AskReddit: Are there any Mensa members here? What is the purpose of joining Mensa?
Posted Apr 14, 2009, 8:13 PM UTC
2267
I'm not a member but my gf has it once a month. She gets emotional and needs to be rubbed... oh Mensa ...nevermind
37
Nearly the entire Mensa community in my area are my parents age. Every time I get together with them they talk about travel, family, and classic literature. It's not really my thing. Then there's the foodie group that goes to random restaurants. Also not interested.
I checked out the various "SIGs" (special interest groups) a bit. This was probably really cool pre-internet, or even 15 years ago, but I find much more active and engaging communities on the millions of regular forums around the internet.
I've heard it said many times, that the creators of Mensa would be rolling in their graves if they saw what they hoped would be a community of thinkers setting their collective brain power on the problems of the world devolved into a club for game players, puzzle solvers and trivia hounds.
I don't even think most people would be impressed if you told them you were a Mensan. They'd either think you were bragging, or even better if you live in the south western USA, they'll think you're an idiot. http://www.merriam-webster.com/spanish/mensa
26
Mensa is a good way to magically separate money from your wallet.
21
That's.... genius!
6
Mensa is a good way to magically separate money from your wallet.
I pay taxes. There is nothing magical about it.
6
Reminds of a quote about yuppie hunting: "It's like standing in the shower fully-clothed tearing up twenty dollar bills."
1
It's a dating group for people who want to have autistic kids.
18
This is being researched.
2
When I was a kid, we had this Mensa test or IQ book at our house, which I loved because it had a bunch of puzzles and things that I liked to do, and was actually fairly good at. I remember telling my mom I could be a Mensa member and her busting up laughing because 'mensa' in spanish basically means you're an idiot.
Edit: We're mexican, so the first thing that came to her mind when she heard 'mensa' was the spanish version.
13
She's probably right anyway.
5
My mom's pretty much always right.
1
And sexy.
5
And hot.
3
And spottieottiedopaliscious.
1
I was once,
it's expensive and silly, and mostly just an ego boost. If you like puzzles, just go pick up a high level brain teasers book, since their little magazine is really mostly that sort of thing. You can go to meetings, but... You're only going to make your capacity to deal with normal humans all the more diminished, and trust me.. dealing with normal people has been huge for me, I'm way less 'intense' than I used to be.
11
You're only going to make your capacity to deal with normal humans all the more diminished, and trust me.. dealing with normal people has been huge for me, I'm way less 'intense' than I used to be.
I'm afraid to ask, but you are joking right? Or do you actually really make a distinction in your life between Mensa-members and "normal people" ?
1
(It's a bit of both joke and truth, Mensa people struck me as arrogant and not as humble as your average person (shocking), but on the flip side, I can have conversations with most two-percenters that I can't really have with the bulk of 'normal' people. Sure, I can have that conversation, but it just won't be the same back and forth.)
1
lol were the ones that have to deal with you :P
-1
You're making us non-mensa members look bad in front of the genius! we're, it's we're.
8
yea well I will leave it as a reminder of my lack of membership thanks.
6
The best explanation I got from a mensa member: to meet a higher proportion of non-stupid women.
Sounds like probably the only good reason to join, IMO.
9
[deleted]
1
I've never bothered to take the test because I think it's just another form of snobbery. This was verified when my freshman roommate in college qualified, got in, and spent her every waking moment bragging about how she got into Mensa.
I think it's one of those things where it's basically just an excuse to feel like you're better than everyone else.
6
funny it kinda reminds me of academia in general
1
Watch this video to see if these people are the kind you want to hang out with. (aka: you rage you loose)
6
Old, fat people everywhere. Ugh.
2
Nice try, Aliens.
6
I qualified but never joined, mostly because the guy who was administrating the test made it sound far more retarded than one can possibly imagine.
5
What did you do to "qualify"?
1
Took an IQ test from them, passing apparently indicates that I'm in the top 2%. They don't even give you the scores though /shrug.
