Comments on: Stupider Than You Realize

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:35:39 +0000

Speaking of stupid I just figured out that this thread is over a year and a half old.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:34:30 +0000

I think you’re being a little bit naive. What drew you to that new peer group? Think about it. It was bound to happen. That’s the age at which IQ differences really start to affect how well you get along with others. I think you have the causal arrow reversed.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:30:55 +0000

Yes they may be those things but much more likely they are just plain stupid.

By: hmm

hmm — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:22:57 +0000

Do you really think that smart people are only motivated to use their intelligence if there’s a prize? Or that they otherwise do a cost/benefit analysis every time their “cognitive talents” are called upon, no matter how mundane the task before them? I don’t know any people who I consider intelligent who function that way. And I would go even further and say that the fantasy of people functioning purely on the basis of rationality is a tiny bit autistic.

By: Independent Accountant

Independent Accountant — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:36:59 +0000

Mark:
I went to a grade B undergradudate school. Many of the students there were miserable. Then I got an MBA at the University of Chicago. What a difference in student bodies. Welcome to the real world. I await your saying a large proportion of your students do not belong in college at all.

By: Sarah Et Cetera » Free for All Friday 29

Sarah Et Cetera » Free for All Friday 29 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:14:08 +0000

[...] to move, y’all. I mean, I plan on packing house down under, mates. Or something like that. A common bias among the smart is to overestimate how smart everyone else is. I know I do this. I always I assume I am the floor of any given set of intellects. This backfires [...]

By: GU

GU — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:26:31 +0000

You are evil.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:00:22 +0000

I attended two of the most famous and respected universities in the US – the sort of places that produce Nobel Prize winners on a regular basis. Now, as a professor at a B or C grade university, I am stunned by the low quality of my students.

However… although, sure, there may be a less “raw intelligence” in the student population, even the top students seem to lack curiosity and certainly lack ambition.

I wonder if ambition (as in, ambition to learn new things, master a field, make an intellectual contribution) is really the key difference.

By: elfu

elfu — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:37:05 +0000

Interesting topic.
Another (slightly different) manifestation of this can be found in academic seminars, at least in my field (economics). Presenters often include very complicated maths in their slides, assuming that the audience can follow this. In my experience, even very smart people can usually not follow though.
The best presenters simplify their stuff as much as possible and give the audience a simple take-away message.

By: chris

chris — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:35:40 +0000

Presumably, college educated teachers would be above the median in intelligence

an unwarranted presumption. and education degree is what one gets if one is too stupid to get a degree in basket-weaving.