Some days, it really helps to have spent some time thinking about stuff. Lots of stuff. At a certain level, intellect is not a survival trait. So:
Hi, My name is Crusader AXE and I’m a...sob...recovering MENSAN.
Chorus: Hi, Crusader AXE.
“I got into MENSA because a mentor of mine in the Army was one. We were both smarter than the average bears around us, and he was a Sergeant Major and I was a Sergeant First Class, so I figured out that he knew what he was doing by being a member. I was never around any MENSANS until I was stationed near a major university. I went to one meeting, and quit, never to return. But still, the craving haunts me. I just don’t know what the craving is for…” I ultimately discovered, it was to beat up the members and take their lunch money...
While there is no 12 Step Program for these guys, there should be. Yeah, I joined and yeah, I felt really silly. Guys with big necks and broad shoulders have issues surrounded by pencil necked geeks who are making anagrams out of their name and blood type for fun. The primary conversation seemed to be about how smart we all were and how we should rule the world. Anyone who believes that they are qualified to rule the world should be disqualified from doing so.
Not a MENSAN
OK, being dumb, ignorant and arrogant is probably worse than being smart, well-educated and ignorant, but if those are the only two choices, the AXE is taking his money and going home. The problem that a lot of these guys and gals have is a lack of anything like street smarts and situational awareness. You don’t get street smarts by listening to rap records or reading Harry Potter in Latin. You don’t get situational awareness by spinning in circles around some screwed up intellectual point. You don’t get things done.
I spent a lot of the last week interacting with people who, if not in MENSA, should be giving lessons. Granted, they were bright. They weren’t charming, sparkling conversationalists, and good company. They were smart. They were also members of the same family, Mom and daughter who both work for us, and Dad who is disabled after a serious accident. Mom is trying to get us to pay to send her and daughter to MIT for their Six Sigma Black Belt. She is one of our Quality Auditors and spent most of the conversation running her daughter’s “rival” for a key position and her daughter’s direct boss into the dirt for things she knows piss me off. It was about as subtle as a volcano.
Daughter and her 2nd line boss shanghaied me into an adventure going to Guitar Center Grad School Guitar Center
OK, this morning I had a meeting with Daddy. Daddy is very bright – PHD in Human Development Barstow Community College who wandered into the quality movement. Was trained by John Juran which is a big deal in that stuff. We were at the local community college, trying to get a Six Sigma program off the ground. What a disaster this turned into…the guy had called me on last Thursday wanting all sorts of stuff that we don’t have; wanting us to spend a fortune on a Six Sigma Reference Library; wanting us to provide him with software. Jesus wept…Anyway, today he was trying to get us to go along with a 16 week Six Sigma certification program. From
I’m not opposed to smart people. However, I am not opposed to lawyers and accountants either. I am opposed to letting them run amok…after I got done with this guy, my boss asked me how it went. “I need a $100K and don’t ask any questions – he’s smarter than we are.” When they are smarter than you are, and you’re pretty smart, be extra careful…or as our alien-lusting 40th President said in one of his lucid moment, “Trust, but verify.” Trust that they’re smart; verify that they are firmly anchored. And, don’t spend hours locked in a car with one.
Interesting read and well written..
Posted by: Ames Tiedeman | 05 September 2007 at 06:58 AM