knb comments on What do fellow rationalists think about Mensa? - Less Wrong

2 Post author: taw 06 April 2009 10:08PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (32)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: knb 07 April 2009 06:07:18AM 2 points [-]

IQ is well correlated with job performance, so if you think the potential employer cares mainly about future performance (and knows what he or she is doing) include your IQ and that it qualifies you for Mensa. However, I suppose that most people who review applications would see a reference to IQ/Mensa membership as a downside. Mensans manage to be seen as both elitist and low status at the same time. They are usually smart people (mostly smart men actually) who have lower status jobs, so I doubt they would be very useful professional connections.

As to whether joining Mensa might have intrinsic value to you, I don't know. I think they mainly trade puzzles with each other.