<story><title>High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SavantIdiot</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s interesting. I joined and was immediately turned off by the group.&lt;p&gt;The difference with joining a chess club is you get to play chess.&lt;p&gt;So let&amp;#x27;s turn your proposal around: What do you get to do in a High IQ club that is different from any random collection of people?&lt;p&gt;Besides talk about how you are in MENSA?</text></item><item><author>pizza234</author><text>Update: I&amp;#x27;m reading people with (more) negative experiences. I guess YMMV :) Still, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t draw absolute conclusions based on this.&lt;p&gt;I was a Mensa associate, and participated to evening meetings in two countries (evening meetings are only part of the activities).&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re assuming, with &amp;quot;people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club&amp;quot;, that associates sit on a high horse due to their IQ. It was quite the opposite; the clubs are very friendly, and what I remember is actually, fun nights playing board and social games (it&amp;#x27;s amusing to think that a significant part of a &amp;quot;high IQ&amp;quot; club is games :)). Definitely, nobody would recognize it was a Mensa meeeting if they didn&amp;#x27;t know it already.&lt;p&gt;In my personal view, joining the club because of (relatively) high IQ was no different than joining, say, a chess club - meeting people who have something in common.&lt;p&gt;Needless to say, there were lots of programmers :)</text></item><item><author>rory</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is Mensa really an &amp;quot;intellectual pursuit&amp;quot;? I&amp;#x27;m not sure exactly what Mensa does, but maybe people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club are more likely to be those who suffer from setbacks in other parts of their lives.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Alex3917</author><text>&amp;gt; Besides talk about how you are in MENSA?&lt;p&gt;I was in an ultra-high IQ society called The Thousand. Not because my IQ is in the 99.9%, but because they weren&amp;#x27;t smart enough to figure out how to password protect their Ning group.&lt;p&gt;There was very little content, and the average poster was probably less intelligent than the &lt;i&gt;average&lt;/i&gt; HN poster.</text></comment>
<story><title>High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SavantIdiot</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s interesting. I joined and was immediately turned off by the group.&lt;p&gt;The difference with joining a chess club is you get to play chess.&lt;p&gt;So let&amp;#x27;s turn your proposal around: What do you get to do in a High IQ club that is different from any random collection of people?&lt;p&gt;Besides talk about how you are in MENSA?</text></item><item><author>pizza234</author><text>Update: I&amp;#x27;m reading people with (more) negative experiences. I guess YMMV :) Still, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t draw absolute conclusions based on this.&lt;p&gt;I was a Mensa associate, and participated to evening meetings in two countries (evening meetings are only part of the activities).&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re assuming, with &amp;quot;people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club&amp;quot;, that associates sit on a high horse due to their IQ. It was quite the opposite; the clubs are very friendly, and what I remember is actually, fun nights playing board and social games (it&amp;#x27;s amusing to think that a significant part of a &amp;quot;high IQ&amp;quot; club is games :)). Definitely, nobody would recognize it was a Mensa meeeting if they didn&amp;#x27;t know it already.&lt;p&gt;In my personal view, joining the club because of (relatively) high IQ was no different than joining, say, a chess club - meeting people who have something in common.&lt;p&gt;Needless to say, there were lots of programmers :)</text></item><item><author>rory</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is Mensa really an &amp;quot;intellectual pursuit&amp;quot;? I&amp;#x27;m not sure exactly what Mensa does, but maybe people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club are more likely to be those who suffer from setbacks in other parts of their lives.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>no_one_ever</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t really care one way or the other, but my impression is the group offers a setting for like-minded (read &amp;#x27;higher-IQ&amp;#x27;) individuals to come talk about &lt;i&gt;anything&lt;/i&gt; and not just &lt;i&gt;the thing&lt;/i&gt; they are there for.</text></comment>