My IQ is below the “gifted” cutoff but still in the 95.8th percentile. I do feel the absence of those additional 6 points keenly. Things would be easier if I had them. I need to explain things to myself in order to understand them. I don’t mean practical things of daily life but theory. It takes a lot of repetition for me to understand a text in philosophy or a new type of literary theory.
N doesn’t share my interest in IQ and hates it when I talk about it. Which probably means his IQ is higher than mine because nobody hates talk of IQ as much as people with the highest IQ. I believe they are mistaken. It gets easier to live in the world when you understand that, through absolutely no fault of their own, most people cannot carry out the same cognitive operations.
Instead of being ashamed of not having genius-level IQs, people should be proud. I overcome my sad lack of 8 additional IQ points every day by working like a bastard. I didn’t do anything to deserve the IQ but I did do all the work that went into my every publication and award. There’s honor in that.
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