Does IQ Really Measure How Smart You Are? 

My IQ's a 195. Sure, the doctor kept saying "ma'am, that was a cholesterol test," but I know I'm a genius.

For some reason, 95% of the people in the comments will apparently have an IQ of 130 or above.

I don't want to know my IQ, I feel like I'll live better without knowing it.

99% of comments - "this comment section is full of geniuses" 1% of comments - "I have an IQ of 47"

We need to stop using IQ to tell kids they're "gifted." When I was 7, I tested into one of these gifted programs, and ever since then, far too much has been expected of me. My parents always said "you're gifted, why are you doing bad in this class?" It went on for years, and now that I'm 20 and unemployed, I'm starting to do it to myself. Kids need to stop being told they're gifted so they won't grow up thinking they're better than everyone, just to be crushed when they're treated like everyone else when they become adults.

It works when it makes me feel good, when not, it doesn't.

I've never seen stronger Dunning-Kruger effect vibes from a comment section.

Great video! I personally have an IQ of 5000, but I don’t like to brag about it

"Do not let a number define you." High school has taught me otherwise.

you may all have your fancy IQs of over 180 but I have an orange

Short answer: IQ measures the ability to see connections and thereby create a better understanding of the whole picture of a subject. But obviously the concept of thinking and consciousness is too abstract to be limited to that alone. It neither means everything or nothing. It means something.

Increased IQ score is directly correlated with Rick and Morty fandom

I has IQs 60,very many smart.

Something that isn't very often mentioned is that test taking itself is a skill that you can practice.

I'm considered below average when it comes to IQ, which always makes me feel bad. Hearing that last line "Do not let a number define you" was something I kinda needed. Thank you

"do NOT let a number define you" my new favourite quote

It's better not to know and to think you are average and work hard. Thinking that you are highly intelligent may leave you with the laid back attitude towards studying and work. High IQ means nothing if you don't work hard.

Thank you. IQ tests are the reason I was given an unfair disadvantage in school. I was labeled as learning disabled and held back a year. When tested again when my home environment was more stable and I was much older, I scored much higher but was told that because my first round of tests and the education I'd received thus far I'd never be able to join normal classes.

I think people have a strong tendency to underestimate just how much of a role emotions have with intelligence. If someone feels a strong desire to think, and gains a sense of emotional fulfillment from doing so, then they'll essentially learn how to better think through practice. Likewise, if someone feels anxious or depressed when they think, their capacity to learn things in a cognitive manner will be diminished. Yet they may better learn how to perform physical activities instead if they find doing so to be appealing. Stephen Hawking would've turned out a lot differently if his passion had been plumbing.

I have an IQ of 75 and I am proud. Low IQ doesn't mean you are "stupid" in any way. I personally believe that I accomplished way more than some "intelligent" people did, thanks to my natural tendency of hard working. It's you hustle and hard work which makes you successful and respected in life. For all of us, who are unintelligent,cheers guys.😋😁👍

After reading the comments I'm certain that MENSA will triple its applicants in the short future ... Didn't know that RU-vid is full of 135+ IQ geniuses ...

original: "an incentive of 10$ increased the average IQ of ppl on a test by 20 points" first filter: "breaking news, money can make you intelligent" second filter "rich people are more intelligent than the poor"

Lol, Malaysia has an IQ test for every student every year which is required. But, most of students don't want to waste their time on that( including me) so we "ting tong tiang " meaning choose randomly in the local mandarin slang

"IQ is something that will decide your fate later in life." Let me tell you, it doesn't. Example: Where I live, we have in highschool 3 different levels that can decide your future job. VMBO (aka "normal") HAVO (aka "average/above average") and VWO (aka "above average/intelligent"). They tried to make it so that your IQ determines your level. Well it doesn't, multiple people with a IQ under 100 are doing VWO and multiple people above 110/120+ are doing VMBO. Please for the love of god, don't worry about IQ. I've been there and if it doesn't meet your "requirements" it makes you mad for no reason. Just enjoy life

"Do not let a number define you..." whether it's positively or negatively. While I feel sorry for people that think they're stupid because they have a low IQ, I hate people who feel superior to everyone else because they have a higher IQ.

Ya'll may have your fancy 160+ iq's. But I have a jar of dirt!

My IQ test result came back 180. I was jumping up and down with excitement until the doctor said "stop, stop you're gonna have a heart attack!".

