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Big brains, crap design skills.
July 24, 2004 7:22 PM Subscribe

Giga Society: the world's most exclusive high IQ society, where an IQ of 196 or higher (one in a billion) is required to join. Not quite as cranially-advantaged? Well, there's always the Oath society, which'll take you if you're only one in a thousand (a mere 150 IQ or higher). Big brains and design skills (or language ones, for that matter) don't mix well, though, it would seem. [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken (86 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

I don't know why these self-selecting poindexter doofi annoy me like they do (when they're, like, my people, or at least they were before my Great Brain Cell Cull began) -- maybe because most of the really freakishly intelligent people I've met, the honest-to-god genetic sports, were also quite good at concealing that fact so as not to unduly alarm the normal folk. Jumping up and down and pointing at your forehead seems more than a little suspect to me.

That said, some of these organizations are more than just self-selective cerebro-tribalism, and that's a good thing, maybe.

(I note that 'Giga Society' was mentioned inthread a couple of years back.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:25 PM on July 24, 2004

Well, the folks at www.iqsociety.org (your "language ones" link) aren't smart enough to avoid the evils of mystery meat web site navigation.
posted by tippiedog at 7:27 PM on July 24, 2004

Perhaps they're annoying because the least interesting thing about someone that intelligent should be that they score well on IQ tests. They should be putting their intelligence to work by creating something new, not idly playing brain teaser games, which seems to be the point of mensa-type gettogethers.

That's my take anyway.
posted by Space Coyote at 7:28 PM on July 24, 2004

Um, der, uh, holy frickin' cow, chicken, them's some right tuff'uns. Since I don't speak German.

Surprisingly, the English version is slightly easier (though still not worth my 25 Dutch guilders).
posted by gleuschk at 7:31 PM on July 24, 2004

If they're so goddamn smart, how come they're using frames and Comic Sans?
posted by neckro23 at 7:52 PM on July 24, 2004

Puzzles make brain hurt, hurt brain make Grod MAD, Grod smash little smarty men, SMASH them to pieces!!!!!!
posted by fenriq at 7:54 PM on July 24, 2004

If they're so goddamn smart, how come they're using frames and Comic Sans?

Er, yeah, that was kinda what I was saying, there, neckro23, with 'big brains and design skills don't mix well, though, it would seem.'

Check out the title bar of your browser.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:01 PM on July 24, 2004

I think whats always bugged me most about IQ tests is that the "there's only one right answer" mentality seems antithetical to creative thinking. True geniuses dont just solve someone else's puzzles; they create (and solve) profound new ones of their own.

But, I suppose people will continue to subscribe to these things because they crave the ability to quantify and tag something which is inherently loose and unquantifiable. To say I have 10 IQ points more than you is inherently a meaningless statement. And, you could argue that a member of one of these societies betrays both their lack of common sense and their deep-seated doubts about their true abilities.
posted by vacapinta at 8:06 PM on July 24, 2004

Yes, we all hate smart people. Can we move on now? Maybe go to a NASCAR race?
posted by spazzm at 8:09 PM on July 24, 2004

To say I have 10 IQ points more than you is inherently a meaningless statement

Not meaningless, just false.

Ha! Zing! Snap!
posted by gleuschk at 8:13 PM on July 24, 2004

I find the high-IQed annoying when they throw that into an argument where it's a meaningless fact. I've had this happen at work, I nicely shot somebodies idea full of holes on the basis of physics and electrical engineering and they whipped out the "Well, I'm in Mensa" defence to which I replied "Well, you're still wrong."

Not everybody in Mensa or the gigasociety is in that boat though, the annoying ones are the same people who would grandstand over their abilities in a sport. Their ability, whatever it is, defines them in their minds. They're not a mailman, they're not an engineer, they're not a teacher. They're a mensa member, an ex-high school jock or have a badge from the NRA saying they're a sharpshooter. They job just gives them the opportunity to whip out their credentials whenever possible.
posted by substrate at 8:18 PM on July 24, 2004

My mother, a grade school teacher of well over four decades experience who just retired this past June, says that she could always tell who in her classroom was going to score the highest on the IQ tests. It was never the kid with the best grade. It was always the class weirdo, a kid who got sporadic grades and couldn't fit in socially.

