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

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

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Comment author: ciphergoth 08 April 2009 07:57:07AM 2 points [-]

A friend who is generally the smartest person in the room wherever she goes went to a Mensa meeting once. However, she was there as the girlfriend of a member; she hadn't passed their test. As a result, the members just talked right over her, which was very much their loss.

Comment author: austhinker 14 March 2011 06:34:53AM *  2 points [-]

ciphergoth's friend's experience is not typical of my experiences in Australian Mensa, where anyone who attended a Mensa meeting was welcome and treated as an equal, although some members did mention that they had encountered some snobbishness at some overseas meetings.

In Australia when I was a member there were about 400 eligible non-members for every member, so most members recognized that a non-member might well have a higher IQ than many members. Also, a fair proportion recognized that whilst what is imperfectly measured by IQ tests is a useful trait and a differentiating factor, it is NOT the measure of a person's worth or even of their conversational potential.

Comment author: ciphergoth 14 March 2011 11:14:06PM 0 points [-]

Good to hear - thanks!