Speak Up Now!

Elevator statements

2009-10-04T17:56:00.002+08:00

When making a self introduction, it usually follows with a "What do you do for a living?" question.

People generally answers with their profession.

eg.

A: "Hi, I am Peter."

B: "Hi Peter, I am Lawrence, nice to meet you."

A: "Hi Lawrence, What do you do for a living?"

B: "I am a Training Manager"

This style of answer is boring, and tunes most people off. Professions like HR Manager, Sales, Real estate agent, PR professional etc... are self answering, and does not illicit further interest in following up the conversation. Worse, it will not leave a lasting impression on others.

To enhance the networking effect, and to illicit interest in what you do. Try to come up with an elevator statement, a short, concise yet interesting statement as to what is your profession. It should be short, to be able to deliver in the time from the elevator leaves the ground floor and reach the 1st floor. It should be concise, brief and yet complete, and straight to the point. Lastly, it should be interesting, enough to generate interests in wanting to know more about what you do.

eg.

A: "Hi, I am Peter."

B: "Hi Peter, I am Lawrence, nice to meet you."

A: "Hi Lawrence, What do you do for a living?"

B: "I talk to a lot of people, at the same time, and in real person."

examples of elevator statements for the various profession.

Financial consultant - I help people maximise their returns on their nvestments through proper planning.

Real estate agent - I help people achieve and own their ideal dream home.

HR Manager - I am a match maker between the company and its human capital.

Do yourself a favour, develop a unique elevator statement for your profession.

The next time someone asks you what do you do for a living...

Use the elevator statement and Wow them!

Courses offered

2009-10-04T17:55:00.000+08:00

Speaking 101

Duration: 1 day (8 hours)

Target Audience: General audience

Synopsis:

1. Ice breaker

2. Organize your speech

3. Get to the point

4. How to say it

5. Your body speaks

6. Vocal variety

7. Research your topic

8. Visual aids

9. Persuade with power

10. Inspire your audience

Negotiation Techniques

Duration: 2 days (16 hours)

Target Audience: Procurement and Sales

Synopsis:

1. Introduction to negotiation

2. Negotiation principles

3. Negotiation styles

4. Negotiation preparation and planning

5. Negotiation tactics

6. Win-win negotiation process

7. Personal action plans

8. Negotiation role play

9. Role play review

10. Summary

Strategic Sourcing

Duration: 2 days (16 hours)

Target Audience: Procurement and Sales

Synopsis:

1. Introduction

2. Spend mapping and baseline

3. Total cost of ownership

4. Supplier workshops

5. Supply market analysis

6. Request for Information

7. Request for Quotation

8. Sourcing strategy

9. Case study

10. Summary

Power Presentation Techniques

Duration: 1 day (8 hours)

Target Audience: Management

Synopsis:

1. Introduction

2. Power point techniques

3. Pictures paint a thousand words

4. Power point as an aid to prompt, not the story itself

5. Graphs to illustrate

6. Effects to wow

7. Data selection

8. Project presentation

9. Project review

10. Summary

Creative and Analytical Problem Solving

Duration: 3 days (24 hours)

Target Audience: Management

Synopsis:

1. Introduction

2. Creativity process

3. 6 thinking hats

4. 7 steps process

5. Release creativity

6. Problem definition

7. Issue tree

8. Prioritize issues

9. Detailed work plan

10. Critical analyses

11. Interpret findings and build argument

12. Tell the story

13. Case study

14. Own case preparation

15. Case review

16. Summary

Change Management

Duration: 1 day (8 hours)

Target Audience: Management

Synopsis:

1. Introduction

2. Organization restructuring

3. Change management

4. Shock and Denial

5. Anger and frustration

6. Depression

7. Dialogue and bargaining

8. Acceptance

9. Communication

10. Summary

Lattice degeneration

2006-12-16T11:35:00.000+08:00

LATTICE DEGENERATION
The retina is the light sensitive membrane in the back of the eye. Lattice degeneration is a condition in which there is a thinning in the peripheral retina. This condition is found in approximately 10% of the general population and tends to run in families. Sometimes the thinning can become severe enough for a retinal hole to develop in the retina. Fluid from inside the eye may then go through the retinal break. When this happens the retina separates from its blood supply and the vision may become diminished. This is known as a retinal detachment. Most people with lattice degeneration do not develop a retinal detachment, however, in people who have retinal detachments, 30% of them were caused by lattice degeneration.
When a person with lattice degeneration is considered to be at high risk for developing a retinal detachment, treatment may be recommended. This treatment may consist of sealing the lattice degeneration or the holes within the lattice degeneration with either a beam of laser light or with a freezing instrument. Once the lattice degeneration is sealed, the risk of a retinal detachment becomes markedly reduced. A retinal detachment may still occur, however, due to the formation of lattice degeneration in untreated areas of the retina or due to the formation of new holes or tears in other locations. The treatment is not 100% successful and a retinal detachment may even occur from a retinal hole in an area of lattice degeneration which has been treated.
People with lattice degeneration should be aware of the four warning signs of a retinal detachment. These four warning signs are:

1. Flashes of lights, brief sparks or flickers of lights that are generated from within the eye.

2. Dark floaters or spots which move with eye movement and are seen under normal lighting conditions. In bright light many people see floaters, but if one sees floaters under normal lighting conditions this is a warning sign of a possible retinal detachment.

3. A curtain of darkness or a dark area in the field of vision.

4. Blurriness of vision that does not go away with blinking.

If you should experience any of these four warning signs or if you should experience a change in any of these four warning signs, you should contact your eye doctor immediately for examination. After lattice degeneration is diagnosed, most people should be seen by their eye doctor on a regular basis in order to make sure that their lattice degeneration does not progress.

22 ways to boost your brain power:

2006-12-06T11:18:00.000+08:00

“I just found out that the brain is like a computer. If that’s true, then there really aren’t any stupid people. Just people running DOS.”
- Anonymous

The brain is a three-pound supercomputer. It is the command and control center running your life. It is involved in absolutely everything you do. Your brain determines how you think, how you feel, how you act, and how well you get along with other people. Your brain even determines the kind of person you are. It determines how thoughtful you are; how polite or how rude you are. It determines how well you think on your feet, and it is involved with how well you do at work and with your family. Your brain also influences your emotional well being and how well you do with the opposite sex.

Your brain is more complicated than any computer we can imagine. Did you know that you have one hundred billion nerve cells in your brain, and every nerve cell has many connections to other nerve cells? In fact, your brain has more connections in it than there are stars in the universe! Optimizing your brain’s function is essential to being the best you can be, whether at work, in leisure, or in your relationships.

It’s simple, your brain is at the center of everything you do, all you feel and think, and every nuance of how you relate to people. It’s both the supercomputer that runs your complex life and the tender organ that houses your soul. And while you may run, lift weights, or do yoga to keep your body in good condition, chances are you ignore your brain and trust it to do its job.
No matter what your age, mental exercise has a global, positive effect on the brain. So, here are

22 ways to boost your brain power:

1. Run Up Your Brain Cells
Research suggests that people who get plenty of physical exercise can wind up with better brains. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., found that adult mice who ran on an exercise wheel whenever they felt like it gained twice as many new cells in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning and memory, than mice who sat around all day discussing Lord of the Rings in Internet chat rooms. The researchers weren’t sure why the more active rodents’ brains reacted the way they did, but it’s possible that the voluntary nature of the exercise made it less stressful and therefore more beneficial. Which could mean that finding ways to enjoy exercise, rather than just forcing yourself to do it, may make you smarter - and happier, too.
So, play a sport, train for an event such as a marathon, triathlon or “fun run,” or work out with a buddy to help keep things interesting.
2. Exercise Your Mind
It isn’t just physical exercise that gets those brain cells jumping. Just like those head-pumped cabbies and piano jockeys, you can build up various areas of your brain by putting them to work. Duke University neurobiology professor Lawrence C. Katz, Ph.D., co-author of Keep Your Brain Alive, says that finding simple ways to use aspects of your brain that may be lagging could help maintain both nerve cells and dendrites, branches on the cells that receive and process information. Just as a new weightlifting exercise builds up underused muscles, Katz says that novel ways of thinking and viewing the world can improve the functioning of inactive sections of the brain.
Experience new tastes and smells; try to do things with your nondominant hand; find new ways to drive to work; travel to new places; create art; read that Dostoyevsky novel; write a buddy comedy for Ted Kennedy and Rush Limbaugh - basically, do anything you can to force yourself out of your mental ruts.
3. Ask Why
Our brains are wired to be curious. As we grow up and “mature” many of us stifle or deny our natural curiosity. Let yourself be curious! Wonder to yourself about why things are happening. Ask someone in the know. The best way to exercise our curiosity is by asking “Why?” Make it a new habit to ask “why?” at least 10 times a day. Your brain will be happier and you will be amazed at how many opportunities and solutions will show up in your life and work.
4. Laugh
Scientists tell us that laughter is good for our health; that it releases endorphins and other positively powerful chemicals into our system. We don’t really need scientists to tell us that it feels good to laugh. Laughing helps us reduce stress and break old patterns too. So laughter can be like a “quick-charge” for our brain’s batteries. Laugh more, and laugh harder.
5. Be A Fish Head
Omega-3 oils, found in walnuts, flaxseed and especially fish, have long been touted as being healthy for the heart. But recent research suggests they’re a brain booster as well, and not just because they help the circulation system that pumps oxygen to your head. They also seem to improve the function of the membranes that surround brain cells, which may be why people who consume a lot of fish are less likely to suffer depression, dementia, even attention-deficit disorder. Scientists have noted that essential fatty acids are necessary for proper brain development in children, and they’re now being added to baby formulas. It’s possible that your own mental state, and even your intelligence, can be enhanced by consuming enough of these oils.
Eating at least three servings a week of fish such as salmon, sardines, mackerel and tuna is a good start.
6. Remember
Get out an old photo album or high school yearbook. Your brain is a memory machine, so give it a chance to work! Spend time with your memories. Let your mind reflect on them and your mind will repay you in positive emotions and new connections from the memories to help you with your current tasks and challenges.
7. Cut The Fat
Can “bad” fats make you dumb? When researchers at the University of Toronto put rats on a 40-percent-fat diet, the rats lost ground in several areas of mental function, including memory, spatial awareness and rule learning. The problems became worse with a diet high in saturated fats, the kind that’s abundant in meat and dairy products. While you may never be called upon to navigate a little maze in search of a cheddar cube, these results could hold true for you as well, for two reasons: Fat can reduce the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your brain, and it may also slow down the metabolism of glucose, the form of sugar the brain utilizes as food.
You can still get up to 30 percent of your daily calories in the form of fat, but most of it should come from the aforementioned fish, olive oil, nuts and seeds. Whatever you do, stay away from trans fats, the hardened oils that are abundant in crackers and snack foods.
8. Do A Puzzle
Some of us like jigsaw puzzles, some crossword puzzles, some logic puzzles - it really doesn’t matter kind you choose to do. Doing puzzles in your free time is a great way to activate your brain and keep it in good working condition. Do the puzzle for fun, but do it knowing you are exercising your brain.
9. The Mozart Effect
A decade ago Frances Rauscher, a psychologist now at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, and her colleagues made waves with the discovery that listening to Mozart improved people’s mathematical and spatial reasoning. Even rats ran mazes faster and more accurately after hearing Mozart than after white noise or music by the minimalist composer Philip Glass. Last year, Rauscher reported that, for rats at least, a Mozart piano sonata seems to stimulate activity in three genes involved in nerve-cell signalling in the brain.
This sounds like the most harmonious way to tune up your mental faculties. But before you grab the CDs, hear this note of caution. Not everyone who has looked for the Mozart effect has found it. What’s more, even its proponents tend to think that music boosts brain power simply because it makes listeners feel better - relaxed and stimulated at the same time - and that a comparable stimulus might do just as well. In fact, one study found that listening to a story gave a similar performance boost.
10. Improve Your Skill At Things You Already Do
Some repetitive mental stimulation is ok as long as you look to expand your skills and knowledge base. Common activities such as gardening, sewing, playing bridge, reading, painting, and doing crossword puzzles have value, but push yourself to do different gardening techniques, more complex sewing patterns, play bridge against more talented players to increase your skill, read new authors on varied subjects, learn a new painting technique, and work harder crossword puzzles. Pushing your brain to new heights help to keep it healthy.
11. Be A Thinker, Not A Drinker
The idea that alcohol kills brain cells is an old one, but the reality is a bit more complicated. In fact, a study of 3,500 Japanese men found that those who drank moderately (in this case, about one drink per day) had better cognitive functioning when they got older than those who didn’t drink at all. Unfortunately, as soon as you get beyond that “moderate” amount, your memory, reaction time is all likely to decline. In the same study, men who had four or more drinks a day fared worst of all.