Never mind that is biases against people with test anxiety......

My IQ is... OH LOOK A SQUIRREL!

I've always said that an IQ test cannot tell you exactly what your inherent mental capacity is, for one simple reason: If you practise, you get better at them. You can't get better at an inherrent trait. Great video though, I agree. They can be useful but don't let a number define you.

I've done a few IQ tests online and I've had very different scores on each of them. Some asked me to do mathematic sums, some didn't and just asked me to identify patterns in a series of shapes. I don't think they're very reliable.

My favorite quote when defining intelligence is "a monkey and a fish are both intelligent in their own rights. A monkey is a genius in the trees while a fish is a genius in the water. To compare the strengths of one by the weaknesses of the other is not a proper comparison of the abilities of either creature."

They thought I had a developmental disability in high school so they gave me an IQ test, scored 127. Its not the individual, its a failed system.

I know it's anecdotal, but the motivation aspect of IQ had a big effect on me as a child in a kind of non-intuitive way. Straight-A student until 7th grade, when my school had me take an IQ test and placed me in AES. I lost motivation because I started assuming that classes were going to be easy based on my intelligence, and my grades suffered.

"Don't let an IQ test define you" Jordan Peterson has left the chat.

“Genius is person who has contributed to the society”

What does it mean when your IQ test just makes the guy grading it laugh hysterically for 20 minutes striaght? What? Stop laughing.. what does it mean? Stop laughing!

I took an online IQ test n at the end It wanted me to pay money for my results, I guess I'm pretty smart because I didn't need my answer that badly

In high school, I was in a calculus class with about 20 other students and the teacher was incredible (won several big awards and often part of major educational organizations in the US). Several students were your stereotypical "jock" type. At the beginning of the year, their behavior was what you'd expect. But as time went on, I noticed that they started to actually participate during class a little and even ask questions. When asked to come up to the board and help solve a problem (as we all did regularly), they actually started to try. It was weird, but really cool to see. Some of them actually started to perform pretty well, a couple times coming up with answers to problems that stumped the "intelligent" stereotypical students. At the end of the year before our AP exams, our teacher was visibly proud of these students and I overheard him several times telling them they'll do well on the AP exams. The tragedy is that at least most of these "jocks" didn't even show up to the exam. The stereotype had been beaten into them over a lifetime and one school year wasn't enough to help them learn that they are so much more than a stereotype. On the last day of school, when most of the Senior class was skipping school in celebration, I accidentally saw a notepad on my teacher's desk that charted his projected AP scores for each student throughout the year with brief notes. These "jocks" were expectedly low for most of the year but shot up in the latter half. There was even a note or two saying that he saw potential in these students early in the year. I might have been imagining it, but I swear our teacher looked depressed after the AP exams. I wonder how many times he'd seen this happen. He saw their potential, perhaps not just in intelligence but for their ability to take their lives back from the horrible "jock" stereotype. Our teacher was just that kind of guy, the kind who could read you and understand you and would clearly care about you. This experience really made me wonder just how much I misunderstood about intelligence and about other people in general and I'm still digesting it, even 8 years later.

Great video! I always agree that non-intelligence abilities decide how far the intelligence abilities can go. IQ test is not for parents to how awesome the kids are, but for parents to understand their kids more.

i have IQ of 420

IQ tests are good at measuring types of intelligence individually. It means nothing as one number. "Everyone is a genius, but you cannot expect a fish to climb a tree"- A.Einstein

I feel like having a high iq only means you're good at taking an iq test.

I've got an incredible self-awareness intelligence, but figuring out the specific steps to answering a clever shape puzzle, is not my strong point. You can be really smart, and aware of reality and predictions, but maybe a fancy number puzzle is not your strong suit, within a reasonable time. Time is also another factor.

I agree with this assessment. Many people have high score on these test, but have barely any common sense; just been my experience.

In my case it measures how stupid I am.

Well I took an IQ test one said my IQ was 90 the other said my result was 96. All I know is I'm studying over five Languages so I don't have a frikking clue what my real iq is. Lol

A true genius isn’t someone with superior intelligence, it is someone who uses their intelligence in a superior way.

My iq is 3, notification squad.

All the online IQ tests say I have about 145 IQ, but I'm still a dumbass lmao

A person's IQ score is a measure of their ability to perform in an IQ test. An IQ test is intended to represent idealised abstractions of problems that one could encounter in the real world. So if you consider the IQ test itself as one of these problems, then it follows that a person can improve their IQ score if they already have a high IQ.

