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New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

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Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#51
post #49
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you have to work to survive you are working class, simple as. While the working class always have to work to survive, it is also possible for someone in the middle class and even the upper class to also have to work to survive. In both the middle and upper class cases, if the capital portion of one's position is insufficient to cover one's survival needs, then the labor component remains necessary to their survi…

Well, in upper class you simply hire someone to manage your money, making sure that you have a high return on investments.

If someone needs $40,000 per year for survival while making $30,000 per year from capital investments and $10,000 per year from labor, they are upper class[1], but need to work to survive. Sure, long term, a talented hire might be able to transform that capital from earning just $30,000 per year into much, much more. But, in the interim the need to work to survive would only intensify.

[1] Some might call it upper-middle class instead, but the concepts remain the same.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#52
post #51
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in upper class you simply hire someone to manage your money, making sure that you have a high return on investments.

If someone needs $40,000 per year for survival while making $30,000 per year from capital investments and $10,000 per year from labor, they are upper class[1], but need to work to survive. Sure, long term, a talented hire might be able to transform that capital from earning just $30,000 per year into much, much more. But, in the interim the need to work to survive would only intensify. [1] Some might call it upper-mi…

I honestly don't understand what point you are trying to make.

Yes, there will be a level of income below which you will have to work.

Yes, there will also be a level of income above which you will certainly not have to work, given half-decent management of your wealth.

And yes, there will be an area in between where you may or may not need to work.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#53
post #52
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone needs $40,000 per year for survival while making $30,000 per year from capital investments and $10,000 per year from labor, they are upper class[1], but need to work to survive. Sure, long term, a talented hire might be able to transform that capital from earning just $30,000 per year into much, much more. But, in the interim the need to work to survive would only intensify. [1] Some might call it upper-mi…

I honestly don't understand what point you are trying to make. Yes, there will be a level of income below which you will have to work. Yes, there will also be a level of income above which you will certainly not have to work, given half-decent management of your wealth. And yes, there will be an area in between where you may or may not need to work.

> I honestly don't understand what point you are trying to make.

We noticed. Oh well. Can't understand everything, I suppose.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#54
> from a nationally representative English sample of participants aged over 50 (N = 3,946), we test whether IQ is associated with calibration.

> In line with MR studies, we leverage the randomness of genetic variants—captured by individual polygenic scores (PGSs) for IQ, a single quantitative measure of an individual’s genetic predisposition to IQ—as a plausibly valid IV for phenotypic IQ.

I'm uncomfortable about generating strong generalized conclusions based on such methodology.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#55

Two things that strike me about this study are: 1. Comparing the bottom 2.5% to the top 2.5% is a vast range and not really applicable to just about anybody who's able to read. So the effect may be real but irrelevant for 95%+ of humanity. 2. It doesn't look like they controlled the expected longevity to the actual longevity and instead compared it to projected longevity. It seems flawed. 0. Since it comes from socio…

If you read the paper they didn't even use formal IQ results from their participants, they were using genetic markers correlated to IQ and educational attainment, etc.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#56

> from a nationally representative English sample of participants aged over 50 (N = 3,946), we test whether IQ is associated with calibration. > In line with MR studies, we leverage the randomness of genetic variants—captured by individual polygenic scores (PGSs) for IQ, a single quantitative measure of an individual’s genetic predisposition to IQ—as a plausibly valid IV for phenotypic IQ. I'm uncomfortable about gen…

You should be. This can't possibly work.

This is a journal that also published and later defended work premised on psychic ability, though.

It's a serious journal, as I understand it. But they take flyers. This definitely seems like one.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#57
post #36

It's interesting how people always try to find some kind of number to race against. Here's a simple theoretical situation. A brilliant mathematician with very high IQ crashes in the jungle, but is unhurt. Not far from the crash site, there's a tribesman who lived in the jungle all his life. He doesn't know how to read or write. The jungle is filled with predators, spiders and snakes. The sun is setting, the night sta…

The applicable experiment for IQ would be to take two ”equal” populations (say,1000 ppl with middle-class background each), sort by IQ, cut the sample set at the middle to lower than median, and higher than median group. The statistics so far show that the upper median group will do better on average. One might end up in jungle but it does not really matter for our experiment. For individuals, IQ is sort of statistic…

This is basically false; you might make it true if you cut somewhere other than the middle, but famously IQ has non-uniform reliability (it's heteroskedastic? is that the way to say it?). Pop science and nerd culture have fixated on it as a global ranking of people by cognitive capability, but it's not that at all; past a threshold, the actual numbers (and test-test reliability) get really noisy.

This should make intuitive sense, because IQ was designed as a diagnostic, one in a battery of diagnostics, for people with cognitive dysfunction. It's a useful tool to deploy when you have a patient who, for instance, can't seem to progress in reading class or whatever. It's broadly misapplied in studies like this (but then, this study has deeper faults than that).

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#58
post #56

> from a nationally representative English sample of participants aged over 50 (N = 3,946), we test whether IQ is associated with calibration. > In line with MR studies, we leverage the randomness of genetic variants—captured by individual polygenic scores (PGSs) for IQ, a single quantitative measure of an individual’s genetic predisposition to IQ—as a plausibly valid IV for phenotypic IQ. I'm uncomfortable about gen…

You should be. This can't possibly work. This is a journal that also published and later defended work premised on psychic ability, though. It's a serious journal, as I understand it. But they take flyers. This definitely seems like one.

While psychic powers have been thoroughly tested and debunked, isn't the point of science to entertain ideas that seem crazy, as long as they are tested scientifically?

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#59
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should be. This can't possibly work. This is a journal that also published and later defended work premised on psychic ability, though. It's a serious journal, as I understand it. But they take flyers. This definitely seems like one.

While psychic powers have been thoroughly tested and debunked, isn't the point of science to entertain ideas that seem crazy, as long as they are tested scientifically?

I'm sure there's also a peer-reviewed journal of flat Earth science, too, with papers about the Atmosflat.

Re: New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions

#60
post #6

Personally I think IQ and practical intelligence differs for a person. I have know many IQ smart people that can solve complex problems but fail to solve or foresee everyday basic problems

Right, IQ measures some abstract mental capacity, not knowledge. It's not very useful on its own.

It's probably more accurate to say that IQ is a useful indicator of many specific cognitive deficits, and basically unuseful within or above 2SD of the center.
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