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It's depressing how conventional it has become for a relatively intelligent population, like the HN audience, to only know about criticisms of IQ and basically

It's depressing how conventional it has become for a relatively intelligent population, like the HN audience, to only know about criticisms of IQ and basically nothing about its positive value. But witness the credulous reception for Taleb's slapdash work in these comments, and the hostility to basic technical criticisms of that work. If you are interested in knowing about the thing itself, and not just criticisms of the thing, I invite you to pick up, for example, Stuart Ritchie's book https://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-That-Matters-Stuart-Ritchie/dp/1444791877 https://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-That-Matters-Stuart-Ritc... And before you get upset about the title, the book is from a survey series called "All That Matters". It's not claiming that _intelligence_ is "all that matters".

mcguire 6y ago
What policy changes does Ritchie recommend? I saw a mention of IQ testing for job interviews (and can imagine the kerfuffle if Google or Facebook a test score of 130 before an initial interview).
disown 6y ago
> like the HN audience I think most of the HN audience is well aware of the positive aspects of IQ. It's just that the power structure here protects the vocal minority who espouse solely the negative side. Like so much of media/social media/politics/culture/etc, it's censorship that tips the scale and skews discourse towards the extreme.
jameslk 6y ago
> It's depressing how conventional it has become for a relatively intelligent population, like the HN audience, to only know about criticisms of IQ and basically nothing about its positive value. What do you consider it's positive values? All I'm aware of is how it's used to judge people. Unless you consider that a positive thing.
- civilized 6y ago
  Here are just a couple examples: 1. We can quantitatively study environmental factors that influence intelligence. For example, we know that even low concentrations of lead in the blood are linked to lower IQ. Knowing what can hurt our mental abilities allows us to protect ourselves via environmental policy. 2. It's not uncommon that a child who is inattentive at school is high IQ and is understimulated by going at the normal classroom pace. Testing allows identification and targeted enrichment opportunities.

mcguire 6y ago

What policy changes does Ritchie recommend? I saw a mention of IQ testing for job interviews (and can imagine the kerfuffle if Google or Facebook a test score of 130 before an initial interview).

disown 6y ago

> like the HN audience I think most of the HN audience is well aware of the positive aspects of IQ. It's just that the power structure here protects the vocal minority who espouse solely the negative side. Like so much of media/social media/politics/culture/etc, it's censorship that tips the scale and skews discourse towards the extreme.

jameslk 6y ago

> It's depressing how conventional it has become for a relatively intelligent population, like the HN audience, to only know about criticisms of IQ and basically nothing about its positive value. What do you consider it's positive values? All I'm aware of is how it's used to judge people. Unless you consider that a positive thing.

civilized 6y ago
Here are just a couple examples: 1. We can quantitatively study environmental factors that influence intelligence. For example, we know that even low concentrations of lead in the blood are linked to lower IQ. Knowing what can hurt our mental abilities allows us to protect ourselves via environmental policy. 2. It's not uncommon that a child who is inattentive at school is high IQ and is understimulated by going at the normal classroom pace. Testing allows identification and targeted enrichment opportunities.