Apparently I was that kid in my class for my entire grade school career.
posted by orange swan at 8:28 PM on July 24, 2004

stavrosthewonderchicken, neckro23's "If they're so goddamn smart, how come they're using frames and Comic Sans?" comment outdid what you said in terms of wit and hilarity by at least a factor of twelve.

I'm going to have to allow it.
posted by banished at 8:57 PM on July 24, 2004

banished ... i can do better than that ... i was told when i was a kid that i had an iq of 180 ... i'm 46 now and work at a milk carton factory for 13 bucks an hour ... yeah, i'm so smart, guys ...

i could have joined most of the societies on the giga links page ... um, before my experiences with mind altering substances ...

it's bad enough i have to be a freak like this without hanging out with other freaks ...

stupid is as stupid does ...

i think iq tests are a bunch of crap ... my life would be better if i lost 50 points and knew how to fix my own car
posted by pyramid termite at 9:08 PM on July 24, 2004

y'all keep this up and I'll have to whip out my, um, credentials.
posted by mwhybark at 9:10 PM on July 24, 2004

I'm going to have to allow it.

Especially when you mentioned your own title tag. Omit needless
self-reference--write that in the margins of your Elements of Style.
posted by y2karl at 9:14 PM on July 24, 2004

Hmm. A random flip-through is turning up all males. (This is going to give little brothers way too much ammo.)
posted by small_ruminant at 9:22 PM on July 24, 2004

mwhybark ... don't bother, i left my credentials with my stash a long time ago
posted by pyramid termite at 9:33 PM on July 24, 2004

*whew* Good thing I have such a large penis.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:39 PM on July 24, 2004

Smarty-hating is SO uncool.
posted by rushmc at 9:39 PM on July 24, 2004

Nobody's hating smart people. We're just hating people who score well on IQ tests and then use it as a foundation for their self-worth. As opposed to those of us who scored well and moved on to other things... :)
posted by vacapinta at 9:48 PM on July 24, 2004

the least interesting thing about someone that intelligent should be that they score well on IQ tests.

I just wanted to say I really like that comment.
posted by weston at 10:26 PM on July 24, 2004

Darryl Miyaguchi has done a nice, if dated (Last updated: January 19, 2000), review entitled A Short (and Bloody) History of the High I.Q. Societies. It includes a good list of current and defunct high-IQ societies and their qualifying credentials. It's a good intro to the topic.

I've joined a couple, qualifying as high as the Prometheus Society, mainly to get on their mailing list for the monthly newsletter, The Gift of Fire, which carried a fascinating article about William James Siddis back in the mid-1980's. I was hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately, however, what I found instead was roughly equally divided between navel-gazing and back-biting - a nasty, pessimistic, egotistical crowd more interested in poking holes in others' ideas than in promulgating their own. About the only thing worthwhile were the puzzles. Overall, in my experience MeFi is a far, far better place for finding, sharing and debating new ideas. They got nothin'.
posted by JParker at 10:45 PM on July 24, 2004

Is this post just an excuse to hint at your IQ scores?

I guess if I was smarter I wouldn't have to ask. At least Stan got in the fact he has a huge dick.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 10:53 PM on July 24, 2004

I'm pretty good at pretending I have a high IQ. I also stuff a role of quarters in my pants. I've got all my bases covered.
posted by bob sarabia at 11:23 PM on July 24, 2004

Childhood IQ tests are an incredibly bad means of determining adult intelligence. The original Binet-style tests were intended to measure childhood development - an IQ over 100 meant that you had developed more cognitive abilities than typical for a child of that age. The modern tests suffer from the problem that psychologists still haven't really decided what intelligence is, let alone how it works, which makes measuring it kind of problematic.

That said, I've never met anyone who takes MENSA membership seriously who isn't in the organisation or extremely gullible.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 11:38 PM on July 24, 2004

I like string.
posted by astruc at 12:00 AM on July 25, 2004

It was always the class weirdo, a kid who got sporadic grades and couldn't fit in socially.

