The psychology and biology of gifted children and highly intelligent people

Much has been written about gifted and high IQ people and to a large extent, the focus has been on their cognition, for obvious reasons. I have a gifted son and as many parents of gifted children can attest, these kids can be quite challenging for any parent: from daily chores, such as buckling up the kiddo in a car seat to the point when he or she fails in conventional schools.
While cognitive psychology has been a passion of mine since my early years at university, there comes a point when you can’t explain giftedness in cognitive terms anymore. For example, when your kid prefers to cry for an hour over some simple piece of homework he could easily do in a matter of a few minutes and threatens you to run away from home. Why would an eight-year-old child say "I wish I were never born"? Such behaviour would leave any parent just puzzled and perplexed. What is the biological foundation of such seemingly irrational behaviour? 

Here are some traits gifted kids typically display, that have little to do with cognition: 
  • look younger than their age/have neotenous traits
  • look more “unisex”, i.e. they don’t accentuate their gender
  • start sex later than their peers
  • have a highly developed sense of justice
  • might be clumsy and/or ADHD sufferers
  • tend to be socially awkward and at least a bit autistic;
  • tend to suffer from social anxiety
  • are likely into “alternative reality” stuff like fantasy, sci-fi, comics, etc.
  • are playful and many of them really heavily into computer gaming
  • might be quite lazy and reluctant to do work when they don’t see any point
  • as a consequence might show signs of ODD (oppositional defiant disorder)
  • picky eaters
  • highly sensitive (HSPs)
  • extrinsic motivation (like grades at school or money) is much less important than intrinsic motivation (their passions) 
In order to make sense of these diverse behaviors and traits, I delved into personality psychology. The one personality trait that correlates with high IQ is “Openness to experience”, which in turn correlates with the (controversial) trait N (iNtuitive) in Myers-Briggs, first described by the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung.
Giftedness and trait N are highly correlated, as you can see from the following statistics:
Image result for mbti and gifted
From Myers-Briggs studies some of the above traits can be accounted for:  Ns tend to be very creative (cognitive fluidity) and idealistic. It is also known that the introverted intuitives often suffer from mental problems such as social anxiety and ASD.

However, I still couldn’t account for half of the traits on the above list, so I turned to evolutionary biology. r/K selection seems to explain a lot: highly intelligent people have faster brain growth in infancy but grow more slowly in general. My two boys (both IN types) are both quite short for their age and their skeleton is almost two years behind the average.

What in our biology could make people grow more slowly? The answer is probably buried deep in our past: hunter-gatherers grew up more slowly than later farmers and herders who had more caloric intake at their disposal. They were highly egalitarian as they couldn’t accumulate wealth and that also made them highly defiant when facing hierarchical power structures (European colonialists never really could “domesticate” hunter-gatherers).
One by one those giftedness traits began to make sense: picking eating and being highly sensitive were probably more advantageous out in the wilderness than in a farming village. Hunter-gatherers (Ns in Myers-Briggs) are also more monogamous than herders (SP in Myers-Briggs), who have the earliest onset of puberty and the shortest life span among the different early modes of subsistence (the third being farmers or SJ in Myers-Briggs). It is, therefore, no big surprise that highly intelligent people do not accentuate their gender, whereas people who inherited their personality from herders or pastoralists do so to a high degree, i.e. sexual dimorphism is diminished in hunter-gatherers as well as gifted people. Hunter-gatherers are also quite playful into adulthood, as play is used to reduce conflict among them. Farmer personalities are more serious and business-like in contrast to hunter-gatherer personalities. 
The final piece of the puzzle is trying to explain why hunter-gatherer personalities should be more intelligent than their farmer and herder counter-parts:

One explanation is that hunter-gatherers needed more cognitive fluidity and vigilance (hence the ADHD) to survive in the Savannah than farmers who had to rely far more on conscientiousness, routine and hard work. This explanation still doesn’t account for why hunter-gatherers (Ns) tend to be more intelligent on average than herders (SPs). Here the answer lies probably in natural selection. Hunter-gatherers have an out-group sociality and sharing and caring attitude. In mixed hunter-gatherer, farmer and herder societies hunter-gatherer minds who were of average intelligence probably lost out (nice guys came last) in the genetic race and there were high selective pressures on hunter-gatherer genotypes to become more intelligent. 


