| Great to see you're making progress! A few posts ago you were alluding to heritability in the 0.7-0.8 range, as a reason to dismiss the writings of Einstein, Newton, Descartes and Grothendieck. Now you're at 0.44. If you discount for a mild EEA violation correction, you'd easily get to 0.3 or below — a figure which I personally find believable. Just FYI, I don't belong to any "camp". These aren't camps but techniques and models. Intra-family GWAS provide underestimated lower bounds, twin studies provide wildly overestimated upper bounds. I don't care about the exact value, as long at it doesn't serve as a distraction from the (much more interesting!) story of how one can develop one's ability for mathematics. In any case, IQ is a pretty boring construct, especially on the higher end where it's clearly uncalibrated. And it's a deep misunderstanding of mathematics to overestimate the role of "computational ability / short term memory / whatever" vs the particular psychological attitude and mental actions that are key to becoming better at math. Now that the smoke screen has evaporated, can we please return to the main topic? |
> A few posts ago you were alluding to heritability in the 0.7-0.8 range, as a reason to dismiss the writings of Einstein, Newton, Descartes and Grothendieck.
No. This is what I wrote:
"Back when they were active, intelligence, IQ tests and the heritability of intelligence hadn't been well studied. They didn't have enough information, like we do today: ... twin studies ..."
And now that changes to: "like we do today: ... GWAS (and twin studies) ...". The precise numbers were not the point.
> you'd easily get to 0.3 or below — a figure which I personally find believable
That's interesting. I thought you were closer to zero. Well, 0.3 or 0.7 or 0.2 -- it's a little bit all the same to me, as long as it's not 0 or 0.0001.
> I don't care about the exact value
Ok, makes sense :-)
> as long at it doesn't serve as a distraction
Aha, so that's why you didn't like 0.7 or 0.8 and reacted to it. Yes that's maybe a bit depressingly high numbers, in a way.
And I don't like 0 or close to 0 because that'd indicate that this animal species was "stuck".
> ... how one can develop one's ability for mathematics ... psychological attitude and mental actions that are key to becoming better at math
Yes, to becoming better. If you have time, I wonder what's the level of maths you think most people on the planet can reach? If everyone had the right encouragement, time and attitude.
- High school maths in economy and finance programs? (needed for example for accounting and running one's own business)
- The most advanced maths classes in high school if you study natural sciences?
- Technical mathematics or theoretical physics a few years at university?
- General theory of relativity?
I'm wondering if you're saying that just as long as someone starts early enough, they can reach the highest levels?
But then what about today's topic:
California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42247334
Is it just that they started earlier and have the right attitude?