Yep, I'm a friggin' genius!
posted by sixdifferentways at 12:19 AM on July 25, 2004

The only things IQ tests have helped me discover is that I have no ability whatsoever in regards to visual intelligence. Anything with inverted/rotated diagrams and I turn into an imbecile who just wants his mommy. The same thing happens with word-based problems that rely on the same stimuli; word jumbles, for example, I'm terrible at and rarely can solve without going through a process (looking at each letter and thinking of words that begin with it and may have another of the jumbled letters). I can take an IQ test and answer nearly all questions correctly until a section that relies on visuals and then I fail miserably.

I also have a terrible memory for visuals, too, so I guess it's not unexpected.
posted by The God Complex at 12:22 AM on July 25, 2004

Is this post just an excuse to hint at your IQ scores?

Yep. You caught me. Well done. Here's a cookie!

Especially when you mentioned your own title tag. Omit needless self-reference--write that in the margins of your Elements of Style.

Go fuck yourself, karl, darling.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:26 AM on July 25, 2004

So a thread where MeFi is claimed to be a far better place for discussing things derails into the f' bomb.
Metafilter: Go fuck yourself, darling
posted by jmd82 at 12:35 AM on July 25, 2004

Oh, and I always liked the "short" IQ tests because they said I had an IQ of 160 instead of the usual 140-150.

I'M STILL BETTER THAN MOST OF YOU.

L33T †ê§†-†àKë® !!!!
posted by The God Complex at 12:36 AM on July 25, 2004

In 'a thread where MeFi is claimed to be a far better place for discussing things' has it been shown that MeFites are more often 'a nasty, pessimistic, egotistical crowd more interested in poking holes in others' ideas than in promulgating their own'?

Or is it all metacomedy? Film at 11.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:43 AM on July 25, 2004

*whew* Good thing I have such a large penis

Stan, that's not a penis. That's a spoon.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:56 AM on July 25, 2004

I never got past the patronising: "Although the emblem of the Giga Society is not reprinted on this page, you may just be able to see it if you look very hard" on the front page. Sorry, but you must be blind to not to see the number - it hit me before the page had loaded. This is what really pisses me off about "bright" people - they assume everyone else around them is stupid!
posted by benzo8 at 1:02 AM on July 25, 2004

Gah. I had something on topic to say, but noooo, I had to be an idiot.

Anyhow, there's a distinct lack of accomplishment among those people on the giga page. While I'm sure they're really very smart people, I'll hazard a guess that at that level what the tests are sorting out, more than anything else, is test-taking skills or very narrow logical skills.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:03 AM on July 25, 2004

hey i just scored an 89 on an online IQ test

granted, i've had 14 beers tongiht

can i apply anywhere?
posted by badzen at 1:30 AM on July 25, 2004

badzen wins some sort of prize.

How about: Stan Chin's spoon?
posted by mwhybark at 1:35 AM on July 25, 2004

What is an IQ? Can I get one at Wal-Mart?
posted by damnitkage at 2:28 AM on July 25, 2004

badzen - AA?
posted by backOfYourMind at 2:45 AM on July 25, 2004

MetaFilter: Spoon fed since 1999.
posted by bluedaniel at 4:41 AM on July 25, 2004

... um, how 'bout the one in 17,350 club?
posted by madamjujujive at 6:51 AM on July 25, 2004

Hey, Mensa was very educational for me. A friend who had joined (hoping to meet women) dragged me and our pal Dave to a meeting, which happened to be held on the premises of an Ivy League Club in Manhattan. After five minutes circulating and trying to make conversation with the collection of appalling geeks there assembled, Dave and I discovered a staircase leading down from the kitchen. We descended to a dark cellar space which (when our eyes adjusted) turned out to be a bar. We then applied our superhuman intellectual skills to the problem of prying open one of the locked liquor cabinets; having pried it open just far enough to extract a bottle, we did so, and found ourselves the proud possessors of a really nice bottle of champagne. (Yes, yes, it was theft, but this was many years ago and we were already drunk, OK?) I didn't think I liked champagne, but we popped it open and it turned out I do in fact like really nice champagne. So you see, Mensa taught me something valuable (and expensive).

