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Comment by ramraj07 | Hacker News Reader

Mediocre 21 year olds don’t know much of anything. That’s the issue. Any beating heart able to pass whatever filter course they have to limit CS intake is a CS grad now. The best ones from top schools intern at the top companies so what you get is the middle of the CS pack. Which means their average IQ is likely below 100.

I still remember, this stem cell professor, Irving weissman, giving a lecture and the introduction said he got his start in stem cells when he started doing some stem cell isolation, when he was 15, in school, in the 60s. So 21 year olds, if they’re good, should know a bit about the thing they spent 3 years studying. let’s not hide behind some weird watered down metric that they’re too young.

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This seems like a harmful way of thinking about people and development.

There's only a limited amount of time in life to gain experience. A 15yr old's brain is quite literally not fully developed yet, expecting someone to have chosen and begun studying in their specialty then is ridiculous. Such an early start also not generally possible without the privilege of good mentorship. There's also reason universities historically wanted well rounded individuals and require general education classes--you'll end up stunted or miss opportunity for cross pollination otherwise.

This guy wrote 2 paragraphs about how the average CS person has less than a 100 IQ in a condescending way… while at the same time demonstrating he doesn’t even have a high school level understanding of statistics. You should look deep into yourself and wonder why you’d say or think things like this. It’s one thing to be condescending, but another to also pair it with some statements that reveal how you’re actually the dumbass.

I think you really underestimate the intelligence of the average CS grad. No way the average iq is under 100. Even to get past the prereq's for a CS degree like calculus you are not going to find many under 100 (let alone going on to graduate)

Sounds like you're seriously underestimating the middle of the CS pack.

People at 15 doing that kind of work are extreme outliers, I think your view on the range of human capability is skewed

Ah, yes, “normies can’t code”. It’s not a polite thing to say, even if (somewhat) true, and it’s also not very useful, given they are the vast majority of people.

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