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I agree. There was a TIL thread on Reddit a few years ago about how smarter people are usually more depressed -- low and behold everyone in the comments was lam

I agree. There was a TIL thread on Reddit a few years ago about how smarter people are usually more depressed -- low and behold everyone in the comments was lamenting over how cursed they were to carry the burden of their intellect. No one really pointed out that if you were on one of the most popular websites on the planet in a default subreddit, chances were you were pretty average with average intelligence. We fetishize intelligence too much as a society and too many don't understand what it really is and how it can differ. It's nice to imagine a world where we valued empathy as much as intelligence.

geenew 5y ago
not to sound superior but it's "lo and behold" :)
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  it's funny, but maybe also auto-correct.
Jensson 5y ago
> if you were on one of the most popular websites on the planet in a default subreddit, chances were you were pretty average with average intelligence. This isn't true. If you have a very popular website and take the most common threads people might read on it, then you will likely have at least a few hundred thousand people viewing it. If 1% of the smartest 2% comments you would have a maybe a hundred comments from people who would qualify for mensa if the viewers were random people, basically flooding the comment section. The reason this works is that people will flock to threads that is about something relating to them. People who do well on IQ tests will flock to threads about intelligence etc.
- kortilla 5y ago
  There is very little overlap between people who care about Mensa/IQ tests and intelligent people.
  - Jensson 5y ago
    People don't have to care about IQ tests to know that they got a good score on one and therefore consider themselves smart. You can see them in almost every thread about IQ tests "I got IQ score 1X0 and I think that IQ is stupid and doesn't matter!". Anyway, being smart without an education is pretty worthless as you say, but there is a lot of such people out there. Being uneducated doesn't mean they aren't intelligent, it just means that they didn't utilize their intelligence in life. I'm not sure why you would try to say that they aren't intelligent just because they lack education. If a study found that intelligent people face more boredom or whatever, then it is almost surely that the study was a correlation between IQ and some questionnaire result, so whatever score someone got on an IQ test is very relevant for the topic.
    - Foobar8568 5y ago
      And if you are educated, you have an even wider gap with your average person. Education starts with school and parenting, when school is averaging to the lowest students and parents are busy with their own work, what is left to your "high IQ kid"? School would just provide a less-than-average knowledge, parents won't guide, and you get an uneducated kid surrounded by "idiots". As a parent, you provide guidance to your kids, high IQ or not, you still get a large gap with their peers. Yesterday, we were drugging kids with TV, today, with tiktok and the likes.
    - rambambram 5y ago
      > Being uneducated doesn't mean they aren't intelligent, it just means that they didn't utilize their intelligence in life. Wow...
    - kortilla 5y ago
      > then it is almost surely that the study was a correlation between IQ and some questionnaire result No, because that once again assumes IQ tests are a relevant way to measure intelligence.
- pseudo0 5y ago
  > People who do well on IQ tests will flock to threads about intelligence etc. Are those people who are smart, or those who think they are smart? Because those two groups tend not to overlap as much as one would think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  - Jensson 5y ago
    The Dunning Kruger effect study found that there is a strong correlation between confidence and skill, it just isn't perfect and it is much more wrong for low skill than high skill.
    - travisjungroth 5y ago
      People tend to think they're closer to the middle than they are. A useful thing you can do for people on topics where you have more expertise and perspective is draw them away from the middle. Let people know if they are especially good or bad at what they're doing. Try to be gentle about it.

geenew 5y ago

not to sound superior but it's "lo and behold" :)

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
it's funny, but maybe also auto-correct.

Jensson 5y ago

> if you were on one of the most popular websites on the planet in a default subreddit, chances were you were pretty average with average intelligence. This isn't true. If you have a very popular website and take the most common threads people might read on it, then you will likely have at least a few hundred thousand people viewing it. If 1% of the smartest 2% comments you would have a maybe a hundred comments from people who would qualify for mensa if the viewers were random people, basically flooding the comment section. The reason this works is that people will flock to threads that is about something relating to them. People who do well on IQ tests will flock to threads about intelligence etc.

kortilla 5y ago
There is very little overlap between people who care about Mensa/IQ tests and intelligent people.
- Jensson 5y ago
  People don't have to care about IQ tests to know that they got a good score on one and therefore consider themselves smart. You can see them in almost every thread about IQ tests "I got IQ score 1X0 and I think that IQ is stupid and doesn't matter!". Anyway, being smart without an education is pretty worthless as you say, but there is a lot of such people out there. Being uneducated doesn't mean they aren't intelligent, it just means that they didn't utilize their intelligence in life. I'm not sure why you would try to say that they aren't intelligent just because they lack education. If a study found that intelligent people face more boredom or whatever, then it is almost surely that the study was a correlation between IQ and some questionnaire result, so whatever score someone got on an IQ test is very relevant for the topic.
  - Foobar8568 5y ago
    And if you are educated, you have an even wider gap with your average person. Education starts with school and parenting, when school is averaging to the lowest students and parents are busy with their own work, what is left to your "high IQ kid"? School would just provide a less-than-average knowledge, parents won't guide, and you get an uneducated kid surrounded by "idiots". As a parent, you provide guidance to your kids, high IQ or not, you still get a large gap with their peers. Yesterday, we were drugging kids with TV, today, with tiktok and the likes.
  - rambambram 5y ago
    > Being uneducated doesn't mean they aren't intelligent, it just means that they didn't utilize their intelligence in life. Wow...
  - kortilla 5y ago
    > then it is almost surely that the study was a correlation between IQ and some questionnaire result No, because that once again assumes IQ tests are a relevant way to measure intelligence.
pseudo0 5y ago
> People who do well on IQ tests will flock to threads about intelligence etc. Are those people who are smart, or those who think they are smart? Because those two groups tend not to overlap as much as one would think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
- Jensson 5y ago
  The Dunning Kruger effect study found that there is a strong correlation between confidence and skill, it just isn't perfect and it is much more wrong for low skill than high skill.
  - travisjungroth 5y ago
    People tend to think they're closer to the middle than they are. A useful thing you can do for people on topics where you have more expertise and perspective is draw them away from the middle. Let people know if they are especially good or bad at what they're doing. Try to be gentle about it.