The Problem With IQ

I was listening to a video by Owen Benjamin, and he made the following argument that many people agree with. He claims to have an IQ of 150. He tells his listeners how the average IQ is between 100 and 110. He points out that the average person sees an individual with an IQ of 60 or lower as degenerate, dumb, and incapable of many things. Therefore, imagine how a man with a 150 IQ sees people with an IQ of 100.

I, personally, empathized with this statement and was also appalled by it. IQ is nothing more than a rough estimate of someone's ability to absorb new information and connect it with their previous knowledge. IQ's purpose is to categorize people by their ability to learn, not overall intelligence.

I can empathize with Mr Benjamin, because he is an intelligent person, and it is sometimes very lonely to feel like you can't hold a conversation with other people or can't find common interests. But this lack of interest in other people is not a symptom of being smarter than everyone, it is a superiority complex.

There is so much more to community and social interaction than comparative intelligence. It's about finding common ground, relating to people outside your personal space, and creating a support system of trusted individuals. You can do all of this with or without impressive test scores. Being intelligent doesn't mean you are correct, successful, kind, friendly, healthy, or even pleasant company.

I understand how it must feel to not find people who have the same interests as you, but that doesn't mean you have the right to look down on others and deem them "unworthy" of you. I would think someone with an IQ of 150 would have been able to figure out that it's not his intelligence people avoid, but his bad attitude and unacceptance of people different to him.