[yelsgib]

I agree with this point, but I think that what you run into is that there are certain important cross-cultural trends which might cause g to be pertinent. What I mean is that perhaps the set of tasks which we "regularly perform" are governed by g - these tasks usually involving "problem solving" of the you-give-me-a-well-defined-problem-and-I'll-solve-it variety. It's a kind of reciprocal process - society will produce lots of jobs/roles which fit mass statistics it can determine, and it will also screen for that mass statistic.

What interests me, and what I'm worried that focus on this sort of gross statistic deprives us from thinking about, is the non-regular. I'm interested in the philosophical, the revolutionary, the artistic. I'm interested in what made Einstein Einstein. I don't think it's "g."

Slightly more abstractly/hypothetically: The way I kind of see intelligence is that we can function within contexts (e.g. functioning within the "Math context" would be doing math problems) and "g" corresponds to our ability to manipulate symbols generally, so that we are generally good at working within contexts. This is a really abstract way of saying g corresponds to our ability to solve problems. However, I don't think g says anything about long-term problem solving (involving abstraction, self-reflection), novel content creation (involving cross-context thinking), etc.

Does this make sense?

[whacked_new]

You are aware that Einstein's brain had some very unusual features, right? I don't pay much attention to this, but I remember it is unusual enough that it is safe to say most people's brains don't have those features.

Relativity was not a well-defined problem when Einstein came up with it. You can analyze this intelligence in however many ways, but it is highly possible that "quantum leaps" in scientific advancement come from unusual thinkers -- unusual in a way that you can't just train very hard in and attain.