After a couple of slugs of bubbly, by the way, we had no further interest in the proceedings upstairs, so we found a hidden exit to the street and left our Mensa friend in the lurch; Dave decided to see if he could walk all the way to the nearest avenue on the tops of cars, and I kept an eye out for The Man. Good times.

For those of you who don't want to bother hanging out at a meeting of one of these societies, here's what a typical member is like and what he'll be talking about (this is from the Giga Society site):

Evangelos Katsioulis became the fifth member of the Giga Society in April 2003 after he achieved a perfect score on the Qoymans Multiple-Choice #3

Founder and Administrator of The CIVIQ, HELLIQ and OLYMPIQ High-IQ Societies
Membership in 27 High-IQ Societies worldwide
Honorary Member of the Deliberative Council of the Sigma Society
Honorary Member of the HIQH Society
Honorary Member of the PARS Society

IQ>95%
International High-IQ Society (former NYC High-IQ Society)
IQ>98%
Mensa Greece , Mysterium Society, High Potentials Society, Smarts Society
[zillions of percentages and societies omitted]
IQ>99.9999999%
The Giga Society

maximum performance
IQ 196, sd 16, on QMC #3 (ceiling)
IQ 194, sd 16, Rasch equated raw 49/54 on NVCP-R, IQ 186, sd 16, FIIS
[&c &c]
posted by languagehat at 7:20 AM on July 25, 2004

I like shiny things.
posted by Hildegarde at 7:23 AM on July 25, 2004

These aren't real smart people. They're faux geniuses, ersatz intelligentsia; in short, they are frauds. They are good at solving puzzles, which amounts to nothing more (and nothing less!) than correctly guessing the thought processes of the puzzle maker. Which can be an useful, even admirable skill (FBI investigators come to mind), but is not laudable in and of itself.

Further, real smart people could not care less about cards they can point to that say "I am smart!" Such things never even blip their radar screens. Real smart people do things like invent the theoretical basis for quantum computing as an accessory to a thought experiment conceived to test or prove multiple universes theory - even if Dr. Deutsch also has lacklustre design skills. I have a couple real smart people as friends, currently roommates of each other. Their apartment is littered, absolutely awash in scraps of paper with equations, books on all subjects of art, history, science, and mathematics. They originally laid out their furniture such that, they hoped, the lines would confuse the visual center of the brain, producing nausea (it didn't work). I had a friend once who was very good at math, but hated it. Even worse, he would at times feel compelled to follow a particular string of mathematical reasoning, even though it enraged him.

Have any of you ever felt compelled by mathematics?

I haven't.

I doubt the linked-to clowns have, either.
posted by kavasa at 7:27 AM on July 25, 2004

There are already 6 members of the Giga society, meaning statistically, all potential applicants have already joined.
posted by abcde at 7:33 AM on July 25, 2004

I guess high IQ societies are pretty sweet if you're into puzzles and mutual masturbation. Yeah baby, tell me how smart I am!
posted by mosch at 7:39 AM on July 25, 2004

Yes, we all hate smart people. Can we move on now? Maybe go to a NASCAR race?

No. First we have to beat them up and take their lunch.

hey i just scored an 89 on an online IQ test

granted, i've had 14 beers tongiht

can i apply anywhere?

Well, rumor has it Bush might be looking for a new running mate.
posted by jonmc at 7:48 AM on July 25, 2004

The profiles on that Giga site sound like they're from match.com. I'd recommend they check out this site if they really want to wow babes. via our very own Ask.Me.
posted by theora55 at 8:16 AM on July 25, 2004

> Mensa was very educational for me. A friend who had joined (hoping to meet women)

Not unlike signing up for shop class, hoping to meet cheerleaders.
posted by jfuller at 8:43 AM on July 25, 2004

Not unlike signing up for shop class, hoping to meet cheerleaders

Which I pointed out to him, but he wouldn't be deterred. Actually, there were a fair number of women there, but... well, I can't think of a nice way to continue, and you know the Prime Rule of MetaFilter: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

abcde: Yeah, I noticed that too. They should put up a big headline: SORRY, MEMBERSHIP CLOSED.
posted by languagehat at 9:51 AM on July 25, 2004

Funny, many people profess animosity towards those gifted in the verbal-linguistic or mathematical intellegences, but heap praise and dollars on those gifted in kinesthetic intelligence (sports).

