4 ms·

Yes, all the smartest, most capable people should stop having kids. Considering intelligence is something like 85% hereditary, that will work out excellently!

• BadassFractal 10y ago
  The smartest and most capable people will not be making 100k in the Bay area with a family of 4.
  • Danihan 10y ago
    In your mind, what would the smartest and most capable people be doing?
• nradov 10y ago
  There is no reliable evidence of people in the Bay Area being smarter or more capable on average than other major metropolitan areas. The average Bay Area resident may be slightly more educated but that doesn't necessarily prove anything about their level of heritable intelligence.
  • Danihan 10y ago
    What would you consider reliable evidence? I'd say the Bay Area GDP and tax base alone would point that way.
    • nradov 10y ago
      Reliable evidence would be a large scale, double blind clinical study establishing statistically significant correlations between particular genes and high scores on multiple standardized intelligence tests, followed by a finding that those genes are significantly more common in the Bay Area than in other regions. Without something like that you can't legitimately make any claims about heritable intelligence. There are many alternative hypotheses which could potentially explain the GDP per capita differential.
      • Danihan 10y ago
        Sure, you're correct. But you'll have to excuse me if I don't wait decades for data like this to build a worldview.
        • nradov 10y ago
          It would be a shame if you build a worldview based on narrow geographic prejudice not backed by any hard evidence. I think we can do better.
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    > There is no reliable evidence of people in the Bay Area being smarter or more capable on average than other major metropolitan areas. There may not be conclusive evidence, but there is fairly suggestive evidence given known correlates of intelligence. > The average Bay Area resident may be slightly more educated but that doesn't necessarily prove anything about their level of heritable intelligence. It doesn't necessarily prove that, but both access to and success in higher education is gated by selective filters for, among other factors, intelligence, so a region with higher average level of education would, itself, suggest (though not necessarily prove) higher average intelligence.