BROADCASTS.com

https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/31/the-parable-of-the-talents/

\xa0

[Content note: scrupulosity and self-esteem triggers, IQ, brief discussion of weight and dieting. Not good for growth mindset.]

I.

I sometimes blog about research into IQ and human intelligence. I think most readers of this blog already know\xa0IQ is 50% to 80% heritable, and that it\u2019s so important for intellectual pursuits that\xa0eminent scientists in some fields have average IQs around 150 to 160. Since IQ this high only appears in 1/10,000 people or so, it beggars coincidence to believe this represents anything but a very strong filter for IQ (or something correlated with it) in reaching that level. If you saw a group of dozens of people who were 7\u20190 tall on average, you\u2019d assume it was a basketball team or some other group selected for height, not a bunch of botanists who were all very tall by coincidence.

A lot of people find this pretty depressing. Some worry that taking it seriously might damage the \u201cgrowth mindset\u201d people need to fully actualize their potential. This is important and I want to discuss it eventually, but not now. What I want to discuss now is people who feel\xa0personally\xa0depressed. For example, a comment from last week:

I\u2019m sorry to leave self a self absorbed comment, but reading this really upset me and I just need to get this off my chest\u2026How is a person supposed to stay sane in a culture that prizes intelligence above everything else \u2013 especially if, as Scott suggests, Human Intelligence Really Is the Key to the Future \u2013 when they themselves are not particularly intelligent and, apparently, have no potential to ever become intelligent? Right now I basically feel like pond scum.