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This study looks only at Swedish men who served in the military, which as the authors observe may well introduce a bias. They also note that a possibility is t
by madaxe_again 4y ago
This study looks only at Swedish men who served in the military, which as the authors observe may well introduce a bias.
They also note that a possibility is that higher cognitive ability individuals may more frequently opt for worse paying but prestigious roles, such as academia.
I buy it, but I think there’s another factor today, which is that many higher cognitive ability individuals simply are not in the job market, as they are either entrepreneurs or have deployed their abilities to not have to work, which is easier now than ever before. Given that they look only at wage and self-employed income, this would explain a bias - for instance, my income in these categories is £0, and I’m no slouch.
- sublinear 4y agoHow does chasing prestige or avoiding work indicate "higher cognitive ability"?
- Avicebron 4y agoOr, how does one define "prestige"?
- harvey9 4y agoA professorship can be prestigious while paying less than the professor might be able to earn in industry.
- Nevermark 4y agoThe relationship of "higher cognitive ability" -> prestige and work avoidance, is not the same as the relationship from "prestige and avoiding work" -> "higher cognitive ability. If you turn around the direction of implication, you are not talking about the same thing. But more to point, smart people may avoid jobs by arranging high return passive (non-work/job) income, such as from investments, royalties, etc. Lots of smart people go into fields like mathematics where the work is interesting, success is rewarded with visibility in the field, and sometimes the public, but the pay is nothing like being a CEO.
- madaxe_again 4y agoThey looked at cognitive tests carried out when these men enrolled in the military, and then looked at what they are earning now - they don’t attempt to forecast cognitive ability from occupation or income level, they just show a correlation.
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- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tpmx 4y ago> This study looks only at Swedish men who served in the military, which as the authors observe may well introduce a bias. Paper: We subset on men who took a compulsory conscription test at age 18–19 during 1971–1977 or 1980–1999, years in which ≥90 per cent of each cohort enlisted (94 per cent on average). That said, I think Sweden is a bit special because of it's extreme taxation levels even for medium high income. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34656070 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34656070