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> One of them mentioned their actual IQ. Very few people had their IQ measured properly. Either way, I doubt you ever worked with a programmer who really did

> One of them mentioned their actual IQ. Very few people had their IQ measured properly. Either way, I doubt you ever worked with a programmer who really did have 90 IQ. Not to put too fine a point on it: such a person would appear dumb and slow. It will take them a long time to understand anything. They'll be disruptive and a drag on everyone else. There's a reason top tech spends billions (!) recruiting a highly intelligent workforce. > Look at the number of 17 year olds in the US compare that with the top schools minus smart people not going to top schools. Now consider each school gets a fraction of that and Stanford students really don’t have that high of a median IQ. Well, I did the math. Per the NCES, there were 16.9m undergraduates in 2016. Stanford had about 7,000 undergrads the same year, which includes all departments, including non-STEM like Art and English. Let's say there are 10 schools at Stanford's level (there aren't). That still means schools at that top level will accept only 0.4% of applicants. That means they could easily pick only candidates with 140 IQ or more. Of course, they don't, but the IQ at these institutions will still be pretty high. > I think people vastly over estimate IQ’s of people they work with. I think you under estimate the IQ of people you work with :) I'll be surprised if you worked with anyone below 100 IQ (population average). In fact I'll be pretty surprised if you worked with any programmer below 110 IQ.

Retric 8y ago
> Let's say there are 10 schools at Stanford's level (there aren't). That’s way off base. Schools like MIT and Stanfard are comparable for CS students. But High IQ people are not so limited. So, you need to include say Cal Arts which absolutely stomps Standfard for people interested in Animation etc. Standfard might reasonably attract 1% of the very high IQ population if you assume high IQ people go to elite schools. But, as a CS student that took an actual IQ test and was classified as exceptionally gifted aka 160-174 IQ, I can say never had any interest in doing so. IQ tests are relatively uncommon now days, but historically high IQ people where very likely to choose local options and not infrequently avoid collage and join the military etc. There is very little evidence this has changed. Anyway, 90 IQ is really close enough to average not to appear significantly different in most situations.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > 90 IQ is really close enough to average not to appear significantly different in most situations. Population average? Maybe. Subpopulation of professional programmers average? Less likely.
  - Retric 8y ago
    Their are around 1.17 million programmers in the US, that’s far from an elite field. Granted, it’s a somewhat more abstract skill than most things. But, plenty of young children learn basic programming and brain development means a 90 IQ adult is generally more capable of preforming tasks than a 110 IQ child. Sure, the child learns faster, but that’s of limited long term value. Honestly, building the same basic CRUD application for some random government agency is just not that difficult. People like that don’t make 200+k, but they make up the bulk of professional programmers out there. PS: I did say he seemed a little slow for a programmer, but still capable of the job.
    - dunpeal 8y ago
      > Their are around 1.17 million programmers in the US, that’s far from an elite field. There were 162.63 million people employed in the US as of October 2018, according to the BLS: https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?graph_name=LN_cpsbref1&request_action=wh https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?graph_name=LN_c... That makes programmers 0.7% of the total working population. It can easily be seen as an elite field. Tech companies could theoretically disqualify anyone with an IQ less than 130 and still be left with over x3 times more candidates than working programmer positions in the US.
      - Retric 8y ago
        You are assuming 25% of high IQ people theoretically enter programming which is absurd. Having a high IQ is only associated with ‘success’ not any particular interest. So, you see high IQ actors, athletes, soldiers, teachers, even janitors not just fields like engineering and mathematics which are thought to attract such. Any profession that wants to attract 1+ million people simply can’t be that selective.

Retric 8y ago

> Let's say there are 10 schools at Stanford's level (there aren't). That’s way off base. Schools like MIT and Stanfard are comparable for CS students. But High IQ people are not so limited. So, you need to include say Cal Arts which absolutely stomps Standfard for people interested in Animation etc. Standfard might reasonably attract 1% of the very high IQ population if you assume high IQ people go to elite schools. But, as a CS student that took an actual IQ test and was classified as exceptionally gifted aka 160-174 IQ, I can say never had any interest in doing so. IQ tests are relatively uncommon now days, but historically high IQ people where very likely to choose local options and not infrequently avoid collage and join the military etc. There is very little evidence this has changed. Anyway, 90 IQ is really close enough to average not to appear significantly different in most situations.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> 90 IQ is really close enough to average not to appear significantly different in most situations. Population average? Maybe. Subpopulation of professional programmers average? Less likely.
- Retric 8y ago
  Their are around 1.17 million programmers in the US, that’s far from an elite field. Granted, it’s a somewhat more abstract skill than most things. But, plenty of young children learn basic programming and brain development means a 90 IQ adult is generally more capable of preforming tasks than a 110 IQ child. Sure, the child learns faster, but that’s of limited long term value. Honestly, building the same basic CRUD application for some random government agency is just not that difficult. People like that don’t make 200+k, but they make up the bulk of professional programmers out there. PS: I did say he seemed a little slow for a programmer, but still capable of the job.
  - dunpeal 8y ago
    > Their are around 1.17 million programmers in the US, that’s far from an elite field. There were 162.63 million people employed in the US as of October 2018, according to the BLS: https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?graph_name=LN_cpsbref1&request_action=wh https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?graph_name=LN_c... That makes programmers 0.7% of the total working population. It can easily be seen as an elite field. Tech companies could theoretically disqualify anyone with an IQ less than 130 and still be left with over x3 times more candidates than working programmer positions in the US.
    - Retric 8y ago
      You are assuming 25% of high IQ people theoretically enter programming which is absurd. Having a high IQ is only associated with ‘success’ not any particular interest. So, you see high IQ actors, athletes, soldiers, teachers, even janitors not just fields like engineering and mathematics which are thought to attract such. Any profession that wants to attract 1+ million people simply can’t be that selective.