- What do you do for a living?
- I teach dance.
- There's a lot of skills that come with dancing,
I just don't know if pattern recognition
would be one of them.
- So when I choreograph a dance for 30 kids,
you don't think there's pattern recognition?
- She's mad already.
- I'm not mad I'm asking a question.
(audience laughs)
(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] Hello.
- Hi.
- [Interviewer] How old are you?
- 18.
- [Interviewer] 18, do you consider yourself
to be intelligent?
- Yeah, I'm getting there, I'm trying to.
- Of course.
I think I'm- - [Interviewer] Well,
why of course?
- I feel like it's important to talk
and think highly of yourself in general.
- Yeah, I've been tested, I was in the 140s as a kid,
graduated early, I was doing college work
in high school all that.
- [Interviewer] So you're an intelligent guy?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] How can you identify an intelligent person?
- That's a really complicated question.
If they have good decision making skills,
if they are intuitive.
- It's somebody you could give a Rubik's cube
and they can solve it.
Problem solving skills, pattern recognition
are really the characteristics of intelligence.
Just because you did well in school,
doesn't mean I'll think you're smart.
- [Interviewer] Do you think you can recognize intelligence
in other people?
- My degree was in psychology.
- [Interviewer] Do you think that's gonna help you today?
- I think that's gonna help me a lot today.
A lot.
- [Interviewer] Everybody go ahead and head on out there.
- This is good, I like this, look at me.
- We have a one through six ranking.
One , who do you think is the most intelligent.
And six being who do you think is the least intelligent.
- I'm gonna get canceled.
(laughs)
- Alright, here we go.
- Hi.
- Hi, what's your name?
- I'm Kiara.
- Hi Kiara, I love your space buns.
- Oh, thank you.
- [Interviewer] What can you tell intelligence wise
based on outfit?
- Nothing, I'm not falling for your tricks.
Especially not with the black woman,
I'm not doing that with my sisters or any animal.
- Are you right-handed or left-handed?
- I'm right-handed.
- Ooh.
- What does that have to do with intelligence?
- If you use your right hand, you tend to be associated
with words like logical, mathy, brainy.
- Yeah.
- Did you do run and study law?
- I did.
- So did you get your AA while you were still
in high school and graduate with it or-
- Yeah I graduated, with them at the same time.
- Oh boy.
- Do you know your GPA in high school?
- 2.5
- We in the same boat.
Cool.
- Do you work really well under pressure?
- I do, I'm such a procrastinator.
And I have ADHD,
so I can ever get anything done when I need to.
But tests, under pressure I feel like that's easier for me.
- Yeah.
- She's pretty smart, I'm gonna give you two.
- I'm going to give you a solid three.
- I'm gonna give you three.
I think you're very intelligent,
but you don't strike me as someone
who really loves solving puzzles.
And maybe like riddles.
- For sure.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, thank you.
- What's up my boy?
- There's no problem.
- How you been chilling?
- Chilling like a villain.
- How old are you?
Let's start there.
- 23.
- Oh fuck, he's young.
These young kids aren't smart, that's like...
- You go to college, thinking about college?
- I did a semester in college, but I dropped out.
- So what are you doing now?
- I own my own business.
Most of my work is gold plating.
- What got you into that?
- Building low riders.
(laughs)
- What's so funny?
- So, I see the stereotype and you fit it,
but that doesn't mean you're not intelligent.
But a lot of people out there aren't gonna understand
how much it takes to build a low rider,
the engineering behind it,
what it takes to build custom parts.
- I'm gonna give you a brain teaser,
which five letter word is shorter
when you add two letters to it?
(whispers)
- Is it quick and quicker?
- It's short, because you're adding two letter to it,
because it's shorter.
- Got you.
- I'm giving you five.
- So, I'm gonna give you a solid five man.
- Say less.
- Yeah.
- Hi.
- You're all friendly, this is gonna be hard.
- I think you're delightful.
- Thank you.
- Like you're smiley, your eyes are sparkling,
that does not mean you're smart or not smart.
(laughs)
- Did you go to college?
- I'm in college right now.
- What are you studying?
- I study Information Science and Design.
Little bit of programming here and there but I think it's-
- Programming?
