IQ?

ps
I did actually do a test once before I got into anything technological (didn't use a computer till 6 years ago) and it said 111 or something. Since learning HTML/XHTML/CSS/PHP/SQL plus all the graphic design software, etc, etc it's gone up to 132. Perhaps I'm developing the logical side of my brain which most IQ tests seem to test.