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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?

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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.

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