Knowing all this makes high IQs and the story of Marilyn vos Savant seem rather different. Has her IQ been a burden as much as a blessing? According to John Rust, at Cambridge, to produce an extraordinary IQ score a mind must have two unusual qualities. The first is “mechanical facility” – useful but sometimes harmful in extreme cases, hence the preponderance of people with Asperger's syndrome who have high IQs. And you must also excel at a wide variety of tasks. Intelligence tests measure a range of mental abilities, whereas most people naturally, and happily, concentrate on just a few. Abnormally high IQ scores, by their nature, often speak of a brain too general to be of much use. “Effectively,” said Rust, “you are mastering far too many things.”
了解了所有这些之后，令高智商人群和玛丽莲·沃斯·莎凡特的故事看似相当不同。她的智商给她带来的负担如同祝福一样多么？根据剑桥大学的约翰·鲁斯特的研究，要产生出非凡的智商，头脑必须具备两项不同寻常的品质。首先是：“机械的灵活性”——很有用，但在某些极端情况下是有害的，在有自闭症症状的人群中，高智商人在人数上占优势。同时你还必须擅于处理范围广泛、类型多样的任务。智力测试考量的是一系列精神能力，而大多数人只是自然地、愉快地专注于其中的几项。非正常的高智商，从本质上说，通常说明大脑太全面。不堪大用。“实际上，”鲁斯特说，“你掌握了太多太多的东西。”