A thing called IQ

You probably had your IQ measured at some time in your life. You achieved a good result and then felt good about yourself.

But what exactly is IQ? People have proposed many other quotients for measuring your "usefulness" as a person, like EQ(emotional quotient), LQ(lifestyle quotient) and whatnot. In this article I'll describe why I consider IQ the most useful quotient to have.

An IQ test usually consists of you looking at pictures and determining which one will come next, or completing sequences of numbers. What this measures is a thing called pattern recognition.

Your ability to recognize patterns comes in useful in many different ways. But it has the biggest impact whenever you encounter something new. Pattern recognition is mainly good for:

• Learning new skills quickly


• Connecting new information to things you already know


• Using your knowledge creatively to solve new problems

I always say IQ is the potential to learn important skills quickly. It's just a means to an end. But it's up to you how well you use that potential.

Having high IQ is like being physically fit. If you're in good shape and want to learn a new sport like football or tennis, you're going to become fairly good at it in a short time. But if you sit at home in front of the computer, being physically fit won't do you any good.

In much the same way, having IQ 160 won't make any difference to your life if you just spend your day watching TV or reading news on the web.

Having high IQ is great. But even more important is using your existing IQ to its full capacity by learning skills that will help you in life.

A new beginning

I have been inspired to start a blog after reading one Jeff Atwood's blog post. I figured that the thing that most interests me - human mind - is probably pretty interesting to a lot of other people too. Worth giving it a shot anyway.

I'll start off with a topic that's on my mind right now. My exams are starting soon, so I'll talk a bit about the way we remember stuff - and why most people go about it the wrong way.

It always amazes me how many people I see cramming as much information into their heads as possible just before an exam. I've almost never done that in my life. I've always learned throughout the course - and most things just float effortlessly to my mind when I need them. I don't mean it to sound like bragging (although it is), that's just my personal experience.

A few years ago(aka. eternity ago for us internet folks) I started looking into how we remember things.

It turns out it all boils down to this:

We remeber stuff by connecting it to other bits of knowledge. The quantity and quality of these connections determines how well we can recall information.

I'll go into that in more detail in a future post, including a bunch of useful techniques for remembering stuff forever - while having fun.

The problem with most students' cramming before an exam is that they don't focus on building connections between pieces of information. It's more like they're throwing mud at the wall hoping some of it will stick.

And it will, for a short while. The trouble with this learning is that it uses mainly short-term memory. The mud will eventually dry and fall off, and then they're screwed. If a piece of information remembered this way is gone, it's gone. I've been there myself, and trusts me, it sucks. Especially in an exam.

With learning by connecting the bits of information, if one route to a particular memory becomes blocked for some reason, you can always take another one. But more on that in a future post.

It all comes down to creating strong memorable connections between facts. And that's pretty easy using the right techniques. Keep yourself tuned for a future post detailing all the stuff you need to remember things easily.