I.Q. tests

[Spud17]

A 12 year-old schoolgirl, apparently has an IQ higher than Einstein and Stephen Hawking...

read here for full story:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9907853/Schoolgirl-12-has-higher-IQ-than-Einstein.html

Should we put any stock in IQ tests, what do they mean, and why do we have them? My IQ is also higher than Einstein's and Hawking's, so I know they're bullshit. Sometimes I'm the most retarded person on the planet, I can't even boil an egg. These tests mean nothing, absolutely nothing, except for the fact that if you score high, then you're merely good at answering stupid puzzles. Emotional intelligence, and social intelligence (which I consider to be far more important) aren't taken into consideration, meaning you could easily understand some difficult mathematical theorem, but be clueless when it comes to communicating or reiterating it to others.

I believe the people who place a lot of importance in IQ tests and the results, are the kind of people who don't have much going on in their lives, and have a need to feel important, superior, or special. They volunteer with your local council as dog wardens and harass you if you're having fun. They sneakily post notes in the dead of night on car windscreens on vehicles they deem to lower the tone of the neighbourhood. They're uptight, frigid, snobby, and incredibly empty (and lonely) inside, so they try and fill the void with numbers.

Maybe I just know too many idiots irl? Anyone got any thoughts on these tests?

[srijantje]

the only advantage i can see is that you tend to get into conversations with other "like minded"people,which is sort of interesting

[sporkium]

tests that measure intelligence are quite handy. there's an old saying:

"if you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

now, most people don't really care about managing themselves... but from a managing point of view, being able to measure someone is paramount to managing (handling) them and this really applies everywhere from work, school, politics, society, world domination, etc.

i don't really hold standard i.q. tests with any especially high regard other than that they can indicate how worthless some people can be in a particular area... such as life in general. all modern testing techniques that i've seen being conducted in the private sector have been custom tailored to each individual and required a considerable amount of funding to formulate and administer.