It's not an exaggeration to say that over the past three decades the intelligence of the average Internet user has dropped a solid two standard deviations, if n

It's not an exaggeration to say that over the past three decades the intelligence of the average Internet user has dropped a solid two standard deviations, if not slightly more. It was an unavoidable side effect of going from a tool for research scientists and particularly motivated college students to one for the general public. In that sense, I suppose it's fair to call me jaded. I've watched the average quality of discourse plummet. That's one of the things that makes HN such a breath of fresh air. It reminds me very much of what the general Internet once was.