- Like coding.
- What code do you write now?
- I'm taking a SQL class right now
and a JavaScript class as well.
- You can take three.
- Thank you so much!
- You're in a hard thing,
so in order for you to do scripting and coding,
it takes a lot of problem solving skills
and creative thinking.
- 9 x 9?
- 81.
- Minus 6?
- 75.
- Plus 3?
- 78.
- Divided by 8?
- 78 divided by 8, is that even divisible?
- It's not divisible.
(both laughing)
- I'm gonna give you a 2.
You do some crazy stuff in codes
that I don't even know about.
- I'm going to give you a 6, but who knows?
- Did my race play any part in anything?
- That's a good question.
- Um mmh.
- Do you feel like people tend to think you're extra dumb
or extra smart because of your race?
- I think people might think I'm smarter
than I actually am, but uh-
- I think you're smart, you're brilliant.
- [Interviewer] You did give her the lowest number.
- I did.
- I have to give someone like the lowest.
- Hello.
- What do you do for a living?
- I'm an actor and I work in renewable energy.
- Renewable energy what kind of energy?
- Well, my sisters are hot on natural gas
and I keep telling her go solar, go solar.
I'm thinking-
(laughs)
- Solar energy and those are things
and talking about wind and reusable energy,
that's thinking outside the box.
- How old are you?
- 58.
- Yeah.
- Got some years on you, got some years.
Do you think yourself as wise?
- I think I am yeah.
- I don't think you're the smartest, but that's okay.
- Why don't you think I'm the smartest?
- Well, I think honestly your age
maybe playing a little bit into it perhaps.
But-
- I think we get better when we're older.
- I hope so, I hope I'm wrong.
I'm gonna give you a four.
- I'm gonna give you a four.
- All right.
- No, a six.
- Hi.
- What was your favorite subject in school?
- I loved math.
- What are your hobbies?
- I love to read.
- Did you graduate high school?
- I did.
- College?
- I did.
- What you do in college?
- Dance education and special education.
- What do you do for a living?
- I teach dance.
- Oh, joy.
There's a lot of skills that come with dancing,
I just don't know if problem solving would be one of them.
I don't know if pattern recognition would be one of them.
- Can I ask you a question?
- Uh oh.
- So when I choreograph a dance for 30 kids,
you don't think there's pattern recognition
and moving spots and formations.
- See, she's mad already.
- I'm not mad, I'm asking a question.
(laughter)
- It's different, it's just different.
- I'm gonna give you the four.
- [Interviewer] Why the four?
- I feel like, I don't know, man.
She does dance.
- All my dance people out there I'm sorry, we'll go five.
He wore a video game shirt, so I know he may be smart, but-
- Hi.
- Right off the bat, video games is on your shirt.
So, to me I'm reading that as you stray more
on the nerdy side, I suppose.
- So grades in high school?
- I don't wanna talk about it.
(laughter)
- Why not?
- I guess I didn't do very well.
(laughs)
- I'm just thinking about the stereotypes right now.
They're hitting a little different now.
- Because I'm Asian?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- 'Cause I had Asian friends in high school
and they were brung up differently than me.
Their parents were very strict on them all about that,
because they want their kids to strive
for better things and all that.
- Did they get good grades?
- Yes, I feel like I was just sticking to what I knew.
- That's fair.
- Why don't you have a job?
- Well, I've been struggling
with mental health a lot recently,
like depression and anxiety and all that stuff.
So it's hard to maintain a job,
when it's hard to leave my bed.
- Okay, understandable.
- No, totally mental illness is such a big stigma.
And especially with intelligence too,
people may perceive you as less intelligent
because you have-
- Right.
- Or you deal with mental illnesses.
- Yeah.
- You are the strongest link in the room.
- Do you think I deserve it?
- I do think you deserve it.
- [Interviewer] Why?
- You're fabulous, I feel you are-
- Oh thanks.
- [Interviewer] That's a nice compliment
but what does fabulous have to do with intelligence?
- This is true.
I think you have been very vulnerable
and have a really high emotional intelligence,
and I think that would really help you with an IQ test.
- I'm gonna give him six.
I don't know if emotional intelligence
is always equal to IQ.
- Do you think it matters?
