Let’s not forget all of the pundits who said that Obama was the smartest president this country has ever seen!
*BARF*
ANY of the men from Teddy on back (and Reagan) would run circles around Obama. The man is about as intelligent as a sack of hammers, and that’s an insult to hammers!
As far as the article, great points. I know several people who have higher IQs than me, but they couldn’t write a sentence if they tried. Intelligence is not a measurable constant.
I think it is, we just can not create a quantifiable measure that is universal. Right now measuring intelligence is better from a judgmental stand point. That is to say that our personal experiences with a person is a better judger of intelligence than a test is.
What psychologists call general intelligence, or g, is very measurable. What people not trained in psychometrics call intelligence can be something else and like you point out subject to problems in measurement.
I appreciate what the author of the article is trying to say. But I think the record would likely show that of all the people in the world ever described as geniuses, the vast majority have at least above average IQs. Probably a minimum of 120 or so, and many well above that.
I have a close relative with an IQ of 80 and is developmentally disabled (retarded). She fools everyone because she has learned how to respond to people in ways that they think she understands what is being said. She has memorized after many years,certain sayings like “you never know” or “just think positive”. Her mother is now in a nursing home and she is living in an apartment with visits from State provided assistants. Her neighbors are surprised when told that she is disabled. Many hard of hearing individuals also learn how to “bluff” and people think they are hearing them (very dangerous thing to do). My point is that I think Obama is of average intelligence but has learned how to bluff that he is highly intelligent. His facial mannerisms and body language are not authentic but rehearsed. I think he spends a good amount of time googling buzz words, bumper stickers etc, to find out what people are discussing. He then incorporates these buzz words/sayings into his comments and speeches and then everyone thinks he understands them.
Not all creative people are geniuses (thus the Threshold Theory), but in order to reach genius status, creativity is a necessary attribute.
As insightful as this revelation seems, it implies that, as many have rigidly maintained over the years of battling with theories of genius, to be truly gifted, high I.Q. is still essential. A musical genius such as Mozart, who possessed an eidetic memory, creativity, application and ramped I.Q., is not a fair comparison to the rap "genius" of today who is illiterate, creative, and stumbles around with an I.Q. of 99.