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IQ is only a minor factor in success

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Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#41

Post by lisper »

Getting rich, at least under our current system, has a lot more to do with luck (mainly being in the right place at the right time) than it does with being smart or even working hard. The reason perseverance (which is related to working hard, but is not quite the same thing) helps is that the more willing you are to keep playing the game without winning the more likely you are to eventually win.

(You can see this dynamic at work in the small here on HN. Getting a lot of upvotes has more to do with getting a pithy comment in early enough that it rises to the top where it gets noticed before the story falls off the front page and people stop paying attention. The wisest comment in the world won't get any love if it's submitted after the story drops off the home page. A similar dynamic also plays itself out on the New page. It's even more dramatic there because very few people ever look at the New page. And yet, the more participate, the more likely you are to hit an upvote jackpot.)

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#43

Post by matco11 »

gozur88 wrote: post #21
adventured wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making several very large assumptions. 1) That you have to trade your health. I wonder if lawyers at Biglaw live longer than the bottom 75% of income earners. My opinion is that they very likely do. 2) Smart isn't applicable to the context you set up. It's dependent on what you want out of life, these are personal life choices. If I prioritize money over life expectancy, and I get rich but die at 63 years of a…

1) You very much do in some jobs. You can't work 70 or 80 hours every week for long stretches and maintain your physical and mental well being. People really do that, and the ones that can maintain the pace for a few years make boatloads of money. A guy I knew like that was able to afford the best medical care when he had his first heart attack at 43. He may in fact live longer than the bottom 75% of income earners.…

Your point 2) is not correct, I think. The article does not really say that: it says that high IQ is one of the drivers of wealth, but it is not a sufficient condition to determine wealth, because other factors are at play in a meaningful way.

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#44

Post by tumbas »

the real question every american should ask themselves is why are they poor is it because free mason oligarchs like Trump or Klinton or Bush or Soros or Rockfelers or Rotshields made them poor on purpose to turn them into stomach that will do nothing

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#45

Post by supercon »

In the book 'Outliers', M. Gladwell talks about this very subject and suggests that a persons social upbringing has a lot to do with how you can navigate through the world and have it work for you.

A high IQ is surely a good thing to have and will make it easier for one to become successful, but if you totally lack the skill of 'getting your way' in the social maze that surrounds our daily lives, it will probably be a lot harder.

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#47

Post by peteretep »

Interesting. I'm a 1%er and I have a piece of paper that says I'm pretty smart, but:

    > a personality trait marked by
    > diligence, perseverance and
    > self-discipline
I see myself as pretty lazy, impulsive, and slap-dash, and tend to use my brain to brute-force lazy solutions to problems.

I am too lazy and don't have the concentration span to pay attention much in meetings, but can generally utter something profound near the end which makes it look like I was paying attention the whole time.

I have always assumed I'm just coasting by on a pretty useful brain.

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#48

Post by blackoil »

errantspark wrote: post #29

I'm probably decently smart, but I'm not rich at all. In fact I'm quite poor by most people's standards. I'm also really happy and work fewer hours per week than anyone I know. If there's one thing I worry about it's that I should be trying to be rich because I probably have the means to make that happen. I might be making 200k/yr if I worked full time. I might be able to start a successful company if I put my mind t…

How do you spend most of your free time?

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#49

Post by tjfl »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #40
spajus wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common misconception. Most (balance sheet, not "appear to be") rich people are self made, and first generation rich. Kids of rich parents tend to just blow their inheritance away quickly.

This is a common misconception. Most of the self-made / "first generation" rich came from households that weren't poor to begin with. Bill Gates, for example, had a trust fund from his grandfather that gave him a cushion in case he failed. That gave some freedom for him to take calculated risks. What you find is that you need the freedom to be able to take a risk and fail. If you come from a household living paycheck…

> Bill Gates, for example, had a trust fund from his grandfather that gave him a cushion in case he failed.

Do you happen to have a source? I'd not heard this and was curious as to the amount.

Re: IQ is only a minor factor in success

#50

Post by whybroke »

spajus wrote: post #32
Clubber wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a rich daddy is probably the largest influence in someone's chances of being rich themselves, at least in the US.

This is a common misconception. Most (balance sheet, not "appear to be") rich people are self made, and first generation rich. Kids of rich parents tend to just blow their inheritance away quickly.

No, only about 10% of billionaires are self made, as in not having inherited wealth or come from wealthy families. And even this is a record high up from a more typical 3%. (and remarkably, these are numbers that forbes feels excited about)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-a...

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