The Curse of the High IQ

Background (you may skip this): I spotted this book in an ad I believe on a manosphere site when I was needing a little fix of hearing someone "tell it like it is." It immediately caught my attention as I have been looking for something of the sort for a while and even considered writing something similar. I would have never come close, but the idea still crossed my mind. I had checked out "The Bell Curve...Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life" after hearing some discussion of it in podcasts that really made it sound interesting and started reading it. I didn't get very far, as the book was pure information and dull. I wanted something more personal to relate to my issues. I bought this book shortly after finding it because it looked promising for $5. I then read through the whole book in one night (took probably 5 hours).In this book, Aaron Clarey has deeply analyzed the problems experienced by those with "abnormally high intelligence," as he calls them, in all areas of life, such as schooling, work, relationships, and goals/hobbies/success/etc. The vast majority of the book is negative, but it is realistic and soothed by frequent jokes and quite humorous commentary (e.g., "The quest for greatness is like looking at a stripper- your mind overestimates what will happen but reality sets in". That isn't even close to the best but it's the last thing I remember being up so late after reading).Only recently when I got out of school and started working did I begin to realize that many of my problems are not in my choices, thoughts, etc, but in other people's lack of relative intelligence. I was told similar in the past by my father but found this cynical and wanted to believe the issues were other things. Upon reading this book and seeing the reality of being intelligent in an unintelligent society laid out so clearly, I now am highly confident in my recent realization on intelligence. Much of what is told in this book will be evident to high-IQ people, but it is of great value that Clarey has put it into clear words in an organized, detailed, and entertaining fashion.I was not sure if this $5 e-book wouldn't be crap like many of the cheap self-published kindle books I have taken a chance on. I will tell you this book is not at all in the low leagues of many such e-books. This book is a well-organized, well thought-out, and enlightening treatise on one's perception having high IQ. One flaw of the book is that there are grammar errors, especially incorrect punctuation. These errors do not detract greatly from the flow of the work. Being an informed consumer, you should know that a $5 self-published ebook is probably not going to have a world class editor.Other reviewers complained about a lack of solutions, and I disagree as I found there to be plenty of solutions, especially considering the book is called "The Curse of the High IQ" and not "Guide to Living with High IQ." This book is more of a thinking book than a guide book. Contrary to their comments, I found there to be a lot of solutions and general advice throughout the book. Perhaps they are not high enough IQ to see the value of his analysis or relate to the problems. Or maybe they are too high IQ (I think he said his was 138).There is great value in knowing that there are other people that see things the way you do if you are high IQ and in a way that is expressed logically. The well-written and organized analysis of the world designed for average people is also very valuable as it brings insight to why things are the way they are. If you are a high IQ person wanting to get many new thoughts on this unintelligent society and do not have any similar book of the sort, I highly recommend purchasing this inexpensive book as it will pay off.

The reviews that criticize the editing are correct, I would probably be embarrassed to vouch for this book with my actual name, mostly because of the "woe is me" tone and the "I'm so smart, I'm downright superior" message, therefore another reason my name is not used for this review. However, this book does what many refuse to do. People refuse to recognize that bright children will often "check out" because school is just too easy, I was myself one of them. They are run through a system meant for "average" people. They are trained to be "average" workers. They are told grades are equivalent to intelligence. They are told they are simply good "test takers" or "lucky" as Clarey mentions, and that standardized tests don't mean anything in terms of your intellect. Are these major issue in society? No, not at all. As Clarey would probably put it, the "Idiocracy" has its own problems because of all the idiots running the country and businesses.Obviously the book is aimed at addressing some issues that less than ~2% of the world will face, but it is a nice feel good read for those who fit into that category. The criticisms regarding the book essentially being a giant humble brag are correct in that it feels like a giant pat on the back for all those high IQ people out there. That being said, the book addresses the issues you will come across, i.e. people feeling intimidated by your intelligence, finding a suitable partner, compulsory education in a system not meant to allow you to excel.It does come across as whining, that is for sure. Very often I thought to myself, "Yes, that has always been an annoying thing I've gone through, but I'm certainly not going to cry about it when there are people who literally struggle to feed themselves." However I'm not sure that all that whining is necessarily a bad thing. The current state of western culture is inundated with people whining about their lot in life. Why can't the abnormally intelligent also complain? The book gives solutions, but I think it serves betteras a reinforcement that you, if you are highly intelligent, are not alone in the unique struggles you may face.Let's cut through the bulls*** though, these struggles are petty considering the gifts we've been born with. Worth the kindle price.

