3 ms·

I see. Very curious. Shall we call it “adverse convergence” hypothesis? Have you explored broader implications of your idea? For example people who survived tr

by DenisM 5y ago

I see. Very curious. Shall we call it “adverse convergence” hypothesis? Have you explored broader implications of your idea? For example people who survived tribulations of a political career may end up close to each other despite their initial difference in political opinions, and maybe even across different countries. This doesn’t sound quite as convincing, but I’m kind of grasping in the dark trying to find some other examples.

civilized 5y ago
There's probably a name for it somewhere! I want to call it something like... convergence of survivors, broadly construed. (Achievers? Overcomers?) I don't know of any examples outside of health but health is a big enough topic and closely related enough to education that I think it's likely to have some application. Certain psychometric studies also support higher sensitivity to environment in the lower economic strata. Not exactly the same but you see the connection. The studies cited by jedberg are very interesting, I just don't think they show what he thinks they do. A better alternative to trashing the SAT is to provide an estimated adversity score, as ETS recently began to do, so schools have a sense of what a student may have had to overcome to reach their level of achievement.
- DenisM 5y ago
  Now that I think of it convergence on a trait crucial to survival is a trivial result, though it’s often non-trivial to spot. Still there is something in the longevity example that’s evading the trivial explanation.
  - civilized 5y ago
    Yes, it's not trivial because evolution stops caring about you after you reproduce. It's also a little unclear whether we should consider the % difference convergence remarkable, given that mortality at older ages is so much higher and the absolute difference may not show much convergence.

3 ms·

I see. Very curious. Shall we call it “adverse convergence” hypothesis? Have you explored broader implications of your idea? For example people who survived tr

by DenisM 5y ago

civilized 5y ago
There's probably a name for it somewhere! I want to call it something like... convergence of survivors, broadly construed. (Achievers? Overcomers?) I don't know of any examples outside of health but health is a big enough topic and closely related enough to education that I think it's likely to have some application. Certain psychometric studies also support higher sensitivity to environment in the lower economic strata. Not exactly the same but you see the connection. The studies cited by jedberg are very interesting, I just don't think they show what he thinks they do. A better alternative to trashing the SAT is to provide an estimated adversity score, as ETS recently began to do, so schools have a sense of what a student may have had to overcome to reach their level of achievement.
- DenisM 5y ago
  Now that I think of it convergence on a trait crucial to survival is a trivial result, though it’s often non-trivial to spot. Still there is something in the longevity example that’s evading the trivial explanation.
  - civilized 5y ago
    Yes, it's not trivial because evolution stops caring about you after you reproduce. It's also a little unclear whether we should consider the % difference convergence remarkable, given that mortality at older ages is so much higher and the absolute difference may not show much convergence.