So, higher IQ might at the end of the day be nothing more than a protective mechanism! Just like social anxiety: if you are very open, you better have a defense shield in place! Introverted intuitives are already socially anxious by the time they go to kindergarten because they are aware they are different. By the time they are in their teens, they might be complete outcasts because they don't play power/alpha games and as they tend not to be violent they can become easy targets for bullying. The extraverted intuitives also are in danger of becoming outsiders and social phobics during their teens, unless they already have an established network with other hunter-gatherer minds. 

In modern slang, we could say that gifted kids/high IQ people with a hunter-gatherer personality run on the updated operating system “Hunter-gatherer v2.0”.

Comments

  1. This is just totally amazing. I have every single one of these traits, even the bad ones (except not much anxiety). I am an INTJ with an IQ of 156 and was a psych prof.

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    1. It seems you are too serious about you IQ value :)

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    2. Considering how excited he was, hes probably not lying

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  2. Thank you for you comment! Very much appreciated. I don't expect everybody to have all traits. Sociel anxiety is quite pervasive in the gifted though.

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  3. Great analysis. I am an INTJ and grow up with autism (but didn’t realise i was autism until i am mentally grown) I have been bullied in my entire life since school to workplace, and this trained myself to read, observe and act in order to protect myself. My parents took me to IQ test to get me into one of the best school in my hometown, and i have been tested with high IQ but autism wasn’t a common phase in my childhood year, so no one knew i have autism disorder. i just came to realise recent years when i heard about autism and get to know more about it and everything become make sense and clear. High intelligent people are definitely have problem to deal with feelings. i have photographic memory when i m young but i know a lot of my nature ability is slowing disappearing every year. the more i m adapt to the society, the more i m losing my natural gift. anyway. i always appreciate reading research and insightful report like this to allow myself get to know “me” better.

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  4. This is vey similar to myself.

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  5. I am surprised to see how much it describes me. Yes.. All almost all of these traits especially social anxiety - my efforts to overcome it have exhausted so much of my creative energy. Now I notice uneasy gap between events/ situations and my expression/reaction toward them. Well.. Thumbs up - excellent piece of research.

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  6. Same here with adhd, introvert and 145 iq. I think this is illness. Most of us are looking for dopamine unintentionally. I can’t even watch movies to the end anymore. Sad sad saaaad:(

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    1. I have to turn to the end of fiction books to see how everyone survived, or didn't. I just don't like bad endings or dystopian novels.

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    2. With the right strain you will have the best night of your life
      you come home stressed from work asks you to come home from work tired tri-y if you come home ready to shoot someone like your boss you better try some in Da the couch strain next for attention have one that brings you into the metal home estatise mindsets and you can watch a movie like you're in it then take one like midnight nurse and you'll fall asleep wake up with no hangover and all your aches and pains be gone be that message.

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  7. Your ideas are very helpful to understanding personalities of my family, full of gifted traits, ASD, and ADHD. One son is experiencing increasingly crippling anxiety in adulthood, and I'm trying to strategize for him in terms of career. I started realizing with genealogy research how I come from a line of pioneers, which, from your ideas, I realize required the hunter-gatherer cleverness/awareness. It's increasingly difficult for descendents to find places in industrialized, developed society (which rewards more the farmer traits), without reliance on meds or substances to "fit in." Seems to me the pioneer types eventually rot if they stay in the same place too long--always need new challenges. Very interesting ideas you have!

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    1. Thank you for your great feedback! :)

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    2. You might want to let him try some sour Diesel it worked for this aspergian anxieties too bad it was too late till I found out the medicinal benefits of a simple plant

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  8. I dont know how much credible this artcle is , but i relate to every point in this one.