I've watched this 4 times and every time i learn a new thing

I bet the average IQ of people that comment "notification squad" or "first" is 80.

I think what is most important is creativity and curiosity. The engines which enable learning and the reason why school can be worthwhile when we become interested in the topics being teaches.

I got 75 - 85 IQ ~ the test recommends I become a janitor or railroad worker. I've always thought I was very slow and this was just the push I needed to remove myself from existence after I finish high school. Good luck to all you other hairless apes with the test and life in general ❤️

Internet IQ tests tell me I have an IQ between 115-120. But that doesn't matter much. Good reasoning, logic, perspective and creativity is really all I want. Creativity is really important.

This reminds me why I love the internet so much. You can bypass/supplement the arbitrary-disguised-as-objective teachings and tests and study what you want to study, regardless of your IQ.

This video is literally a summary of the intelligence unit in my first-year university psych course! Thanks for creating such high-quality content that is free for everyone :)

All I remember from my IQ test is that there was a section where I had to say what was missing from an object in am image and I was shown a pair of shoes without laces. At the time I was about eight and I wore slip on shoes because I had difficulty learning how to tie shoes. Because I wore slip on shoes I didn't realize that there was anything missing from the image so I told the woman conducting the test that nothing was missing. I realized my mistake right after I got home from school that day, and it still haunts me nearly eight years later.

Remember your iq increases immensely if you watch rick and morty

I remember being a decent student in high school, and I boasted I have a fairly high I.Q "Yea, that A I got in English, it's cause I have an I.Q of 161". As if I actually went through the motions to get an official I.Q test done. Psh. Cringy memories.

Any test basically tests how good you are at doing tests. Especially IQ tests can be practiced making your IQ-score rise as much as 20 points.

I was in a gifted class in elementary school and then decided to stop attending it in middle school. Didn't like school and slacked off. Never knew what it was like to 'struggle' to comprehend a math concept. As a young adult, I realized that my strength was in logical and mathematical reasoning, and that I could intensely focus and accomplish a learning task at an unusual level of efficacy and efficiency. This motivated me to learn French (which I learned to fluency in four months) and now I teach french in Elementary school(which pays decently well in Canada, where I live) I've since started studying mathematics and and science, and I tutor calculus. Without the knowledge that I had a high likelihood of success, because of my 'high' IQ, I may not have decided to try as hard as I did to learn the skills that now help me make a living.

Intelligence literally translates to understanding. That’s one of the many things learning Latin has taught me, other than how to speak Latin, and thus I think of intelligence as someone’s ability to understand any given concept. The more deeply you can understand, and the more things you can understand, the more intelligence you have, simple as that.

People need to realize that iq doesn't mean somebody is smart or dumb, it just means that they fall in a certain percentile of the population. For example, one standard deviation of iq is 15. This means 68% of the population will fall between 85-115 on their iq tests. So take these with a grain of salt; don't let the number define you. Please up vote and send this to the top. People need to see this.

"Don't let a number define you." Well... what about height? Weight? Shoe size? Waist size? I guess they don't really 'define you', but just give you an accurate location along a range. If I'm in Boulder Colorado, that's an accuracy of location. If I'm sleeping, that's an accuracy of consciousness. So, maybe, to be more pedantic I would prefer to say, if I had more words to use in a longer sound-bite... "Don't believe that an accurate measure of where you are is all you can ever be."

Well, there are a number of different corrections one can make immediately here. IQ is a measure of G, which is precisely, the factor which predicts cognitive ability. I use "the", as the data from IQ shows one factor. Even if you're to pull out all the questions which correlate most with eachother, and questions which correlate the least with those, and compare those groups, you get a correlation of ~0.8, which indicates a single factor. The other types intelligences (social/emotional, logical-mathematical, spatial, working memory, etc.), when factors of IQ and Five-factor personality are pulled out leave next to no variability in the data to be explained by any particular deviant intelligence (working memory's variability is almost entirely explained by IQ). This means that these various intelligences only measure IQ and FFM. Heritability is right, but "multiple different factors" isn't. G comprises "fluid" and "crystallised" intelligence, the latter of which is the bundle of factors which correlate with age, education, soci-economic background, etc. Fluid intelligence is what's left over, and accounts for about 36% of the variance in IQ scores, and accounts for about 25% of the variance in job/educational success, which is some of the best r^2 values one finds in social sciences generally. For more on this, see John B. Carroll's "Human Cognitive Abilities".

