# Smartest person in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477 "2003-02-03T12:22:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/1 "2003-02-03T12:22:12Z")
There was a recent contest, won by an Ann Arbor man, to determine the smartest person in the world. Apparently he answered 22 out of 25 questions on a test that the average person would have difficulty getting even one right. Anyone seen this test or have an online link to it? ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/2 "2003-02-03T12:25:49Z")
Cite? I belive Cecil Adams is the Smartest Human Being on the Planet. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/3 "2003-02-03T12:54:23Z")
Depends entirely on how you define “smartest.” It is like asking “Who is the most beautiful person on the planet” or “Who is the nicest person?”… everyone has their own views on these things, and most of the time they will disagree. For instance, are you saying “smartest” in ability to solve logic problems? Math equations? Economics? Sociology? Astrophysics? Literature? Linguistics? Religion? COmputer programming? If someone is an utter genius in all of this and is horribly unhappy, is he really any smarter than Bob down the street who is watching a football game and having a beer with some friends while tending the barbie and having a grand old time? ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/4 "2003-02-03T12:55:29Z")
(I understand the OP was asking a specific quesiton about a specific test, but I just hate terms like that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/5 "2003-02-03T13:20:45Z")
Might Unca **Cecil**! ---
**Author:** ![johncole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@johncole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johncole)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/6 "2003-02-03T13:42:53Z")
the story is covered [here](http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-3/1044027826302790.xml) > [@](#): > > Andrew Nierman, 29, of Ann Arbor, who has just been named the winner of the International High IQ Society’s first “World’s Smartest Person” competition The [haselbauer-dickheiser test for exceptional intelligence](http://www.highiqsociety.org/common/iqtests/ultrahigh.htm) is posted, but the competition closed on December 31, 2002. ---
**Author:** ![ChaosGod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@ChaosGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChaosGod)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/7 "2003-02-03T13:47:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zagadka \* > \*\*(I understand the OP was asking a specific quesiton about a specific test, but I just hate terms like that 🙂 \*\* I feel the same way! Words like “smartness”, “intelligence”, and the dubious concept of “IQ”, for the most part, are just subtle (or not so subtle) ways to discrimintate people based on different cultural parameters. ---
**Author:** ![ravage2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@ravage2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ravage2)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/8 "2003-02-03T14:13:28Z")
I thought Stephen Hawking is. At least he has the highest standardised IQ or something. Principal Skinner said so in the Simpsons so it must be true. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/9 "2003-02-03T14:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Andrew Nierman, 29, of Ann Arbor, who has just been named the winner of the International High IQ Society’s first “World’s Smartest Person” competition. The sheer arrogance of this is laughable. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/10 "2003-02-03T14:21:33Z")
I got a score of 120. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell you where you got correct answers. I might have gotten 1 or 2 more if I’d sat down and actually figured out some of the problems - I kind of whipped through it, and I was on the right track for the box-stacking question but I just got sick of it. But there’s no friggin’ way in hell I could ever get about 15 of those problems. Pattern problems give me a headache. The ones I DID get, for sure, are questions 4, 24, 16 and 17, and I’m fairly confident about my answers for 13 and 19. ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/11 "2003-02-03T14:23:01Z")
**“…“IQ”, for the most part, are just subtle (or not so subtle) ways to discrimintate people.”** Ya think you could be conspiracy theorist? Are you saying that IQ tests don’t measure intelligence or are you saying something different? I hope you’re not saying there is no such thing as “intelligence.” While IQ scores aren’t going to tell you who is the most charming, or who makes the best raisin cookies they are pretty good predictors of academic success and later success ‘in life.’ ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/12 "2003-02-03T14:25:44Z")
I am smart! S-M-R-T! Smart! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/13 "2003-02-03T14:26:05Z")
Note that this essentially proves I am not a genius. But I suspect most people knew that already. Incidentally, aren’t real IQ tests timed? In theory I could have worked on this for a year. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/14 "2003-02-03T14:30:25Z")
Please … you _have_ to read the story that johncole linked. > [@](#): > > Despite the honor, Nierman’s friend and ex-roommate, Lukasz Opyrchal, is full of stories that prove Nierman is most certainly not the smartest person in the world. > > He recalled the time that Nierman got so many parking tickets his car was finally towed. Nierman delayed retrieving his car until he needed it to get to the airport about a month later. So he went to City Hall and paid the fees, then went to the towing station to pay that fee, only to learn his car - and everything in it - had been auctioned off. > > “That’s fairly typical of Andy,” said Opyrchal, also a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at U-M. “He does things like that all the time - or at least he used to before he got married.” I think this falls into he “nuff said” category. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/15 "2003-02-03T14:41:53Z")
I looked at the test per the link. It’s nothing but a series of tricky and difficult math and sequence analysis questions. [Smartest person test](http://www.highiqsociety.org/noflash/nonmembers/iqtests.htm) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/16 "2003-02-03T14:47:36Z")
I don’t think it would be very smart to tell anyone you just won the Dickheiser competition. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/17 "2003-02-03T15:05:01Z")
Question number 9 is the German AFDXVG cipher of World War I, cracked by Georges Painvin. He was a genius cryptoanalyst and it still took him several months of difficult distribution analysis, and he lost twenty pounds and nearly suffered a mental breakdown as a result. He considered breaking it the crowning achievment of his career. I’ve only halfheartedly looked over the questions, but I suspect that most of the answers can be discovered through researching. If the test is actually asking you to recreate Painvin’s analysis and codebreaking from square one it would be ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/18 "2003-02-03T15:06:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tigers2B1 \* > Are you saying that IQ tests don’t measure intelligence or are you saying something different? They don’t measure intelligence. Are idiot savants smart or dumb? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/19 "2003-02-03T15:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \* > \*\*I am smart! S-M-R-T! Smart! \*\* Incidentally, “smrt” means “death” in Czech. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ChaosGod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@ChaosGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChaosGod)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477/20 "2003-02-03T15:19:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tigers2B1 \* > \*\***“…“IQ”, for the most part, are just subtle (or not so subtle) ways to discrimintate people.”** > > I hope you’re not saying there is no such thing as “intelligence.” \*\* What is intelligence? How do you measure it? Al IQ tests are culturally biased. And what _do_ they measure? Your ability to figure out the next number in a sequence? Identify a pattern of colours and shapes? You can get better at it with practice ! Plain and simple! Therefore, IQ tests only measure how good you are at … doing an IQ test ! Does scoring 200 at an IQ test mean, what?, … that I have twice the neurons than the average man?, that they are twice as fast?, that they are somehow “better connected”? I think not! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartest-person-in-the-world/152477.md?page=2)