Comments by "Christian Baune" (@programaths) on "Dr. Todd Grande" channel.

@cameronfielder4955 Mensa is about identifying, fostering and encouraging research on intelligence. People join Mensa to meet people, share ideas and get stimulated. Some do for ego, fine, they pay and we almost never see them! I have organized math problem solving sessions and proctored tests for the organisation. Also, Mensa has also open events. As in every clubs, there are jerks; That simply shows Mensa is diversified.
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3:18 People who are highly resilient can see the life as a mixed bag of events on which we can have an hold and those which we can't. Most people believe wrongly that they have a significant impact on their life when it is not the case. That's why betting games work so well, that also why we develop beliefs and why the Skinner bow works so well too. So, someone can say "I was unlucky" when he meant: "considering I had no way to change the course of events, it was all bad luck". I have been placed in various institutions and I didn't had a say about it. When I needed furniture, I had no way to get those by myself and they would be bought in a batch with other kids required furniture. As a result, we all started the year with bad notes of our teachers, even when we explained the situation. As a grown up, shit like these still happen. You are working on something, then someone come to you and say it is cancelled or the scope of work has changed. Or, you need to go to an interview, you take a 1h window and there is a strike. So, you have to cancel the interview. There are many important events that will shape your life and on which you have ZERO control. Thinking otherwise is totally immature. That's really a mixed bag of events on which you have more or less control. Recognizing which is which is maturity. Thinking we are always in control or without control is immature. It's really important to emphasis that the extremes ARE what poses problem. It's OK to sometimes recognize you've no control.
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@jakebadhawk5201 Probably Audacity.
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@sjuvanet We are not speaking about members, but about the organisation which offers plenty of services (GIS, SIGHT, Mensa Select, Mensa Youth ...), organize events/activities (Intelligence day, open days, affordable testing ...). It's not disingenuous, I contribute in helping kids growth their IT skills and I am not even a considerable part of the population. And again, we are speaking about the organisation! Good you are not here to brag, that would be very awkward!
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@sjuvanet That sure tat relying on hearsay and public opinion is the best metric. From which chapter were you ? Which activities did you do ? Did you participate in the challenges ? How many articles did you share in the internal magazine ? Did you try mensa select games ? In how many GIS were you active ? Did you make use of SIGHT service ?
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@sjuvanet Your chapter is doing it wrong™ When I proctored tests, I always said "identify, promote, foster intelligence". These are the core values. Feel free to report that to the international board. I know that for Belgium, we did this and the IBD did went into motion to help the organisation to return on the right tracks. Even in our small country, we implemented most of the services (mostly those I cited) and even a "job net".
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@Beatyofeet32 It's a POTENTIAL and you can realize it or not. IQ test measure the potential, not its realization. So, if you get an IQ of 130 STD 15, there is indeed nothing to be proud of. You can start to be proud of how you realized you potential though! Now, poor diet and live hygiene can limit your potential. So, you may see a very small increase if you fix these. But still nothing to be proud of. That's why you can sometimes see people react like: "Oh, you are 146 STD 15 ? Why aren't you launching rockets ?". That's stemming from thinking that people automatically realize their potential.
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Holly13 Satre89 Each Mensa chapter has its own test and also accept a lot of alternative tests. Not only CFT! There is so much misinformation all around and that's the basis for people opinions. That's really sad!
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@pew-pew2224 yes, agree CFT is the best we can do for now, but they need to be normalized on specific populations even if within said population there is huge differences. If you look at WAIS, it includes general knowledge because crystallized intelligence can also be measured on how much you are a sponge! This part is VERY specific to the culture it in which it is proctored. As for "them", well they gave the opportunity to clear misconceptions for the general public. I would say "epic fail"! I am not trying to know anymore if someone is/was in Mensa or is a high potential. As you wrote, it quickly speaks for itself! As for misunderstanding, indeed, I assumed something and framed your writings accordingly. That's why face to face is often more efficient.
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They find out...or they ask. When people took a route you are going to engage, it's quite intelligent to ask if it is the right direction. Getting as much input before committing. And the answer is probably not what you may think. For years, I avoided putting either "High potential" or "Mensa" on my CV. Then I did put Mensa in "hobbies/clubs" , then removed it and put "high potential" then put back "Mensa". The rational is the following: "Mensa" is a red flag for a lot of companies out there and it happens they have politics I don't like. Those who continue with my CV either ignore about Mensa or are interested. Mostly open minded people who want to meet me before making any judgment. Also, I work in IT. Problem solving is the gist of it as I am in "D" category (autonomous, take decisions that have a direct impact on the business) and I also need to acquire new competences routinely.
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7:40 -9:45 you are quite being deceptive, no ? The study is totally screwed, but you still take it as valid input ?! 48 people, 10% of reports, not diversified. It's a bit weak! At least, you get honest on the last minutes :-p Also, something that may be true; do not make it true. Ego depletion is a good one to talk about too! Very little know and very useful for Human Resources and employees wellness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion
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@pew-pew2224 By trying to smear, they give exposition to the truth and the opportunity to correct misinformation. It really play against themselves, but they do not realize it. To be honest, that's one of the best manipulation techniques out there: smearing yourself AND having good replies to the smear. They are just doing half of the work :-D Sadly, there is not enough people to reply and this is where it falls short. Still, that's interesting how people get involved in something that is the opposite of what they try to achieve. Irony is quite the nature of life :-p It's also why I love people who want to "win the argument" too. In their pursue, they can't control the truth that easily and have to expose themselves. For future readers, it offer a reading framework too. It's like the "people said <-> reality is" kind of texts. Lastly, it often closes with an ad hominem.
