I realized that “Mensa” didn’t contain enough numerals to be a phone number, and knew it must be understood that any future member would be able to figure out the next two digits in the sequence. I tried dialling MENSANE, MENSAIL, MENSAFE, and MENSAAB, but got three rebuffs and a fax tone.
From “How I Joined MENSA” by Steve Martin
the mensa paradox.
people smart enough to get in, are smart enough to know it’s not worth it
Also, “smart” and high IQ are different things.
There’s no way to objectively measure how “smart” someone is, but if you think the bogus test and bogus score developed by eugenic pseudoscientists looking for an excuse to prevent the untermensch from breeding is the objective measure, you are in fact stupid.
i think IQ tests were originally developed to see which school students never to go to the next class, or stay behind, it was meant to see if a student tests as his peers or as his next/previous class peers. the inventor never intended it to be used as a way to measure an intrinsic immutable trait on adults.
https://share.google/TOOJM3X81hSIP0PvP
it was seriously bastardised by racist pseudoscience.
Groucho Marx couldn’t have said it better. Oh … wait.
saying it with his voice is much better
however,
some things are better said in Groucho’s voice the rest are better said in Harpo’s voice.
It was actually a (too oblique) reference to his: I wouldn’t join a club that would have me as a member quotation. It was too oblique; my bad.
Bingo. What’s more insufferable than a person whose life revolves around lauding their own achievements? A room full of them.
And yet it exists. Ego might seem like a pretty useless motivator, but it doesn’t seems to anticorrelate with intelligence. If anything, it correlates, probably because when you’re “the smart one” it becomes a vicious cycle pretty easily.
it exist, but it’s like really small.
I’m theory, 2% of the world population is eligible (not that exclusive) yet they only have 50,000 members in the US, ie, 1.4 in every 10,000 people.
so the vast majority of “smart” people think the idea is cringe
I mean, it is cringe. There’s strong norms about modesty when it comes to intelligence for a reason.
So that comes out to 0.7% of eligible people. Honestly that’s pitiful if it comes with discounts like other people are suggesting. Those meetings must be really obnoxious.
I want to believe, that the eligible people who join are mostly doing it because there’s no way anyone would join, so they just want to know what tf is going on, then discover that everyone there had the same reason, then they go for a pint to talk how stupid and comical it is.
maybe there’s a perfect point where you’re smart enough to hit that 15% hotel discount
Yeah, I’m reconsidering now that someone mentioned that. I’m not going to the meets, though, they get bad reviews for exactly this reason.
Edit: Uhh, looks like it’s only the US Mensa? Maybe some of the other Mensa-like things have benefits beyond the “pleasure” of their company, I don’t know.