I realized that “Mensa” didn’t contain enough numerals to be a phone number, and knew it must be understood that any future member would be able to figure out the next two digits in the sequence. I tried dialling MENSANE, MENSAIL, MENSAFE, and MENSAAB, but got three rebuffs and a fax tone.
From “How I Joined MENSA” by Steve Martin
It discounts my impression of them.
MENSA is a big con. my mother humoured me when i was around 14 or so and i posted back the mini iq test from some paper or magazine or other. of course they replied wow you’re a genius, you better come and get tested in a strict testing environment for real qualified geniuses. they scored me well on their test of words, maths, and square patterns with dots where you have to pick if the next dots should be up or down or whatever. all multiple choice of course.
did alright on the vocab stuff because i read a lot. put my best guess for everything else. big surprise then they gave me an OFFICIAL cert that said you are mega clever why don’t you pay to join up? being a naive child of course i wanted to. mum said something to the effect of do you think they are playing you? i thought she was shitting me and just didn’t want to pay the sub. obviously i’m a fuckin genius. but i knew she didn’t have the spare cash so said yeah nevermind fuck em
dossed the rest of school thinking i didn’t need it, why bother when i am a certified genius? never occurred to me that spending all my sunday job money going half on twenty fags and an eighth of soap bar wasnt genius level decison making
i’m doing alright these days but still fuck mensa
mum said something to the effect of do you think they are playing you?
If MENSA tests you and says you’re a genius, you might be a genius.
If you join MENSA then you aren’t as smart as they say you are.
Monthly emails about gathering with members, a useless plastic card and your ego filled to the brim. Don’t waste your time and money, weed is better.
My parents told me it’s a hit list for when the fascists take over …but then they voted for the fascists.
I joined 20 years ago out of curiousity if I could pass. I did and paid for a membership for a year because why not, but i never did anything with it and never renewed it.
The one thing I might have liked is the local meetings. Our local chapter had a website where they talked about the meetings. They were informal, just dinner and chatting in a private room at a restaurant, and you could learn a little about the people from the website too. It seemed to be heavy on scientists and engineers. This is near a national labratory so that made sense. I would have liked to have more friends like that, still would. But, for all I know, mensa scientists and engineers might be the worst scientists and engineers. They also appeared to be mostly over 60 and I was 20 at the time.
There are discounts on certain things according to their website https://www.us.mensa.org/shop/benefits-and-services/
I remember when I grew tall, 6’6" or almost 2 meters, I had moments when I was aware of being a full head above everyone else in a crowd.
Does that sort of thing happen when you’re very smart? Times when you realize you have abilities others don’t?
I wouldn’t know. I just passed the mensa test because I’ve always been good with tests, but I don’t think I’m smarter than anybody in terms of brain horsepower.
However, I’m curious about how things work and retain information like crazy. I’ve come to realize not everybody does that. Some people think I’m really smart but it’s more like I have experience or interest that they don’t have in the thing they think I’m smart at.
