[zdean]

I think HN adds to that tone by including "truck driver" in the title of the post. I suppose the inference is that truck drivers are not very smart; therefore, giving the title an interesting contrast. But the reality is that people become truck drivers (as well as any other profession) for any number of reasons.

[gregors]

another truck driver .... http://nasa.orau.org/postdoc/about-fellows/milligan.htm

[Ancorehraq]

Not being very smart accounts for some of those reasons. Do you feel there is a significant category of people who are intelligent enough to be nuclear physicists, but decided to drive trucks instead?

[zdean]

Whether the number is significant or not is irrelevant. The fact is that being a truck driver does not in any way disqualify one from being intelligent. A less loaded but more helpful title might have been something along the lines of "Man who isn't a nuclear scientist uncovers secrets about first nuclear bomb." It might help to understand the problem I'm describing if you replace "truck driver" in the title with a race.

[Ancorehraq]

I don't think that helps understand the problem at all. Are truck drivers a protected class?

Can you provide some evidence regarding intelligence of truck drivers?

[nmrm]

> Can you provide some evidence regarding intelligence of truck drivers?

Sure. This very article. Some non-truck drivers were apparently pretty impressed with the truck driver's book:

The review, written by the eminent atomic historian Robert S. Norris, began, “For many years, Coster-Mullen has been printing his manuscript at Kinko’s (adding to and revising it along the way) and selling spiral-bound copies at conferences or over the Internet.” Norris clearly considered Coster-Mullen’s understanding of the bomb superior to his own.

My own copy of “Atom Bombs” soon arrived in the mail, along with a sheet of testimonials from Harold Agnew, the former director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, who was aboard the Enola Gay when it annihilated Hiroshima (a “most amazing document”); Philip Morrison, one of the physicists who helped invent the bomb (“You have done a remarkable job”); and Paul Tibbets, the commander and pilot of the Enola Gay (“I was very much impressed”).

Incidentally, can you provide some evidence regarding the intelligence of software engineers?

See how that feels?

[Ancorehraq]

Ok, http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx

Doesn't feel like anything at all.

[nmrm]

> Ok, http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx

Ironically, software engineers aren't even listed here except for in an aggregate group (possibly many) which undoubtedly includes many other occupations.

It's pretty lucky I don't make sweeping generalizations about your intelligence based upon a single data point :-)

Just to be clear, negative stereotyping "backed" by statistics is still wrong. There's plenty of scientific evidence "justifying" racism. Even if that scientific evidence were completely correct, racism would still be morally abhorrent.

> Doesn't feel like anything at all

I think you've profoundly missed the point (point: empathy).

Anyways, when your hobby project is upheld as fantastic research by physicists and leaders of national labs, you can be condescending toward other occupations.

end troll feeding