Just as bad is the now common practice of “binge drinking,” otherwise known as getting hammered on the weekend. Research on rats found that those who consumed large amounts of alcohol had fewer new cells in their brains’ hippocampus region immediately after the binge, and virtually none a month later. This suggests that the alcohol not only damaged the rats’ brains, but kept them from repairing themselves later on - in human terms, that means you shouldn’t expect to pass the Mensa entrance exam any time soon.
12. Play
Take time to play. Make time to play. Play cards. Play video games. Play board games. Play Ring Around the Rosie. Play tug of war. It doesn’t matter what you play. Just play! It is good for your spirit and good for your brain. It gives your brain a chance to think strategically, and keeps it working.
13. Sleep On It
Previewing key information and then sleeping on it increases retention 20 to 30 percent. You can leave that information next to the bed for easy access, if it is something that won’t keep you awake. If you are kept awake by your thoughts, writing everything down sometimes gets it “out of your mind,” allowing you to sleep (so keep a pen and paper nearby).
14. Concentration
Concentration can increase brainpower. Obvious, perhaps, but the thieves of concentration are not always so obvious. Learn to notice when you are distracted. Often the cause is just below consciousness. If there is a phone call you need to make, for example, it might bother you all morning, sapping your ability to think clearly, even while you are unaware of what is bothering you.
Get in the habit of stopping to ask “What is on my mind right now”. Identify it and deal with it. In the example given, you could make the phone call, or put it on tomorrow’s list, so your mind is comfortable letting it go for now. This leaves you in a more relaxed state where you can think more clearly. Use this technique to increase your brainpower now.
15. Make Love For Your Brain
In a series of studies by Winnifred B. Cutler, PhD and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and later at Stanford University it was found that regular sexual contact had an important impact on physical and emotional well being of women. Sexual contact with a partner at least once a week led to more fertile, regular menstrual cycles, shorter menses, delayed menopause, increased estrogen levels, and delayed aging. Brain imaging studies at UCLA have shown that decreased estrogen levels are associated with overall decreased brain activity and poor memory. Enhancing estrogen levels for women through regular sexual activity enhances overall brain activity and improves memory.
In Dr. Cutler’s study the occurrence of orgasm was not as important as the fact that sex was with another person. Intimacy and emotional bonding may be the most influential factors in the positive aspects of sex. As a psychiatrist I have seen many people withhold sex as a way to show hurt, anger, or disappointment. Dr. Cutler’s research suggests that this is self-defeating behavior. The more you withhold the worse it may be for you. Appropriate sex is one of the keys to the brain’s fountain of youth.
16. Play With Passion!
You can’t do great work without personal fulfillment. When people are growing through learning and creativity, they are much more fulfilled and give 127% more to their work. Delight yourself and you delight the world. Remember what you loved to do as a child and bring the essence of that activity into your work. This is a clue to your genius; to your natural gifts and talents. da Vinci, Edison, Einstein and Picasso all loved to play and they loved to explore.
17. Cycles Of Consciousness
Your consciousness waxes and wanes throughout the day . For most it seems to go through 90 minute cycles, with 30 minutes of lower consciousness. Watch yourself to recognize this cycle. If you learn to recognize and track your mental state, you can concentrate on important mental tasks when your mind is most “awake”. For creative insight into a problem, do the opposite. Work on it when you are in a drowsy state, when your conscious mind has slowed down.
18. Learn Something New
This one might seem obvious. Yes, we capitalize on our brain’s great potential when we put it to work learning new things. You may have a specific topic for work or leisure that you want to learn more about. That’s great.
Go learn it. If you don’t have a subject in mind right now, try learning a new word each day. There is a strong correlation between working vocabulary and intelligence. When we have new words in our vocabulary, our minds can think in new ways with greater nuances between ideas. Put your mind to work learning. It is one of the best ways to re-energize your brain.
19. Write To Be Read
I am a big proponent of writing in a journal to capture ideas and thoughts. There is certainly great value in writing for yourself. I continue to find that my brain is greatly stimulated by writing to be read. The greatest benefit of writing is what it does to expand your brain’s capacity. Find ways to write to be read – by writing things for your friends to read, by capturing the stories of your childhood, starting your own blog or whatever – just write to be read.
20. Try Aroma Therapy To Activate Your Brain
One day, as I was falling asleep, while listening to endless speeches at a conference, my brain suddenly perked up when I caught a whiff of lemon from someone’s cologne. I immediately felt alert and found it much easier to pay attention to the presenter. I discovered aroma therapy really is useful and I have used it ever since revitalize or to relax.
Energizers include peppermint, cypress and lemon. Relaxants: ylang ylang, geranium and rose. A few drops of essential oils in your bath or in a diffuser will do the trick. You can also put a drop or two in a cotton ball or hanky and inhale. One caveat for the workplace; make sure no-one is allergic to the oils before you use them.
21. Drugs To Increase Brainpower
Coffee and other drinks containing caffeine help students consistently score higher on tests. Since caffeine restricts blood vessels in the brain, it isn’t clear what the longer-term effects may be when it comes to your brainpower. So instead of coffee breaks try gingko biloba and gotu kola herbal teas. Ginkgo biloba has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain, and improve concentration.
22. Build A Brain Trust
Surround yourself with inspiring people from a wide variety of fields who encourage you and stimulate your creativity. Read magazines from a wide variety of fields. Make connections between people, places and things, to discover new opportunities, and to find solutions to your problems.
Remember that no matter what your age or your occupation; your brain needs to be constantly challenged to be at its peak in terms of performance. Whether it’s doing logic puzzles, memorizing lines from Shakespeare, or learning a new skill, keep your brain busy, if you don’t want it to rust away like a car in a junkyard.

