by friendlyskies » Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:55 pm
I had a boyfriend who was not booksmart at all, but he could fix anything mechanical - from cars to kitchen equipment - and was a top gourmet chef in Los Angeles. He had been put in special ed when he was a kid until they figured out he was dyslexic, but by that time it was too late. His ego and education had been compromised, and he just started working in a restaurant after high school. Since he was naturally smart, he quickly rose to the top of his profession and, while we were dating, fucking Madonna requested that he cater her birthday party (I loved listening to her messages on his machine, but wasn't allowed into the party, damnit, because she had her own caterers with IDs and whatnot.)
Anyway, when all those online IQ tests came out, he started taking them. I scored a lot higher than him on the traditional ones, mainly because I'm reasonably booksmart (but don't ask me to change a tire or cook anything more complicated than scrambled eggs). He was kind of bummed out about the whole thing until we found an IQ test based entirely on symbols. No words, no math, it was just symbols. The guy scored something like 160 (his usual scores were 110-120 or so). Ever since then, I've not put too much stock in IQ tests that use words, they test the filter as much as the brain itself.
"4 cylinder Camaro=communism" El Presidente
"You can smoke salmon but it's not quite the same as smoking heroin." nanuq