Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4)
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 12
Issue Numbering: 1
Section: A
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 29
Formal Sub-Theme: None
Individual Publication Date: December 8, 2023
Issue Publication Date: January 1, 2024
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Word Count: 1,364
Image Credit: None.
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Abstract
Tianxi Yu（余天曦）is a man who’s interested in IQ tests. Yu discusses: the high-IQ societies developing in China; any new ultra-hard tests; numerical stuff; new hobbies; high-IQ societies; building a career; checks and balances; most important positive news; the Chinese high-IQ community; and notable members.
Keywords: Americans, China, Chinese, CPC, Europeans, intelligence, IQ, Mahir Wu, Tianxi Yu.
Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Let’s cover some news for you, personal and professional, how are the high-IQ societies developing in China?
Tianxi Yu: Activity is slowly declining, people don’t care much about IQ tests and related topics anymore, and are more likely to discuss life, entertainment, and do more realistic social communication.
Jacobsen: Have you taken any new ultra-hard tests? If so, how have you done? If not, why not?
Yu: The last submission was Mahir Wu’s CAT2, the only Mahir’s test I hadn’t submitted before. It is one of the toughest spatial tests, and I obtained a score of 30/36 with an IQ=179 SD=15. It’s probably been a long time since I’ve done IQ training, and CAT2 is the only Mahir’s test I haven’t gotten a first on, and I’m currently ranked probably third!
Jacobsen: You tend to perform very well on numerical stuff. Obviously, everyone, in the professional world of psychologists, psychiatrists, psychometrists, and the like, agree on the fact of general intelligence and its higher heritability as one ages or develops. Less smart parents can produce more smart kids; more smart parents can produce less smart kids. However, smart parents are more likely to produce smart kids; and, less smart parents are less likely to produce more smart kids. Environmental factors play a decent role, especially in early development. However, culture can make already high lopsided intelligence even more so – average verbal and genius level numerical intelligence. For instance, a culture with a robust mathematical and numerical education – drilling math sense into kids – can make someone’s innate math and numerical sense and abilities even greater. Did this seem to happen in your case? The stereotype in the West is China has a great intensity on mathematical and numerical education. If true, then it’s just a statistical generalization (generalized fact), not a stereotype.
Yu: I was trained in math when I was young, starting with bead counting and waiting until I was in elementary school to take OU training. I grew up in Hubei province, which is a major education province in China, and the difficulty of the exams is among the highest in the country, so we were arranged to participate in many competitions from a young age, which also made me bored with exam-oriented education. In high school, I did not continue to participate in competition training, but this may be a regrettable choice for me, because I showed talent in mathematics, science and chemistry subjects, especially physics, if I insisted on competitions at that time there may be more choices. But I’m relieved now, after all, I’m doing well now. In China, there is a word called “卷(juan)”, which means vicious competition due to uneven distribution of resources, resulting in people having to spend more to get less in return. At present, the phenomenon of “juan” is getting more and more serious, and ordinary people can only live an ordinary life by working very hard. This may answer your question, China emphasizes all aspects of education, not just numbers, and if graphing had a curriculum, the top of the spatial IQ test would probably be Chinese as well lol.
Jacobsen: What have you been doing in the meantime, personally? Any new hobbies since our last interaction?
Yu: I got into the government service through a tough competition, currently working in a biology lab, and have been busy in the midst of a new job lately. What I’m interested in, is probably reading books, I’ve bought more than twenty books this year, but I’ve only read about ten of them because I’m too busy with my work. Most of the books I’ve read lately are related to politics, economics, and culture, and I’ve been fascinated by their contents. Two of the books that have impressed me the most, “Being Inside” by Xiaohuan Lan and “The Rise and Fall of Nations”, I used to have a misunderstanding of macro and even disdain for it, but now world macro has a deep attraction for me and makes me want to study it.
Jacobsen: What are the updates with the high-IQ societies in which you’re involved, including CatholIQ, Chinese Genius Directory, EsoterIQ Society, Nano Society, World Genius Directory?
Yu: I haven’t followed these societies for a long time, and have previously requested the Chinese Genius Directory and the Esoteric IQ Society to remove my name, but have gotten no response from either. I think there are certain problems with the current IQ societies, such as less attraction, less marketing ability, and no ability to keep people active.
Jacobsen: Professionally, how are you building a career, training, or pursuing some passion now?
Yu: Maybe my answer won’t satisfy you too much. My attitude toward life in the moment is to keep alive without serious ambition, retaining hope for the future, retaining curiosity and the ability to explore the frontiers of the world, and then trying to work at my current position without being laid off. That’s my attitude at the moment. The economic situation now is very bad, and even China has internal and external problems. Let me tell you a set of data, the youth unemployment rate is no longer published, before that it has been maintained at a high level of 20%, and in the Great Depression in the United States in 1927, the rate of unemployment for the whole population was just about 25%. Now China’s employment is very difficult, I took the government office last year, ten years ago, no one to go to the government units, but now with the economic downturn, the number of exams more and more people, the national average enrollment ratio has remained at more than 70:1, many positions are several thousand people in the admission of a person, the first two years there was a 25,000 people competing for a job situation. As for why I test government agencies, because outside the system is worse, even companies like Tencent, Ali, Huawei, also in the big layoffs, many graduates work for a few years, even in the probationary period when they were laid off. It’s not hard to explain why I stayed negative about the passion.
Jacobsen: What can provide some checks and balances for fraud within the high-IQ communities? When it does happen, I am aware. People don’t take kindly to it. Props to the high-IQ community for doing its own clean-up, not every industry or community can say that. It’s about incentives because everyone suffers reputationally if not handled.
Yu: I’ve thought about this too, and it can only be done through very strict offline exams, with increasing the reputation of highly intelligent people, to create a virtuous cycle, and I’m going to go ahead and make the relevant push, won’t reveal too much until then.
Jacobsen: What do you think the most important positive news in the Chinese high-IQ world at the moment?
Yu: Embarrassing, none, hopefully there will be one in the future.
Jacobsen: How could the Chinese high-IQ community integrate better with the international high-IQ community? Traditionally speaking, it’s been dominated by the Americans and the Europeans. I think that’s a relatively fair, objective, and factual statement.
Yu: I think it is difficult for China’s high IQ group to integrate into the international high IQ group. China’s national conditions dictate that it is the people who are more in tune with the social system who are in control of the society, not the smarter people. Chinese society has been like this for the past 5,000 years, emphasizing inheritance, conformity, and unity in order to do great things, and it is very difficult to change in the short term. This set of thinking may be a bit pedantic nowadays, and people have already understood the drawbacks of the previous system, but the good thing is that the CPC is also actively selecting young cadres nowadays, and also reducing resistance for young people, so hopefully, in the next round of the Kampo cycle, the whole of China will be refreshed.
Jacobsen: Who are some new notable members of some of the Chinese high-IQ societies?
Yu: Unfortunately, not many new people are joining us at the moment.
Bibliography
None
Footnotes
None
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Jacobsen S. Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4). December 2023; 12(1). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Jacobsen, S. (2023, December 8). Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4). In-Sight Publishing. 12(1).
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 1, 2023.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2023. “Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 1 (Winter). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Jacobsen, S “Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 1 (December 2023).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4.
Harvard: Jacobsen, S. (2023) ‘Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(1). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4>.
Harvard (Australian): Jacobsen, S 2023, ‘Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. “Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.12, no. 1, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4.
Vancouver/ICMJE: Scott J. Conversation with Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on Chinese High-IQ Communities: High-IQ Community Member (4) [Internet]. 2023 Dec; 12(1). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/yu-4.
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