3
They gave me the score on mine.
1
They apparently used to give the scores out to people but stopped a few years back.
Now they either tell you if your iq is high enough or not.
1
Apparently, you can also use your 98th or above percentile scores in the GMAT, LSAT, or GRE general test, I hear.
1
My IQ is two points away from qualification.
I'd never join if I qualified, though. It's just an expensive way to make the people around you and in your life feel bad about themselves and inferior.
However, if it was cheaper..
5
For a genius, you don't know much about grammar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive#To_express_an_hypothesis
-7
I liked the part where you submitted a link with a grammatical error.
8
They don't generally include grammar questions on IQ tests :)
6
I joined so I could put it on my resume since I had no extracurriculars in college. It didn't help.
5
I gotta say, I was in Mensa, but I've been annoyed by someone who put it on their CV in the past. There are a lot of people who think they're superior because they're in Mensa. This guy put down that it showed he had superior reasoning skills, or something along those lines, and he just came off as a twat.
I have no problem with people mentioning Mensa on a CV, briefly, as an outside interest or something, but don't pretend it's a serious reason I should employ you.
1
I have no problem with people mentioning Mensa on a CV, briefly, as an outside interest or something
That's pretty much all I did. It was just a one liner that said "Mensa, Member ... 200x - Current)" or something like that.
1
If you can't figure it out, I doubt they'll let you in.
4
It's a dick measuring contest, yo.
4
I can't speak for all Mensa chapters around the world, but in my country the admission is kind of a joke.
Like many people (I think), I took the test on a whim after finding the little puzzle online. I took and passed the test and since then I have never mentioned to anyone IRL that I am a member.
I did a little bit of research on IQ tests and I found that there is little evidence that we are actually measuring something real when we take a test like this. Tests are created to have a high correlation with older tests, ensuring that at least scores will not vary wildly across tests. The test I took was rather old, used some pretty arcane language and IMO relied too much on prior knowledge.
The organization puts out a monthly booklet with articles by some of the more enthusiastic members. Many of them take the "victim" perspective of being "oh so smart" in an "oh so dumb" world. It's pretty sad. Then there's always some puzzles, some announcements (events) and some news from international Mensa chapters.
I personally have never attended a Mensa meeting since I don't believe people have a bond by sharing (about) the same IQ. Other than that, I suspect that the prouder members will feel the need to "act intellectual" which kind of excludes many things I enjoy (southpark, fart jokes).
I seriously contemplated not joining after I heard I'd passed, but my dad offered to pay the fee (which is not much here, about 10 bucks a year I believe) since he thought it was kinda funny.
4
Curiosity. Also I wanted to do an exam with no real pressure just to practise and make sure I could do them (I was having exam anxiety issues).
The magazine was actually good. Covered a wide variety of topics. People always assume it's "ooh we are so clever", but it actually bends over backwards not to say "Mensans" are smarter than anyone else. It's a community of people less likely to be dumb, it's not a community of smart people.
None of the Special Interest Groups were interesting. I saw there was a sci fi one, joined and got the little mag they did every couple of months. They mostly just reviewed the most godawful sci fi genre books.
Absolutely wasn't worth the money, so I never renewed it.
3
I've got an IQ of 87. Could I join as an associate member?
3
No, I don't think so.
Though you could probably run for congress and win.
7
I'm too bright for them.
3
2012 is still open.
3
Find a likeminded buddy and join together. You'll have a combined IQ of 174.
3
That's never going to work. What do you think I am? Stupid? Oh wait.
1
Yes. And my parents wanted to show off how clever I am.
2
Purpose: To participate in a real life circle jerk.
Nonono, we're talking about Mensa, not the atheism subreddit.
Seconded. Most Mensa article contributions are from people who write that they :
Etc.
Most of them have more to do with general social awkwardness which is something lots of people struggle with. But for this group I guess it's convenient to explain it away by saying they're "too intelligent".