Born To Do Math 205: ‘Smart’ Guy Rosner… Smartest Guy Rosner?
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/12/09
[Beginning of recorded material]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay, so, you, by alternative intelligence test standards, have one of the highest IQs in the world, repeatedly. So, it’s established, in a loose alternative sense.
Rick Rosner: What you’re saying is, I’ve taken a lot of these tests and done well.
Jacobsen: So, you would technically have the qualifications to join a lot of these alternative high-IQ societies. Are you offered to join a lot of them, or have you?
Rosner: Yes, I’m all offered by some. Some societies they just sign you up. They send you a thing and you’re in. That’s like, “Okay.” But I haven’t gone out of my way to join into these. I’ve tried to join the most exclusive ones. Ones that I could use for – I don’t know – publicity of some credential that might – I don’t know – get me interviewed somewhere, though barely ever happens.
As a younger man, I was mostly concerned about getting a girlfriend. I’ve told you this story before, but I joined Mensa because Playboy in the mid-80s did a photo series called the “Women of Mensa.”
It’s naked pictures of women who are in Mensa. My thinking wasn’t to join Mensa to meet these women. My thinking was that if Playboy did this, then Penthouse certainly was going to do the ‘Naked Men of Mensa.’
I was always lifting weights. I figured I had a good shot at getting into the ‘Men of Mensa’ photo, whatever, in Playgirl magazine. Then all these women would see me and somebody would want to be my girlfriend. This was stupid for a number of reasons.
Including that women generally didn’t read stuff like that, this was stupid because, even though the magazine is ostensibly for women, apparently, it is mostly for gay guys. Women don’t necessarily want to see naked guys with boners as much as guys want to see naked guys with boners.
I found that mostly true with stripping. If women want to see some fucking loser gyrate around naked, they can just go home and see their own personal loser. So, anyway, reason number two is Playgirl never did anything of the sort, but, anyway, join Mensa.
So, I had a year’s worth of membership, so I went up to a few things. There are no girls. I don’t know what the gender breakdown by sex in Mensa is, but it’s got to be like 90% guys. I don’t know if I wanted to hang out with blowhard guys. I can just hang out with myself.
Then I figured I worked in bars, so I could meet women. Everything I did, I did so, maybe, somebody would find me a reasonable would consider me an okay boyfriend.
Jacobsen: Someone you even met at the Jewish singles dance.
Rosner: I went to a Jewish singles dance, yes, but in 1986. I met a woman who’s now my wife. Even that wasn’t, that was just because I’d had a bad breakup a long time before, but I still felt bad about it. So, to get myself out of my rut, I challenged myself to do something stupid, and pointless once a week.
That week, it was go to the stupid Jewish singles dance. Anyway, I didn’t see the point of joining any of these other like high IQ clubs because they just didn’t seem to offer an angle on meeting women in a nutshell.
Jacobsen: Do you think you have the world’s highest IQ?
Rosner: I don’t know. I could make an argument that I do, but it’s a pretty nebulous thing. I’m definitely one of the best takers of high-end IQ test in the world, but it’s a pretty arbitrary set of skills. It’s like being the “World’s Strongest Man” if you’ve ever watched that on TV.
Jacobsen: It’s not something to take time before. If I happen to come across, then I’ll little watch it, but not usually. Because I don’t really own a television or watch much or any television.
Rosner: But you’ve seen the events. It’s deadlifting stuff, like picking up a car. How many times can you pick up one end of a car within 60 seconds? Can you lift these rocks that are these spheres made of stone that are like 30 inches in diameter?
How many of those can you lift to the top of pedestals in two minutes? How far can you tow a truck or a train? It’s events that people practice train for; certainly, these are among the strongest guys in the world.
Some of them go 360 pounds and six foot eight. It’s like 12 percent body fat or less. They’re super strong, but to determine who’s the strongest of them, you’ve got all these arbitrary events, and even powerlifting is arbitrary.
So, you have to be head and shoulders above every other super strong guy to be clearly hands down and just absolutely, the strongest guy in the world. That might happen occasionally, but, mostly, there is a little cluster of people who, due to natural ability or obsession or just lots of practice doggedness, do well on IQ tests.
I’d like to think that if I and everybody else who claims to be to have the world’s highest IQ were sat down or were assigned like three or four tests, given enough time to do a good job on all of them that I would prevail. But who knows.
Jacobsen: Was that the argument?
Rosner: Well, the argument is that I’ve taken – I don’t know – dozens of these high-end tests. I’ve gotten the highest score ever scored on like three quarters of the high-end test that I’ve taken.
Jacobsen: Were any of these tests normed on you?
Rosner: A lot of them were normed on me, where they look for people who’ve taken a lot of other high-end tests. They have you submit your scores and from your scores plus your performance on their test, they help determine the scoring scale for their test.
I’m sure none of them were exclusively normed on me, but I probably helped with a lot of them. Because I’ve got the most on other test scores to send people, that want them.
Jacobsen: When did you stop taking so many?
Rosner: I don’t know. There is this one that I wanted to do so well on that I just never stop taking it. I quit working on it a long time ago.
Jacobsen: What is the score if you do well on it?
Rosner: Over 200 if you do well.
Jacobsen: SD 15?
Rosner: I think so. Then there is this other one that I’ve been working on recently. But I’ll submit in the next few days. If I could I have to submit it before, I don’t know the 20th, I believe is the deadline.
The guy who created the test is having a little competition that I’d like to be in. If I get to the point where I’m satisfied with my answers, then awesome. When I get to the point that I’m satisfied with it, enough of my answers, I’ll submit.
[End of recorded material]
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 