IQ is a complex affair.For the edifice we call a a human mind, It can occur in various areas, in various ways, produce and enable various skills, with enhancement of various areas of the mind. The mind is always growing, changing, deleting, adding and so on. Maturity never occurs, merely various forms of peak moments and times..windows that could be visually described as that point in the third matrix film, where Trinity and NEO rise above the clouds, for just a few seconds, just a glance.The author has enough of the touch of this phenomena of above average intelligence where their experiences can be relatable to those who are in possession of the same sort of complexities in their own lives.For that alone, for that camaraderie in life experiences..the book becomes valuable to those who suffer under the same sort of umbrella of life lived.Point being... the emotional toil and thus the emotional bent or filter or polarization of self, for all high IQ people... will be close enough to the authors experiences, that every page will bring some truth home to the reader. Truth that is coming from a source of analysis other than their own. As that is exactly what has happened, or will happen, if one reads the book, and is possessed of said high IQ.For high IQ people the is great value in such a voiced reflection, such a voiced viewpoint.High IQ will also place no judgment for the author's own life experience, filters in mind and their underlying emotions and base drives, and how all of that colored the related experiences expressed in the confines of the text. No point. No further explanation is required ..as...the reader of this has the intellectual capacity to understand this paragraph..or they don't.All the things high IQ people have experienced, all gathered in one spot. And expressed back to said intellect. Like in the movie Pi, where the protagonist says something like "9:15 am, restate my assumptions.....". and what follows is the process of sitting, in-situ, in the full moment of self, in full analysis, with all parameters awake and aware, and to go forward from that moment of fullness and knowing in self and all around.Highly intelligent people get that brought to them from external sources, so very very rarely... that any insight into such, no matter how off their own path it may seem..where...if it is relevant to today's world, of the west... then it can be immensely valuable to those who are in similar situations, no matter how it may be expressed.

Libro fenomenal, exelente, deben de leerlo, aunque da consejos a las personas inteligentes o el 10% de la población mundial, léelo, por favor, tan rápido como puedes haz un test de IQ, si tienes como resultado 120 o más de IQ en tu test, es de ley que debes de leer este libro, literalmente puede salvar tu vida, haz el test de IQ ahora!.

Mr. Clary writes an accessible and honest book, very much from his personal perspective (which is very wide), aimed at high IQ people with that ridiculous energy for creativity and the problems they encounter by being in minority mindset and ability level. If you are one of these people and you read this book it's likely you will laugh out loud at how correct it is, or scream in frustration for the same reason, or both. It is not an academic book, but it is worthwhile for its wit, charm, experience and honesty. Its strength is being what it is.He makes the point that only three types of employment will leave your sanity intact - entrepreneurialism, super-technical qualification (so your employer HAS to tolerate your creativity as they really need you), or minimalism (low paid job to duck under office politics). A conventional 9-5 job with conventional colleagues will kill your creativity, energy, potential and happiness as you navigate the maze of borderline psychopaths that exist in most management structures. I think most people targeted by this book would sympathise heavily with this idea. I've tried to think of successful, happy high-IQ people in conventional fields/circumstances in the current age, either that I know personally or through fame, and I cannot think of one - they are all either entrepreneurs or super-technically-qualified or both. So this fits my view of reality and my own experience in workplaces.Mr. Clary also makes a brilliant and very carefully observed point about the primary source of happiness - it is people. If you associate with, live with, or work with people who can not stimulate you because they are a standard deviation or more down the IQ scale than you then YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY. This is a problem if you have literally a 1 in a 100 or 1 in a 1000 intellectual ability. So he addresses modern ways to manage this and even thrive inter-personally, placing its value above excess money.You might baulk at the chatty, politically loaded attitude that the author takes, and the occasional poor editing, but so what, if you are as intelligent as you should be to read it then you shouldn't care about style as much as content. Look through it and you see real experience and eridition from someone who has been there. But do be critical too of ideas as I'm sure Mr. Clary wouldn't want anything less from his target audience.May I add a reading list of related helpful books that may be of some use to people interested in THIS book:The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity - Carlo CipolaExtreme Intelligence - Sonja Falck (this a strict academic treatise saying some similar things to Clarey)Skin in the Game - Nasim Taleb - in particular chapters on 'The Intellectual Yet Idiot' and 'How to Own a Slave' - (individual chapters freely available on the web)

I had to laugh out loud a couple of times while reading this book. Not because something was particularly funny, but because it was just truth hitting the target spot on. No butterflies, no rainbows, but everything one experiences as a person with an extremely high IQ. Another indicator for this is all of the one and two star reviews here being made by people from the lower end of the intelligence distribution. This kind of envy is also described very accurately inside this masterpiece.

It's a great book to read, a must read in my opinion!!! It's well written, the author is assertive and precise.It exposes the reality of the actual world and how to adapt being above the average people. It gives great solutions to the problem of having a high IQ!