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  9. Wow! Very interesting. I’ve never seen the Myers-Briggs types described as “hunter-gatherers,” etc., before. Reading your bulleted list was like looking in a mirror. My I.Q. is nothing special, but then again, I’ve never tested well—probably yet another example of how we struggle to fit into the mainstream. ;)

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  11. This is a fascinating take on the matter of "life as an "N"" (I'm an INTP, myself). Unsurprisingly, I think I may reread this a few times, lol...

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  12. Thank you all for you comments. It has taken a lot of pain in my life and a lot of thinking to come to this conclusion. Even if my hypothesis might not be a 100% accurate, it is great to know that my ideas can help other people too :)

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  13. This is fascinating. But could you please cite the sources of this data. I'm curious to know more about the research methods behind the findings.

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  14. Please be in touch with me through my whatsapp number : 9791020272.

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  15. I'm M Gopinath Ramanan from Chennai...

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  16. I have all the positive traits and don't have the negatives except oversensitivity since I am a psychopath and a IQ of 121 I know it's lame

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    1. No, life is not an IQ competition, there are a lot of high IQ people who have not much to show apart from their Mensa membership cards. My own IQ is not much higher. We hunter-gatherers don't value people on how high their IQ is. We are very non-judgemental.
      I don't think psychopath is the correct term for you, I would guess you are a sociopath and here is why: https://the-big-ger-picture.blogspot.com/2019/11/psychopaths-sociopaths-and-altruists.html

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  17. Not exactly me perhaps , but I find this article fits a few of my acquaintances rather perfectly. Amazing!

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  18. Wow love this article thanks for sharing - same late to puberty and younger bone age in child. both parents same. Both ADD or ADHD. and laughable I know as far as science goes, but both parents get a joy from foraging.

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  19. I actually relate to nearly everything stated in the article.
    Tested as an INTP. I'm currently 20 (birthday was this 22th September, just after the article came out, coincidently). Male. My facial hair only started to grow since the beginning of the year, and I never really dated, although I tried.
    While viewing some old pictures from my childhood, I could probably say I have the "a bit autistic" part hah. Although, I am quite talkactive and understanding with my friends. To the point I understand (or I think I understand, as it turns out some hypothesis are just plain wrong, but oh well) what their reasoning is, which usually leads them to think good of me, as someone who they can easily connect with :). Gotta admit though, feeling as if I'm connecting to anyone, is a tad rarer.
    In the end, I hope this article helps others feel understood as it made me :).
    Excellent writing. Definitly worth the read.

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    1. Thank you for your great comment! Wish you all the best in life... mine has been an odyssey.
      As far as my facial hair goes: stll not enough to grow a full-blown beard at 47 LOL (I am INFP, even less testosterone in my body).

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    2. I would say these traits mesh well with my experience as an INTP. I could go on and on with anecdotes, but perhaps I can add a little something that would seem to support your research.

      I hear it from people quite often that I just dont seem to age. I always reply with a little joke about the fact that Im 37 and shave once a month. I couldnt grow a full mustache even if I wanted to. I know very few of my extended family so most of my lineage is unkown. There is one thing I know to be fact. Im at least 1/16 cherokee indian. I always assumed that explained the facial hair. Perhaps it explains more than I realized!

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  20. Fool? Desert Lizard? Words lost all meaning...

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  21. Infj male 40yrs old IQ 186. I really believe that you may be on to something here. I believe that this line of research has a lot of potential. These very well could be genetic adaptations to extinct ways of life.

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    1. Thank you, that is exactly what I think. I tried to make it a bit clearer in one of my latest posts: https://the-big-ger-picture.blogspot.com/2019/11/life-history-and-personality-traits.html

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  22. I am curious about the experience of others who feel, as I do, that they identify with many/most of these traits. All of my life I have felt like I am somehow on the outside. I have never felt truly connected to a group of people, never identified any group as "my people". This was true at school and is true professionally. Even with my own family I feel like I am somehow different. Do you also feel that way? Have you ever had any luck finding a group that you relate better with? I guess what I am asking is where do we belong or fit in? Professionally? Socially? How do you avoid feeling isolated?