Are Smart People Dumb?

2006-11-21T17:15:00.000+08:00

In prior posts I’ve mentioned how much I’d like to see political polls that are limited to the smart, well-informed people. I have to confess, I thought I was stating a universal truth along the lines of “it’s better to have good health than poor health.” It seemed to me that being smart and well-informed was almost the same thing as being wise. Who doesn’t want the benefit of wisdom to inform their choices?

I was surprised at how many of my readers rushed to support the high quality of decisions made by stupid, uninformed people who are guided by superstition.
Some people accused me of being an elitist trying to assign a higher value to my own smarty-pants decisions. That’s a perfectly reasonable assumption, and I would have made it myself if I were in your Birkenstocks. But the truth is that I want to know the opinions of people who are both smarter and more informed than me. Why would I limit the quality of my advice to people who don’t know any more than I do?

Imagine choosing a doctor on that criterion. “Well, I’d like a brain surgeon who’s about as smart as I am and knows as much about brains as I do, and NO more.”
Still, I pride myself on being able to consider the merits of all points of view no matter how silly they seem on the surface. I asked myself this: If I were the lawyer representing the superstitious simpleton segment of the country, how would I argue that their opinions should be given the same weight as the people who are smart and well-informed? I took it as a challenge.
First I suppose I would point out how many great decisions have been made by dumb guys (Reagan) and crappy decisions made by smart guys (Carter). I’d hope you accepted my anecdotes as evidence and didn’t ask me for a chart showing the relative number of bad decisions made by morons versus geniuses. I’d tell you to go get your own data. And I’d hope you wouldn’t ask me how the Soviet Union would have lasted much longer regardless of who was President of the United States. That’s “changing the subject.”

I’d also refer to military studies done years ago where researchers compared the performances of small groups that had different compositions of intelligence. They found that the groups with the highest percentage of bright people performed the worst. Apparently all the smart people insisted they had the best ideas and nothing got done. The best performing groups were the ones where there was one smart person and the rest of the group deferred to him. Therefore, I would argue, too much intelligence ruins everything.

I’d hope you didn’t ask me to specify the source of that study because it’s something I heard 20 years ago and I might be remembering the conclusions backwards. I’d also hope to God you didn’t ask me to explain how that military small-group example is a good analogy to political opinion polls.

My best argument is the one that hurts me the most. For that you need some background. After college, I got my first job as a bank teller in the San Francisco financial district. My typical customers were titans of industry. They seemed pretty smart. I wondered how smart I was compared to them. Sure, I earned excellent grades in my tiny high school and small college, but how would I stack up in the real world? Was I smart enough to become a titan of industry?
I decided to take an I.Q. test administered by Mensa, the organization of geniuses. If you score in the top 2% of people who take that same test, you get to call yourself a “genius” and optionally join the group. I squeaked in and immediately joined so I could hang out with the other geniuses and do genius things. I even volunteered to host some meetings at my apartment.

Then, the horror.

It turns out that the people who join Mensa and attend meetings are, on average, not successful titans of industry. They are instead – and I say this with great affection – huge losers. I was making $735 per month and I was like frickin’ Goldfinger in this crowd. We had a guy who was some sort of poet who hoped to one day start “writing some of them down.” We had people who were literally too smart to hold a job. The rest of the group dressed too much like street people to ever get past security for a job interview. And everyone was always available for meetings on weekend nights.

But the members were, as advertised, geniuses. Mensa meetings are the strangest experience. No one ever has to explain anything twice. That’s a bigger deal than you might think. Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails. You don’t realize how much time you spend re-explaining things until you no longer need to. Mensa is very cool that way.

