[extropy-chat] RE: TOP 2 IQ Percentile

spike spike66 at comcast.net
Wed Nov 23 04:16:18 UTC 2005


...
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Rafal Smigrodzki
...
> Subject: Re: TOP 2 IQ Percentile Re: [extropy-chat]
> 
> BTW, is there anybody here who is *not* INTJ, or related?...

Is INTP related?  If so, I'm related.

Thinking about the previous comments on IQ tests, most would agree that
there is a definite learning curve to the tests: playing with them trains
the mind to do better, whereas the IQ doesn't actually improve.  The Mensa
tests have a greater learning curve than even a standard IQ test, because of
the backhand way they ask certain questions:
Mary likes apples but not pears.  She likes apricots but not grapes.  Will
she like peaches?

If you do those puzzles you know they are asking: set A contains apples and
apricots.  Set B contains pears and grapes.  Are peaches in set A or B?

So here's one for proles interested in puzzles and IQ tests.  Surely you
have heard of the sudoku craze that showed up a few months ago.  I
intentionally stayed away from them, because I see how it could be the next
Freecell, a huge time sink.  I solved my first one yesterday and did a
couple today, and sure enough it is an intriguing game.  Nowthen, one can
see that there are logical shortcuts that can be derived.  The IQ test would
be to do a number of these puzzles, writing down how long it took to do
each, then compare your curve with other smart people.  

So we each do exactly 50 sudokus, then time ourselves on an identical sudoku
to see who learned the most tricks doing the first 50.  Then we are actually
measuring something that is more towards IQ than how good we already are at
puzzles; we measure how fast we learn a new puzzle.  It's a puzzle-learning
contest as opposed to just a puzzle contest.  I expect the younger among us
will get faster quicker.  But will they end up faster than the veteran
puzzle prole?  

Who is in?  

spike






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