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Comment by sacnoradhq | Hacker News Reader

The problem is also shared, unfortunately, by you as well on the first point: that IQ is a meaningful measure and a comprehensive signal of ability. The field of microvascular neurosurgery is orthogonal to stock trading and orthogonal again to international intellectual property law. There are occasions for intersection but there is no substitute for accumulated domain experience that takes time and energy to deliberately follow each path towards mastery. This is why someone similar to an entrepreneur is usually best served by adopting an attitude of inquisitive curiosity and deference to subject matter experts.

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I don't think it's reasonable to argue that IQ isn't a meaningful measure of ability. IQ tests appear to measure how complicated a pattern is immediately obvious to a person. All else being equal, why wouldn't a person who is able to immediately recognise more complicated patterns, do better?

What "ability" are you talking about or conflating with other abilities? Correlation cargo culting goes nowhere useful except making the card-carrying MENSA people feel self-assured of their own arrogance.

I’m talking about effectiveness in any complex domain. It shouldn’t be controversial to suggest that someone who notices fewer details/patterns won’t (on average) be as effective at complex work.

High ability to immediately recognize complex patterns might not correlate with high ability to navigate systems more complex than what you can recognize immediately.

edit to add: I think most interesting systems are more complex than what a person can understand immediately.

The point is that for every moment that a high IQ person is observing, they are learning more than a lower IQ person. For the same amount of time invested, a high IQ person is going to have built a more complete picture to work with. It’s not the only factor, but it’s obviously a significant one.

it's called g factor. it means ability at one task is highly correlated with ability on another task. block assembly is highly correlated with vocab. I personally have observed that people who are good at math also tend to be above average at writing/verbal too despite not practicing it much. i don't think it's a coincidence.

They're not orthogonal. People who are very good at one thing are usually very good at a lot of things.

This idea of "IQ is meaningless, he's good at X doesn't mean is good at Y" is what dumb people tell themselves.

> naaah

no surer sign that a defensive middlebrow poser is about to hold forth.

I would've said "know-it-all bullshit artist" but you were much more tactful. You're hired for all of my external communications that I suck at. ;)

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