IQ. Increasing and decreasing.

One of the things we in advertising are meant to be adept in is multitasking. Our holding-company-dictated lives have divvied up our time-sheeted days into 15 minute increments. We don't even get--there's no time for one--a mental intermezzo between tasks. We are meant to flit from one to another, like flies on various piles of shit.

Once I heard a guy from the MIT Media Lab speak. His name was Dr. Michael Hawley and he had a lot to say. The thing I remember most vividly is this quotation that I've carried with me since I heard it back in 1999.

"A different perspective is worth 100 points of IQ."

Today I ran across the datum below from the "Latham's Quarterly," a magazine wholly worth your attention.



10 IQ points is a lot of points. If you're an average brain, it probably leaves you functioning at high-dimwit levels. If you're already a dimwit, you might wind up thinking like a bonehead. If you're already a bonehead, a 10 point decrease might leave you acting like a numskull.