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@pew-pew2224 There have been experiments with tribes and it was a total failure because they didn't saw shapes attributes as we did and developed another classification rendering the items non doable. That's why normalization is done per population and not globally. And as I clearly wrote, each chapter its test and they allow different test results. CTF point was really a moot point. Anyone with around average intelligence could understand where I was going. Also confusing the organisation and it's members, I was quite clear too and again, doesn't take a genius to understand. The only "too indirect" message was about the plethora of services that are offered. Some members really overlook those! That's not understandable that someone says the organization does "nothing"...yet, I wasn't very explicit. I used to be very concise and precise. That didn't work really well. When people do not understand, they interpret. Then you spend your time with "I didn't say that". On top of that, chances that other people follow the misunderstanding is high. This works better in formal setting where you have to ensure your contract/engagement is solidly grounded; That is way easier in French than English. Also, one can always ask me to rephrase if required.
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@anonymike8280 No, I will not. It's buried ! Also, you focus on the fostering part. As a volunteer, I had to get "broader". You don't start proctoring if you do not believe in the "identify" part. Neither you start coaching kids if you don't believe on "foster". :-) As for research, I kinda versed into that a bit, but it is way harder without real support.
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@anonymike8280 The most important part is: 《Personally, I believe that anyone with an IQ in the mid-120's very soon would produce a qualifying score on one of them if those college and university tests were still accepted, if they didn't have a qualifying score alread》. That's why those are not accepted anymore. IQ tests have to be renormed each 10 years. Mensa just do not want to bother with that and accept only tests that are normalized against the current population. I participated in general assemblies and the opinion is than Mensa have to make more progress toward promoting and that not enough people are joining considering the pool size.
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@anonymike8280 Exactly, the GRE didn't change. Why do you think IQ tests are changed over time ? Why don't we still use original WAIS ? That correlation was correct 30 years before, not anymore. It has to be done AGAIN and it is expensive. It's not done to be exclusive, it's done because the correlation changed and the GRE scores didn't got renormed. Luckily, plenty of other tests are accepted by Mensa. And because Mensa wants to be accessible, they provide their own tests that are cheaper to take. To be fair, if you had to pick the club which is the most accessible, it would be Mensa. A qualifying on any accepted IQ test would do: https://www.us.mensa.org/join/testscores/qualifying-test-scores/ I have hard time understanding how "Mensa is making it harder for people to get in".
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@mgal6234 As of 2019 You are a bit wrong: https://www.us.mensa.org/join/testscores/qualifying-test-scores/ It's around 15 tests that are accepted. Add to that ANY proctored Mensa tests.
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@mmbah543 Meh! Let the resilience kick in and build it. You described as part of what is characteristic of self destruction. Are you doing OK ?
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I have been asked if I was some kind of scientist. Sometimes people can go far to not label you "intelligent" :-D And some will go impersonal: "Damn, that was smart!". The thing is that most of the time, people react like you are fishy and saying non-sense. Some even become aggressive because they think you downplay them. That took some time to sink in and understand the true value of communication. When I was a teenager, I was like "hell, fuck off if you can't even use the proper words". Then I matured, learned about Jacobson and how I was ignorant those times. it takes much more than one could imagine to make the journey from "Accuracy" to "Expressiveness". From "Being absolutely correct/pedantic" to "Being absolutely understood/pragmatic". Now, long term friends and colleagues have been used to it and did pick it up. But it took time! To give you a real life example, during a team building we had to solve puzzles and do geocaching. Two things I am good at. Puzzles are often recycled and similar, which helps. From the beginning, I told the team "You are lucky, I am very good with these". Sanction was immediate, they put me aside! For one of the puzzles, I had the opportunity to look at it, then left the group to relieve myself. While doing so, I had a clear path to the solution. I came back and asked where is the recorder (that I saw at the beginning) and that there should be music about car brands and the order in which they appear would gave us the lock code. From there, they gave me the last 3 puzzles to solve and we finished penultimate. One of the puzzles was unsolved, only our team got it. I sent a company wide email to detail the solution. People are not that easy! Also, intelligence is always the last explanation; You have "-Sheer luck", "-That's not the first time you did it", "-Yeah, in fact that was simple" before it! Lastly, one mistake annihilate every bright moments.
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One thing is that you can "lock" someone sentiments toward you and the way they think about whatever you are going to tell them by involuntarily priming them. "Hitler did a good job" was a something I said in a snack and patrons overheard it. I quickly realized I did a major fuck up, I didn't pay attention on how people could interpret it. It was not a supporting statement, it was a factual observation. His engineers did a lot of work to make the process efficient up to the point they recycled their hairs! It is "process 101" down to the hardware and with psychological aspects. Of course, what he did is to be condemned and is intolerable. Of course I could not agree with anything. Though, I said it was "good.” I was saved by the bartender who had to yell that I was not meaning that. Yup, people didn't listen at all when I tried to explain (also, I was fearing for myself as everyone wanted my skin at that point!) The thing is that we can show "disconnect" and appear to be "cold" and "utilitarian" when we go full analytical. We put emotions aside and just look with an objective lens. It can appear cold and inappropriate. That's why it's hard to have discussion without having a preamble (framing the whole discussion), which I failed to do at that time. In a non-intuitive way, it can even slow us down. I was doing a working memory exercise and the proctor asked me how I want to continue with the challenge. She gave me the options and instead of going with my guts, I took 5 minutes browsing the options and "trying them out" to see which would be the most accessible to me then asked her some confirmation questions. Other people just have an answer popping and it takes them few seconds (they go with their "gut") :-p On top of that, when I have an intense reflection, I "freeze.” Sometimes people see that and ask "There is something you did not understand" and I have to say: "no, just thinking.” It is quite important to recognize we have all our quirks!
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