- No.
- Do you think I have a low IQ?
- Asperger's and high anxiety and depression,
I don't care, a lot of the times.
- That was hard, I feel like super judgmental.
- I don't think I did good, fuck at me.
I think I did a good job at explaining why I did things.
That's the part I think I did good on.
- [Interviewer] How many do you think you ranked correctly?
- I hopefully at least three.
That would make my day.
- [Interviewer] Please everybody,
put on your correct placard
- They were probably in order,
that's probably how you did me.
One through six I would laugh if I turned around
and they were in one through six.
- [Interviewer] Show of hands,
who did Josiah guess correctly?
(whispers)
- Shut the fuck up.
Well, let's go!
- That's not bad, I'll take it.
- [Interviewer] Let's have the first person come on out.
- I got her right.
- You did.
- Do you feel like you were
the second smartest person in the room?
- No, but I was hoping for number one.
- How much do you value intelligence?
- I feel like your emotional intelligence
is really important.
Your social skills, the way you relate to people,
if you're good at scamming,
(both laughing)
like you need to get ahead in the world.
I don't feel like you don't need to be a smart per say.
- You let me down.
(laughing)
It's fine, I was gonna give him 6.
I was like I can't give him 6.
- Yeah, why would you give me a 6?
- Man stereotypes, I mean shit.
How do you feel about having the lowest score?
- My ego took a little hit, but-
(laughs)
- As long as you're making good money,
does it matter how smart you are?
- Nope, I guess it never stopped me from making money.
- How much do you value intelligence?
- I think what's more important
than intelligence is people skills.
Maneuver within different groups of people,
being able to learn from people who are real different
from you and to be able to know yourself well enough
to figure out what you need.
- I can agree with that.
- Hello again.
- Hello.
- Do you think the fact that I came off as bubbly,
maybe naive lowered my score?
- Probably, I would say so.
Coming off as like naive ish made me feel like,
maybe you don't have as much experience.
You probably wouldn't have performed as well.
- That's totally fair.
- You let me down.
(laughs)
- So how do you feel about the five?
- I think I deserve something higher.
- How do you feel about the notion
of ages with intelligence?
- It's bullshit.
- Do you feel the test was fair to you?
- Last 3 or 4 were just wacky.
I was trying to finish quickly
and so might've hit some buttons that weren't quite right.
- Okay.
- Hello again.
(laughs)
So do you feel like people think you're dumb
because you're a dancer?
- Constantly.
- Do you think that happened today?
- Absolutely.
- How?
- You pretty much said there's different types
of intelligence and it is not required to problem solve,
to find patterns when you're dancing,
when you're teaching, - That's not being dump
- When you're choreographing.
- It's just a different skillset.
- No, but it is a different skillset,
I think that's true.
But I think that the common conception is that all
of those skills are what make intelligence.
- I don't want no trouble.
- Can I have a high five?
- We're friends, we're good.
- All right.
- I got you right!
- As you were going through
or were you saving the one for me?
- Yeah I was.
My intuition from the beginning was telling me
that he was number one.
I'm not even kidding.
- When I was taking the test, I was like, oh no, I can't.
If I do this too well, I'm gonna to fit into a stereotype.
'Cause like not only is it a stereotype of like,
oh, Asian people are really smart,
but there's also the stereotype
that sometimes smart people don't really have
the best social skills.
- Yeah.
- And I didn't really want to slot into that.
- After talking to him for a while
and really get to know him.
If I'd have had 1 available,
I probably would have gave him 1.
He gave me a high five when I said I was neuro divergent
which probably tells me he's neuro divergent also.
So he knows how to mask and shit.
And most of us that know how to mask are high IQ.
We're fucking nerding out dude you asked us
to talk to each other man.
- [Interviewer] How was this?
- It was a kick in the balls.
(laughs)
- It definitely changed my perspective.
You wouldn't expect people to be in the situation that they
are just by looking at them.
To really find out what they value, you got to talk to them.
- There's also not necessarily just
like one kind of intelligence, like you can be book smart
or you can also be emotionally intelligent.
You can be a good decision maker.
And like all of these are great aspects
of what intelligence is.
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much.
(clapping)
- Am I canceled today?