“I’d love to go back (in time) and hit myself!” One of the less pleasant effects. Overall it is worth it, though!

A question from Quora again. I cannot answer it in its current form: “What does it feel like to transition from having a low IQ to having a high IQ?” The ingress also specifies that the IQ should increase by at least 40, and either be obvious or measured by official IQ tests. I doubt this has ever happened, and may never happen unless there is some new dramatic breakthrough in medicine. It is hard to imagine what that would be: Even if you cure a condition that causes mental retardation, you have to do so early in life, or the damage is already done. At that point, IQ tests are not very precise, if possible at all, and people’s memories will be hazy at best.

The brain follows a fairly specific path of development. It is true that there is plasticity, and that parts of the brain can continue to develop through life. But there are severe limits on what can develop and in what order, after the first months of life. It is not like a supermarket where you can come back and buy what you forgot, or pick things in any order you like. What is not done at a certain stage of development cannot simply be inserted. (We are talking about the hardware here mostly. For software there is some more leeway.)

Therefore, if you want an example of a person getting a noticeably higher IQ, you would look for someone who developed slowly but continued to develop for longer. As it happens, this is me. Or at least to some degree.

I come from a highly intelligent family, but one with a long natural lifespan and slow maturation. In primary school and middle school, I was always smaller and weaker and less mature than my classmates, and indeed the class below me as well. I got along the best with the class below there again. When I ended middle school, I was just getting past puberty. My voice was still high and I was not near my adult height. And my grades were not particularly impressive. I don’t have them around, but they were largely just above average.

Over the course of high school, my body and brain continued to grow at a brisk clip. Those of my fellow students slowed down. From just above average, I became a top student without really trying. At the time, I was most interested in learning the Truth from the Christian Church. I read their books and transcripts of their speeches, and just skimmed the school books. My ever rising grades I attributed to wisdom from God. This is not necessarily wrong: Software certainly plays a role, and having a good framework for thinking and good values and habits can make a big difference. Studying books of timeless wisdom is certainly better for your academic progress than alcohol, weed, and days and nights spent in pursuit of random sexual experiences.

But looking back across the great expanse of time, I realize that my brain also continued to develop after most others stopped, because my internal clock was slower than those around me. If I had been compared to those of the same physical development as me, or even the same height and body weight, I would have been smart all the time. But because I was constantly running two years behind my classmates, I barely managed to keep up mentally, and not at all physically and socially. Now that I caught up with them, I became a genius.

So how did it feel? It felt amazing. It felt miraculous. I had moved away from home when I was 15, as there was no high school nearby. I lived with my aunt and her husband and daughter, who did not really know me well enough to realize what was happening. The only way I could conceive of what was happening to me was in religious terms, which was my reference point in the world at the time. With all due respect for my aunt and her family, I was increasingly “alone with Jesus” (as the actual members of that particular church lived several towns away). So to me, it was a miracle. God had given me wisdom, as he promised, so that I now could see things that other men could not. The scripture was fulfilled which said: “I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.” (Psalm 119, 99.)

Looking back, I realize that “wisdom” may be a bit of an exaggeration, but then it is for most adults, alas. But it was true that I now felt more on a par with teachers than with fellow students, and it continued that way for the duration of my education. Only when I started looking for work, did I gradually begin to realize that I wasn’t as awesome as I had begun to feel. I could not understand that I was rejected for two hundred jobs in a row despite having top grades or nearly so all over the place. (This was before grade inflation – top grades was for geniuses.) I was not intelligent (or wise) enough to realize that many of those rejections might be because of those grades rather than despite them.

But the transition itself was glorious, apart from the confusion that comes with being a teen. To go from being at the bottom of the pecking order to being a natural winner? It was like going from larva to butterfly. I suppose I ought to write a novel about it, if I live long enough. But then, it was only the first of several changes in my life, and there are things more important than raw IQ. It took me years of running against the brick wall to learn that. Still, genius is certainly a wonderful gift or heritage and reason for gratitude.