Match.com, Mensa Create Dating Site For Geniuses 561
mpicpp writes in with news about a new dating opportunity for Mensa members. It takes a special person to join Mensa. For one, the elite society only takes individuals with IQ scores in the 98th percentile, meaning just 1 in 50 Americans is eligible. This exclusivity — some might say snobbery — is part of Mensa's lore. Early Mensans in Britain walked around with yellow buttons, organizational publications once referred to non-Mensa members as "Densans," and last year, a top Mensa member and tester called anyone with an IQ of 60 a "carrot." In short, you don't always join Mensa because you think you're smart. You join to be set apart from most people, who are, as one member put it: "mundane." But a new partnership between American Mensa and online dating giant Match.com offers a new, enticing reason to join the society of geniuses: true love. Beginning this week, members of the brainiac group can connect through a separate, exclusive dating service called Mensa Match. In addition, Match.com members can add a special Mensa badge to their profiles, signaling a specific interest in connecting with a single person with a confirmed genius-level IQ score.
IF.. (Score:4, Interesting)
If they were that smart they would know that the IQ test is neither a valid no reliable test for comparisons between groups, only within groups.
Match doesn't understand "smart" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:IF.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Really? I don't find the legitimate ones bad at all. Much better than the SAT for testing raw, innate intelligence.
IQ is like a brightness of a flashlight. It's potential. Brighter is better, but it doesn't guarantee you point it at a useful direction, or even use it for anything useful at all other than to study playboy under the bedsheets.
I would think if they took recent Nobel Prize winners in the hard sciences, they would be trending above average and by a margin.
Re:IF.. (Score:3, Interesting)
They don't have enough real-world experience at the young age most of them get their certificates to actually comprehend that - just an analytical ability that at their age is ahead of the curve; mostly due to having parents that actually read to them, etc. Most don't re-test as adults for a good reason. "IQ scales for life.. you don't need to re-test," they'll drone, spouting nonsense that can be disproven with any reasonably sized statistical sample set. Went to a couple of Mensa open days when I was a kid. Decided I didn't want to be in a narcissist club. Have not once missed out getting laid due to my lack of offical genius status. :)
The public face of mensa vs (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to be in Mensa back in the 80s. When people found out I was in Mensa, they'd frequently express some surprise because they thought Mensans were a bunch of jerks because they'd met somebody who said he was in Mensa and who was very obnoxious, making himself out to be superior. I was surprised because most of the people I met in Mensa weren't like that. I remember throwing a party and invited people from my job and friends from Mensa, and the people from work commented later about how the Mensans at the party were down to earth regular folks and not at all like what they'd expected. I suspect that the jerks giving Mensa a bad rep don't actually go to Mensa events because what they want to do is brag and try to impress people but they can't do that if everybody else is a Mensan. But these same jerks are the ones making the most noise everywhere else and getting noticed. I will admit there are probably more nerdy, asperger's syndrome types in Mensa than the general population, but it's not that bad.
You know what was an exaggerated but based somewhat on truth depiction of Mensa? The one done in a Simpson's episode with Stephen Hawking as guest voice at the end.
Re:IF.. (Score:4, Interesting)
As the article says, that's irrelevant because it's a tribe affiliation. When it comes to these things, logic and intelligence are completely overwhelmed and suppressed. That's how our brains work. Ever notice how all so-called "freethought" and "rationalist" groups soon turn into hilariously ironic examples of conformity and groupthink?
Re:And not an EQ above 50 among them (Score:2, Interesting)
Your experience parallels mine. My biggest problem with them was that nearly all of them were Republicans. They had theirs, but they didn't want to help anyone else. Their lack of compassion for people not as smart as themselves was stunning.
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:And not an EQ above 50 among them (Score:4, Interesting)
If I had to guess, I'd say nearly all the Mensans I've ever bumped into have been liberal Democrats. The idea that "the sheeple" need to be lead by smart people who will make the best decisions for them is sort of endemic to that side of the aisle. Not that Republicans are anything to write home about, but the idea of "rule by smart people" is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the GOP...
The Democrats tend to draw the wonkiest of the wonks and the elite professional class into their orbit. Identify a problem (or "problem") in society and bring together a small group of experts who will make the best decision for each of the 330 million people living in the US is the operating assumption for them. The Mensans I've run into fit into that mindset pretty well.
It's only when you accept your own limitations and appreciate the different gifts that everybody has that you realize that no group of people, no matter how intelligent and well meaning, can possibly understand, let alone fulfill, the competing needs and desires of our diverse human family. Lay down some broadly accepted rules and provide a focused and best-in-class set of services, but otherwise, get out of the way.
Re:why would I want to hang with a buncha cunts (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm smart, maybe not mensa smart (don't really care either way) but fuck hanging out with other aholes like me!
OP is a bit snobbish itself.
People (by and large... certainly there are exceptions) join MENSA so that they can converse with other people with similar mental character and interests. Just exactly how some people join motorcycle clubs because they like motorcycles and want to discuss them and appreciate them with people of similar interest, someone might join MENSA because they like talking about physics -- or even crossword puzzles -- with people who are like themselves.
There is no need to try to suggest that is "snobbery" of any kind. Would you call a motorcycle gang "snobs"? Or stamp collectors? MENSA is a social club, nothing more.
