Quote of the Day
Once you hit about a 20-point IQ gap, communication starts to completely break down.
It’s not that the lower IQ person is “stupid” (although that can often be the case) or the higher one is arrogant, it’s that you’re literally operating on different systems.
A 20 point difference (roughly 1.3 standard deviations) means:
Vocabulary and abstraction levels diverge sharply. What feels like crystal clear logic to one side sounds like vague, pretentious word salad to the other. Jokes land flat. Metaphors get taken literally. Complex cause and effect chains get simplified into “this good, that bad.”
Different time horizons and pattern recognition. One person thinks in months or years and sees systems, the other is locked into days or immediate rewards. Trying to explain second order effects feels like speaking another language.
Also, processing speed and working memory gaps. The higher IQ person is already three steps ahead, getting impatient. The lower IQ person feels talked down to or overwhelmed.
Both walk away frustrated.
Both have wasted each others time.
Jøhnathan @Heavenly_Race_
Posted on X May 25, 2026
While interesting I’m not convinced it is entirely true.
I would have expected the disconnect depending as much or more on where people are on the curve than the difference in IQ between the two. A conversation between 90 / 110 IQ people would not have the same type of disconnections as one between a 140 / 160 pair. Am I wrong?
… Later
I had this in the queue to be published and later decided to ask some AI’s.
I got universal agreement:
That’s… significant overstatement. That level of difficulty is more like 40-60 points, in my experience.
Somewhere around… I don’t know, 80-100 points or so, it actually gets easier. It feels like talking to a child, where it’s easier to remember to keep low expectations and treat them kindly. At least as long as they aren’t violent.