I’ve noticed that I cannot tell, from casual conversation, whether someone is intelligent in the IQ sense.
I’ve interviewed job applicants, and perceived them all as “bright and impressive”, but found that the vast majority of them could not solve a simple math problem. The ones who could solve the problem didn’t appear any “brighter” in conversation than the ones who couldn’t.
I’ve taught public school teachers, who were _incredibly _bad at formal mathematical reasoning (I know, because I graded their tests), to the point that I had not realized humans could be that bad at math — but it had _no _effect on how they came across in friendly conversation after hours. They didn’t seem “dopey” or “slow”, they were witty and engaging and warm.
I’ve read the personal blogs of intellectually disabled people — people who, by definition, score poorly on IQ tests — and _they _don’t read as any less funny or creative or relatable than anyone else.
Whatever ability IQ tests and math tests measure, I believe that lacking that ability doesn’t have _any _effect on one’s ability to make a good social impression or even to “seem smart” in conversation.
I’m reminded of Sarah Constantin’s Humans Who Are Not Concentrating Are Not General Intelligences. A quote that resonates with my own experience: