| I couldn’t find any and it was painful to read, no actual argument or a hypothesis just random anecdotes and banter. For example: “I've spent 34 years working w/"High IQ" quants. I've rarely seen them survive, not blow up on tail events.” How many “low IQ” quants did he work with? With all due respect to Taleb I’m not sure that anyone who’s even simply above average would make it as a quant or even be attracted to mathematics to this degree. From my experience with quants not only that they are exceptionally intelligent even if only in a narrow field they also see data and numbers very differently than how “normal” people see them even if these normal people score pretty high on which ever arbitrary scale of intelligence you pick. I would bet good money on the fact that Taleb likely haven’t worked with any Quant with an IQ lower than say 135 which already makes them exceptional, in fact I’m not sure how much experience a person in his position has with average not to mention low IQ people to begin with considering the social circles he hangs out in. Another one: “Perhaps the worst problem with IQ is that it seem to selects for people who don't like to say "there is no answer, don't waste time, find something else".“ I’m not entirely sure if we would have deferential mathematics and Newton’s law of motions, yet alone something like GR if everyone followed this attitude, while this might be a reasonable attitude to have to some extent in say business I’m not sure about applying it to our advancement as a species. IQ might be a poor indicator for intelligence it might be a good one, but his rant offered no arguments or alternatives. Yes plenty of people can be “obnoxious losers” and have high IQ plenty of them might even be that because of it, however it would be interested to see how much better these people have it than people who chosen to waste their life in just the same manner but who are average or below average and I have a feeling that the basement dwelling Twitter troll unicorn who is indeed correct about their 150 self proclaimed IQ still manages to come on top simply due to the rare occasions when push comes to shove and they have to apply themselves. |