Jewish Nobel Laureates • Hacker News Board

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#11

Post by jprince » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:24 AM UTC

hrasyid wrote: post #9

By the way, has anyone come up with a possible explanation for the seemingly disproportionate number of Jewish laureates and smart people in general? Do Jews have some tradition or belief that's helpful in this?

Yeah, it's based on our tradition of studying Torah translating to studying other fields. The built in cultural requirement to always be a good study has made us wildly successful in academics.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#12

Post by jaryd » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:25 AM UTC

hrasyid wrote: post #9

By the way, has anyone come up with a possible explanation for the seemingly disproportionate number of Jewish laureates and smart people in general? Do Jews have some tradition or belief that's helpful in this?

In traditional Jewish culture there is a large emphasis on education. In the most traditional sense, Rabbis are essentially scholars. They study the Torah. In ancient times they would sit around and do nothing but study the Torah and discuss its various interpretations--this was their primary purpose. You might consider them among the world's first pedants :) In traditional communities Rabbis are among the most respected members. Consequently, there is tremendous value placed on qualities of intelligence and conscientious study. Fast forward to current times and that still exists to a great degree in modern Jewish culture (in my experience).

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#13

Post by tokenadult » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:25 AM UTC

The article talk page[1] for this article points to some problems other Wikipedians have found with this article. It's easy to misclassify people without very careful checking of their biographies.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laur...

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#14

Post by benched » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:27 AM UTC

alphakappa wrote: post #10

While this is an interesting statistic, it can be interpreted in many ways, not all of which are meaningful. Statistically, more men have won Nobel prizes than women (by a large margin). Most Nobel laureates are Caucasian. Most are from the western hemisphere. Other than gender, it may be interpreted to mean that if a group which makes a small fraction of the total world population, they must be better/smarter. It's…

I can understand saying a statistic might be partly confounded by additional factors. I can't understand calling it meaningless. Just that it might not mean exactly what's implied. The stat itself is pretty hard to miss.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#15

Post by bcoates » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:27 AM UTC

alphakappa wrote: post #10

While this is an interesting statistic, it can be interpreted in many ways, not all of which are meaningful. Statistically, more men have won Nobel prizes than women (by a large margin). Most Nobel laureates are Caucasian. Most are from the western hemisphere. Other than gender, it may be interpreted to mean that if a group which makes a small fraction of the total world population, they must be better/smarter. It's…

The nature of variance means that you would expect to find the highest and lowest means in groups with the smallest populations.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#16

Post by acadien » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:27 AM UTC

hayksaakian wrote: post #2

Is it "submit random wikipedia articles to reap karma on HN" day already?

You should submit a more interesting article in response, that's the best way to teach the poster a lesson.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#17

Post by melling » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:30 AM UTC

hrasyid wrote: post #9

By the way, has anyone come up with a possible explanation for the seemingly disproportionate number of Jewish laureates and smart people in general? Do Jews have some tradition or belief that's helpful in this?

They value education and work very hard to excel in these areas? In America, I think people in general would rather get MBA's and law degrees and simply import engineers and scientists. We've had a dislike of nerds, geeks, and "smart" people for quite some time. It only started becoming somewhat acceptable to people once you could make a lot of money.

In software development, you'll frequently find many people simply want to use the job as a stepping stone to middle management.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#18

Post by linux_devil » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:31 AM UTC

jrs99 wrote: post #7

linux_devil wrote: post #5

.2% of world's population and 20% of Nobel prizes won. p.s: * Nobel

Look how many MEN have won, too! That is one intelligent gender.

Agree , and there are beautiful Jewish actresses too.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#19

Post by mynameishere » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:35 AM UTC

hrasyid wrote: post #9

By the way, has anyone come up with a possible explanation for the seemingly disproportionate number of Jewish laureates and smart people in general? Do Jews have some tradition or belief that's helpful in this?

Average IQ of 115 among the Ashkenazim. That's why. It's not really that interesting, but it enrages almost everyone who hears it. 115 isn't that smart, but it works out that they have a huge disproportion of members in the more important 145+ IQ range.

Anyway, you'll find that Jews have similar numbers in such things as Fields medals, Senate seats, the Forbes 400, etc, all at about 15-25 percent of the total.

Re: Jewish Nobel Laureates

#20

Post by wisty » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 3:38 AM UTC

hrasyid wrote: post #9

By the way, has anyone come up with a possible explanation for the seemingly disproportionate number of Jewish laureates and smart people in general? Do Jews have some tradition or belief that's helpful in this?

For centuries, Jews in Europe were effectively barred from a great many professions. The big exception tended to be finance (money lending - which Christians were often barred from). So Jewish kids had to learn a lot of math, and some Jewish families had a lot of money.

There's actually a big boost second-generation immigrants get. They understand the culture they are in, but they feel they need to work hard to keep up, and they aren't too afraid to break the rules (since it's not really their culture).