Giftedness

So, I was complaining about being gifted.  Here's the chart to support what I'm talking about:

ARGH!  A bell curve!?! You're making this up, right?

Sorry, but bell curves are naturally occurring phenomenon and while professors in college like to "grade on a bell curve", this often means that their teaching and testing structures are sorrowfully lacking or the bell curve would occur naturally. (Except lately where colleges threaten to fire the professors if they actually let the bell curve occur because colleges are businesses and students are consumers for the college, and students that fail don't retake classes- something wrong with that, isn't there?)

Anyway, as you can see, the median (that's the middle or "average") IQ score is 100.  "Giftedness" is officially defined as being over 130. That means you're 2 standard deviations from the median.  A deviation is a statistical breakdown that measures groups of figures.  Let's just summarize here - if you want to learn more, Stats 101 is your best friend:


The Median IQ is also the Mean IQ of 100.  Let's call this "core IQ".
The first standard deviation (the little vertical white lines on either side of 100) capture 68% of the population's IQ.
The second standard deviation bars capture another 28% (14% above and 14% below the core IQ scores).
The third deviation adds only 4% (2% above and 2% below the core IQ scores).

Traditionally, this is as far as you take statistical measurement of a bell curve because, as you can see, the more standard deviations you add, the fewer and fewer percentages are added to the measurement.

Now, what is interesting about this is that being mentally retarded means that you're IQ is below 90.  In fact, there are several classifications of mental retardation that range from dead to normal and all vegetative states in between.  On the other end, however, you're just "smart", or "genius".  Although Wile E. Coyote says he's a Super Genius, there's no such label.

What has this got to do with anything?

Well, people in the core IQ group spend an awful lot of time trying to make the mentally retarded fit in. They have special programs, they have special funds, they have special rules for how to talk about mental retardation.

But the smart people, who are EVEN MORE HANDICAPPED BY THEIR DISTANCE FROM THE CORE IQ GROUPS DON'T GET SQUAT!  You think it's easy for someone who is over two deviations from the standard IQ to talk to anyone in the core IQ groups?  It's like someone of average IQ talking to a mentally retarded person who's so retarded, they're in a vegetative state.  That's what is't like.  It's the difference between the pony express and WiMAX super high speed internet.

Now, I've been told that I'm not a good communicator and what it really is is this:  I don't communicate every step in my thought process because it goes too fast.  I don't make a log file for how I come to every conclusion- that though map would take too much time.  And trying to drag those of average IQ along with me is just painful.

Why I'm mad:  There aren't any support groups for people out there like me.  There aren't special funds or special classes on how to deal with smart people- you're just expected to figure out how to deal with the average.  (and, no, MENSA- a laugh.  Bunch of egotistically people who like to play chess all day.  Think Frasier Crane when you think MENSA and you'll know why know one would want to be a part of that club.)

I'd really like to see what would happen if you told a mentally retarded person to just figure it out.

Just because we're smart doesn't mean that we know anything about how to deal with people or how to talk to people who are slower.  And the frustration factor- let me tell you.  There is NOTHING MORE FRUSTRATING than sitting in a meeting with a group of "your peers", coming up with the answer, knowing it's the answer, trying to sell people on it being the answer, people looking at you like you're speaking a different language, completely denying it's the answer, and then two months later figuring out that you had the right answer.  I kid you not- there are several consulting gigs that I've been on (5 come to mind) that I have gotten follow up emails from the clients where they say, "wow, I just found out how far in advance you were thinking"...2 to 3 months later!

Smart people, are you out there?!

one frustrated genius