Life outcomes are honestly the best thing we have in terms of predicting intelligence; IQ however offers an interesting perspective.

"do not let a number define you"- he says. what about our age?

I took a IQ test once and scored around 170, folk was amazed over my good memory and not my high IQ; I had take the same test 4 years before, it was in a book that also held the answers :-) The truth is that I'm not very logical at all.

I was really down thinking i might have a really low IQ. This video really helped me man. Thanks a lot you saved my future.

My IQ is under 420, but above 420

I took a test when I was younger and was determined as "gifted" so I am automatically put in smart classes, I fail them. IQ is nothing

Percentage of people with an IQ less than 130...98% Percentage of people who upvoted a video claiming that IQ is a load of bollocks, 98%. Spooky

It makes no difference what factors affect IQ since it is a test of mental acuity. I am tired of people who usually have low or average IQ scores denigrating IQ tests. Like it or not, high IQ as tested by IQ tests give one certain advantages. The favorite tactic of these people is to find a person who is a failure while having a high IQ and compare that person to a successful person who has an average IQ. This is dishonest, because there are statistical outliers in every distribution.

90% of criticism of the applicability of IQ is related to the existance of other factors influencing the ability to form connections. "IQ isn't valid because motivation matters... IQ isn't valid because upbringing matters..." IQ is AN IMPORTANT FACTOR in measuring one's ability to understand the world. People who make criticisms like that don't seem to understand statistics and how more than one RELEVANT factor can influence a phenomenon.

Curley from the THREE STOOGES said it best, "I tried to think but nothing happened!"

"Don't let a number define you". At my former workplace we had employee retreats and were given tests to show the management our personality types so they could relate to us better (they never used the test data!). Instead of numbers some of the tests used colours I was a green and blue supportive (I think?) red was more aggressive, yellow was something again. Other versions used animals such as an eagle for one result maybe a lion for another. People can be very nervous if labelled with a number.

In the end, genius is neither born nor made, it’s declared by the media or Mensa.

In my country we have many entrance exams that also take reasoning tests and we were taught diffrent kinds of reasoning questions and how to solve them, how to approach them. I think it also has to do with how many reasoning questions you've practices earlier.

I don't recall the standard IQ test but I was doing poorly in school, not because there is anything wrong with me,[I do have minor ADHD but while in solitude that does nothing at all.] but it was because I had a bully type that is rather rare. Sure I had the run of the mill bully hitting me but I also had thieves waiting for me to misplace my folders like it was a corpse and the thieves were vultures. No one could figure out why I was constantly not turning in work then suddenly having my grades spike then drop again. A combination of this event being rare and teachers not listening/believing me had everyone not involved in my downfall think that I am just lazy. My poor grades and the "help" I was given[I'll get to that] had my entire life moving in a downward spiral. About that "help" Some of the school staff thought that if a smarter student helped me out when time permitted it would help me improve my grades. And my poor damn luck had that smarter kid BE ONE OF MY THIEVES!!! Teachers constantly noticed me fighting with my "mentor" and there opinion shifted from lazy to straight up not care at all about anything ever. I was given classes that only the worst of trouble makers would ever be sent and that only made things worse because every kid around me practically smelled my weakness like ravines wolves. The bulling worsened and now that teachers know me as someone who fights people who try to help out [my assigned mentor was a thief but no one ever tried to see the facts] every situation that would ever happen was my fault in everyone's eyes. I was stuck in a never ending cycle of torment thanks to the asinine teachers, students and staff in FWCS[Fort Wayne Community Schools] I live in Florida now but after years of being sent though hell on earth I now have a really hard time meeting people and I have a slight speech impediment. Wouldn't you after having everyone you know steal, attack, ridicule, send you to "bad kid" classes, not listen to anything you say and only view any event involving you as negative and "your fault" when your just doing your work? Not every listing was done by everyone involved.

The thing that makes me so disappointed in the system is that they think they can make something as fluid as intelligence and put it into numbers.

There are a lot of people in this chat that tie their identity with their IQ and defend it way too much, not realizing it's a very highly overrated (and damn near useless) metric. You never hear anyone we consider "geniuses" talking about IQ...in fact, they laugh at people who care so much about it or think the capacity or potential of a human mind can be defined or measured by it.

incredible video.thank you.

