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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2565 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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It's silly to think the correlation between hiring competence and profit is 1. Or even over .70.

You're both right to a degree IMO. Some of the metrics used in Quant recruiting are probably dumb but also they've got 100k resumes from top percentile applicants and can't blame them for leaning on the previously applied great sort.

I doubt they get that many apps from the top percentile. Top percentile is probably top 25% or more at a quant firm.

There are a lot of people in the world and quant is super desirable. Napkin maths but even the USA alone has 3M top percentile and quant is inherently very international.

Most people serious overrate the psychometric ability of hiring managers. I've talked to quants and many are not that smart. They're probably 97th percentile strivers. I put myself around true 140 IQ.

I put myself around true 140 IQ.

You are probably in good company with the rest of the "midwit quants". They think they of themselves much like you do.

Most people with claimed 140 IQ are overestimating by 20 points. I know enough about psychometrics to know how to avoid that for myself. On their scale, I tend to tell them I'm 160 IQ, because that more efficiently communicates the level in their lingo.

Yes but considering you aren't, in a demonstratable level, some sort of polygot or martian like Von Neumann, I have to doubt you are an actual 140 IQ. No, people who brag about their IQ online tend to just be arrogant autists in that 120 range who think they are geniuses, call it a heuristic. Saying it out loud just gives further evidence that you lack the social intelligence to understand that.

some sort of polygot

Not a great g signal but I speak French, German, and Arabic.

No, people who brag about their IQ online tend to just be arrogant autists in that 120 range who think they are geniuses, call it a heuristic

You are right. I think if I saw my own comments in the wild from another person I'd start with that prior and shift upwards due to the intelligent logic like the critique of the pedigree lingo, the assessment of hiring practices from a psychometric point of view, as well as the concept of Fallacy of Sufficient Competition. Aka, the poster is wrecking 115-125 IQ normies which is a robust sign of higher intelligence. You have to be smart enough to do this yourself to appreciate it, though. If you're not I guess it just sounds like bullshit or something, maybe like what that here_and_gone poster sounds like to me.

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