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    1. That is a very good question. Yes, I feel pretty much like an outsider now, and have felt like that for the most part of my life. I avoid clubs and any kinds of affiliation as I can't relate.
      Only once in my life I felt I met my own tribe: I did a language course in Romania. Pretty much ALL the students there were intutitives (I asked them to take the test last year). I didn't feel like an outisder among them. I felt like one among equals. And I didn't even feel like an introvert anymore. I have heard the same from autistic people when they are in the company of other austistic people.
      My family: my wife is ENFJ (I jokingly call here "half and intutitive only")... my boys are introverted intutitives like me, and there are no other people around who I prefer to hang out more than my kids and family. (I didn't feel the same when I was a kid, though).

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    2. @Anonymous:
      The article “How neurodiverse people are like hunter-gatherers: part II social behaviour” ― describes me pretty much “to the T”; while the bullet-list on this page ― less so. Growing-up ― I was surrounded by “hunters” ― so I had many friends. As with ahlearning's example ― these belonged to a specific ethnicity. Then in my mid teenage years, along with a different ethnicity surrounding ― I lost all those friends; and from there - it was like for most of these people ― feeling like an alien on Earth since then. If I would be born there ― it probably would be like that from the beginning. Was different from my family - from the beginning.
      >Have you ever had any luck finding a group that you relate better with?
      I knew one person like me ― and eventually when he started to work at a particular high-level technical job ― he claimed most people there were our kind. So it should be possible to find the more probable place to find similar people. It doesn't really solve the general problem though.
      As for me ― I continued to progress through my life - until there's hardly any similarity between me and Homo Sapiens. My life's work ― is to reach the ultimate truth & reality. The truth - I actually reached a long time ago ― so now it's to continue to develop it. And for the reality ― it's to start the system for my people (if such exist). Here are the details - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GCJlCn844x62IaP4ce2ADSu1M7cfMjLyrcZ0QqwdHAo/edit?usp=sharing
      It's mainly - a decentralized-Web. And while such things exist ― the basic component of the system - is a Graph-Database ― which is a program in which everyone will be able to create any concept & define it, mostly by connections to other concepts, and decide how to connect it to other concepts in other ways as well. Then the system will automatically connect you to others - based on these decisions. So for instance - you'll be able to create a Personality Type for yourself; you can use some existing ones, like Myers-Briggs, but these are limited and flawed ― so you can perfect yours. And you can create the ideal political system for you ― and the system will connect you to people with similar opinions.

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  23. I have most of these qualities that are listed here, and I don't think I am that intelligent. I do see things that most others don't understand, and I do read a lot more than an average person. I am an atheist even though I was born in a religious family. I understand the flaws in our society and more things that an average person here doesn't seem to understand. Also, I am very rational and analytical. But In an IQ test, I would only get a score of an average person, and I do way more stupid things than an average person does.

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  24. Picky eating is tied to certain genetic traits. Are those genetic traits tied into INTJ?

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  25. I have almost all of the hunter-gatherer traits but not the high IQ.
    I am lacking the protective mechanisme and i do struggle a lot.
    I have PTSD, Social Anxiety and Major Depressive Disorder with Cognitive Impairments.
    Any help?

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    1. Very sad to read this. I struggled with social anxiety and depression too. It's tough for many of us. It took me years to overcome it and I don't think I can provide any quick fix, but remember, you don't have to be ashamed of who you are. In fact, we should be able to be proud of ourselves. In many ways we are better human beings! (I really hate to write this, because of my inborn tendency to regard all humans as equal. I don't think we are superior , but we should be able to be proud of ourselves - the world often makes this extremely hard for u).

