The relationship of "higher cognitive ability" -> prestige and work avoidance, is not the same as the relationship from "prestige and avoiding work" -> "higher

The 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.