Not Quite Sure What Qualifies

Notdarcy is right. There are different kinds of intelligence and aptitudes and a great deal depends upon how your brain hard wires itself as you grow. Different learning experiences cause different neurons to grow. I'm not sure what someone from a hunter-gatherer environment would make of an IQ test but he's not neccessarily less intelligent, just from a different environment. An Australian aborigine, for example might not know much about Statics, Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials, and Engineering Design in an academic sense but he applies the principles on a daily basis to survive. Few could survive in the Dead Heart of Australia for very long. I know, bad analogy but they survived for millennia before white men came along. Here's a tip, though, be humble. Nobody likes a smart-arse. Oh, and anyone who claims to have ninja skills by default doesn't have them because a ninja would not blab about it. Get over yourself and grow up.

I understand your problem. I score really high on IQ tests and such. also I'm a member of Mensa - consider joining.
I think you are confusing wisdom with intelligence. It takes a very intelligent human to put together a nuclear reactor - it takes someone with real wisdom to oversee it and insure it isn't used for evil purposes.
Wisdom comes from intelligence multiplied by experience I believe. You are young - find a mentor, someone who can guide you. Listen to everything they have to say, then let your heart tell you which path to take.
NEVER NEVER forsake your "spirituality" because of your intelligence. Sometimes intelligence tells us that there is nothing past death, nothing except this existence here. I'm not saying go to church or believe in a Christian God or Moslem God. Form your own set of principles, let them be your guideline in life.
when you attain the wisdom I know you will have, use it to better mankind. Tim

What do you guys know about Asperger's?

Contrary to popular, authoritarian mentality, it's not a disease and you don't need to be cured. It's just a different point of view. Most geeks are probably Aspies. It's a different way of looking at a personality type that's been around all along.

Personally, I see it as a lack of herd-instinct and an inability to take social fictions seriously. (I can't bend the spoon because I can't even see the spoon. Because there is no spoon.) I prefer a straight-up, raw, objective reality that most people can't handle. I'm incurably honest and naive.

The best way to get a handle on it is to talk to other Aspies and compare experiences. If you think it fits, it does.

Wrong Planet: an online resource and community for Autism and Asperger's
http://www.wrongplanet.net/article112.html#34283080
http://www.wrongplanet.net/forums.html

I am a ninja, too! Being a ninja (IMHO) is being smart but not letting others know it. They will underestimate you and then... KAPOW! You blow them away.

Intelligence can be described as knowing where to get the info you need and being able to apply it. If you don't know something, it doesn't mean you are stupid. Just because I am good at tests (celebrations of knowledge) doesn't mean I am intelligent, just a good test taker!

Keep trying to expand your knowledge and reach higher! Don't let jealous people bring you down :)

Read the book Emotional Intelligence by Goleman if you haven't yet. Also The Moral Animal by Robert Wright. These books explore such questions in a broad context and may provide perspective. Scoring well on IQ tests indicates that you have efficient synaptic transmission in certain areas of the central nervous system. But life is about adaptability to environment, socialization and self-awareness. I believe the key to a 'good life' is mostly about forming strong relationships on many levels and behaving rationally in pursuit of goals that ultimately connect with the essential self. IQ is a wonderful tool available to you, but only one of many characteristics that when integrated provide opportunity for finding meaning and fulfillment in your life. I seem to have a knack for making friends who have high intelligence and yet fail in so many other ways to achieve meaningful existence. 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle is another a book that I would recommend. Awareness of being, separate from the 'I' or ego as a function of thinking and emoting, may help in choosing a path.

It looks like a lot of intelligent people here can't write decent sentences or spell words correctly...or even use Spellcheck. Sorry, I have been grading too many undergrad papers. ;-)

SECOND POST - I see here where some knock you as being a braggart and all that. don't let it worry you. You didn't come across like that to me. If you had webbed feet and wrote about it someone would knock you for that also. I have scored from 136 to 155 on tests I took. I can do a sudoku puzzle in as long as it takes me to write down the answer - that's just fact, not bragging. I believe people of intelligence should talk to each other, should try to use their intellect for good things. Tense, butchdarab and more who posted here don't "get" what its all about. Take care - Use your brain for good things. tim

