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This is just an article to make average intelligence people feel okay about themselves, instead of embracing and accepting the crushing underlying reality that

This is just an article to make average intelligence people feel okay about themselves, instead of embracing and accepting the crushing underlying reality that intelligence is real, that some people have more of it and some have less of it, that's it a genetic lottery, that it's distribution isn't fair, and that there isn't really anything you can do to improve it in any meaningful way (you will never have a 120 IQ if you have a 100 IQ). Yeah... sucks. That's life. The Universe isn't fair and Nature doesn't play favorites.

the_d3f4ult 5y ago
Since we're embracing nihilism it seems appropriate to add that IQ scores are normalized by age, peak at 24 and then decline steadily after that.
- salawat 5y ago
  A thought on that. I have a theory there isn't so much a decline as a "widening" or "offloading" of thought/intelligence. Completely anecdotal, mind, but I've found people older than me spend more time repeating and talking betwixt each other, while often asking me for answers to hard questions. I've even caught myself doing it with some of my juniors. Eventually, what I answered tends to circle back in the form of zeitgeist several months to years later. It's eerie. I don't know if that's just how it's always been, or not, but I can almost see the fractal self-similarity of an organism whose cognitive function derives from massively parallel firing of action potentials in neuronal networks manifesting in a macroscopic, yet subconscious way through how group activity tends to organize itself at a societal level. Or maybe I'm just nuts.
zarzavat 5y ago
Raw intelligence exists but is not that important. Average intelligence is sufficient for most purposes. What sets people apart the most is not raw intelligence but temperament: do they work hard or slack off? Are they willing to question orthodoxy or content to blindly follow it? Do they have a right-sized ego: big enough to give them self-confidence, but not so big that they are blind to their flaws? By and large these are the things that separate great people from the rest of us. Plenty of 'intelligent' people lead inconsequential lives.
Jack000 5y ago
IQ isn't a linear scale, so 120 IQ isn't actually all that high (90th percentile vs 50) You can get half way there with proper diet, sleep and a few years of education. That said, I think it would be a terrible experience to have IQ in the outlier ranges. Imagine living in a world where everyone's IQ dropped by like 30 points. Imagine if the dominant forms of entertainment were screeching children yelling obscenities. Imagine if all levels of government were controlled by these people, because they were more relatable and thus more electable. Imagine if everyone shared certain idiotic beliefs, and made those beliefs manifest through the weight of sheer numbers. Anyways, I think 90th percentile is a good sweet spot.
- DarylZero 5y ago
  >Imagine living in a world where everyone's IQ dropped by like 30 points. Imagine if the dominant forms of entertainment were screeching children yelling obscenities. Imagine if all levels of government were controlled by these people, because they were more relatable and thus more electable. Imagine if everyone shared certain idiotic beliefs, and made those beliefs manifest through the weight of sheer numbers. ... this is basically how it is already.
- cbozeman 5y ago
  > You can get half way there with proper diet, sleep and a few years of education. Who told you this... and why do you believe it? The literature is pretty clear... you can swing a few points with intense optimization, and that's it - at best.

the_d3f4ult 5y ago

Since we're embracing nihilism it seems appropriate to add that IQ scores are normalized by age, peak at 24 and then decline steadily after that.

salawat 5y ago
A thought on that. I have a theory there isn't so much a decline as a "widening" or "offloading" of thought/intelligence. Completely anecdotal, mind, but I've found people older than me spend more time repeating and talking betwixt each other, while often asking me for answers to hard questions. I've even caught myself doing it with some of my juniors. Eventually, what I answered tends to circle back in the form of zeitgeist several months to years later. It's eerie. I don't know if that's just how it's always been, or not, but I can almost see the fractal self-similarity of an organism whose cognitive function derives from massively parallel firing of action potentials in neuronal networks manifesting in a macroscopic, yet subconscious way through how group activity tends to organize itself at a societal level. Or maybe I'm just nuts.

zarzavat 5y ago

Raw intelligence exists but is not that important. Average intelligence is sufficient for most purposes. What sets people apart the most is not raw intelligence but temperament: do they work hard or slack off? Are they willing to question orthodoxy or content to blindly follow it? Do they have a right-sized ego: big enough to give them self-confidence, but not so big that they are blind to their flaws? By and large these are the things that separate great people from the rest of us. Plenty of 'intelligent' people lead inconsequential lives.

Jack000 5y ago

IQ isn't a linear scale, so 120 IQ isn't actually all that high (90th percentile vs 50) You can get half way there with proper diet, sleep and a few years of education. That said, I think it would be a terrible experience to have IQ in the outlier ranges. Imagine living in a world where everyone's IQ dropped by like 30 points. Imagine if the dominant forms of entertainment were screeching children yelling obscenities. Imagine if all levels of government were controlled by these people, because they were more relatable and thus more electable. Imagine if everyone shared certain idiotic beliefs, and made those beliefs manifest through the weight of sheer numbers. Anyways, I think 90th percentile is a good sweet spot.

DarylZero 5y ago
>Imagine living in a world where everyone's IQ dropped by like 30 points. Imagine if the dominant forms of entertainment were screeching children yelling obscenities. Imagine if all levels of government were controlled by these people, because they were more relatable and thus more electable. Imagine if everyone shared certain idiotic beliefs, and made those beliefs manifest through the weight of sheer numbers. ... this is basically how it is already.
cbozeman 5y ago
> You can get half way there with proper diet, sleep and a few years of education. Who told you this... and why do you believe it? The literature is pretty clear... you can swing a few points with intense optimization, and that's it - at best.