At 11:17 PM 7/12/97 -0500, you wrote:
>On Sat, 12 Jul 1997, Mara Riley wrote:
>
>> At 11:40 PM 7/9/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> I _might_ have an interest in you if you're interested in the things I'm
>> interested in... otherwise, I'm lousy at small talk. Know anything about
>> medieval to early modern costuming? Harleys? Shelties? Celtic studies or
>> music? Wooden sailboats?
>
> That about what I meant by "no interest in you."
So what DO you mean by 'interest in someone'? Chitchat about the local
football team, the weather, one's bad knee? Eh. I can do that, for at
least a little while... but most people are very superficial and have no
interest in conversations that go any deeper than that, which means there's
no basis for forming a friendship. I just choose very carefully where I
decide to invest my emotional time and energy. Why in the world should I
be interested in being friendly with the world as a whole? I don't have
that kind of golden retriever personality; I'm an introvert, and the effort
exhausts me. (My hubby is an extrovert, and deals very well with social
situations; incidentally, his IQ is about the same as mine, so it's not an
IQ thing.)
>> I disagree. I think it's modern society that hurts people with very high
>> IQs; they get stifled and made fun of by the less-intelligent people. I
>> think I deliberately 'dumb down' at work so as not to threaten my boss; she
>> gets very offended when I get frustrated with her inability to operate even
>> the simplest of tasks on her computer.
>
> I just try not to care. Sometimes, a low-level elitism helps.
>But if you take the approach of "Smart? Me? No way!" then everyone else
>is stupid by default. I just try to keep a realistic attitude and
>remember all the things that I don't know how to do.
Certainly. I don't think that wisdom is necessarily identical with IQ;
there are many kinds of intelligence, and not all of them show up on a test
paper. Some PhDs I know can't walk across the street without almost
getting run over. And some of the wisest people I know don't have college
degrees.
> I'd join Mensa for the ability to put it on my resume. I'll have
>to look into it in a few months. As far as hanging out with smart people
>goes, I pretty much already do that. Sure, I only have two friends, but
>at least we get along.
Hm. I guess my feeling is that (at least from my point of view) that'd be
more of a liability than an asset, given the general view that Mensa is for
intellectual snobs. Unless you know for a fact that your potential
interviewer is also a Mensa member, in which case it might stand you in
good stead. However, I think that managers are most likely to be the kind
of people who don't overanalyze things and are therefore more likely not to
be at the higher end of the IQ range (just my personal feelings/prejudices
-- and note the word _over_ analyze).
Did I say anything about hanging around with smart people? I don't
remember; I'll have to go back and re-read my post. I don't know if it's
smart people that I want to hang out with so much as interesting, involved
people. (see above list of hobbies) The most interesting people are the
ones who are passionately involved with something.
Cheers,
Corbie
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http://www.radix.net/~lindo
I am *NOT* a rabid feminist! I had my shots last year.
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