However, my Mensa experience served as a warning about trusting the judgments of people who might know how to, for example, make a helicopter from objects found lying around the house, but can’t manage their own lives. Is it possible that good ol’ common sense and traditional values are a better foundation for important life decisions, including politics?
We know that I.Q. correlates with income, but is that because smart people make better decisions or because of discrimination against people who have less education? Is voting more like brain surgery, where intelligence and knowledge obviously help, or more about judging character, where I.Q. might not be a significant factor?

Okay, that’s my best attempt at showing both sides of the issue. But I still want to know the opinions of people who are smarter than me and know more about the issues than I do. Ballot propositions, for example, have little to do with character. Maybe we could track the opinions of smart, well-informed people for a few election cycles and see how they do. That seems worth knowing.

Alternately, we can keep voting for the guy with the best hair while waiting for the Rapture. That might work too.

extracted from
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/11/are_smart_peopl.html

The rise and fall of William J. Sidis

2006-11-21T16:31:00.000+08:00

In the waning years of the nineteenth century, boatloads of Russian Jewish immigrants were arriving in New York harbor as they fled from the religious and political persecution of their homeland. Boris and Sarah Sidis arrived in such a fashion, and they quickly gained notoriety in the United States as brilliant individuals. Boris established a reputation for himself as a pioneer in the study of psychology, and his wife Sarah became one of only a handful of women in America to receive a medical degree. Though they were widely regarded as the possessors of highly gifted minds, they were also renowned for their eccentricities.

After breezing through Harvard as a student, Boris became a professor of psychology there, where he taught and wrote about his ground-breaking theories in the field. He was influential in the areas of hypnosis, group psychology, and mob frenzy; and he was fascinated with the effects of evolution on the human psyche. He was also an advocate of some bizarre treatments such as the "rest cure," whereby victims of mental disorders were isolated in bed for up to two months, sometimes in tandem with electrotherapy. Much of Boris's work was experimental and adventurous in a time when the field of psychology was making great strides.

On April Fool's day in 1898, Boris encountered a unique opportunity to begin applying his eccentric theories of psychology in a real-world environment: his wife Sarah gave birth to a son. Under the tutelage of these ingenious yet neurotic parents, young William James Sidis developed into an individual with astonishing talents.Boris and Sarah began their child's education in his first few months, and William's infant mind absorbed the information at an extraordinary rate. Using wooden blocks, Boris began demonstrating the alphabet to his young son, using techniques similar to hypnosis to coax the baby into pronouncing the letters. At six months, William uttered the word "door," and by the following month he had doubled his vocabulary to include "moon." At eight months old, his proud parents boasted that he was able to feed himself with a spoon, a skill that very few children develop within their first year. He was also able to recognize and repeat the letters on Boris's toy blocks, giving him a four-year-old's grasp of symbol recognition.

The Sidises believed that aggressive curiosity was a quality to be nurtured, so Sarah gave up her career in medicine to dedicate her life to the child's development. William's thirst for knowledge never went unquenched, and by his first birthday– an age when most children are still babbling– he was honing his spelling skills. At one and a half years of age, he was reading the daily newspaper.

As William approached his fifth birthday, his spectacular abilities began to draw the attention of the press. He had taught himself to operate the typewriter from his high chair, tapping out a letter to Macy's regarding an order for toys. He had also taken it upon himself to learn Latin, Greek, Russian, French, German, and Hebrew. His appetite for information seemed endless as he easily chewed through weighty tomes such as Gray's Anatomy and the works of Homer. He entered grammar school at age six, but in just over half a year he had advanced into high school curriculum. His stunning accomplishments soon became a frequent feature on the first page of the New York Times.

Boris and Sarah were understandably proud of their son and his intellectual achievements. By cultivating his precocious nature it seemed that they had confirmed some of their outlandish theories, and they paraded young William around as evidence of this. But the question of how much was due to their influence and how much was was due to his own natural genius is a matter of some debate. Whatever their approach may have contributed to his development, it is clear that his mind had a natural propensity for gorging itself on information.

At age nine William attempted to enroll at Harvard, and though the entrance exams were not a challenge for the young intellect, he was turned down on the basis that he was too "emotionally immature" for college life. As William waited for the Harvard admissions board to capitulate, he spent the intervening time at Tufts College correcting mistakes in mathematicians' books, perusing Einstein's theories for possible errors, mastering foreign languages, and diligently collecting streetcar transfer slips. He discovered that he could mentally calculate the day of the week for any given date in the past or in the future, and he wrote four books. When the boy prodigy reached eleven years of age in 1909, the prestigious university finally relented and accepted William as a student.

