How To Learn About Exceptionally Intelligent People

My Foreword for Insight Journal's "Some Smart People"

Very intelligent people are notably absent from mainstream culture, where typical media and entertainment is most pervasive, sharing only what is thought to be palatable and enjoyable to the largest segments of the population, which of course is comprised primarily of those minds that are closer to the average in most ways. An effect is that people are not often exposed to those who are exceptionally and profoundly intelligent, and when they are, they may not know it, because those who are extremely intelligent, while having the average population as an audience, will alter their behavior so as to be more readily understood. They perform the same act that they knowingly or automatically perform in real life dealing with strangers: they follow along with simple questions, allowing conversations to remain simple; they share interests that are akin to regular interests, to show commonality; and they express agreement when there certainly could be little agreement, to have smooth and considerate transactions. A result is that people, almost everyone, do not have much experience with the most intelligent people and are really unable to differentiate. This creates problems in politics where people are unable to identify which people are actually the most able, if any able politicians happen to be present at all. It also reduces the influence of scientists and skilled experts, because they too are not easily distinguishable from others and their quality of mind is not well appreciated.

A major contribution of the work of Scott Douglas Jacobsen, is to provide the public access into the world of some of the most highly intelligent. Many of the people who are extremely intelligent thrive within academia, various industries, independently, or in the High Intelligence Communities. These are areas in which they live and spend time, but these are also locations in which people cannot readily join in. The Some Smart People, Views and Lives series, along with some of In-Sight Journal’s other publications, are filled with activity from some of the same people who are spending time in socially exclusive and reclusive social locations. I can think of few other places to look, where people can read materials from exceptional people expressing themselves in ways that are closer to how they really think. I recall quickly writing a very brief article, entitled “How Do People With IQs Over 180 Act and Think?” in response to a query on social media, to provide some direction to a person who was wanting to be more informed on the topic of how people with immeasurable IQs really think and behave. In retrospect, the answer was not especially informative partly because I did not fully appreciate the extent in which the highly intelligent people were separate and unavailable to the normal public. Today I think there is a large research issue regarding how this might be achieved, to get information about individuals at a personal level. One can read academic journals in medicine, mathematics, physics, and the other sciences, and get exposed to the output of very intelligent people but you do not get to know them in the process. The very smartest may still not be present although that output may lead one to believe that’s where these people are found. That’s one reason why this publication is especially helpful to the public, because it provides a location where they can be found, and where they won’t be simply sharing academic material that gives the impression that they are really smart without providing anything about who they happen to be. In this publication the highly intelligent have a chance to tell you about themselves in a more personal way. If a reader happens to be sufficiently interested, they can learn more about specific individuals, having a pathway to research, since the writers are sharing details about activities they are or have been involved in, in which more information can be located. Mr.?Jacobsen is providing an avenue that I could not provide in my quick response, to read about these thinkers and have a pathway to understand them and intelligence further, and today if I were to direct readers to a place to gain knowledge about the most intelligent figures of all, this publication would be included as one of my suggested places to look.

In this publication, I too have been interviewed. In that interview, a central question that is considered is the topic of identifying who is really among the exceptionally and profoundly gifted, in the immeasurable range, and who is not. Publications such as this, while extremely helpful, do pose some risks. These risks are minor if one has the right strategy for reducing those risks. One of those risks is that the people who are respondents may sometimes be fabricating their intelligence and their histories, and may be providing some misinformation. We can’t underestimate how important it is to know that once people have invested time in creating a personal story, they will do quite a lot to protect it and perpetuate it. Some of the people who are even in the high intelligence communities themselves happen to be people who simply want to be perceived as being extremely intelligent, and will do much more than an average person would to keep their story going. In my response, I suggest using an informal method of analyzing conversation thinking about velocities relating to significance and ideation. More about this can be read in my interview response. The question as to charlatanism came directly from Mr.?Jacobsen, and that’s partly because there is actually a genuine issue to be addressed. However, I don’t suggest too much reading caution, just the appropriate amount, because some of the most intelligent really are present in the publications. (The situation is different with relationship caution, and for that, read my response thoroughly). This is a very important series to keep the access to intelligent figures going, so that the public actually does have a way to know intelligent figures. For that purpose I can’t think of many other publications that are satisfactory, and for this and any other publication, some expectation of fabrication should be anticipated. This issue is ineradicable but should not prevent the more positive efforts from continuing. After one has noticed red flags in various works, the remainder can be read enjoyably, and as a result one will have a much better appreciation and understanding of intelligent people than if one was stuck only with popular media and entertainment, where that information seldom exists.

What is also great about this work, is that the answers from exceptional writers might seem unexpected. It would lead the reader to more fully understand what high intelligence arrives at, where the arrival is personal and not only academic. The surprising nature of the responses should be anticipated, because these thinkers may not be prominent, as I said, in the mainstream media. Since they are usually not present in the mainstream media, what they say will be very different from what is in the mainstream media, and that makes this publication even more interesting, because what will be read is something unusual and different than what one has otherwise had access to.

Mattanaw, I.

Mattanaw is Author of "The Velocity of Significance and Ideation", a title in the US Library of Congress. The title can be found at https://www.mattanaw.org/velocity-of-significance-and-ideation.html.

More information on the author can be found below and at The Book and Journal of Mattanaw, an Academic Journal, at Mattanaw.org

Mattanaw, I.

Artist/Author: Mattanaw, firmly "Christopher Matthew Cavanaugh", Retired

Interdisciplinarian with Immeasurable Intelligence. Lifetime Member of the High Intelligence Community.

• Masters Business & Economics, Harvard University (In Progress)
• Attorney, Pro Se, Litigation, Trial, Depositions, Contracts (E.g. State of Alaska v. Pugh, et. al., Alaska Superior and Supreme Courts)
• B.S. Psychology, University of Maryland, 4.0
• B.S. Computer & Information Science, University of Maryland, 3.91, Magna Cum Laude
• B.A. Philosophy, University of Maryland. (Partial)
• G.E.D., State of Maryland, Montgomery County, 1999.
• Lifetime Member of the High Intelligence Community, Mensa Lifetime Member

Former Chief Architect, Adobe Systems

Current President/Advisor, Social Architects and Economists International

CEO PlaynText | CEO PlainText

Contact:

• christopher.matthew.cavanaugh@member.mensa.org

This Forward was originally included in The Book and Journal of Mattanaw, at:

https://www.mattanaw.com/thoughtstream.html#edited-forward-for-in-sights-some-smart-people-views-and-lives-thirteen

The new issue of In-Sight's "Some Smart People, Lives 13" will be shared once it is published. More information about In-Sight Journal, in the meantime, can be found here:

https://in-sightpublishing.com/publications/journal-overview/