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The line is drawn at the point that someone's mental condition would negatively impact their coworkers. Someone slightly on the spectrum who's somewhat awkward

The line is drawn at the point that someone's mental condition would negatively impact their coworkers. Someone slightly on the spectrum who's somewhat awkward in conversation but an otherwise great developer? Probably a pass, unless their conversational awkwardness makes communication difficult. Someone further on the spectrum who has a meltdown if their daily routine is even slightly disrupted? Probably not a pass, unless that routine never crosses the path of a coworker. Someone with untreated bipolar disorder who lashes out with little provocation at their coworkers? Fail. Someone with an IQ of 80 who's literally incapable of coding, and would thus be total dead weight on the team? Fail.

nitrogen 5y ago
Someone with an IQ of 80 who's literally incapable of coding? Fail. I actually worked with a developer who said their tested IQ was in the 80s.
- ummwhat 5y ago
  So what language were they working in?
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    Well if my company is any indication, VBA.
- chroma 5y ago
  I’m very skeptical that someone with an IQ of 80 could be employed as a software developer. I think other explanations are more likely. Your coworker could be joking or lying. He could be mistaken (eg: interpreting a percentile as an IQ score). The test could have been mis-graded. Or maybe he was just having a really bad day. If he took an IQ test again, I seriously doubt he’d get such a low result. A person with an IQ of 80 usually has trouble functioning in society. It can be difficult to teach them concepts like alphabetization or hypotheticals. For someone with such cognitive impairments to become a software developer beggars belief.
  - vbsteven 5y ago
    It could also be a partial IQ score of 80. IQ tests are divided in 4 key areas each scored separately. If all 4 scores are similar they can be averaged to get the final tested score. If they are not it’s called a “gap” and the average score is meaningless. With gap results it’s not uncommon to see 2 low areas scoring 80s and 2 high areas 120 or even 130+. “A developer declaring a tested IQ of 80” could be a gap case and somewhere along the way the nuance got lost in translation.
    - sudosysgen 5y ago
      Not necessarily. They could also score in the 70s in 2 areas, score 115 in another, and 90 in the last one, and get a score in the 80s. Beyond that, IQ is not even predictive enough of job performance for a standard deviation to be a death sentence.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    Come on, IQ 85 is only one standard deviation below the average, and correlates at around .4 with job performance. That means you'd expect someone with IQ 85 to be on average less than a standard deviation under the average at job performance. It's definitely possible for someone with IQ85 or IQ80 to be better at programming than the average IQ100 programmer, and it's not even that unlikely. Let's not overstate this.
    - ggreer 5y ago
      The average software developer does not have an average IQ. Look at the figures at the end of this paper[1]. Even professions like nursing have IQs averaging close to 110. "Science and engineering occupations" are around 115 average, with nobody below 90. If you look at college majors, you'll get similar results. Our occupations and interests cause us to self-segregate into cognitive strata. For the same reason you don't know many Trump voters or young earth creationists (despite the fact that they're 1/3rd of the US population), you probably don't know many dumb people (or many super-geniuses). Individual differences in cognitive ability are far greater than our personal experience indicates. 1. https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2002-hauser.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2002-hauser.pdf
- barry-cotter 5y ago
  People with an IQ of 80 mostly can't learn algebra, and by algebra I mean solve a linear equation with one unknown. If your colleague can do fizzbuzz the person who tested them did a crap job.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    There's plenty of people with IQ80 that can do fizzbuzz and solve linear equations. IQ is not the metric that people think it is. You could be above average at doing mental math and finding ways to push data, yet be under average and spatial problems, language problems, etc..., and get an IQ of 75. It's also not that good of a test and not that predictive of actual programming ability, even if you're not being dragged down by other tests.

nitrogen 5y ago

Someone with an IQ of 80 who's literally incapable of coding? Fail. I actually worked with a developer who said their tested IQ was in the 80s.

ummwhat 5y ago
So what language were they working in?
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  Well if my company is any indication, VBA.
chroma 5y ago
I’m very skeptical that someone with an IQ of 80 could be employed as a software developer. I think other explanations are more likely. Your coworker could be joking or lying. He could be mistaken (eg: interpreting a percentile as an IQ score). The test could have been mis-graded. Or maybe he was just having a really bad day. If he took an IQ test again, I seriously doubt he’d get such a low result. A person with an IQ of 80 usually has trouble functioning in society. It can be difficult to teach them concepts like alphabetization or hypotheticals. For someone with such cognitive impairments to become a software developer beggars belief.
- vbsteven 5y ago
  It could also be a partial IQ score of 80. IQ tests are divided in 4 key areas each scored separately. If all 4 scores are similar they can be averaged to get the final tested score. If they are not it’s called a “gap” and the average score is meaningless. With gap results it’s not uncommon to see 2 low areas scoring 80s and 2 high areas 120 or even 130+. “A developer declaring a tested IQ of 80” could be a gap case and somewhere along the way the nuance got lost in translation.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    Not necessarily. They could also score in the 70s in 2 areas, score 115 in another, and 90 in the last one, and get a score in the 80s. Beyond that, IQ is not even predictive enough of job performance for a standard deviation to be a death sentence.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Come on, IQ 85 is only one standard deviation below the average, and correlates at around .4 with job performance. That means you'd expect someone with IQ 85 to be on average less than a standard deviation under the average at job performance. It's definitely possible for someone with IQ85 or IQ80 to be better at programming than the average IQ100 programmer, and it's not even that unlikely. Let's not overstate this.
  - ggreer 5y ago
    The average software developer does not have an average IQ. Look at the figures at the end of this paper[1]. Even professions like nursing have IQs averaging close to 110. "Science and engineering occupations" are around 115 average, with nobody below 90. If you look at college majors, you'll get similar results. Our occupations and interests cause us to self-segregate into cognitive strata. For the same reason you don't know many Trump voters or young earth creationists (despite the fact that they're 1/3rd of the US population), you probably don't know many dumb people (or many super-geniuses). Individual differences in cognitive ability are far greater than our personal experience indicates. 1. https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2002-hauser.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2002-hauser.pdf
barry-cotter 5y ago
People with an IQ of 80 mostly can't learn algebra, and by algebra I mean solve a linear equation with one unknown. If your colleague can do fizzbuzz the person who tested them did a crap job.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  There's plenty of people with IQ80 that can do fizzbuzz and solve linear equations. IQ is not the metric that people think it is. You could be above average at doing mental math and finding ways to push data, yet be under average and spatial problems, language problems, etc..., and get an IQ of 75. It's also not that good of a test and not that predictive of actual programming ability, even if you're not being dragged down by other tests.