IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle

IQ is undoubtedly overemphasized by some factions, especially those with an axe to grind and a dog whistle to blow, if it helps them feel less guilty about their position in the world or otherwise rationalizes injustice. OTOH there's definitely a difference between people, people who aren't mentally defective, people that are quick on the uptake, sharp and alert, who adapt to new mental models. IQ might be an unscientific metric for identifying these people, it might leave some of…

This article is written so polemically it's hard to take it seriously. Also Taleb seems to be constructing so many straw men I wouldn't even know where to start. IQ isn't a swindle, it's a very real thing. However, it is only one factor among many in determining most practical real-world outcomes, and it is well-known to be affected by environmental variables at population levels. But IQ isn't a "fraud" or "immoral". These are bizarre claims Taleb makes, with zero…

I'm not sure if the article title and general tone is consistent with the actual interpretation of the data within the article. For instance: see this point within. > To get the point, consider that if someone has mental needs, there will be 100% correlation between performance and IQ tests. But the performance doesn’t correlate as well at higher levels, though, unaware of the effect of the nonlinearity, the psychologists will think it does.(The statistical spin, as a marketing argument…

Well, it’s certainly invective against psychologists, people with learning difficulties, and IQ. I think he grossly undervalues naive pattern recognition. Natural complex systems are emergent from very simple interactions with mind boggling numbers. I think the {1,2,3,4,x} example is demonstrative because he doesn’t suggest what the answer should be. I agree with him that IQ is meaningless. I think his arguments are, ironically, somewhat reductive. A man from Lebanon’s privileged elite who has surely amassed…