[dlss]

Grammatical deficiencies can be symptoms of conceptual deficiencies. They can also be symptomatic of getting overly excited, or of discussing very conceptually or emotionally difficult topics. They can be symptomatic of lying. They can also signify which social group you belong to, bro.

To give a more specific critique: vocabulary tests are done in a controlled environment, and hence can not be used to judge the correlation of vocabulary with IQ (or g, etc) in any other environment (unless of course someone has studied this problem and published results).

For example, many otherwise intelligent people exhibit vocabulary deficits, working memory deficits, and many other correlates with stupidity when talking to attractive members of the opposite gender. This doesn't mean that they have a low IQ or g-factor.

In this case, since this was a blog post written at what must have been a very difficult time in this poor TSA blogger's career, I don't think we can really say that their vocabulary is highly indicative of intelligence or g-factor.

That said, I do agree that the TSA is run by morons :p

[CWuestefeld]

Your explanation would suggest that the writer's cognitive abilities (whatever they might be) don't carry over into chaotic or stressful situations (i.e., he falls apart under pressure).

I would submit that this in itself ought to disqualify him from an important position in an agency as putatively critical as the TSA. People working there, especially those in positions of responsibility, ought to be able to work effectively under pressure.

[mikeash]

Why would a TSA blogger need to be able to work effectively under pressure?

[CWuestefeld]

I think the fact that we're all dissecting his work in order to criticize the Agency goes a long way to demonstrating that.

[mikeash]

How? There's no pressure in the sense being discussed here. He has plenty of time to figure out what to write and how to write it.

[dlss]

This. Also, anyone that thinks they don't fall apart under pressure is strongly encouraged to look up choking in the psychology literature and/or talk to attractive members of the opposite gender :p

[mikeash]

Some people can do pretty well. But you can't know until you've tested it, repeatedly.