Haven't read The Chosen but I think it's in our bookshelves, so I'll dig it out and put it on the bedside stack which Myers knocked over last night, scaring the hell out of us and himself. I get to rearrange the order now though, so if it's good, it can go on top with the highly recommended.
I have NO faith in tests --- especially IQ tests-- as predictors of anything, only as a possible clue to a part of a person's whole. WHen you use the word intellect, I think you are speaking of only one kind of ability, and it often has no practical application at all in real life. Ammo and CW are not that far apart on IQ scores, and neither are Dan and I, but our personalities and temperaments have dictated our choices and successes (or lack thereof)-to a far greater extent.
There are people on SI who consider themselves the intellectual superiors of all around them and strive mightily to prove this. But they are oblivious to what they are really showing about themselves-- the narrowness of their thinking, which is often unoriginal and only the result of a facile memory, their total disregard for other's opinions and feelings, a certain meanness of spirit and often an emotional immaturity.
My terrible Math scores represent nothing to me but poor teaching and a total lack of interest in the subject. My math aptitude as a child was always very high, but then I sat in Algebra writing poetry. A dear friend's son scores at the genius level on all tests, but has failed in the normal academic environment, and is currently working as a plumber's assistant and writing poetry at night. Thank God for variety.
Gaugs refuses to take tests on principle.
He's probably the smartest one here.
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