Other areas of giftedness may be called intrapersonal, interpersonal, musical, and spatial. L. da Vinci was considered gifted in all seven and therefore may have been top dog in the brain department, at least in western civilization.

i am a teacher of gifted students and believe in talent development in all areas.

130 and above is the usual benchmark for gifted programs in schools (among other criteria) and 145 and above is considered profoundly gifted.

while they should not be considered the end-all be-all, IQ scores are useful indicators - one strong connection is predicting success in college for those with higher scores...

Esquire magazine does a genius issue from time to time...some of the profiles are interesting as to what some geniuses are doing with all that mental voltage...
posted by aiq at 9:56 AM on July 25, 2004

thank god none of the potential six were born into extreme poverty, somewhere like Africa, where they'd never find out about the internet or the giga society. What luck, huh...
posted by The God Complex at 9:59 AM on July 25, 2004

but heap praise and dollars on those gifted in kinesthetic intelligence (sports): Ricky Williams, who suffers from social anxiety, retires after five seasons!!! Oh the brave kinesthetic intelligensia suffers a severe blow today.
posted by The God Complex at 10:07 AM on July 25, 2004

aiq: Da Vinci was good at kinesthetic? News to me.
posted by abcde at 11:03 AM on July 25, 2004

I've hung out with Mensa people, just socially (not an official meeting, just a Halloween party held by a member), and they seemed like nice normal geeky people to me. None of them were pretentious. They just liked hanging out with other smart people.

I remember reading about how the local Mensa group had held a big conference all about forensic science, with expert guest speakers from the FBI and so forth. Sounded really interesting to me.

The was some overlap as well with the people I met from the Atheist Community of Austin. Game night and movie night with those people was sure a lot of fun...
posted by beth at 12:55 PM on July 25, 2004

He _was_ a tiger in the sack. That's got to count for something in the kinesthetic department. Kicked out of what, two, three cities for sodomy? And those're just the ones he got caught and punished for.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 1:40 PM on July 25, 2004

TERA Society : I've just founded it. It kicks GIGA ass.
You're a member if you posted one interesting link on metafilter. Marilyn Von Savant , hear us roar !
posted by elpapacito at 2:13 PM on July 25, 2004

>Anyhow, there's a distinct lack of accomplishment among those people on the giga page.

Agreed. Anybody who qualifies for Giga ought to have a CV like Umberto's.
posted by JParker at 3:05 PM on July 25, 2004

I bain alright at paper testes
I bain rotten at shooting up how world really works
Secret bashings in backrooms
Desparate midnight phonecalls
Toasting on resort beaches
News not fit to print
Guess which won i wisht i turnt better

posted by Twang at 3:09 PM on July 25, 2004

according to their intro page, they're at the 99.9999999 (nine nines) percentile. if there are 6 billion people (6x10^9) then they'd expect 6 members (plus or minus a couple) after testing everyone - as they also note.

now you might think that the age range excludes 75% of people, and geography maybe 75% too, and sex 50% (apparently), so it seems a little odd that from 3% of the world's population they have already found 6 members (you might expect about a fifth of a member - perhaps a large fraction of a very intelligent torso).

(and scott durgin, it's really not cool to quote yourself).

who had joined (hoping to meet women)

ha!
posted by andrew cooke at 3:27 PM on July 25, 2004

I think it's unbelievably coincidental that all 6 (statistically probable) members all are white American or Western European males, let alone have all somehow come across this twee little society. How lucky for them.

I agree about the sort of stunning lack of accomplishment. One of them is a physician, but the rest of them have a lot of stuff about tutoring for $12 an hour (crap -- I get $50) and being into role-playing games.

There are really two questions about IQ, as I see it. First, to what degree does "smartness" in isolation matter at all? Second, do IQ tests do a reasonable job of measuring brain power?