On a cold January evening in 1910, about a hundred professors and advanced math students gathered in a Harvard lecture hall to observe the eleven-year-old William Sidis's first public speaking presentation. He spoke in a quiet, shy voice and had to stifle the occasional giggle, but his lecture on Four-Dimensional Bodies was very well received. It was sufficiently advanced that it bewildered many of his audience members, as indicated by the depth of his introduction:
"My own definition of the Fourth Dimension would be that it is an Euclidian space with one dimension added. It is the projection of the figures of the Third Dimension into space. The third dimensional figures, such as the cube, are used as sides of the figures of the Fourth Dimension, and the figures of the Fourth Dimension are called configurations. It is not possible to actually construct models of the figures of the Fourth Dimension, or to conceive of them in the mind's eye, but it is easy to construct them by means of Euclid's theorem."

After William's presentation, MIT professor Daniel Comstock predicted to reporters that Sidis would become the foremost mathematician of the 20th century. The story of William's exploits shortly became national news.

Sidis graduated cum laude at age 16, having grown a bit introverted in response to the sudden fame and pressure. At his graduation, he told the gathered newspapermen, "I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is to live it in seclusion. I have always hated crowds." He began a lifelong policy of vigorously rejecting sex, art, music, or anything else that would distract him from the pursuit of pure knowledge.

William briefly taught mathematics at Rice University in Houston, but he resigned when it became apparent that his age and fame were inescapable distractions to the students. He went back to Harvard for a short time to pursue a law degree, but dropped out when he found that the law did not suit him. In 1919 William was once again subjected to public scrutiny when he was arrested for participating in an anti-draft demonstration which developed into a riot. The ensuing trial further underscored his unconventional philosophies, such as his lack of a belief in God– particularly the "big boss of the Christians"– and his socialist leanings. His political views later evolved into something resembling Libertarianism.

He sidestepped imprisonment thanks to his parents' influence, but they confined him to their summer home in California for a year after the event. Embittered, William moved back to the east coast in an effort to retreat from the press, his parents, and his talents– all of which he regarded as blights. He took up a series of menial jobs working as a clerk and a bookkeeper, moving to a new employer whenever his identity was discovered. "The very sight of a mathematical formula makes me physically ill." he once said, "All I want to do is run an adding machine, but they won't let me alone." On one occasion Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company hired him and handed him a stack of blueprints and statistics in the hopes that he could improve their system; he was reduced to tears at the prospect of the computations, and quit the new job on his first day.

Sidis made a noble effort to avoid the public eye in his adult years. He wrote several books, but most of them were under assumed names and about obscure subjects. One such book, entitled Notes on the Collection of Streetcar Transfers, discusses his unusual hobby of peridromophilia at painstaking length. The work was described by one Sidis biographer as "the most boring book ever written." William also alluded to the existence of dark matter before it had been formally theorized, and wrote about how one democratic Native American tribe may have strongly influenced the politics of America's founders. In the meantime he continued to learn new languages, absorbing dozens of foreign tongues with ease.

A clipping from Boston Traveler (click for full view)The press continued to hound William for years, poking fun at his humdrum jobs and scorning his neglected potential. One New Yorker article entitled "April Fool" was so scathing and filled with personal details that it prompted Sidis to sue for invasion of privacy, a case which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. He finally won a partial victory in 1944, but it was a bittersweet success.

William did not live long after that; in the following July his landlady telephoned the police after discovering him unconscious in his Boston apartment. Forty-six year old Sidis had suffered a massive stroke, and he never again regained consciousness. Such was the end of the one-time prodigy who had astonished a Harvard math audience at age eleven; he died a reclusive, penniless office clerk.

Those who knew him in his later life spoke of his conspicuous brilliance and his mastery of over forty languages, but his tangible contributions to society seemed to be relatively few for someone of his talents. Some argue that his parents pushed him too hard in his youth– overexerting his exceptional mind at an early age– and some blame the press for driving him into isolation. There is considerable evidence that William favored the Okamakammesset tribal philosophy of "anonymous contribution", a principle which implies that one's value is not measured by one's visible contributions to society.

Though he probably would not have put much stock in formal measures of intelligence, it is estimated that William Sidis's IQ was as high as 300, where 100 is average and over 140 is considered genius. Whatever the reason for his underwhelming output later in life, he was certainly one of the most profoundly gifted human beings who ever lived. There is no telling what William might have accomplished for mathematics and science if only his talents had not been squandered.

