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Comment by chaostheory | Hacker News Reader

Why are we even talking about IQ, like it's even important?

I could be wrong, but in my opinion the only thing that IQ has really proven is its ability to predict how well a person will do in school. I doubt it really does much for predicting titans of industry (or some other area) and success in general.

I think its main flaw is that in general, life isn't constrained to a limited set of multiple choice answers; it's a lot more open ended and chaotic. Not to mention that some of the questions used to administer these tests are biased... and o yeah, there are also different types of intelligence...

(Yes I have a high IQ, and high scores of other major ancient traditional testing methods.)

IQ or the way it's currently administered is just too archaic, limited, and just outdated. It needs to change.

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I totally agree with you, chaostheory. IQ completely ignores social skills (aka Emotional Intelligence), which is extremely important.

I brought up IQ simply because the previous commenter mentioned it.

Glad I'm not the only one to think that the idea of an IQ or how it's tested needs to change - Good thing you reminded me of that book too hehe

Look at my link there. IQ correlates with lots more than taking a test. How do you explain it?

Titans of industry, if honest, will attribute lots of luck.

it's been awhile since I took psychology so I can't reference any good specific studies from the top of my head, but here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iq#Criticism

The book EQ: Emotional Quotient is probably another good place to start...

I think most business "luck" is different from lottery luck

I don't deny the problems with the measure. I think a single number doesn't make much sense.

But my intuition is that you could fairly accurately rank people by intelligence, even if the quantitative number is ill defined.

People are different. Some are better than others in real ways. Many criticisms of IQ I've seen start with the a priori assumption that somehow differences mean lower worth. Reduced to absurdity, this leads to accusations of neo-eugenics.

I don't believe that any human is worth less than another, so I have no problem saying that some people are more intelligent than others when it is obvious.

Here is why it really matters: if we better study intelligence, we're well suited to learn to control it.

Significant artificial increases in human intelligence would be as important as the computer revolution.

I don't disagree with you here. I just don't think IQ is a good tool to use; unless you're just trying to predict someone's chances of earning a doctorate (nothing more and nothing less).

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