When I came across the story of Chris Langan in chapter nine I could not help but be reminded of a movie I saw a while back. Langan is considered the smartest man in america with an IQ of between 195 and 210. Despite his amazing cognitive abilities, he has worked many labor intensive jobs including a 20 year stint as a bouncer on Long Island. Langan has published a paper on his theory called the Cognitive Theory Model of the Universe and has started a foundation with his wife called the Mega Foundation which strives to assist and support individuals with extreme cognitive abilities like Chris.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw
When I heard this story I was reminded of this scene from Good Will Hunting where Will, a character with very similar cognitive abilities to Chris, explains why he does not want to work in a job which would take full advantage of his abilities. These two stories bring up an interesting question regarding the meaning of life. If these individuals who are supposedly so much smarter than your average person are living an average blue collar lifestyle, perhaps that is the best way to be happy in life.
Chris Langan reminds me of one of my cousins. He has a really high IQ yet he works as a repo man in Minneapolis and plays in a metal band. Perhaps Mr. Langan preferred a labor intensive job because it is more interesting to him than sitting in a cubicle and thinking all day. I know that if I had a really high IQ, I would probably prefer to be doing something intensive and hands on rather than sit at a desk all day and think. Maybe it is not the high IQ that determines what we do as a job but our personality??