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Dave's avatar

I think it was Charles Murray who compared IQ scores to the weight of offensive lineman - there's a minimum threshold that you need to meet to really compete at the higher levels, but once you pass that threshold, more does not correlate at all with higher performance. Winning at those higher levels requires those things that are difficult or impossible to measure, the intangibles, that being "on fire with thought"... or to carry on the football analogy, being on fire with pushing those other dudes out of the way.

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Chasing Ennui's avatar

I appreciate your touching on the middle ground between "IQ tests are gospel" and "IQ is made up." It seems pretty clear to me that: a) people differ in their intellectual abilities in ways that are at least somewhat innate (though it's also possible to excel or lag in some areas but not others); b) it's not entirely innate; and c) it's hard to have an entirely unbiased test intellectual ability, let alone tease out innate from acquired ability, particularly in a given person. However, there seem to be a lot of people who like to use (b) and (c) to "prove" (a) isn't true.

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