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  26. I am an infp and I see myself in most of those traits however I don't even know my IQ and I doubt that it is high specially because I suck at school.
    I really enjoyed reading this! It was super interesting!

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    1. I didn't do very well in school either, however the content was boring to me and the majority of teachers failed to engage me properly.

      They once had placed me in a modified/remedial social studies class where all the troubled kids went. The teacher always gave a 15 minute class, then gave us 45 minutes to do the "homework" because he knew none of us would do it at home. At the beginning of the 45 minutes he would always walk to go get a new cup of coffee.

      During his walk to get coffee I would basically do the work in 5 minutes, then strategically allow the other kids to copy enough correct answers to make sure it didn't look like we were cheating. In the end I had a 95% for the entire class, and none of the other kids failed.

      I also had the ability to see how just writing the midterm and finals gave me enough of a grade to pass without actually doing any of the other work required to be graded properly. Which as a Teen gave me a ton of freedom to always go out after school, however it's not a very useful trait as an adult for obvious reasons lol.

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  27. Interesting but I have to take issue with some of it quite strongly.

    My mother's ancestors back to the American colonies in the 1600's were mainly farmers or people who grew up on farms. Out of them came teachers, lawyers, ministers and local political leaders. They married into the Arnold family, which had multiple colonial governors of Rhode Island.

    Later they were some of the first pioneers into the Connecticut Western Reserve after the War of 1812 and settled in Ohio. Though they were farmers there as well, they were also Justices of the Peace, teachers, and local leaders - friends of similar pioneers who were founders and editors of newspapers and lawyers.

    Farming was the way people could buy and settle the undeveloped Western Reserve lands and the way they made a living to raise children and send them to local schools that were available, which these particular people valued highly. My county was a hotbed of very educated abolitionists before the Civil War who traveled outside Ohio to work for the downfall of slavery.

    My great-grandmother, who lived to the age of 97 and was born in 1876, was part of this heritage. She graduated from high school and was more literate and wrote better English than most kids today. My great-grandfather had one of the most brilliant minds I've ever come across. This was true of his family all the way back to Rhode Island. He read constantly all his life, learned Latin in school, had a large personal library in their farmhouse and was a Justice of the Peace all his adult life as well.

    So I cannot buy this distinction between hunter-gatherer genes and farmer genes. My comment is be careful of these kinds of theories - they are just that, theories. Subjective personal evidence from a couple of generations does not prove or disprove them. And they can't be proven unless a systematic overview is somehow done of many thousands of people and their ancestors back at least 200 years.



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    1. Thanks for your comment! Most people living in the past 10.000 were farmers! No doubts about that, they had to make a living. BUT that doesn't mean they were farmer neurotypes... in fact, I suppose that the majority of early settlers of the US were hunter-gatherer minds! The US, Linclon, declaration of inpendence, etc. is mostly hunter-gatherer ideology! Unfortunately the US have become very "farmerized"... building walls is something farmers do, not HGs!

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    2. @Unknown - these traits: leaders, teachers, reading alot and being literate etc ― are Farmer traits. So I don't see how this disproves something. Maybe you didn't understand the research or the traits.
      + genetic research was done to prove that Hunter-Gatherer societies have more of the ADHD genes; especially for the successful of them. Which is much more scientific than a historic reflection.

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  28. What your missing is a big part of the puzzle, your missing the "giant" elements of our pass. If you biologic background came from Giants your going to be on the high side of the gifted scale with fast growth.
    If your children are slow growing but with a high IQ it could mean you have no giants your related to.
    You've got to study about the giants in our pass. Especially to understand IQ.

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  30. As an INTP, and a physically big guy for my age as a child, I feel I had it pretty good.

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    1. Thank you for your comment! We are "orchid children" (google this!) - if our enviornment is right be thrive better than other neurotypes! If not - things can get really tough for us.

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  31. Are all hunther gatherers intelligent or are there some exeptions?Is face shape really another defining factor?If so how?

