""Categorizing" people as to their level of IQ, in my opinion, is akin to labeling people with personality types - irrelevant and superficial. As long as one is at peace with one's self, not stepping on anyone's boundaries, and not using such "classifications" to prove that they're better than the rest, having an IQ of something to the nth power or the ABCDEFG personality makes one no different than the next person."


I believe that DonnaRocaMora is on the right track. You could think of intelligence or measured intelligence as just another trait, like perfect skin or large secondary characteristics (breast size, penile size, etc.). People who are proud of their innate intelligence are scary, like folks that are proud of being tall or such. Yet, it is the traits that attract us. Some will be attracted to big IQ. In my experience, there's a sort of "golden zone" for intelligence: too high types are non-functional in society, too low bore me. I like IQ high enough to be clever, but want to be with grounded, functional individuals with decent emotional maturity.

It remains critical to know yourself, first, last and always. If you are the sort that's cut out for one night stands, all power to you, that's fine. It's not me, and I know it's not, so I don't aspire to act contrary to my nature. I'd prefer not be judged as inferior for my sappy need for emotional attachment, but I'll neither laud you nor condemn you for your adventuring. Think of it as a personality trait, neither positive nor negative: there's them that do well for a night, there's others that are more of, shall we say, an acquired taste.

It's a thought-provoking topic because I'd like to believe that I act the same way, regardless of setting or group, but that can't be true. When it's corporate setting, hierarchy applies and foul opinions are sometimes greeted with respectful silence when in a less formalized setting, someone would be wearing a drink. Does that make me a fraud? Most likely, but have gotten used to roof over head and occasional hot meal.

From what I have experienced, most people stop growing at a certain point in their lives. It's as if they have said, "That's it for me! No more new stuff!" That phenomenon would be unpleasant in and of itself, but the additional factor is that, if one is not growing, one REVERTS! So, many of the outdated bad habits that you shed in your twenties will rear their ugly little heads once more, if you are not constantly fighting to make it better. Most of the "-isms" we outgrow, but if we're not careful....