3 ms·

I think it's cute that you believe something that Gladwell put forth to the world. http://studentcareers.learnhub.com/lesson/6941-iq-ranges-of-occupations http

I think it's cute that you believe something that Gladwell put forth to the world. http://studentcareers.learnhub.com/lesson/6941-iq-ranges-of-occupations http://studentcareers.learnhub.com/lesson/6941-iq-ranges-of-...

gjm11 17y ago
Your link doesn't offer any sort of evidence against Gladwell's contention (which isn't original to Gladwell, and which on the basis of negligible evidence I suspect is an oversimplification but not far from the truth). In fact, arguably it offers a little evidence against what Gladwell says. If IQ above ~120 makes no difference to performance, and if "career" and "performance" are close enough to make it worth while citing this thing at all, then you ought to see no little difference between {occupations substantially found among people with IQ ~120} and {occuptations substantially found among people with IQ ~130}. Now, look down the 120 and 130 lines of that plot, and notice that you see quite different things in the two instances. (The foregoing is a bit of a simplification, but it'll do. Anyway, I see no way to read the graph as providing evidence that IQ 120 is better than IQ 110, but IQ 130 isn't better than IQ 120, in terms of likely success/performance.)
- tokenadult 17y ago
  The estimate that the IQ threshold for adult eminence is about IQ 120 appears to come from Arthur Jensen. It has been repeated by Hans Eysenck and is most frequently written about by Dean Keith Simonton, who cites a specialized study on exactly that issue in one of his latest books. Locally, I'm in an ongoing discussion, partly in person and partly by email, with Thomas Bouchard on this point. I think the additional help of an IQ score above 120 is negligible compared to other factors that are known to be important for adult eminence.
yummyfajitas 17y ago
Your graph only shows that IQ matters up to about 120. I agree that Gladwell wildly exaggerates his case, but your statistics don't contradict it at all.
larrywright 17y ago
Malcolm is certainly not the first person to put that idea out there, and I think there's some credence to it. I read something else recently (based on a Stanford study) that said that the greatest predictor of success wasn't IQ, but rather self discipline: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_... Certainly someone with a high IQ AND self discipline could go farther than someone with just one or the other, but IQ by itself is not a meaningful gauge of someone's potential.

gjm11 17y ago

Your link doesn't offer any sort of evidence against Gladwell's contention (which isn't original to Gladwell, and which on the basis of negligible evidence I suspect is an oversimplification but not far from the truth). In fact, arguably it offers a little evidence against what Gladwell says. If IQ above ~120 makes no difference to performance, and if "career" and "performance" are close enough to make it worth while citing this thing at all, then you ought to see no little difference between {occupations substantially found among people with IQ ~120} and {occuptations substantially found among people with IQ ~130}. Now, look down the 120 and 130 lines of that plot, and notice that you see quite different things in the two instances. (The foregoing is a bit of a simplification, but it'll do. Anyway, I see no way to read the graph as providing evidence that IQ 120 is better than IQ 110, but IQ 130 isn't better than IQ 120, in terms of likely success/performance.)

tokenadult 17y ago
The estimate that the IQ threshold for adult eminence is about IQ 120 appears to come from Arthur Jensen. It has been repeated by Hans Eysenck and is most frequently written about by Dean Keith Simonton, who cites a specialized study on exactly that issue in one of his latest books. Locally, I'm in an ongoing discussion, partly in person and partly by email, with Thomas Bouchard on this point. I think the additional help of an IQ score above 120 is negligible compared to other factors that are known to be important for adult eminence.

yummyfajitas 17y ago

Your graph only shows that IQ matters up to about 120. I agree that Gladwell wildly exaggerates his case, but your statistics don't contradict it at all.

larrywright 17y ago

Malcolm is certainly not the first person to put that idea out there, and I think there's some credence to it. I read something else recently (based on a Stanford study) that said that the greatest predictor of success wasn't IQ, but rather self discipline: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_... Certainly someone with a high IQ AND self discipline could go farther than someone with just one or the other, but IQ by itself is not a meaningful gauge of someone's potential.