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    1. a) no, there are also many HG neurotypes in special education
      b) face shape - it's weird, but if does often work .. how it works? There is no reasarch, which scienstist would take this seriously???

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  33. I'm only curious that any of you think you have high IQ and would be able to think of solution to change/ fix/ upgrade the world, would you gather people with the same vision to do so? If living in this current world has been so horrible due to poverty, lack of education, excuses, laziness, ect... will anyone want to really do something even very simple and small tasks to eventually change it?
    -
    INTJ- Living a multiple personality life

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    1. Changing the world is tough, as we a a minority.. but many of us are working on it.. in particular your INTJ type! So many of you are journlists fighting for social justice or scienstist trying to make the world a better place!

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    2. @CL - I'm doing just that - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GCJlCn844x62IaP4ce2ADSu1M7cfMjLyrcZ0QqwdHAo/edit?usp=sharing

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  34. Very interesting analysis. I feel the author is biased FOR hunter-gatherers and against farmers. But I thought farmers were cool, too - at least the free-range, organic, sustainable sort. Homesteading, living off the land, community gardens, growing stuff in your backyard - that's all cool, too.

    The author seems to be a liberal, PC type who is haughtily picturing hunter gatherers as bushmen of Africa, or what was previously called that. Would he have such great stuff to say about hunter gatherers if he were picturing Chinese ones, or the prehistoric ones that eventually became Chinese? Probably not, since Chinese/China is so stigmatized these days.

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    1. I admit you are right, I am biased... not to say, that there enough kind and decent farmer type people in the world... and in pariculary, the most productive people!
      No, I do not wish to comment on Chinese people. I did have a Chinese student once, who I did like a lot. Apart from that, I do not really know any Chinese people.

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  35. The farmer vs hunter-gatherer mind theory, although quite tough to back up with hard facts, is quite fascinating and, to me at least, very believable. But I'd like to make one comment with the interpretation of a "farmer". I think it's a mistake to associate "farmer" neurotypes with the birth of modern farming (~10 000 years ago). You don't need a technology of wheat monoculture to practice farming. Even certain species of ants practice farming, so it's not really about the technology to grow crops in large quantities. Let's say a tribe finds a rich orchard, a river valley with plenty of fish, or a canyon with plenty of fruit and deer. If a tribe/group decides to settle in the area, defend it and claim the good of the land - that is effectively a "farmer" decision. It exemplifies a simple preference between two decisions:
    a) settle in a territory and have less varied but stable source of food, but have to defend it
    b) accept the unpredictability of food supply, but not worry about defending any wealth
    Perhaps it's a simplification but it's also a perfectly realistic decision ancient peoples had to make. So one does not need to have invented crops to be a "farmer" in their mindset.
    That would also mean that we're talking about a much longer time scales for the selective processes of evolution to select for/against certain types. It seems plausible that places with a less stable environment and stronger seasonality might be more attractive to hunter-gatherer types vs the farmer types. It would be interesting to see a distribution of these traits in different countries.

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  36. This article is so helpful, I have most of these traits and had struggled with them. Now I can see why, thanks to you.
    Although I don't agree with the IQ correlation with MBTI. I am an ISTP, IQ 132 (not that high but still pronounced among my peers and family. Or, I'm considered as "different", if you will). I love experiencing stuff as long as it's not crossing any border. Jump right into doing rather than on knowing about the theory first, unlike my INTJ brother.

    So maybe you can reconsider the theory's correlation with MBTI? Well just a suggestion. 😊

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    1. Hi there, thanks for your feedback! I have never seen the correspondence with MBTI as a 100% correspondence, but I generally do get great feeback from N-types as far as their HG traits are concerened. We are all soemwhat mixed. The mere fact that you have got an INTJ brother makes it likely that you have got a lot of HG traits.

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    2. PS: I have met people before who had these traits and couldn't decide if they were INTPs or ISTPs.

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  37. I consider my nephew as gifted and highly intelligent, and I found most of the traits mentioned above were true.