I think that the answer to the first question is that intelligence is one of those things that it's important to have sufficient levels for a given task, not something for which more is always proportionally better. More important than high intelligence, IMO, is enough intelligence combined with other qualities like conscientiousness, industry, single mindedness, knowledge, or a particular kind of creativity, depending on the task at hand. Intelligence on its own is distinctly boring and unproductive, and sitting aroung ruminating on your giant, giant brain sort of makes the whole thing a moot question.

As for the second question, I think that this kind of test is a much better barometer of how well you take this kind of test than it is anything more profound than that. To be sure, you definitely have to be pretty smart to do well on them, but it's pretty possible to be very smart and not do well on them. Also, once you're past a certain intelligence threshold, probably around 130-140 or so, it loses a ton of its sensitivity. I don't believe at all that these doinks are really smarter than people who only scored, say, a 176.

On preview: Damnit.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 3:39 PM on July 25, 2004

Oh, wait, my SAT score gets me into the Oath Society. Forget I said anything.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 3:48 PM on July 25, 2004

Intelligence is overrated.

Being dumb is much more fun, because nobody expects anything from you.

*ties towel around head, jumps out window trying to fly*

whee!
posted by jonmc at 3:54 PM on July 25, 2004

jonmc : do not tie it around the head, open it !
posted by elpapacito at 3:57 PM on July 25, 2004

I'm so smart I've founded my own society. Our motto is "We're better than you, and you don't know why." If you want in you first have to figure out how many people are in it. Then you have to take the test.

I'm not saying what the test is, though. That's part of the test.
posted by nyxxxx at 4:03 PM on July 25, 2004

real smart people could not care less about cards they can point to that say "I am smart!

How do you know?
posted by biffa at 4:09 PM on July 25, 2004

MetaFilter: kinesthetic intelligensia - of teh keyboard
posted by mwhybark at 5:12 PM on July 25, 2004

biffa - ho ho ho! ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

Sadly, the answer to that is in my comment, both anecdotally (the various friends) and more formally (the link to Dr. Deutch's homepage). None of them are members of whooo we're smart societies, because those societies don't do anything. Real smart people are doing amazing things in mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. Further, they're doing these things because they're fascinated by them. Their minds grab on to the information and demand more data, and after a while they run out of pre-discovered information and start coming up with their own. That is genius, not solving human-made puzzles.

But then, all of this was clearly in my first comment. Why would simple repetition make it more obvious to you?
posted by kavasa at 5:42 PM on July 25, 2004

Thomas R. A. Wolf

Thomas became the second member of the Giga Society in September 1999. Like Scott, he also achieved a perfect score on the NUMBERS subtest of the Test For Genius (long form).

He is a software developer ... and wrote software since the seventies, everything from CBT programs for big insurance companies to service software for nuclear magnetic resonance systems.

He also maintains this web site...

*vows never to get an MRI again*
posted by dg at 5:47 PM on July 25, 2004

David Sedaris's IQ.
posted by drezdn at 7:52 PM on July 25, 2004

whom i dislike: those who divide by perseverating on what's not common

Heh.
posted by ed\26h at 1:25 AM on July 26, 2004

Okay, so the founder of the Giga society, Paul Cooijmans, also administers another High IQ site, the Glia Society, where you can find a bunch of online IQ tests, including something called the Female Intelligence Test. I can't believe that it's for real: Write down 21 words ending in 't'. Write down 21 verbs ending in 'e'. There's a section on basic arithmetic, with problems that even a mathphobe like myself can do in my head (22 + 47; 9 X 21). There's a section called "reproduce the story below in legible handwriting". You are also asked to correct grammar and punctuation in a paragraph.

Is this for real, or am I missing something? Test is here (pdf). Perhaps there are hidden traps and problems that only those of High IQ can see?

Because otherwise, I think I've seen harder tests on restaurant placemats. (Probably more legitimate ones in terms of any sort of meaningful results, too.)
posted by jokeefe at 1:28 AM on July 26, 2004

Meh. Silly frames.

Paul Cooijmans' home page is here.
posted by jokeefe at 1:31 AM on July 26, 2004

Oh lord, this just keeps getting better and better.