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What is Mensa?

2006-11-21T16:27:00.000+08:00

Mensa was founded at Oxford University in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, who later also became a barrister. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, with the objective of enjoying each other's company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.

The word Mensa; is Latin for table, or mind. The name stands for a round-table society, where race, color, creed, national origin, age, politics, educational or social background are irrelevant.
Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members. Mensa "provides a forum for intellectual exchange among members. Its activities include the exchange of ideas by lectures, discussions, journals, special-interest groups, and local, regional, national, and international gatherings; the investigations of members' opinions and attitudes; and assistance to researchers, inside and outside Mensa in projects dealing with intelligence or Mensa."

There is simply no one prevailing characteristic of Mensa members other than high IQ. There are Mensans for whom Mensa provides a sense of family and others for whom it is casual. There have been many marriages made in Mensa but for many people, it is simply a stimulating opportunity for the mind. Almost certainly, most Mensans have a good sense of humor and they like to talk. And, usually, they have a lot to say.

Mensa takes no stand on politics, religion or social issues. Mensa encompasses members from so many different countries and cultures, and with many different points of view. For Mensa to espouse a particular point of view would go against its role as a forum for all points of view. (Of course, individual Mensa members often have strong opinions. It is said that in a room with 12 Mensans you will find 13 differing opinions on any given subject.)

Globally, and in Singapore, Mensans range in age from 4 to 94, but most are between 20 and 49. In education, they range from preschoolers to high school dropouts to people with multiple doctorates. There are Mensans on welfare and Mensans who are millionaires. As far as occupations, the range is staggering. Mensa has professors and truck drivers, scientists and firefighters, computer programmers and farmers, artists, military people, musicians, laborers, police officers, glassblowers - you name it. There are famous Mensans and prize-winning Mensans, but there are many, many whose names you wouldn't know.

Mensa Activities worldwideMensa meetings are anything but dull! Local groups meet at least monthly... for dinner and drinks on a Friday night, get-togethers featuring a speaker, or a lively, freewheeling discussion. All with fellow members who share your intellectual interests. Some groups have special get-togethers or activities throughout the month. Others, especially the larger groups, have events on practically every day. Of course, participation in group activities is always entirely at your option. There's also widely attended annual conventions offering workshops, seminars, and parties. Plus, numerous regional gatherings are held each year, offering social and intellectual excitement.

Whatever your passion, there's almost certain to be a Special Interest Group (SIG) filled with other Mensans who share it! Mensa offers approximately 200 SIGs, in mind-boggling profusion from African Violets to zoology. Along the way you'll find microbiology, and systems analysis, but you'll also find Sherlock Holmes, chocolate and Star Trek. There's the expected: biochemistry, space science, economics -- and the unexpected: poker, roller-skating, scuba diving, UFOs and witchcraft. There are SIGs for breadmaking, winemaking, cartooning, silversmithing, and clowning. Heraldry, semantics and Egyptology co-exist with beekeeping, motorcycling and tap dancing. Sports SIGs cover the classics (baseball, basketball, and football) and the not so classic (skeet shooting, hang gliding, sky diving). And any Mensan who can't find a SIG to join can easily start one.

Mensa members find opportunities to contribute to the betterment of society through volunteer activities within their communities. Many Mensa groups offer scholarships for gifted students. The Gifted Children Resource Program compiles and provides information for gifted children at the national and local levels.
How do I join Mensa?Membership in Mensa is open to persons who have attained a score within the upper two percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test that has been properly administered and supervised. There is no other qualification or disqualification for membership eligibility.

The term IQ score is widely used but poorly defined. There are a large number of tests with different scales. The result on one test of 132 can be the same as a score 148 on another test. Some intelligence tests don't use IQ scores at all. Mensa has set a percentage as cutoff to avoid this confusion. Candidates for membership in Mensa must achieve a score at or above the 98th percentile (a score that is greater than or equal to 98 percent of the general population taking the test) on a standard test of intelligence.

Mensa Singapore's team of psychologists conducts the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices for children aged 14 & above. A General Intelligence Quotient Score (IQ Score) is a statistically derived number which indicates relative and comparative abilities that can be used to obtain academic skills and knowledge. Mensa Singapore accepts members who have scored above 148 in the Raven's Test. Those who scored above 156 are ranked in the top 99th percentile. A person who has scored 132, for example, is in the 92nd percentile, while someone who scores 100 is in the 50th percentile. For more information, please refer to the IQ Testing section.