    Kim
    Christian Counseling Arizona
    Christian Counseling Services

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  38. Higher intelligence requires higher achievements. When those conditions aren't met, one feels miserable and has to brag how smart he is...

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  39. Hi!
    I guess, I'm NOT a gifted one now, but in school time I was sure to be.
    Nearly all of the typical symptoms of hiQ/gifted ruled my life.
    But finally (now in my 50s) I did never dared to test my IQ just ecause I didn't want to be (negetively) surprized. Screwed my first Univestity (information techs) in the "typical" test, just because the basic studies were boring and I was too lazy. Later with 2nd wife, house & 2nd daughter in my 40s again failed in a remote University as engineer ... again out of lazyness.
    Is it fair to have all negative traits of hiQ but obviously without the IQ?
    Nonetheless, my (good) job starts boring me (freelancer mostly in banks ... the pay best) and I'm constantly working on great ideas, that either fail (good to have them checked, but alas didn't work as expected) or others are simply faster (happened 4 times now).
    Currently (since 4 years now) working on a new machine, solving one problem after the other, still some way to go, but at least nobody will be faster because 3 bit players in market already either failed technically (didn't work) or the result was just too complex/expensive.
    Does it or does it not show IQ to have ideas on myself, that allready were patented long ago (luckily long enough ;-) but never be the first?

    Luckily my daughter grows up normally withut suffering from bullying and all other problems I had in kindergarten, school and lateron.
    Please keep your thumps pressed, that finally at least my current project succeeds and I get my head a bit higher again. It's hard to grow up with every hint for being extraordinary and having to learn: it wasn't so.

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  40. This list just described me so well. When I was younger my mom mocked me about my "picky choice of food", I would simply not eat her food.
    I also remember, that my auntie was worried that I really never wanted to play with other children, only with my best friend, and in school I was really the shy and quit kid. Also, I was very sensitive to loud external stimuli (even now as mid-20 man), for that reason I probably quit my trading job in fixed income macro trading last year.
    My IQ was tested at the 130-ish level and was attested as a "INTJ"-MB.

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    1. thanks for your feedback, MB. All the best!

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  41. I relate to the every trait you mentioned except the first one. Does that means I am not gifted?

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    1. no, of course not... you might not even be gifted if you have all the traits... it's traits gifted children often have

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  42. I'm mathematically always been intuitive, so for example on my bachelor (and really throughout my earlier studies) i averaged A without opening a book, and it was about 15 years since my last studies (started in my 30s). Then i quit in my masters, as then I actually had to open books and study. Extreme case of adhd.
    I think the way we measure intelligence is far too nominal.

    For example:
    you may be able to solve a logic puzzle or math problem because you have a good technique. I knew from age 7-8 how a differential works, gears, etc, because i had those toys with those features (technics lego), and teachers early on thought me good methods to calculate things fast. So when I do problems that regard those things, I have clearly an unfair advantage.. and I would overscore easily an IQ test if many of the questions can be extrapolated from such learned methods. Teachers also thought me early on some logic tecniques to count fast, such as approximating one of the numbers; such as: 43 x 49, just do 43 x 50 and then subtract 43. If that's still hard, it's really just 43 divided by 2, with 2 zeros added. then remove 43. That's from method, and if you learn it at very early age, later it's very easy to make fast calculations. sometimes faster than typing it in a calculator. But that's different from a person that can actually do 43 x 49 without any method! But hard to see from the outside, do i have a good tecnique, or am i a numbers prodigy and i can multiply in my head anything?

    So it's hard to know if someone is giving the right answer because of a pure ''correct'' way of reasoning, or if they got there by method/technique that is learnt. Or, there may be many more angles, it can be a self-learnt tecnique.

    Then on top of it, there's a just an excitement/reward factor. If you've taken drugs you know what it means; if you take a good upper you'll be able to calculate and do things faster.... not because you're smarter, but just because you're receiving more reward for solving it (internally). That's an extreme case, but it's to show... if you're a bit more on the depressed side, you could underscore in some regards.

