Justin Duplantis and Matthew Scillitani on I.Q. and the Young: Lifetime Member, Triple Nine Society; Member, Giga Society (1)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2022/07/01
Abstract
Justin Duplantis is a Lifetime Member of Triple Nine Society. Matthew Scillitani is a member of The Glia Society and The Giga Society. They discuss: the education of the young and the role of education; the importance of parents; Boris Sidis; mental illnesses; individuals who have higher I.Q.s and struggle with mental illness; and highest I.Q. scores.
Keywords: Giga Society, Glia Society, Justin Duplantis, Matthew Scillitani, Triple Nine Society.
Justin Duplantis and Matthew Scillitani on I.Q. and the Young: Lifetime Member, Triple Nine Society; Member, Giga Society (1)
*Please see the references, footnotes, and citations, after the interview, respectively.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You both have overlapping interests in education and psychology, respectively. High intelligence, as measured by I.Q. tests, has been established as mostly hereditary. Recent studies seem to indicate 80% or more genetic contribution to the expression of I.Q. as a metric of intelligence, which seems staggering based on the general poor levels of definite knowledge in psychology. This one seems more so than others. If so, so if taking an evidence-based approach with the most updated scientific findings, what does this mean for the education of the young and the role of education in assistance to the gifted and talented?
Justin Duplantis: It comes down to predisposition. If there is a likelihood that gifted parents will have gifted offspring, there should be ownership taken to pursue this and ensure their children are properly educated.
Matt Scillitani: This result provides some evidence for just how wasted our resources are on mentally handicapped children. If intelligence is 80% or more genetic then there is little point in dedicating so much attention to intellectually disabled kids since there won’t be much improvement anyway. My suggestion is to change the IEP to focus on the smartest rather than the most disabled children and to minimize the resources given to the children in an IEP today.
Jacobsen: What does this mean for the importance of parents and providing a program of enrichment, whether structured advanced guidance or free-roaming with plentiful resources for the kid?
Duplantis: As you referenced through providing various outlets, it is important to understand that there is no one size fits all solution for the education of any group of children and gifted youth are no different. It is about encouraging them to pursue their areas of interest and providing them the proper resources to enable that pursuit.
Scillitani: Schools should probably be well structured and not free-roaming. We can’t trust that children will act in their own best interest and actually learn any material if they’re in a laissez-faire learning environment. Parents should also have little or no voice in how schools are run, by the way. Just because they have a kid doesn’t mean they know anything about child psychology or education. It was always absurd to me how the school system allowed parents to waste so much of their time and have such strong (and ignorant) voices.
Jacobsen: Bill Sidis is, often, pointed out as either a failure, a social outcast, a genius, or a self-isolating intellectual. Whether the myth can be entirely separated from the mythos, he was smart. He was separated from wider society. Was Boris Sidis’ highly structured education appropriate, or not? Would maintaining contact with same-age peers be advisable?
Duplantis: What a loaded question. As indicated above, there is no generalization that can be made, rather assessments need to be individualized. Whilst some children would flourish among their peers, others would feel intellectually stunted. As a child, I enjoyed playing games with my great-grandmother and her friends, rather than going to friend’s house. The intellectual stimulation and adult conversation was refreshing and a dynamic shift from school.
Scillitani: This is a very sad story of how a brilliant young man’s future can be ruined by too ambitious parents and teachers. Of course his education was not appropriate since it stole his childhood and put him under crippling life-long stress. At the very least he should have had some classes with children his age.
Jacobsen: You two may have different opinions on this one. It has been a while, and opinions change. Nonetheless, how much do mental illnesses affect individuals with giftedness compared to the general population?
Duplantis: I suppose it depends upon what one defines as mental illness. There are certain afflictions, if you will, that are more prevalent in the high IQ community. The individuals have to face the feelings of solitude brought on by characteristics of high IQ as well as those of their given afflictions.