And by the way, a bit of history: MENSA members did sometimes wear small yellow pins, like tie tacks but about 1/8" diameter, like those little pins you stick in maps -- not badges -- simply so that they could find each other in a crowd. It wasn't snobbery, it was subtle (very subtle) identification. The reason was because more obvious identification made them targets of violence for bigots and other idiots.
Re:Match doesn't understand "smart" (Score:5, Interesting)
The primary distinguisher of the Ivy League schools isn't that they're rich or that they're exceptionally high quality (though generally they are.) They're a group of colleges that a century or so ago made an agreement with each other not to have athletic scholarships, so the students could play amateur sports against each other instead of having to compete with semi-professionals. Yes, occasionally a student at the Ivies is good enough to get into the NFL or NHL, but they've got to spend time being a student as well.
Having gone to an Ivy League school, I can tell you that they still give athletic scholarships to skilled student athletes (with skilled modifying latter noun!). They just call them "academic" scholarships.
Wink, wink.
Sports are big money, even for the Ivy Leagues.
Re: why would I want to hang with a buncha cunts (Score:4, Interesting)
Way too much truth here. I passed their exam to satisfy my curiosity but figured I'd find them as boring as I find myself after surfing their forums at the time. As far as the chicks go (recalling my days in Uni), a well-maintained genius is so outnumbered by men I would have better luck going for supermodels interested in money. The truth is everyone is an idiot in a demonstrable way, and the ideal match is the one who can find the humor in the ways their partner is just bloody hopeless.
But people forget what MENSA concluded (Score:2, Interesting)
Folks, MENSA was a study intended to track the successes of those with high IQ's as they progressed through life.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the study revealed NO CORRELATION.
Zippo. Nada. None. Zilch.
People with high-IQ's were no more successful in career terms than people with average IQ's. (I have a high IQ, and I wish the correlation had been tighter! :D )
So at the end of the day "success" is a combination of multiple factors and IQ alone is non-determinant. So who cares about IQ anyway?
Re:why would I want to hang with a buncha cunts (Score:5, Interesting)
There is no need to try to suggest that is "snobbery" of any kind. Would you call a motorcycle gang "snobs"? Or stamp collectors? MENSA is a social club, nothing more.
Exactly. I don't know much about Mensa, because I've never felt the need to join. I'm pretty sure most of the people around me would qualify, but that also means that we already have plenty of smart people to have intellectual discussions with. My sister, however, studied sports, got surrounded by other sporty people, and eventually started to miss contact with other smart people, so she joined Mensa, and now she talks about all the game events and motorcycle trips they have and all the interesting people she meets there. It fills a need for her that for me is already filled in other ways.
Re:why would I want to hang with a buncha cunts (Score:5, Interesting)
> Though it's arguable how useful an IQ test is. It's a poor metric of intelligence, it's just commonly used because all the other suggestions are worse.
I agree, One time in line at a grocery store one man remarked about how it was stupid they had "retards"[sic] working there. I told him "You can learn from anybody, even this so-called 'retard.' for example, notice he is treating everybody with respect. You know, come to think of it, I never met anyone with Down's syndrome who is a nasty and judgmental prick like you. Maybe we can all take a lesson and learn to treat others nicely."
Besides, he was doing a great job and was taking pride in his work. What's to judge? What if that asshole were in the position of being mentally challenged - I'd love to see him wear those shoes for a day.
What good is intelligence if all one ends up doing is thinking they're better than everyone and treat others like shit?
Re:why would I want to hang with a buncha cunts (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:But people forget what MENSA concluded (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll agree with you on...
Want success? Learn how to SCHMOOZE and be a salesman.
But you lost me at...
Corporate success is 90% bullshit and 10% smarts.
If you're so smart, can you back that up? :-)
I'd argue that except for those who got there via nepotism, it's extremely rare that someone is a successful businessperson w/o generally having their shit together. Sure, we hear about f-ups all the time, and everyone loves to criticize the boss because we think we know better, but in the big scheme of things, the frequency of those bad decisions is generally outweighed by the smart ones that you don't hear about because they're not newsworthy.
Maybe I'm just speaking from my own experience, and maybe it depends upon your definition of success. My dad was a small business owner, and I've known several others, all of whom I would call intelligent and successful. FWIW, I qualified for MENSA back in the 70s, but never joined.
Re:But people forget what MENSA concluded (Score:3, Interesting)
I have several patents under my belt, no I'm not making buttloads of money off of them but I created something that makes the world better.
You created a legal restriction for others wishing to create things, and you see this as making the world better?
I'd argue that openly publishing your designs for the world to use freely would make the world better. What you did makes your world better.
Otherwise, I completely agree with your post. All too often, ambition and intelligence are inversely correlated. I like to think of it the other way around, though. Perhaps some of us are smart enough to know better than to bust our asses for no good reason. Personally, I'd rather get some good sleep than chase after more shiny.
don't tell people you are in mensa (Score:4, Interesting)
Whenever someone tells me they are in Mensa, I usually think, what a fuck head. Not only did you care enough to jump through the hoops to join, but you are arrogant enough to want everyone to know you're a member.
Instead, show me your intellect with witty conversation, keen understanding, and curiosity, and you won't be such an ass.