    So when someone says i have iq 150 or 130 or 160.. i don't know, it's very very nominal. It's really hard to understand how well a person really knows a concept. It's like in math, it's easy to learn the right answer, but very very few really visualize what the equation is and can solve it through logic (rather than by method/ learnt technique/ memorization).

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    1. Well you could say that math like ramanujan made significant contribution to math we can say that he is a genius

      (so genius by) RESAULT implies( being on the high iq spectrum ) PROCCESS
      so these 2 interact with each other

      with my logic i can see


      Completely innacurate - hypothetical having not found enough """ material for IQ testing ''''
      moderetaly accurate GUESS
      highly accurare - CRITERIA FOR IQ that can imply potential for resault

      this is 1 factor when u take this factor and put it above another factors for example u refered to

      being aqainted with a specific procedure " fluild intelligence ''
      being completely fresh to a specific procedure ''crystallized inteeligence''

      and ASD - Addiction related brain changes - Mood ect
      the factor i said in front of u at first to be true isnt true due to adding multiple ++++ factors
      so i have to reavaluate this logic inside my iternal drawing board xD untill it makes sense



      Raw math intuition is clearly dependant on grey matter and white matter traces and brain constant synaptic pruning

      i am an Aspie INTJ with i can say a extremely fluctuating mood - mental abilities
      i have been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome and i am assured i can diagnose myself with ocd + adhd
      i have been a constant pornography consumer scince early adolesence 12 years
      and this specific behaviour is an off switch from real life

      i wonder every time i do this why does it suck to be constantly on a hyperphantasia mode than even others u see think u alien

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  43. This is groundbreaking!
    Well, I am an INTJ (architect), I am autistic, high IQ, and felt lonely all my life. I am creative, very sensitive, as in being able to feel ESP like it is nothing, Fun fact: sometimes I 'guess people's name and birthdate, and it isn't even difficult. But well, aside from this, I have blood type B. These are hunter-gatherers. So, 3.3 % of the population are INTJ, 10% of the population have blood type B, !0/15% of the population have IQ 130, this explains a lot.
    Also, I found out today, my soulmate would best be an ENFP or ENTP. And that is also on the T.

    Can't believe I discovered all this so late in my life.
    I always didn't fit in. I had to take some meds or benign drugs (5-HTP and saffron-complex)
    to keep me calm and stop overthinking. I looked like a girl when I was 14, no transgender stuff, don't worry, all your remarks hit home.

    Also: Jung, on which Briggs-Meyer is based, is very educational. Mix some philosophy in the mix, like Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, Alan Watts, and all in all now everything makes sense.
    You know: I don't even like bread or beer, so I think my body doesn't like to be a farmer. Lol.

    It caused me diabetes in the end.
    I hope I gave you some more points to consider, think about.
    I downloaded your e-book, or maybe, this wasn't you. Hunter-gatherer versus farmers, introvert/sensitive versus competitive/extravert, not sharing.

    So:
    -blood type
    -sensitivity
    -intelligence
    -don't like wheat/barley/beer/bread
    -high sensitivity, paranormal sensitivity
    (imagine you are in the woods, it will be beneficial to know if you sense danger/ like a lion looking at you/sensing which way to go, so ESP is a survival trait in my opinion.

    People are fundamentally different, all because of our ancestry and DNA.
    You pointed this out, and you are on the spot.
    You even consider mixed types, as of course, nobody is 100 a hunter-gatherer nowadays.

    I hope you consider my additional points/remarks.
    If you want to leave out the ESP stuff, lol.
    I know it's true, I use it all my life, but maybe it is too much for some people.

    Thank you for your work!

    Simon from Holland

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  44. Fascinating exploration of the psychology and biology of gifted children and highly intelligent individuals! Unraveling the intricate connection between mind and biology sheds light on their unique traits. Thank you for delving into this captivating topic and providing valuable insights! Quality Behavior Solutions, Inc.

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