William Sidis and What Being A Genius Is Truly Like
Disclaimer: When we talk about intelligence, we are explicitly talking about IQ and people's ability to absorb aggregate knowledge or facts. We are just strictly talking about IQ and standardized intelligence tests, specifically those that Mensa looks at. We are not referring to them as an intelligent test or as a mark of genius.
In 1944, on the south side of Boston, the most intelligent man in the world died. Ironically and tragically, it was his brain that killed him. William James Sidis, a man whose IQ was somewhere around 250, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 46, which was this exact same illness that killed his father. William's accurate IQ can only be estimated, since his sister Helen exaggerated his actual scores when she spoke to biographers. But researchers believe it was 50 to 100 points higher than the IQ of Albert Einstein, which was 160.
Whatever William’s actual IQ was, he could read the New York Times before he was two. Then by age six, he learned English, Latin, French, German, Russian, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian. Then at age 11, he entered Harvard University as one of the youngest students in the school's history. By All rights, William should have invented something incredible back in the 1930s, like the internet or Doritos tacos. William easily could have become the leading mind in mathematics or physics by now. The name “Situs” should be as familiar to us as the name Einstein, but it isn't.
By the time he reached early adulthood, William was an unhappy recluse. After graduating cum laude from Harvard, William admitted that he'd been a laughing stock. He said he had never kissed a girl. He was chased and humiliated by their students, and he talked about leaving the academic world forever to become a laborer. Eventually, William would write books, but very few of them were written under his own name. He used at least eight pseudonyms. Meaning we may never know how many books he published under other fake names. I think it's safe to say in every measurable way, hyper-intelligence, or the expectations that came with it made William miserable.
The Big Bang Theory, Sherlock Holmes, and House have tried to convince us of one thing; hyper-intelligent people might be unbearable to work with, but it's worth putting up with all their idiosyncrasies to get a glimpse of their genius. Movies and TV people of genius IQ are usually portrayed as hyper-competent, and if they're not wealthy already, then they're Rising Stars, like Mike Ross from Suits, or Doogie Howser MD. Well, once again, the re-engineered you is on the case because today we want to tackle three myths about intelligence; myths that make the rest of us feel like big dum-dums.
Myth 1: Intelligent people have it made
William's early life had excellent breeding to begin with. His mother was a doctor, and his father was a famous psychologist, and they were on the same page on parenting. They sat down and said they were going to have our son become the smartest human on earth. So, they planned him out since day one. They spent every cent they have on maps, books, and toys to start William on a base that no one had ever done before, breeding a genius. Later in life, William said his parents were pushy and aggressive.
This is a study where researchers took Mensa members, and they gave them things to fill out. There are more than a hundred countries worldwide with members ages from 3-103, and they come from all walks of life and education levels. It's not so much about Academia to be a member. You just have to take an IQ test and score within the top few percent of people, and here's what they got from their members.
They sent them a questionnaire, and they found out that there are some correlations with genius-level intelligence and depression and addiction. (kind of like House and his addictive, depressive behavior). They tend to overthink themselves miserable and have what is called hyperexcitability.
An article by Scientific American called “Bad News for the Highly Intelligent” says that for reasons not completely understood, people with a high IQ live longer, healthier lives, and are less likely to experience life events like bankruptcy. So, they live longer, and they generally don't have hard slumps financially. However, as we mentioned about the Mensa members, their survey showed that when they asked about mood disorders, they found more than a quarter (26.7%) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20% had been formally diagnosed with anxiety disorders. These stats are far higher than the national percentage, which is around 10%. From the same research, Kempinski had a theory about this, why there's a higher prevalence for intelligent people to have these moods, over excitability.
Being over-excitable also means ruminating more. It means you get into a loop where over analyzing a threat can affect the body's triggering responses, and that can trigger the body to release more cortisol, leading to more stress. It's basically a feedback loop you can get caught in. They have more significant reactions to environmental threats or insults. This is just a theory, but it's pretty well accepted.
Myth 2: Intelligent people get paid
Of course, one of the first things we wanted to look at when starting this episode is if highly intelligent people got paid. We'd like to think that has got to be the biggest perk, as that is always in movies. So how much of your income is changed or determined by high IQ? If you have a genius-level IQ, your income only affects your earning ability by about 1-2%. In general, personality, hard work, and dedication play a much bigger part of your financial success than IQ. Unlike conscientious people, geniuses don't stay focused on something long enough to benefit from it. They change channels a lot. In fact, socially responsible and generous people make more money. I think it is really about people who are aware of how successful they really are, they have the money to give, and they can plan it out. I think that planning that diligence probably means more on paper than just being generous.
A Forbes article by Vanessa McGrady and a MassMutual study says that people who are generous and take their time and resources to help their communities. They're putting some of that attention toward their own Financial Foundation as well. So again, when we look at why they would make more money in their lifetime than somebody with a genius IQ, a lot of it really just comes down to engagement, willingness to put down roots, and taking the time to build.
Myth 3: Intelligent people get laid
Psychology Today stated that intelligence was rated as the number one preferred partner trait. They said that men rate intelligence as the number one desired trait in the women they're looking for. The number one trait for women when they rate attractiveness in men, was humor. Women rate humor as number one, closely followed by intelligence. Being smart is generally attractive, and as far as a species goes, that makes sense. Our current world we live in is a reward for intelligence.
This comes from the University of Western Australia; they wanted to find out how smart you can be before it becomes unattractive. Instead of relying on rank orders or ratings, they focused on the perceived attractiveness of specific intelligence levels. They sampled 375 individuals with high estimated IQs.
Starting from the lower intelligence higher: From the first percentile to the 50th percentile, as far as intelligence goes, it rose in attractiveness almost in the same rating. So, if you're in the bottom 3% of intelligence, you're probably going to be about the same rating for attractiveness. When you hit about 75th percentile, it rises, and then it starts going up sharply, peaking at the 90th percentile. So, if you're within the 90th percentile of intelligence, that's about 120. However, when you hit the 99th, attraction goes down. Both men and women reported less appeal to individuals in the 99th percentile than they did for people in the 90th percentile. A strong theory based on this could be due to the insecurity of being in a critical relationship with someone who might not be very fun to be around.
Final Thoughts
You don't have to be smarter than Einstein to live a good life. You don't have to be a Mensa genius to be a good leader. People with high intelligence, on average, make a little more money than the rest of us, and higher IQ is correlated with living a slightly longer life, but at a price.
High Intelligence is also linked to increased rates of depression, addiction, allergies, and social disorders. So, if you're already a genius, then congratulations! But for the rest of us who can't remember obscure facts, keep in mind conscientiousness, social awareness, and perseverance can be the path to your financial development. If you are not a genius born with platform shoes, use those skills to climb.
Finally, we want you to remember brainy may be the new sexy, but if you're working on a book about transit ticket stubs, then there's only so much sexy the world can handle.
Written by Todd Lemense presented by Joe Anthony