9 Reasons I Write for the Prudentia High IQ Blog

1. Mensa Writing

Mensa writing is much to bumpkinly for me, focusing on topics like Blueberry Muffins or Why My Cat Elisa has nine names. Honestly, just topics I cannot get my head around. I was a Mensa member for a few years before I realized, I do not like this organization, in fact, I think I was only a member because I needed some anti-Zen ego masturbation or maybe I am just to pompous. Who knows!? I believe I joined somewhere around 1989 or 90, I do not recall exactly but I remember being excited at the prospect of “heady” conversations, etc. What a disappointment! It was just more chitchat, however, chitchat that included words like, Sycophant, Equanimity, Obfuscate, Pervasive, Vicissitudes, Anachronistic, Proclivity, Ostensible, Epistemology, Perspicacious and much more in the way of SAT verbalization.

2. Translation

I spend way too many cycles during my day trying to “translate,” that is, for lack of a better way of say it, dumbing down. Family, friends, store clerks, experts even, I spend way to much time. Take for instance, the Monty Hall Problem, originally posed by Steven Selvin in 1975, in, I believe American Statistician. It became famous, I think, as a question from a reader of Parade magazine, one Craig F. Whitaker. Marilyn Vos Savant, a high IQ aficionado of the time, quoted and solved it. I remember reading it and thinking, how obvious. However, many experts simply, “Got it Wrong!” arguing incessantly over it being one-half, not two-thirds, so, that in their mind, it made no sense to switch. “Think about it”, I thought at the time, throwing aside all the high end Bayesian logic, where a simple decision tree or table will suffice.

Door	You Choose	Stay	Change	Result
1 (Goat)	1	Y	N	Goat
1 (Goat)	1	N	Y	Car
2 (Goat)	2	Y	N	Goat
2 (Goat)	2	N	Y	Car
3 (Car)	3	Y	N	Car
3 (Car)	3	N	Y	Goat

That should be the end of story. But many were not convinced. “Think of 1000 doors,” I thought. Choose one. Now the host opens 998 doors. Where do you think the prize is likely to be? Would you stay? In fact, let N, the number of doors become unbounded. Now, the probability of winning on a switch can easily be seen as 1. Anyway, translation, whether for teachers, doctors, experts and amateurs alike, a problem for IQ over 140, which becomes asymptotically annoying the higher you go…

3. I Don’t Care if I am Right

Writing for me is an exploratory process, not some died-in-the-wool process of reaching conclusions. Most people I come across between IQ 100-130 seem overly preoccupied with “getting it right.” Now, If I am working on problems, as I did in my past lives as systems programmer, software engineer and computational scientist, then, I suppose by some azygos minded chemism I must “produce” a right answer, at least, most of the time. However, what was right, at least for someone exceeding IQ 140-145, is very much not right for the IQ 100-130 crowd. Why?-Put simply, what I had, and many over 140 IQ do is not deemed “getting an answer” so much as “inventing” one, possibly out of thin air. It is more of a magic act or sleight of hand than some grinding, grueling process of mulling over a problem. Anyway…

4. About 99.617% or 1/261 of Blogs Suck...But not this One.

In my perusing of the online “community” at large, I find very, very little worth reading. Maybe many say the same about what I write. I mean, Ferguson Peaks and Genius Taxes!? Don’t you want something more substantial to read about, maybe, how to further your career or make money selling stuff to people that care less? Factious, yes! Or, did I mean to say, facetious? Who knows? I worked in Software and Mathematics for 25, maybe 30 years. I was a cryptanalyst in the military before that. Honestly, it was pretty boring. I always wanted to write Science Fiction novels. Problem is, I suck at it. I do not understand enough small talk to make any sense of it. Most SF novels are nothing but chitchat, though, sometimes a bit more sophisticated. These days there’s a lot of cussing, which I don’t relate to at all. Even in some sciences books, popular books on quantum mechanics or relativity, contain much cussing. At least the titles usually say it all. Why cuss in a book, especially SF or popular science. Don’t ask me?

5. Hyperideation and Bottlenecks

I rapidly generate ideas. Even at my age, “old,” I can’t help it. If my writing speed matched, the output would be humongous—big, even. Simply put, my idea generation outpaces my idea filtration, if that makes any sense, hence, I tend to bottleneck around the mouth of the generation. It’s not possible, like a river, to dam them, the ideas that is, up, or believe me, I would. However, because of the nature of the Prudentia blog, I am able, “thanks,” to manage that bottleneck. Speaking of which, about 70ka, the human population plummeted to about 1000 effective breeders. That’s small. Too, it seems, about 930ka, it is believed we had about 1300 ancestors. That too, is small. I think, as a hyperideated notion, that another bottleneck is approaching, only this time, it is those that are low in cognitive capacity that will suffer the loss, which, I might add, is already happening. Fifty years from now, the human world will be a radically different place.

