A winemaker at Mensa

Highly gifted: “We don’t talk about IQ levels”

Not everyone with a high IQ is a quantum physicist, says Helmut Preisinger. He himself is a winegrower.(Bild: Christoph Miehl)

With an IQ of more than 130, Helmut Preisinger has above-average intelligence. What this means for him and his life, why he thinks our way of counting is wrong and how you can recognize giftedness in your child.

"We're counting wrong," says Helmut Preisinger from Gols. He explained this to his teacher back in the second grade of elementary school. "Of course, that only caused laughter back then. Since then, I think correctly but count incorrectly," he says. It shouldn't be eleven, twelve, 13, etc., but 10-1, 10-2, 10-3. This small change alone can increase mental arithmetic performance many times over, he says. Hungarian is the only language in which people count correctly. 

Discovery of talent was not without consequences
Preisinger is what is commonly referred to as highly gifted. The winegrower has an intelligence quotient of more than 130. In secondary school, he took an intelligence test and stood out from the crowd. At that time, he also came to the attention of the Mensa association, an Austria-wide network for the gifted. He attended a meeting for the first time at the age of 14. In his private life, however, his outstanding ability proved to be a disadvantage.