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Comment by torginus | Hacker News Reader

I kinda find it weird that from one of the main attack vectors of the article - that there is little correllation between IQ and wealth, the author concludes that therefore there is little correllation between IQ and merit, instead of saying there is little correllation between merit and wealth.

I don't think famous scientists like Einstein were particularly wealthy.

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> I don't think famous scientists like Einstein were particularly wealthy.

Wealth is a means to get yourself novelty in the form of top notch products, services, experiences and trophy assets.

No amount of money would have bought Einstein the novelty he was seeking. Many people chase that dragon for their whole life and never get to take a hit.

What is ‘merit’ exactly?

Wealth, according to libertarians and Taleb. Taleb seems to pick wealth because it's measurable, and then concludes IQ is worthless because it doesn't correlate with wealth. It's like the drunk looking for his keys near the lamp, not because he dropped them there, but because that's where the light is. Except Taleb has confidently declared that his keys must surely be near the light, making it seem like wealth is in fact the only thing he values.

Whatever "merit" is, it's certainly easier to define (differently for each of us, I'm sure) than "intelligence" is.

Seems like you can’t define it, and without a definition your criticism of the article is meaningless.

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