An IQ is a number that, simply put, represents an individual’s reasoning ability.
Your IQ can be determined by taking a series of tests that commonly involve mathematical puzzles. Of the entire world’s population, less than one percent meet the 145 IQ requirement needed to be considered a “genius.” In some cases, an IQ can get you over a dozen million-dollar offers from the world’s top telecommunication firms.
Such is the case with hyper-genius Audie LaPier.
Way back in 1991 when the internet was in it’s infancy, in an attempt to draw out fellow geniuses, software genius and treasure hunter Phil Fischer (IQ 151), planned and designed a seemingly unsolvable online mathematical puzzle and posted the game on his software firm’s website.
The game became an instant hit with the geek crowd and in the 25 years the game was available, over 23,898 people took a crack at answering all 19 of the questions but no users had ever made it past question #5.
Known in high end software circles as “Fischer’s riddle”, the puzzle required the solver to successfully answer 19 complex math problems that involved anything from quantum physics to subliminal color mood algorithms. What made the test unique, though, were the last three questions, the topic of choice being grizzly bears, Fischer’s favorite topic due to a bear attack Fischer he survived in the Arctic Circle when he was 16.
Before the subject was able to get to the bear questions, the users had to solve 16 others questions that stumped the vast majority. The first question can be seen as an example:
2+3=8, 3+7=27, 4+5=32, 5+8=60, 6+7=72, 7+8=?
After completing the first 16 questions, the bear questions were finally presented and one could move the bear along the trail toward the Salmon stream with each correct question answered.
The questions were confusingly simple at first glance, one asking, “Which type of bear is actually a carnivore?” and another asking, “Which bear is a marine mammal?” These questions were actually the easiest to answer, with not one person answering more than #5 questions since 1991.
“We were notified immediately via email if anyone ever successfully answered the first five of my 19 questions and we used to get on average 2-4 emails a week notifying us that someone answered the first few questions correctly,” said Fischer when reached in Bellevue, Washington. “But we never received any emails that someone answered more than 5 of my questions in the twenty-five years the contest was up.”
The puzzle’s interface included a small pixelated bear and a complex wilderness maze. Users were able to move the bear closer to a salmon stream every time they answered a question correctly. The puzzle was complete when a user moved the bear to the stream so that it could feed.
The famous mathematical “bear puzzle” was so tough to crack that Fischer promised anyone who could solve his puzzle would get a lead developer position at his Software firm in Seattle.
“We would laugh and crack jokes about how nobody would ever solve it,” Fischer laughed. “And the guys in coding continually talked about taking the puzzle down, but we always hoped that maybe someone, someday, would solve it. Eventually we forgot about it”
That hope ended August 12th, 2016 at 1:23 AM when Fischer received an email from his old firm’s website.
He was informed that not only did someone solve the puzzle, but the user solved the infamous puzzle in less than 18 minutes. The man was Audie LaPier, who has an IQ of 166, significantly higher than a genius’ 164. Immediately after solving the puzzle, he sent an email to Fischer to explain that he did, in fact, “win.”
“I was shocked,” Fischer said. “I made it twenty-five years ago and now here I am with an email from a solver.”
Within hours, the 33-year-old LaPier was contacted by several software firms and by the end of the week LaPier was offered several lucrative positions at 17 large fortune 500 corporations with one company offering LaPier a 1.3 million dollar a year salary just to start with, but he declined all of the offers stating in a phone conversation Saturday with Fischer “Who would not want to work where there is a 6-foot-tall stuffed bear in the lobby, strange 50’s movie posters, lava lamps, and free pizza?”
“I love this guy,” Fischer said. “I wanted LaPier, but so did every other shark in Dotcom Ville so I made him an offer he could not refuse. I basically told his girlfriend I would take care of him and send her the money.” Fischer continued, “She agreed!”
