r/Gifted • u/[deleted] • Sep 15 '23
Hawking : "People who boast about their IQ are loosers"
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Interesting opinion coming from one of the most intelligent people ever.
I agree largely with what he said, boasting about your IQ would be like to boast about your 5th finger.
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u/TheTulipWars Sep 15 '23
I sort of hate this ideology. Yes, there are people who brag about their IQ and they think it makes them superior, but I think the issue is bigger than that. I think intelligence is valued so highly in our society that it's a privilege from the outside perspective. For anybody to brag about their IQ, or even talk about it openly, it's like telling people that you love being beautiful. The world isn't fair, and unlike wealth where society can scold those born into wealthy families, you can't argue against the fact that some people are given more intelligence and therefore a natural, biological leg up in society over others. That's why the topic is so sensitive.
However, you do have people who have high IQs. That's a reality. Tey exist, and they should be allowed to talk about it - especially in spaces specifically made for them. I'm sure Stephen Hawking complained about "stupid people" in private just as often as your average person does - and they do it a lot. The average person seems to believe that everyone they disagree with is dumber than they are. The average person hates "stupid" people, which is why I think it irritates some so badly to realize there is a small demographic that see them the way they view others.
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Sep 16 '23
The world isn't fair, and unlike wealth where society can scold those born into wealthy families, you can't argue against the fact that some people are given more intelligence and therefore a natural, biological leg up in society over others.
I don't deny that
I do agree that people who are in the high end of the intelligence spectrum tends to look down others people based on their intelligence just like regular people look down on less intelligent one. But it's not something which is right imo.
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Sep 16 '23
Well it depends what you mean by look down on
If there's something complex and I already know a person I know doesn't understand how to navigate it, I might help them in a "hey little bro" kinda way although I wouldn't for someone more intelligent, you could describe that as looking down since I'm assuming lesser capabilities
If looking down means looking at someone like they are less worthy of living or something like that, of course it would be bad
And when it comes to thinking "this person is pretty dumb", imo it'd good to always couch that with "compared to me" or "in this subject" however the thought itself isn't something you can stop and is very natural
Finally, something which has really helped me in the last year: Sometimes when you encounter someone that seems dumb, especially when their dumbness impacts me and I get annoyed, I remind myself that that person might be average or even higher intelligence still, and that instead of feeling like they're dumb it'd be better to subvert my average expectations.
To give an analogy which sounds incredibly demeaning but is only meant to show the principle:
If you have a dog that you kept inside for 24h, especially a puppy that hasn't been trained but even for a trained dog still, you're not going to get frustrated with the dog when it pees inside. You're gonna be annoyed, but you're not going at the dog like "why would you even do that and you know the bathroom is right there". But if a grown person did that, you're not just gonna be annoyed, you're gonna be pissed tf off because why even would they and why didn't they just ask where the bathroom was or look for it and so on.
This is why managing expectations has been helping me, for example in traffic there's some things people do that always frustrate me and get me yelling cause it's so mentally deficient and it absolutely screws me over. But reminding myself of the limited analysis of the traffic they might be doing, that anger changes a little bit to annoyance at the situation
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u/idrinkkombucha Sep 20 '23
Like an innate talent, you’re not responsible for your intelligence. Meaning, it’s not even something to be proud of, because you did no work to attain it.
Now, what if intelligence exists for a reason and many people waste it on selfishness and looking down on the others they were supposed to help? What if in the end, all that matters is how you lived, not what you accomplished?
Just a thought
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Sep 16 '23
In our current social context this is true but in reality it just shows how grimdark his outlook is.
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u/thatcmonster Sep 18 '23
IQ means nothing in the grand scheme of things. A hard worker will beat out natural intelligence in most environments and if natural intelligence is not constantly cultivated, challenged and tested it will never develop into anything meaningful.
To brag about it is like bragging about being really tall when you work a paper pusher job and never bothered to do anything with that height.
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u/naes133 Sep 16 '23
What I find cringe is people who have done 1000 iq tests and treat it as some sort of weird sport. The more of them you do, the less indicative of g it is. At that stage It's as fruitful as driving your car to work: you might get more efficient at it but at the end of the day you're just back at work.
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u/catfeal Adult Sep 16 '23
I once lurked on a subreddit about cognitive testing and they were soon obsessed about doing tests and having high scores. The scores they were able to get after a while were insane, multiple people with iq scores in the high 180's for instance, nearly nobody in there ever reached below 140
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u/naes133 Sep 16 '23
They could have learned to do something creative or productive in the time that they perfected test taking though. Like I'd rather talk to someone who had an actual iq of 130 than someone who prepared for 1000 tests and got 180 a few times. The latter are the fake naturals of the intelligence world.
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u/n503 Sep 17 '23
what's wrong with it? i don't find it interesting, but it's like saying "yo, rubik cube speedrunners are cringe!"
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u/naes133 Sep 17 '23
IQ tests are a tool. I ultimately don't care but name one famous spoons player? It's just gimmicky.
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u/n503 Sep 17 '23
i don't know what spoons is
it's not that i disagree with you - at first i was going to say it's like saying "jigsaw puzzles are cringe", but then i realized they are indeed cringe xD
but still... idk, if you want to play/solve jigsaw puzzles, it's not cringe if you enjoy it
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u/naes133 Sep 17 '23
I suppose, I suppose in this postmodern world I might find solace in making a suit of armour out of pastries or something.
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Sep 16 '23
[deleted]
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u/Puredoxyk Sep 16 '23
It's a common misconception that those traits are purely genetic. There are definitely genes which can impair beauty and height, but they're also influenced by nutrition, so this one is more about how well did your parents care for you, and did you take care of your own health as a teen or young adult.
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u/New-Sun-5282 Sep 16 '23
Very hyped up person. While a good physicist he'd be an obscure one had he not become a short of public personality due to his condition. There were far more capable and accomplished physicists in his era. Long shot from being of the most intelligent ppl to ever have lived.
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Sep 16 '23
Hawking was one of the first to apply thermodynamics to the physics of black holes and he did many other outstanding results in physics
He 100% deserved the Nobel Prize and could have gotten it if he didn't died a few years before Penrose was awarded
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u/Background-Bee-6874 Sep 27 '23
I mean that's his point in the video, but I still think he's brilliant. You also cannot deny the fact he did all this while extremely ill, that adds incredibly difficultly, particularly as the technology to help him function was not as advanced last century as it is now.
But anyway, I'd be curious to know who you would define as more capable or accomplished and why?
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u/New-Sun-5282 Sep 27 '23
All i said regarding his intelligence is that he is not ''one of the smartest people to have ever lived''.
'You also cannot deny the fact he did all this while extremely ill, that adds incredibly difficultly, particularly as the technology to help him function was not as advanced last century as it is now.'
But did i deny it? stop strawmanning. That doesnt make him any better as a physicist however,which i already said he was a good one but a long shot from how people seem to think about him since there is a big chunck of his contemporaries that are more important yet unknown to the public.
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u/Background-Bee-6874 Sep 27 '23
Huh? It wasn't implied you denied it already, it's a generalised "you" used to add emphasis to the fact that I believe he's extremely intelligent. It's a very common phrase used to express opinions in English?
Anyway my argument was not that the illness made him a better physicist directly, but that the fact he achieved what he did while having a debilitating illness leaves questions for his potential without the illness.
But yeah I genuinely wasn't trying to be annoying, just add my two cents and ask a question as I was curious as to who you thought was more capable or accomplished and why.
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u/Quod_bellum Sep 16 '23
Key word: boast (!)
>Hawking himself used IQ tests to check mental decline