Evangelos Katsioulis became the fifth member of the Giga Society in April 2003.... he is a member of The Poetic Genius Society.

The current and back issues of their publication, Apotheosis, can be found here. Warning: Vogon-level poetic badness ahead.
posted by jokeefe at 1:43 AM on July 26, 2004

I think this about sums up everything one needs to know about the Poetic Genius Society:

Children of the Atom:

Oh, we are the children of the atom,
Waiting to find one another, dancing
On the uncertain haze of genius song,
Lost on an island, waiting and lonesome.
And while we grew, the They found us loathsome,
And during those years, we learned the Chanting,
The words of which we chant now while waiting
So others of our kind will find us. Come
You others, I know you're out there, seek and
You shall find, dancing around the May Pole,
The Electron Ballet Corps of Mega,
And there we all spin around, hand in hand,
We have found a place we're finally whole,
Where we're the Alpha and the Omega.
posted by jokeefe at 2:02 AM on July 26, 2004

kavasa: my point was that your suggestion could only ever be opinion. There is no way to test your hypothesis about how the truly smart behave.
posted by biffa at 2:35 AM on July 26, 2004

apparently, young leonardo was athletic.
posted by aiq at 3:53 AM on July 26, 2004

jokeefe ... that's an awful sonnet ... atom/lonesome? dancing/song? loathsome/come? the They?? ... try reading it aloud ... it's got all the graceful rhythm of a peglegged drunk skipping through potholes

i once went with a woman who had a 8th grade writing level who wrote wonderful heartfelt poetry, even with all the mispelled words

the children of the atom started to bark

proving they were only children of the quark
posted by pyramid termite at 9:54 AM on July 26, 2004

So, lemme see if I've got the MetaFilter groupthink right:

Intelligence elitism = bad
Music elitism = good
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:10 PM on July 26, 2004

So, lemme see if I've got the MetaFilter groupthink right:

Intelligence elitism = bad
Music elitism = good

Close, except there's the collary that Your Music Sucks, so YMMV. Plus, since when was "intelligence" (so-called) ever cool? I mean, try these two lines:

"Hey, you wanna come up and see my record collection?"
"Hey, you wanna come up and see my collection of tests?"

C'mon, who is gonna get laid here?
proabably neither, but we can at least pretend, right?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:36 PM on July 26, 2004

or "corollary", as you big-brained people spell it.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:43 PM on July 26, 2004

I just like to point and laugh at things like this:

Pill Bug - Daniel Phillips

pill bug
how did you get your name
did you used to get swallowed a lot
was that your part in the game
or were you but framed
by that which you are named
when touched you curl
just like a pearl
is that the origin
of the mystery
or but another dead end
maybe I should ask my friend
or would he think it but a jest
and toss me a hornet's nest
perhaps it is in a book
of bugs that can be cooked
nay it shall not be
for I shall answer this mimicry
mayhap the bug of pill will answer me
but it seems not inclined
the bribe it was offered
but the thing merely did curl
oh well
think I'll go find a girl

Normally I will respect anybody's attempts at poetry, no matter how awful by my standards, because they are still the product of personal expression, and heartfelt. But crappy poetry published in something which calls itself the 'Journal of Poetic Genius' is just asking for it.
posted by jokeefe at 3:39 PM on July 26, 2004

Must.... stop.... reading....

To the Poet, by Ed Glomski

Magician of shadows,
Levitator of words,
and will O the wisps,
Extracted from id crevaces.

Dream artist,
Funneling foggy scenarios,
From the deep wellspring,
Through a kaliedoscope.

Piper of the nearly discernable,
Drawing us close,
With your mirrored magnificent,
Brightfaced abstractions.

Is it painful when you kick the world?

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha..... *dies laughing*

Okay, sorry, I'll stop now.
posted by jokeefe at 3:45 PM on July 26, 2004

they seemed like nice normal geeky people to me.

Shhhh! You're destroying the illusion that all the self-congratulatory wankers have worked so hard to foster in this thread...

Intelligence elitism = bad
Music elitism = good

Muahaha! Well-played, old man!
posted by rushmc at 8:42 AM on July 27, 2004

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