Tag: IQ

[Medium] IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle (Argument Closed)

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UPDATE

ARGUMENT CLOSED (2025): The argument is now closed thanks to paper by Brown, Wai, and Chabris that tried to rebut the piece below, but confirmed all of its conclusions. The piece, most recent one on IQ and relying on multi-cohort studies, unintentially showed that IQ explains almost nothing in educational attainment, occupational attainment, and …income! And that, in spite of the circularity. I did not notice the paper until 2024.

Link: medium.com/incerto/iq-is-largely-a-pseudoscientific-swindle

[Twitter | X] Nassim Nicholas Taleb Reiterates His Critique: IQ as Pseudoscience and Its Role in Race Science

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[YouTube] Correlation measures are misused in the presence of nonlinearities

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A VERY SIMPLIFIED TUTORIAL (VERY SHORT)
Correlation measures are misused in the presence of nonlinearities.

(How a measure of unintelligence can give the illusion of high correlation with performance.)

Correlation measures are not supposed to be used in the presence of nonlinearities. When 2 variables correlate half the time (in a symmetric way around the mean), correlation will not be 50% but will show ~90%. Part of debunking IQ studies. If IQ works for disabilities but does not correlate with success, there is an illusion of correlation because of the biases in the metric.

Nassim’s “IQ” Thread

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“IQ” measures an inferior form of intelligence, stripped of 2nd order effects, meant to select paper shufflers, obedient IYIs. 1- When someone asks you a question in REAL LIFE, you focus first on “WHY is he asking me that?”, which slows down. (Fat Tony vs Dr John)

Link to Thread: https://twitter.com/nntaleb…