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They certainly have an above average ability to stay in school. They probably have an above average ability to focus. Rocket scientists are certainly better th
by more_corn 5y ago
They certainly have an above average ability to stay in school.
They probably have an above average ability to focus.
Rocket scientists are certainly better than average at math and science.
Brain surgeons (surgeons in general) probably have significantly better fine motor control.
I suppose the study is saying, there’s nothing innately special about rocket scientist s or brain surgeons. So kids out there, you can become whatever you want if you can commit to the education and practice required to master it.
I think we already suspected this though.
- gary_0 5y ago"You know what they call people who graduated bottom of their class in medical school? Doctors." Most people are clustered somewhere near the middle of the normal distribution in terms of the testable attributes supposedly required for highly specialized work. Most jobs that are just jobs (as opposed to Nobel laureates, astronauts, etc) have enough people in their number that they can't only contain truly exceptional outliers. In other words, the only people who are outright excluded for such specialized jobs are negative outliers, who often have identifiable genetic/developmental problems or injuries. Everyone else at least has a shot, like you say.
- graecea 5y agoAbilities are not normally distributed but power law distributed (a tiny elite of skilled people and a fat tail that represents the unskilled mass). This is one of the shortcomings of IQ (which is coerced into a normal distribution) and its purported ability to 'predict' real-life abilities.
- gary_0 5y agoI'm not talking about acquired skill, I'm talking about inherent ability, which is normally distributed due to genetics, evolution, and metabolic limitations. (To argue otherwise leads us on the slippery slope towards eugenics.)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]