Dear enigmaforlorn,

I'm not really sure what your problem is. It's great that you are smart. It seems that you are struggling with social skills issues. My IQ is significantly higher than yours. But, that and three bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Let me let you in on a secret... Everybody is smart. It's not about smart. It's about what you do with it. Live your life dude! Connect with your friends and don't worry about numbers like IQ. It's just mental ************.

auntiebelle - just FYI It does not mean that he is 7/5 smart or 2/5 smarter than anyone. it means that he got a 140 on the IQ test. this means he is "smarter" than about 99% of the population, not that he is a definate amount smarter than an average person. just kinda made me laugh to see someone correcting false info with more false info.

anyways i think we should all lay off the guy, hes curious why his good IQ doesnt make him good at things, a logical question. My IQ is ... not gonna say because everyone will call me a smart ***, but i am 16 and basically am terrific at school without trying, but suck at a lot of things. basically it just shows that the IQ test doesnt show your guarenteed success in life, it merely shows that you have an advantage

wow, you guys are a bunch of ********. enigmaforlorn, i don't think you were condescending or rude in your post.

i find that a lot of intelligent people, no matter how obviously humble they are about it(as you seem to be) tend to catch flak for talking about it. i believe it's percieved as threatening or intimidating to other people, and they misplace their discomfort and blame it on you. oh well. fact of life.

anyway.. i have something of the same problem! (i score about 125.) i'm still a high school senior, so i'm not nearly as far ahead in life as you, but i'm getting there... i can empathize with your frustration/confusion; i guess us smarties tend not to be too well-rounded in other departments (social iq, emotional iq, etc.).

if you want, you could talk to a counselor as nmrtian suggested about how to learn from your mistakes and become a little "wiser" to supplement your intelligence. :]

Levin60kitty. You are the one who has fallen for a bunch of crap, not me. I 'get it'. Enigma is playing games. How about you just use your brain.

To Tense: I did not attempt to diagnose Enigmaforlorn. I offered a suggestion for his consideration. He's a big boy with the intelligence to judge for himself.

I did correctly diagnose you. You are basically dishonest, amoral, willfully ignorant and arrogant. If you don't know what's going on, you can look it up. It's a very real option, right at your fingertips. But be careful -- you might even learn something which could be a threat to your cozy little world. You know nothing at all, yet you deny the possibility that a person like Enigma can exist. It's outside your limited personal experience, therefore it must be condemned. No thinking required.


To Enigma: I want to ask about your reaction to social fictions, authoritarian mentality and our brutal, mindless culture, because those are important issues in my own experience.

Other Aspies frame things differently, but what they say still clicks and makes sense to me. One thing they will not do at WrongPlanet is harass you for an honest question.

To Psyduck: HIT A NERVE DID I DOCTOR???

You said:I did correctly diagnose you. You are basically dishonest, amoral, willfully ignorant and arrogant. If you don't know what's going on, you can look it up. It's a very real option, right at your fingertips. But be careful -- you might even learn something which could be a threat to your cozy little world. You know nothing at all, yet you deny the possibility that a person like Enigma can exist. It's outside your limited personal experience, therefore it must be condemned. No thinking required. STRONG DIAGNOSIS, CONSIDERING YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN MET THE PATIENT.

Did you ever hear the saying, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THAT PERSON I CAN'T STAND ABOUT MYSELF? Take a look in the mirror, you rude, aggressive person.

And after all of this, you still refuse to accept that your 'Aspies' dianosis may be incorrect. It's about time you stepped out of your comfort zone Psyduck, even if you do suffer from 'Aspies' your self.

People who are successful always say that they are inspired, or others say that about them. What is inspiration and why did someone say that you need to be on a spirituality website? All the famous in every field claim intuition as a part or all of their engine. The reason is that the intuition is a million times faster and a million times the capacity of the part of the mind that we in as our normal consciousness. It is absolutely objective. If you ask yourself three or four questions about your intuitions you will see the three dimensional picture that is trying to get airing in our two dimensional language reasoning, linear logic. The mind thinks in visual logic. If you are smart you will be able to use this and amaze yourself at how little we consciously "know". Just listen to that still small voice and question what it says three levels in, at least. Get it? My life didn't start until I realized the power of my intuition and learned how to use it amazingly effectively.

Couldn't agree with you more. Well said Ancientcelt!!!