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Discussion<br />
It has been pretty well proven that intelligence (like type) is hereditary. Sometimes, however, it<br />
seems to spring out of thin air. This was the case for Child C, whose gifts seemed to have no<br />
precedent in his ancestry. (I couldn't say what his parents' types were.)<br />
Child C's I.Q. was measured at 188-190 when he was 9. Later, at 11 years, 10 months, he took the<br />
Stanford-Binet again and this time it was revealed that his intelligence could no longer be measured<br />
by the test. (None the questions available were difficult enough to assess the upper limit of his<br />
intelligence because he could answer them all correctly. This means that his intelligence exceeded<br />
the maximum measurement capacity of the testing instrument.)<br />
C's intelligence appeared rapidly and early. At the age of 1 year, 2 months, C began to walk; one<br />
month later he began to talk "fluently." He began learning to read "almost as soon as he talked."<br />
By age 3 he was reading "simple matter." None of this, however, seems to have suggested anything<br />
out of the ordinary to his parents. Geniuses are actually rather difficult to spot.<br />
C was put into first grade when he was 6 years old. He remained in elementary school until he was<br />
nine, the sole concession to his intelligence being that that he was bumped ahead a single grade. He<br />
received perfect grades, but his teachers considered him to be a peculiar child, and he was unhappy.<br />
At this point C was given an I.Q. test and it was discovered that he had the mental age of a superior<br />
adult. C was then transferred to a special school for people with really high IQ.<br />
Believe it or not, the fact that C got excellent grades is a good marker for Judging. One might<br />
think, "Oh, he's a genius. Of course he always gets straight As." Actually, being a Judger matters<br />
more than being a genius when it comes to grades. Perceiving geniuses are content to get Bs and<br />
Cs; they could do better, but they just don't see the point. This is a general rule, as everything in<br />
this book is; as we shall see, Isaac Newton's grades were mediocre.<br />
Here is an interesting phenomenon. When very intelligent people are kept in an environment<br />
without intellectual peers, they find it easy to be the best and come to expect it. For instance, a<br />
student who leads the class throughout elementary and high school may be surprised when they<br />
enter college or an honors course and do not receive the best grade on the test for the first time in<br />
their lives. For C, the moment came when he entered his new school:<br />
Soon after C entered the Special Opportunity Class for gifted children, another boy equaled him in an<br />
assignment and put out his hand to C, saying cordially, "Let's shake." C had never had the experience of<br />
being equaled by a fellow pupil and he turned away, refusing to shake hands. However, he has now<br />
learned to react most cordially to those who equal him, though he bitterly dislikes to be equaled or passed<br />
in mental work.<br />
For an INTJ, who values competency and strives for best possible performance, the bite of so-called<br />
mediocrity may be especially keen, despite the fact that said "mediocrity" would be considered<br />
excellent by any other standard. Like C, they will quickly learn to adapt to the experience, but the<br />
sting may never quite wear off. After all, who doesn't want to be first?<br />
NTs value exactitude in language. They dislike the inaccuracies inherent in generalizations, and are<br />
often unwilling to gloss over the complexities of a subject. Needless to say, when NTs notice others<br />
making incorrect statements, they feel a strong urge to correct such inaccuracies. But this tendency<br />
may make them unpopular. Hollingworth observed of C that, "He is a stickler for the exact; no<br />
statement is right unless it is exactly right. It is easy to see how this trait might antagonize average<br />
children of C's age, and ever teachers and others in authority." During 7th or 8th grade I was<br />
acquainted with an NT who had this trait in abundance, but was otherwise a pleasant, polite young<br />
man. Sad to say, his classmates—including those in his gifted class—were so irked by this
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