# Great Intellectual Feats Made By People With Low IQ's- Examples? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069 "2005-05-16T14:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/21 "2005-05-17T17:02:54Z")
From: [http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L2-1UnderstandingIQ.html](http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L2-1UnderstandingIQ.html) “Be aware that intelligence (IQ) only has a small correlation with things like career success and happiness. So, you may also be interested to read “Why Intelligent People Fail”.” Why Intelligent People Fail: [http://www.wilderdom.com/intelligence/WhyIntelligentPeopleFail.html](http://www.wilderdom.com/intelligence/WhyIntelligentPeopleFail.html) Scoring systems: Assume that the IQ test has 100 questions. If this is intended to test from two standard deviations beloe to two standard deviations above, then only 2.5% of people will have IQs above 130, 0.5% over 140. Interpolating one might guess that maybe 5% have IQs of over 124. The differentiation between an IQ of 124 and 140 plus can only be decided by a few of the available 100 questions. There will be some randomness in the number of questions answered correctly on each occasion. The IQ test is very good at differentiating between people within the two sd each way area of the bell curve, but not at all relaible at differentiating between 125 and 150, except with repeated and in depth testing. Additionally, one blind spot in one area of the tests will stop an IQ of above about 120 being registered, even if the person is at genius level in all other areas. Many people have major difficulties with understanding numbers, and yet are no less ‘intelligent’ than numerate people. However, they stand no chance of showing this on an IQ measure that involves completing numeric series. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/22 "2005-05-17T19:54:31Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > The specific abilities I am talking about are things such as number completion tasks, spatial completion tasks, word completion tasks, l;ogical tests etc… All of these tests measure specific abilities tested by IQ tests. These may or may not correlate with actual performance bya person in the real world. If you want to choose which twenty of a hundred people should be offered a scholarship, then IQ might be a good way to do it. However, if you wanted to predict who would get the best grade Point average or other assessment over a course, IQ is not that predictive. > > Additionally, very capable people in the real world may not score highly on IQ tests- failure in a small number of items may drop your measured IQ considerably- high IQ results are dependent on close to perfect results- so lack of specific ability in one section of the tests (spatial awareness for instance) would drop your IQ considerably without that lack of ability having any meaning in the real world- it might not be needed in your specialty. > > Additionally there are many people who have high IQs but are socially less skilled and this has a major effect on their success rate in academia and wider society. Pjen, my dear chap, you are stating the obvious. (Ponderously so.) No one is quibbling with the bulk of your truisms. I’m on my way to the airport, so I don’t have time to continue this discussion but, rest assured, no one is arguing about predictivity, design flaws/limitations, bogus correlations, etc. Go back and read the posts. These pointless side discussions are doing a disservice to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/23 "2005-05-18T07:35:44Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > I read that too, but it probably has more to do with his hearing problems than his intelligence. Hearing impairment was often diagnosed as retardation. Very true. My Uncle in England was considered slow because they didn’t find out until later that he had a growth in his ear that made him quite hard-of-hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Kenneth\_Noisewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@Dr.Kenneth\_Noisewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Kenneth_Noisewater)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/24 "2005-05-18T08:47:12Z")
I’m confused as to the definition of an “impressive intellectual achievement” but I would venture to guess that autistic savants would fit the bill. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic\_savant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_savant) This reminds me of Daniel Tammet, who has Asperger’s, and recited pi to its 22514th digit March 14th 2004. He is, however, a high-functioning autistic, and probably has a reasonable IQ. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/25 "2005-05-18T09:56:41Z")
Someone who was a politician, nevertheless I admire them to a great extent: Winston Churchill - apparently he performed very badly at school, though some of that could have been due to loneliness and homesickness (boarding school, neglected by family, etc.) And, you know, WC achieved kind of a lot. And I agree with whomever said that I.Q. tells you nothing about how a person will function in the real world, and in dealing with other human beings. I come across more and more evidence of this all the time. ---
