[protomyth]

It seems like a topic that is really going to need a bit more research and analysis. I don't think a vocabulary test quite does it. Comparing something like Elvis Presley playing "Hound Dog" to Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" would make me think that modern pop is more intelligent.

[cbd1984]

> Comparing something like Elvis Presley playing "Hound Dog" to Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" would make me think that modern pop is more intelligent.

And that would be the wrong answer because... ?

[protomyth]

Oh, I would say Taylor Swift is the more intelligent writer and its right, but I'm not sure a simple vocabulary test and a large sample set is really the way to go. I do bet if you asked music critics, they would say Elvis's writer (not sure on that song or other) is more intelligent. Age polishes the fun history.

[cbd1984]

> Age polishes the fun history.

Whatever this means, it sounds like "The grass was always greener in the pastures of my memory" or some such, which is true but not relevant to, you know, actual history.

That, and it seems axiomatic among the PC crowd that Kids These Days are getting dumber and dumber, which has held true so long that it's amazing that our great-grandparents qualified as sentient beings, as opposed to, say, slime mold.

[protomyth]

You remember the fun stuff as more fun and deep the farther you are away from it. Its polished by age. This results in people believing that things were better then. I'm sorry, but I don't write formally on HN, and I doubt if I ever will.

As to the rest, I think my example was enough to say I don't think generation has much to do with deepness or intelligence.