Comment by MichaelWFerguson on Article on IQ: The Inappropriately Excluded · 2021-05-29T15:22:18.568Z · LW · GW

WOW!!  I have heard that Lesswrong.com is at the intellectual pinnacle of the Internet.  Very little here is even worthy of refutation.  The general population has a mean IQ of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.  The elite professions have a mean IQ of 126 and a stand deviation of 6.5.  If you don't believe the latter, I provided the evidence in the bibliography.  Do the math.  If you can't, than who cares what you think?  In the article I reference the Robert Hauser work that suggests a lower mean but a higher standard deviation.  If used solely, it would lower the extent of exclusion, but not by much.

The study of precocious math students shows that a talent is generally rewarded in Western society.  But, if you look at the verbal scores of this group, it is clear that their quantitative SAT scores are not primarily the result of g.  

Actually, this inverse correlation between very high IQ and career success is well known among top researchers.  Robert Sternberg, Miraca Gross, Linda Gottfredson have all speculated on its cause.  BTW, I enjoy quality criticism.  However, there is none of it here.

Michael W. Ferguson
Author of the article