**Author:** ![TheEmptyString](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f14d63/32.png) [@TheEmptyString](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheEmptyString)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/26 "2011-12-21T07:09:13Z")
After reading about Feynman’s IQ score, I feel somewhat more confident about my own. And for the record, 124 is within the 94th percentile using a 15 SD range. I think we all need role models, and if Feynman overachieved his scores, than maybe we all can too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/27 "2011-12-21T14:19:07Z")
By the way, the entire purpose of IQ tests was **not** to measure intelligence. It was to see which children in school were behind their classmates and thus needed extra help. Those developing the original tests were concerned with those _below_ 100 and it wasn’t until later that people started interpreting the tests as a way to determine genius. A score above 100 originally meant that you did a little bit better than average; it was not dealing with innate intelligence. It could just mean that you had picked up a few concepts on your own that hadn’t been taught in class. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/28 "2011-12-22T00:02:00Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I didn’t think IQ was on a logarithmic scale. Is there a cite for that. > > I always thought the presumed underlying distribution of IQ was “normal” (the bell shaped curved) and they scaled and shifted the scoring of the tests so that the mean was 100 with a standard deviation of 15. So, someone 2 standard deviations above 100. . .130. . .would be roughly in the top few percent of people taking the test. > > That’s just scoring. I don’t want to get into how IQ is correlated with success. That’s exactly right in terms of the mean and standard deviation for IQ tests. I don’t think you could exactly call the normal curve a logarithmic scale, but it does follow the properties that 68.3% of samples fall within one standard deviation of the mean, and 95.4% fall with two standard deviations, 99.7% within three, and so on. That means there are a lot more people with IQ 100 than with IQ 120 or 80. Less than 2.5% of people should have IQs 130 or higher. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/29 "2011-12-22T01:33:56Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > I knew one person whose IQ was in the 50-70 range but was more mathematically and numerically able than I (and I go to degree level with it). He could make numbers dance. > > Google for Idiot Savants to give you some idea of the specific abilities of persons of low measured IQ and high achievement in certain areas. Hold up. Was the numbers fellow somewhere on the autism spectrum? Having personally witnessed how very difficult it is to administer an IQ test to a child with autism, I don’t put a lot of faith in the accuracy of the test for such an individual. The team tried very hard to get my little friend to take the test, breaking it into small chunks over several days to try to catch him when he was the most focused, but at some point you have to stop when he’s just not cooperating because it can’t go on forever. The standard test format just didn’t work very well for him, and I’m sure there are a lot of other kids just not capable of giving accurate results. It’s theorized that about 50% of kids with autism have IQs in the normal range, but it’s just a theory because testing [is so difficult](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_in_autism#Intelligence). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/30 "2011-12-22T05:01:48Z")
> [@Soylent\_Gene](#): > > Dubya is able to memorize Karl Rove’s talking points. For him, a monu-mental accomplishment. And Obamessiah thinks we have 57 states and that it’s still 2008. [Obama London visit 2011: President signs Westminster Abbey guestbook 2008 | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390535/Obama-London-visit-2011-President-signs-Westminster-Abbey-guestbook-2008.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/31 "2011-12-22T07:34:31Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > And Obamessiah thinks we have 57 states and that it’s still 2008. [Obama London visit 2011: President signs Westminster Abbey guestbook 2008 | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390535/Obama-London-visit-2011-President-signs-Westminster-Abbey-guestbook-2008.html) Um, in a thread about IQs you may not want to take six years to think of a come-back. Just sayin’. 😃 Which leads to the question–does a zombie gain intelligence by eating the braaaiins of smart people? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069/32 "2011-12-22T09:51:40Z")
> [@Plan\_B](#): > > I once read that Thomas Edison had an IQ of 100. Edison was in his 60’s when IQ tests were invented (in Europe). So his mental abilities may have been declining by that time. But, in fact, I doubt that he ever took an IQ test at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-intellectual-feats-made-by-people-with-low-iqs-examples/304069.md?page=1)