Average intelligence? How do you rate?

[Phanerothyme 12]

Can you actually do two PhD's?? Surely once you've done your doctorate anything else that follows it is just published research.

If you do another one in a completely unrelated field, e.g. one in quantum neurology and another in 16th century bavarian beer poetry, then I'm sure you can get two (or more) doctorates, and that's before you count the honorary doctorates.

 

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It's a bit of a silly poll though. You kinda get the feeling that Tony considers himself to be in the top 50%!

 

perhaps an online test is in order? anyone?

[DynoDon 10]

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[Bago 10]

I've not actually heard of anyone doing so, I guess there'd be nothing to stop you applying for another one in a different field if you wanted.

 

Postdoctoral jobs (the next career step from PhD) pay a reasonable amount better than even fully funded PhDs though - I'd expect to be another 7-8k a year better off - so I can't see why anyone would want to do two... unless they really couldn't get a job!

Yes, but that is assuming that the person *wants* to go into the real world to *get* a job. Some may want to further research and human advancement by doing further PhDs or researches.

 

There are a lot of reasons that individuals will take and is not along the same line as the general population.

 

I think IQ is definitely overrrated.

 

Maybe intelligence should be measured in a way which tests how well a person can cope in their habitat. I once thought that anyone can have the ability to have a high IQ, especially if they apply themselves. Solely focusing and concentrate on this area. Most people may have a lower IQ because their EQ starts to rise. Being emotional wraught distracts the focus on logic, I find.

[mahonia 10]

All you have to do is go to Sheffield Midland Railway Station, and look at all the passengers trying to read the the new electronic infomation screens in the concourse, despite them begin simple to read it is just like watching lost sheep:hihi:

 

As for the poor sods trying to read a bus timetable...............

[Crayfish 10]

Yes, but that is assuming that the person *wants* to go into the real world to *get* a job. Some may want to further research and human advancement by doing further PhDs or researches.

 

 

 

Yes, as I mentioned a postdoctoral research post pays significantly better than a PhD and is a heirarchical step higher on the career line.

 

Not to say there's anything wrong with taking a wildly divergent line of work if it so takes a person. If it's in the same area I would however personally consider it somewhat odd for someone to take two consecutive PhDs rather than moving on to a postdoctoral post.

 

On a tangent, I never really understood the term 'real world'... do people assume that PhD students live in a fantasy world bereft of cares or worries? Or a fake polystyrene world somewhere in another galaxy?

[Pingpang 10]

Yes but IQ only measures mental agility, not knowledge and wisdom etc. So somebody may be unable to pass an IQ test above a hundred but actually be very very clever..

 

true that iq tests don't measure all aspects of our intelligence, but doesn't cleverness relate to mental agility, not knowledge or wisdom?

[Pingpang 10]

I didn't mention any tests. It's just a general measure. I personally am firmly of the opinion that 50% of people are as thick as a loaf of bread.

 

i'd say more than that judging by some of the muppets i run over, erm i mean run into

[Pingpang 10]

I think IQ is definitely overrrated.

 

 

that's a darned good job in your case, eh bago old bean?

 

:hihi:

[Crayfish 10]

true that iq tests don't measure all aspects of our intelligence, but doesn't cleverness relate to mental agility, not knowledge or wisdom?

 

I believe that 'agility' and knowledge are impossible to separate. Ability can be cultivated through practice and learning in addition to the simple memorisation of facts - the skills assessed in an IQ test e.g. mental arithmetic, artistic / visualisation skills, diagrammatical interpretation and language skills are all codependent on knowledge and less precisely but with equal reality 'ability', both of which can be developed through learning processes. It's a fact that one can easily learn to be good at IQ tests with practice.

 

I'd define intelligence as a function of the ability to learn and the time spent learning (could come up with a more complete definition than this but not quite as briefly). Intelligence therefore varies throughout life for a single individual and requires both genetic and environmental contributors.

[Swan_Vesta 11]

The majority of the populous are vacuous cabbages. They have difficulty in existing within the laws, boundaries, social niceties, rules or mores which the rest of us seem to live within. People on the whole make stupid decisions through no other reason than that they have the inability to formulate rational thought, they can't make good decisions but absolutely have to blame their incompetencies on others.

 

I pride myself on the fact that I may not be a genius but by Christ I'm part of the top of the heap in the intelligence stakes. I have a high IQ, I have common sense and I can make good decisions based upon the facts at hand - The genetically stunted and mentally challenged cretins who steal oxygen from my future children's lungs do not have such blessings.

 

This is where I differ from the mindless cattle which make up the vast majority of the population, I realise that they have to exist but am disappointed at natural selection that they do.

 

http://www.nortonfinance.co.uk

http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/publicationsdocuments/index.asp?cat=85

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/stats/adult.html

[Pingpang 10]

I'd define intelligence as a function of the ability to learn and the time spent learning (could come up with a more complete definition than this but not quite as briefly). Intelligence therefore varies throughout life for a single individual and requires both genetic and environmental contributors.

 

i like your definition here, although i also think that the ability to apply what you've learned to your life should be included in the definition of intelligence

[Pingpang 10]

 

This is where I differ from the mindless cattle which make up the vast majority of the population, I realise that they have to exist but am disappointed at natural selection that they do.

 

 

natural selection seems to have gone out of the window for the human race these days

 

we're collectively growing weaker, as the elements in society with less to contribute are spawning like the proverbial rabbits, while those whose genes and ways of being make them better candidates for parenthood often breed later and less