How smart are you?

What's intelligence? According to the dictionary Intelligence is:

a. The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.

b. The faculty of thought and reason.

c. Superior powers of mind

It doesn't say anything about common sense. It doesn't say anything about how out of balance you might be. It doesn't talk about whether you use your intelligence for good or evil. So, intelligence can mean many things for different people.

The smartest person in the world may or may not believe in God. The smartest person in the world is capable of making foolish choices. Most intelligent people get married. Is there intelligence in getting married? What good would intelligence be if you are incredibly lazy? Some very smart people use their intelligence to get out of doing their fair share. Others use intelligence for the betterment of mankind. Still, others use their intelligence to fulfill their incredibly greedy ambitions. I often envy very intelligent people, but most often I admire wisdom and accomplishment.

Marilyn Vos Savant was, at one time, listed as the most intelligent person in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. Her Intelligence Quotient is 228, for what ever that's worth. Most likely Vos Savant has spent her entire life answering other peoples stupid questions. What fun would it be to be intelligent if the whole population of the world is trying to think up questions, just to see if they can be answered. Then, if she does answer them, could the asker understand the answer?

But of course, the number-one question that everybody asks will always be; “Is there a God?” Vos Savant has always given a politically correct answer. When it appears that someone is sincere in asking, she gives an acceptable answer. Rather than just say flatly that there is, or is not a God, she says that it is best to believe. If there is a God, you get to be right, and enjoy everlasting life in heaven. If there isn't, you will just turn to dirt anyway. So there is no harm in believing in God. In fact she says, that it is best to believe in the religion that offers the most. That way, when you die, you get the most bang for your buck. Some religions preach that if you die for a holy enough cause, you not only get to go to heaven, you get 27 virgins. I don't want to believe in that one. First, I don't want to have to die for any “cause”. Second, living with 27 virgin women would make a person insane in short order. Think of all of the virgin women that you know. Could you live with twenty seven of them? I'd rather spend all of eternity with just one woman that loves me. And, I don't hold virginity in all that high of regard.

To understand what Vos Savant truly believes is subject to conjecture. She shows no outward signs of believing in any God, or religion.



Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking are both very intelligent people. Neither have been tested in any form for intelligence. But, they are estimated to have I.Q.s in the 180 range. Einstein gave us the most information about how the world around us relates to itself. And, he gave us many theories, yet to be proven, about very small particles. He was best at telling us how time, mass, speed, and distance related to each other. Most of his theories have proven to be correct.

There is more than conjecture that Einstein had Asperger Syndrome. (Autism) Einstein had intense intellectual interest in limited areas, but had difficulty relating in social settings, and he had great difficulty in communicating. He often became so interested in his work that he would not eat. What value is intelligence if you cannot apply it to your own personal world? He had difficulty in his marriages, and with his acquaintances.

Kim Peek has an I.Q. Of 73. He doesn't grasp the meaning of a metaphor. If he asked you if you wanted a beer, and you said “Does a bear poop in the woods?” He would be able to figure out that certainly a bear poops in the woods, but he couldn't figure from that, that certainly you wanted a beer. He never learned to walk until he was four. He can't button his shirt or dress himself. He can't tie his shoes, or take his own bath. But, maybe you've heard of him. He is the person that the movie “The Rain Man” was about. He was the man that was Dustin Hoffman's character's brother. He can remember vast amounts of information. He can read a book in about an hour. He reads the left page, top to bottom, by scanning down the middle with his left eye. He then reads the right page with his right eye. He reads at the rate of 8-10 seconds to the page. He retains an astonishing amount of what he reads. He has almost total recall of 12,000 books! Neither Einstein nor Vos Savant can do that. So, I think that all of the above only proves that everybody is smart in their own way.

The Real Rain Man - Kim Peek - The best bloopers are a click away

There is a young man in Garberville that frequents our store. When we have a keyboard on display, he will often began to play. He plays with great depth and feeling, just as you are busy being being amazed at how beautifully he plays, he will abruptly switch to another tune which he also plays beautifully, then soon to be followed by something poorly played. The simpler tunes that he plays seem to be the ones that he plays the poorest. When you ask him why he doesn't play the tunes all the way through he will reply “I did”. Soon you realize that he is playing tunes that he has heard. He replays them exactly like he has heard them. It shivers the spine.

One of my personal failings is that I am a terrible speller. I have noticed that my spelling has improved remarkably since I started this blog. I don't think that makes me any smarter, just more practiced. My wife can spell any word that she has ever seen in print, I often envy that. I worked as a Refrigeration consultant for Harold Murrish when he was going to build a new store in Willits. We were comparing six different bids. He would lean back in his chair, rest his arms on the armrests, touch all of his finger tips together in front of him, slightly look at the cieling, and slightly close his eyes. As I compared the value of each item on the bids, he would mentally add them up in his head. When we were all through, he would pick up his pen and write down how much each bid out-valued another. I couldn't do that if I had a pen, paper, and an adding machine. Even if I tried, it would take me all day. They were not simple bids. I was so amazed at his ability to compare large columns of numbers in his head that it actually gave me chills. Yet, to talk to him on the street he appeared to be a very common man.

Often, I am made to feel very insignificant when I am in the presence of someone who is remarkably talented in some way. Feeling my grinding inability to rise-above in so many ways used to bother me greatly. One day my wife told me that she could never understand electricity, or how a refrigeration system works. I told her that it was so simple that I was embarrassed to say that it was my profession. She told me that it must not really be all that simple, because a lot of people have tried to learn it and failed. I realized that she was right, that I'm able to do something that many others can't.

So now, when I read something that some genius or another has written, and I'm amazed by their talent, I wonder to myself whether or not they could build a refrigerator. I enjoy the gloat. I'll bet Vos Savant would break a nail just trying!

I went on to develope my own R.Q. test. (Refrigerator building Quotient) You've seen it here before, but I enjoy repeating myself so much that I going to post it again.

RQ rating system:
70-You can wipe your forehead with a wet cloth.

80- You can build an air-conditioner.

90- You can build an ice cooled box.

100- You can build a refrigerator.

110- you can build a freezer.

120- You can build a walk-in cooler.

130- You can build a walk-in freezer... and the drain works.

140- You can build a complete supermarket.

150- You can build a supermarket, and even know what the engineer designed wrong.

160- You can explain why you are too busy to fix a refrigerator while you are really playing on your blog.

Now that I know how smart Vos Savant is, maybe I should extend my rating system to larger numbers. But, as much as some of us would like to be smarter, it seems that most smart people are out of ballance in the world that they live in. Would you trade who you are to be smarter?

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