| | Robert Davison,
Referring to Posts 55 - 57, I will make a few more comments. One can perhaps say that living up to one's potential is all it takes with the right genes to become a genius. But, there is indication that using the mind consistently really does change its structure and its capacity. To become the mind of a genius, the brain has to be pumped up. It might be that the brain with an easily attained IQ of 140 can thus be improved to have an IQ of 160, for instance. In fact, there is also evidence that minds that are measured at IQ 100 can also be pumped up to IQ 120. There is a reference in Thomas Sowell's book Black Rednecks and White Liberals to how the average IQ of people in the Southeastern part of the US went up about 20 points when the schools there generally improved. He also illustrated the same effect when kids from average African-American families went to good schools. Now, if average kids can increase their measured IQs by 20 points, then maybe geniuses are often those who do the same and may even have a greater than 20 point improvement capability in some cases. Having said this, you could say that all this ability to improve the mind was built-in from the start. But how do we know that? Also, isn't asserting that likely to send the wrong message to people? "Either it comes easily to you, or you just did not have it in you at birth." might be a very bad thing to say if we are not certain of this.
"Study improves IQ scores, but IQ scores are inadequate" is not a contradiction. I am saying that the IQ score does not fully measure intelligence and the ability to create new ideas. It is a partial measure at least as it is done today. What it does measure can be improved with use of the mind. In addition, the genius is creative and this component of intelligence is not well measured by IQ tests. However, this ability is also learned and developed by much hard work.
Glenn Fletcher,
I do not doubt but that Ayn Rand was more intelligent after writing Galt's speech. Her effort to write it is probably one of the most heroic exercises of the brain ever performed. The effort apparently drew on every bit of strength she had and was for a long time all-consuming.
Everyone,
Come on now, haven't you also noticed that you have become more intelligent in your own lives? It cannot just be Ayn Rand and I who have noticed this. Not if the entire school-age population of the SE US increased its IQ so much in about a generation. Surely, many of you have learned new methods for solving problems which have made you much more effective in understanding complex relationships than you were when you were in college or some such earlier age. Surely some of you are much more creative now than you were then. Another thing: I know a couple of people, including me, who know that their brains run hotter now than they used to. Of course, that might be the prelude to breakdown!
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