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Comment by beersigns | Hacker News Reader

I'm on the same page. IQ is property of the genetic dice roll, not something that a person earns. Tangible results based measurements seem more appropriate. Pure intellect is the raw material & needs to be refined/applied to be useful.

edit: grammar

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The rest of your personality traits that allow you to accomplish great things (diligence, perseverance, focus, empathy, etc), as well as external factors such as being born at the right place and the right time, are also arguably a genetic / environmental dice roll.

I'd argue all of those areas you list are far more likely to be improved over the course of a lifetime than sheer intelligence. Pure intellect is pretty much set at birth, or at the least the ability to improve it isn't statistically significant. I'd argue that genetic dice roll and environmental dice roll are quite different things as well. You have FAR more ability to change your environmental situation than your genetic one. Does everyone have an equal chance to alter their environment? No, but who said life is fair?

The human brain has enormous capacity to develop in a wide variety of areas. Most of these areas are not measured in tests like the IQ tests. IQ tests mainly measure those brain functions we find beneficial in modern western society.

IQ tests, SATs, ACTs and other standardized test like them are improperly named. They should be called "Tests That Predict Success or Failure in the School System From Which the Questions Have Been Derived."

SAT originally stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test...so it seems properly named, even by your own standards. Similarly, ACT stands for American College Testing which doesn't have anything to do with intelligence.

You seem to have a pretty serious ax to grind with standardized testing.

The SAT was created in 1928 with the intentions of measuring a student's aptitude. meaning that the test measured an innate ability, rather than knowledge acquired through schooling. Today, the test administered by the College Board is still called SAT, but the name is just an acronym, with the letters no longer standing for anything. According to the College Board, the SAT now does not measure any innate ability.

the SAT and ACT simply provides a common yardstick for comparing grades at different high schools. Educators use them as way to judge an A at this school or this teacher versus an A at this school or this teacher. Nothing more. At best the SAT is said to predict freshman year grades in college (somewhat).

I'm not debating what they do or where their name comes from. You suggested they needed to be renamed (presumably because they imply they test intelligence). They are (or were) named appropriately.

If I'm born into a millionaire family, I have more purchasing power than someone born into a poor family in Ukraine. This is a result of the genetic dice roll. Following your logic, does this mean Armani should start pricing their clothes adjusting for parental affluence and/or by how many rungs of the social ladder a person has climbed in their life?

That is the result of a environmental/social dice roll. Not even close to the same thing.

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