(Yes, I know it’s “Ides.”)
There’s a silly little prank/riddle you can try on your friends. You say, “How would you pronounce ‘Y – E – S?'” And they’ll say, “yes.” Then you say, “Okay, how would you pronounce ‘E – Y – E – S?'” And since you’re reading this instead of hearing it, you’ll get the gag immediately: The word is “eyes,” but many people will get tripped up by the odd juxtaposition and say some nonsense word pronounced “ee-yes.”
Some people won’t fall for it, of course. But it’s not really about smarts, per se. Instead, the people who don’t fall for it are generally very high-visualization. Some people will see the physical letters appear in their minds, and those people will then recognize the complete word “eyes.” Other people are non-visualizers, and those are the ones who will get tripped up.
So this trick doesn’t really suss out smarts, but it does detect high-visualization thinkers, which is neat!
The Opportunity Machine 