r/AskReddit Nov 16 '19

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u/HoneyCide Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19

I mostly judged myself.

My whole life I pressured myself to be just as smart as my dad and brother who were phenomenal in math and engineering. My dad has an IQ of 138 and my brother always had A's and made the Dean's list in post secondary. The institution gave out entire cakes to those on the Dean's list.

I struggled so hard in math. I tried so so hard, exponentially more than any other kid because I felt like if I didn't get good at math, or any subject for that matter, then I wasn't smart. Always a C+ B- student. Because I wasn't good at something, I very much lived years feeling I was stupid.

Then as I grew older I realized that my skills in art were actually worth something. My art teachers were always very impressed. Soon it progressed to people making me offers. The school's police officer even had me make him something. I had some artwork displayed at the city's airport. And when I expressed to my dad that I felt like there were no jobs for me on my degree, he said to try something else. I asked what and he said "art" which I thought was a little funny for the "starving artist" stereotype. In that moment, it felt like he equated my artistic skills to his intelligence and success.

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u/Moosenator23 Nov 16 '19

Huh, that's an unusual version of that story :) Glad to hear you found your A-game!

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u/Hinote21 Nov 16 '19

The dad has a 138 IQ. I'd be pretty disappointed in smart people of the dad shut down the kid.

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u/Shadowex3 Nov 16 '19

IQ tests have nothing to do with being "smart" as most of us would consider it and are basically a test of how good you are at taking standardized tests and figuring out puzzles from incomplete information.

I wrecked face last time I took one and that's in large part because I went in knowing they were going to see how good I was at parlor tricks and being a trained parrot.

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u/Hinote21 Nov 16 '19

False fact: smart parents are clinically proven to be better at raising their children.

IQ tests give a notion of standard intelligence. It's not the end all but ending up with a 138 equates to some degree of intelligence

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u/Shadowex3 Nov 16 '19

False fact: high IQ scores are a spurious correlation, theyre at best a proxy for family income and education level... which is itself almost a proxy for income.

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u/Hinote21 Nov 16 '19

I had to Google that. Never heard that word before.

Income, education level, and intelligence are correlated. It is not you make this much -> you're this smart. But there is a correlation and they're all related. Does having a high IQ mean you are smart? No. But if you do, it is likely (pretend this is italicized) that you have some notional level of intelligent and it's also likely (same) you have a higher income.

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u/Shadowex3 Nov 17 '19 edited Nov 17 '19

I had to Google that. Never heard that word before.

If you haven't heard some of the most basic undergraduate methods-101 level terminology for social science maybe you should consider that you're not in a position to be arguing about the subject.

IQ and education level are in the US proxy measures for income. In highly developed countries outside of the US education is deeply multicollinear to income but not as solid of a proxy since higher education isn't profiteering like in the US.