Scillitani: Intelligent people tend to handle psychiatric illness better and are diagnosed less often than in the general population. It’s usually that if two people have the same psychiatric illness the smarter of them will have less expression of that illness than the dumber of the two. Severe psychiatric illness combined with intelligence can also sometimes produce genius but such does not happen with a psychiatrically ill idiot. Every genius has a touch of madness as they say.
Jacobsen: What seems to happen with individuals who have higher I.Q.s and struggle with mental illness, psychiatric diagnoses?
Duplantis: Although much is similar, the variance comes in the ability to rationalize not taking medication. Due to the high intellect, they are often able to persuade themselves and others that they are able to handle their govern afflictions free from the oppression of prescribed medications.
Scillitani: It is hard for them. It’s harder for someone who’s not so smart but there is a whole different kind of struggle when you’re intelligent and have a psychiatric disorder. The smart person with depression, anxiety, autism, or whatever is usually going to find it much harder to get help because (1) they’re used to solving problems on their own and (2) they usually know more about themselves than any mental health professional ever could, so why even bother? The therapist will also find it hard to relate with the brilliant patient since it’s much easier to empathize with someone at or beneath yourself than it is to empathize with someone above. Therapists, counselors, and clinical psychologists know what it’s like to make dumb decisions, everyone does, but they can’t understand how we think, and that’s a big issue when you’re trying to help someone change their patterns of thinking and behavior.
Jacobsen: Also, people, may be curious if they don’t know. What were the highest I.Q. scores earned by the two of you? What were the tests (even test plus statistical methodology for extrapolation) used for acquisition of such a high score? T.N.S. and the Giga Society are difficult to enter.
Duplantis: MAT – 548 – just shy of 6SD.
Scillitani: From highest to lowest: Psychometric Qrosswords (190+ 15 S.D.), The Marathon Test – Verbal (176 15 S.D.), Rhyming Riddles (173+ 15 S.D.), Addagrams (173 15 S.D.), The Marathon Test – Numerical (167+ 15 S.D.), The Marathon Test (166 I.Q. 15 S.D.), A Relaxing Test (165 15 S.D.), Splice (164+ 15 S.D.), Dicing with death (162 S.D. 15), and The Piper’s Test (161 15 S.D.) are my ten highest scores to date I believe. I may have a few more 170+ scores but I can’t remember at the moment. I’ve also taken some “mainstream” tests like the W.A.I.S. and have maxed them out since they don’t have very high ceilings. My lowest score of all time was on one of Paul Cooijmans’ Netherlandic tests where I scored 123. I later taught myself Dutch and took another Netherlandic test where I scored 158 to redeem myself though. As for the norming method used in these high-range tests, it’s most often simply “anchoring” one’s scores on other I.Q. tests to their raw score on the object test.
Footnotes
[1] Justin Duplantis works in computational biology and will complete his MBA specializing in data analytics this month. A lifetime member of the Triple Nine Society, he served as an Executive Committee member and Editor of their journal, Vidya. He is a father of two profoundly gifted boys, whom joined him in Mensa membership at the ages of two and three. Justin has interests in high IQ communities, intelligence, and intelligence research, as measured by IQ tests. Beyond that, he is a former professional billiards player and is currently playing in Israel in the Israeli Elite Hockey League (IEHL).
[2] Matthew Scillitani, member of The Glia Society and The Giga Society, is a web developer and SEO specialist living in North Carolina. He is of Italian and British lineage, and is predominantly English-speaking. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at East Carolina University, with a focus on neurobiology and a minor in business marketing. He’s previously worked as a research psychologist, data analyst, and writer, publishing over three hundred papers on topics such as nutrition, fitness, psychology, neuroscience, free will, and Greek history. You may contact him via e-mail at mattscil@gmail.com.
[3] Individual Publication Date: July 15, 2022: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/duplantis-scillitani-1; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2022: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.
*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.
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