6. Of the 86 or So Members, Few Write

This is a travesty, in my opinion. So many bright people, and nothing to say. That is surprising. Just write. That is all. Say something, even if it sounds stupid. However, it does compel me to write, if only to fill a void. Honestly, do you see the trash that passes today for “good” ideas, “good” writing. It’s really sad.

7. I Like the Backwaters of the IQ Community, Especially IQ 140+

I really hate being in the majority of anything. So, to be statistically insignificant, it for me, a Godsend. In fact, popularity is often mistaken for excellence, truth, or quality, but it is actually something different. At its core, popularity measures how deeply an idea, person, object, or work penetrates public awareness and conversation. A thing becomes popular not merely when many people know about it, but when it becomes a shared reference point that people use to communicate, identify themselves, or understand the world.

Historically, The Beatles became more than a successful band; they became a cultural benchmark against which later popular music was compared. Star Wars evolved beyond a film franchise into a common symbolic language recognized across generations. McDonald’s (please!!!) became not merely a restaurant chain but a global icon associated with American consumer culture. Likewise, Albert Einstein became so culturally prominent that his name is often used as shorthand for exceptional intelligence; I’m thinking of getting a haircut.

Contemporary examples illustrate the same phenomenon. Taylor Swift is not simply a musician but a cultural touchstone whose work, public image, and fan community influence conversations far beyond music. TikTok has become a major engine of cultural transmission, shaping trends, language, humor, and even consumer behavior. Tesla and Elon Musk have become symbols through which broader discussions about technology, innovation, and the future are conducted. The Marvel Cinematic Universe transcended entertainment to become a shared reference framework recognized by millions worldwide.

Popularity, therefore, is less about objective merit than about visibility, repetition, and social usefulness. Many outstanding books, artists, scientists (see Dr. Uwe Rohr here on Prudentia), and inventions remain obscure because they never achieve widespread cultural transmission. Conversely, some culturally dominant phenomena are celebrated by many and criticized by many others.

In this sense, popularity is best understood as collective attention, especially in those with IQ below 130, made durable through repetition, repetition, repetition... What a society repeatedly notices, discusses, remembers, imitates, and transmits becomes popular. The truly popular cease to be merely people, products, or works; they become reference points that shape thought and conversation for years, decades, even centuries to come.

8. Something to Do!

If I had nothing to do, I would pull my hair out. Filling the void is a phrase used to describe this human tendency to seek substitutes for something perceived as missing, whether that absence is emotional, social, existential, intellectual, or spiritual. The “void” is rarely a literal or real emptiness; it is more often a felt gap between what a person has and what they believe they need to feel complete, meaningful, or fulfilled.

People attempt to fill this void in many ways. Some pursue relationships, hoping intimacy will relieve loneliness. Others seek career success, believing achievement will provide lasting significance. Still others turn to wealth, entertainment, social media, hobbies, religion, learning, or artistic creation. For example, a newly retired executive may immerse himself in charitable work after discovering that professional status alone did not provide meaning. A young adult may chase online popularity only to find that attention does not fully satisfy a deeper need for belonging. Conversely, an artist may channel grief into creative work, transforming loss into expression rather than merely escaping it.

The phrase carries a cautionary lesson. Some attempts to fill the void are temporary distractions, while others address underlying needs more directly. A larger house may relieve dissatisfaction for a few months, whereas close friendships, purposeful work, or personal growth may provide more enduring fulfillment. For me, it is the relentless pursuit of solitude in a land that rarely permits it.

In this sense, filling the void is not simply acquiring more things. It is the ongoing human effort to reconcile desire, meaning, identity, and purpose with the realities of life. The question is often not whether people are filling a void, but what they are filling it with, and whether it truly satisfies the need that created it.

9. I Hate 10 Reasons List

I have always disliked “10 Reasons” lists. Not because lists are inherently bad, but because they often pretend to offer understanding while actually substituting for it.

The world is messy, interconnected, and full of exceptions. A list titled “10 Reasons Successful People Wake Up Early” or “10 Reasons Your Relationship Failed” implies that a complex reality can be reduced to a handful of neatly packaged bullets. It creates the illusion of explanation without requiring the hard work of analysis. Real causes are typically tangled together in ways that resist a simple set of integers.

These lists also encourage a kind of intellectual laziness. Instead of developing an argument, the writer merely accumulates points. The result often resembles a pile of observations or rubbish, rather than a logical structure. Reason #7 may have little connection to Reason #2, yet both sit side by side as if they belong to some beautifully codified and unified theory.

Another problem is whimsicality and arbitrariness. Why ten reasons? Why not eight, twelve, or twenty-three or 1093? The number is usually chosen because it looks appealing, not because reality naturally divides itself into ten parts.

Most importantly, “10 Reasons” lists reward consumption over understanding. They are designed to be skimmed, shared, and forgotten. They produce a brief feeling of insight while rarely changing how a person thinks. Really, I prefer ideas that unfold through structure, evidence, and careful reasoning. Reality is not listicle (if permitted the neologism). It is a system, and systems deserve better than ten bullet points pretending to explain them. Cite 9 Reasons, and you will understand why!

Kenneth Myers