"If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t." "Don't judge a fish by how well it can climb a tree." These have been repeated so many times, the origins are uncertain.

in short IQ is just a measurement to see how good you can process stuff while smartness is making the best of the situation.

The part about disabilities is so important. I was a really smart kid, so it was assumed that I was totally fine; but I struggled a lot with social situations and it was chalked up to intelligence. In truth, I have autism. This has happened to many people I've known!

Many IQ tests seem to heavily test: Speed of Pattern recognition, logical reasoning (usually including Occam's razor) retaining, comparing and re-using information from previous questions, and pure ability to memorize a string of senseless information (Like a row of meaningless numbers or unrelated shapes) If your ability to concentrate/focus is low, you're at a disadvantage. With ADHD I'd get bored and distracted before I could finish a test. Which... has basically happened every time. As a child I'd speed through the first part of different intelligence measuring tests, then get bored by the repetitive nature of the questions, turn distracted and unmotivated, and either refuse to continue verbal tests or just doodle until the time for a written one was over. I hated doing meaningless things, and I wouldn't get a reward for finishing, so I didn't care to. I might have powered through if I had felt any motivation to do so, but I never did, so I didn't. If I took Ritalin beforehand I'd have a much better chance. But if I do that, am I then measuring my actual intelligence? I've heard said that untreated ADHD lowers IQ by 10 points on average, meaning that with medicine my IQ might go from 121 to 131, and with actual motivation to do well it might go higher. So which is my real ability? If a person with a broken leg is given painkillers and then takes the test, he'd do much better than he'd do with a broken leg and no painkillers-- since he wouldn't be distracted by pain. Of course a broken leg will eventually pass while ADHD will not. But since the sources of ADHD symptoms like distraction and lack of focus are measurable and treatable, does ADHD count on the same level as other illnesses and injury, or is it, given it's permanent effect on a person, the actual baseline for your IQ?

19 years ago, while being in the local psych ward and getting diagnosed, for the first time, I was given an intelligent/psychology test that took two whole days to complete. The results - high intelligence with high anxiety and poor social skills (no number given to denote IQ). Nine years later, after insisting my doctor's test me, neurologically, because my brain was absolute mush after months of electric shock therapy and they insisted it couldn't be the ECT treatments, they finally agreed to give me a "neurological" test. But, it was the exact, same, two day intelligence test I had taken almost a decade earlier! Same results, too. Their conclusion: We don't know why your brain is mush, but it's not from going under anesthesia and getting your brain zapped weekly for almost a year. (It was three times a week, in the beginning.) Also, my brain turned to mush IMMEDIATELY after starting the "treatments", but they always dismissed my complaints. We begged them to let me stop but they insisted that it would eventually make me happy (it was treatment for depression) even though it didn't. It only turned me into a zombie and made me very sick two days out of every week. When we finally told them we couldn't afford the treatments or traveling out of town every single week, they basically told us not to let the door hit us in the ass when we leave. At that point, my husband (now ex) had been working from home, for the last 6 months, because he couldn't leave me alone because I was like a patient with Alzheimer's that would get ready for work, that didn't exist, and try to go shopping/driving to places that didn't exist. I didn't even know about this part until a few months ago! I had no idea it was that bad, until now. I thought he was going to work, but he was just going downstairs, to the office. I had no idea I was that out of it. I didn't get my mind back until I insisted on discontinuing ALL psychiatric medications. Within just 6 months of being completely off psychiatric medications, I was able to do simple math in my head, which is something I hadn't been able to do for a decade. Less than a year after that, I was able to get off all the other medications that I had to take to deal with all the side effects of the psych meds. I'm 100% prescription drug free, now, and my quality of life is finally back. I'm just as depressed as I've been my entire life. That never changed. The only difference, is that I'm no longer suicidal. I was ONLY suicidal when being drugged. According to an article I read a few years ago, doctors and scientists still don't know how ECT works, but they still do it because it does, for some people. Even though, MILLIONS of patients have the same complaints that I have. Sick mother fuckers.

How to see knowledge is power. Hank proven so much he has understanding and critical reasoning that when he questions about IQ tests, people see his point. On the other hand, if someone from a low-income family say something about it, they are just seen as dumb and lazy who just need to study harder..

I never want to take an iq test. If you have a high iq, you are very proud and boast around but if you have a low iq, you are very disappointed. Not taking an iq test and ignoring it much better.

I volunteered to take an IQ test in the same facility where I had scheduled a psychological evaluation. When it was over, the examiner refused to provide a score, because the range of scores varies immensely. I scored in the top 1% in communicative competence, slightly above average in problem solving, and poorly in memory retainment. Unfortunately for me, I suffer from severe PTSD and are affected by a large number of side effects from it, including very poor comprehension and an extremely cluttered and chaotic mind. I wouldn’t wish my brain upon my worst enemy; it’s never quiet and very often self-sabotaging my abilities, due to negative self-worth and confidence. It deliberately steers my mind away to avoid making mistakes and becoming uncomfortable. Only now, after 26 years of varying traumatic life events, has my life become stable, but it’s too little too late. So, yeah, I’m fairly confident that my results were screwed by severe mental illness. It affects every aspect of my life, but I’m on the road to improvement. You guys keep my day interesting and bright with your plethora of knowledgeable content. Thank you.

The Problem I have always found with IQ tests is that they are biased against anyone with any form of learning difficulty such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. Dyslexia doesn't necessarily make a person any less intelligent (instead I tend to think that it provides a different way of thinking which can be beneficial) but when someone with dyslexia, for instance, is tested with a traditional IQ style test they can be made to think that they are, severely hampering their confidence. I understand (and to a certain extent agree) with the concept that Hank raised about being IQ tests being useful as an indicator for a learning disability. However, with the importance that is placed on doing well (and thus the link that people then make to their self worth), are they a useful enough indicator when balanced with the damage that they can do? I agree IQ tests are useful enough in their own way, but without a more in depth understanding of what they test, and their limitations, I personally think they can act as a limiter to a person's potential. A someone with both dyslexia and dyspraxia, my low IQ scores made me think that I wasn't as capable as my friends who scored higher, because I couldn't see the patterns or work out the puzzles. Now I am in no way a genius, but it took me a while to realise that I could contribute in a smart and helpful way regardless of my "below average" IQ. Anyone in the same boat, please don't give up and let this define you. You are more than just numbers on a page.

When I was a child in the 90's, some of my classmates talked about their IQ scores. I begged my parents to let me take an IQ test but they repeatedly refused. They said they didn't need a test to tell them that I was smart. They already knew I was brilliant. I think some part of them knew that I had a learning difference, and that even though I was intelligent, the test wasn't built for brains that work like mine. They were trying to save me from defining myself by a number. My parents made a lot of mistakes, but they were ninjas when it came to protecting us from society's stigmas and labels.

I before graduating high school, I got assessed at my public school for an IEP so that I could hopefully get extra time on the SAT/ACT. I have always struggled with reading. I'm slow, it's uncomfortable, and I mess up a lot. The IEP assessment also told me my IQ. Although I don't remember what the exact number was, I know my IQ was pretty average which is why I didn't get the IEP. The stupid thing was that I scored in the 80th percentile in all but one category where I ended up getting in the 10th percentile in visual processing. But because my IQ averaged out, I wasn't considered for a disability. I think this just goes to show that people can't be boiled down to a number. I bombed the reading section on the ACT (I seriously did so bad ), but still got into college and I'll be graduation next year with a degree in chemistry. Never let a number tell you you're dumb.

I know one thing for sure, I know stupid when I meet it.

iq test are bullshit first one i took i got 142 a few years later i got 106 do you take the best or the worst ?

I read up on IQ test a while back, I remember reading that there are quite a lot of different systems (tests aiming to measure different things and different scoring systems). I can't stand seeing all of the overblown media articles about "so and so person has the highest IQ ever recorded", it seems so meaningless. Which test did they take? what scoring system was used? more importantly, why should I care? IQ tests are yet another tool aimed to help asses a certain thing and humans went and blew that out of the water, misusing it with our ill-understanding of the subject.

It's like any kind of talent: if you don't work hard of developing it, if won't amount to much. The stories of people who weren't good at all at something--but were just interested--but persisted and achieved mastery are legion. Passion and hard work are the name of the game.

There's a great paper out there: 'A dynamical model of general intelligence - The positive manifold of intelligence by mutualism', which compares true intelligence to a resilient ecology, and IQ to measuring ecologies purely by biomass. That's good at picking up overall ill-health of an ecosystem, but it confuses some fragile simplified ecologies with resilient versatile ones.