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?
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Notes -
Since we are in the community, that takes IQ very seriously, don't you think that being energetic is also a major factor of success? For example, under the post about Elon Musk, the majority of the comment section is a discussion of how intelligent he is, but there is little talk about his mental stamina, which is the most interesting for me. I'm quite clever, maybe not extremely smart, but somewhere between 120-130 IQ and I cannot imagine myself having a business, because it requires preparedness for constant struggle and ability to withstand many hard blows. I can imagine myself in a cozy office job, and making decent number of money, but never in any executive position, where I have to talk to people all the time and constantly think about my company, while everybody wants to take me out.
Similarly, in every small town, there is a couple of business owners that enjoy higher standard of living than their neighbors and are often envied by the community. People with academic background like provincial doctors or teachers sometimes mock them as dim-witted and uncouth, but this is rarely the case. I think they are quite smart, maybe not very smart but at least around 120 IQ. They just possess different set of capabilities than people who like intellectual challenges.
George Cochran calls it moxie, Steve Malina writes on his blog about energetic aliens. It's interesting what determines these abilities from biological point of view. Is this higher dopamine levels? Extreme emotional stability? Very efficient brain? All of these factors?
I know people who are smart, but those who run things are just on an entirely different level. Of course being clever is always beneficial, but there are places where pure intelligence cannot take you. I don't know where I'm going with this, just find this topic interesting and somewhat overlooked.
Yes. This is obvious if you've known just a few very successful people well at all for a while and more obvious if you know some very unsuccessful people. Robin Hanson agrees.
If you spend more time on something, you're going to get farther, and people with more energy spend more time pursuing their long-term goals.
By the way, I don't think what Cochran meant by 'moxie' was energy, if that's what you were implying.
Yeah, I guess that by 'moxie' Cochran meant some sort of emergent quality, that combines all the factors impacting your social status. Nonetheless, energy is probably one of these factors. I was imprecise, but being 'energetic' is also kind of imprecise description. What kind of energy, kinetic energy? We have some intuitive understanding, but we lack any precise characterization. And that's why I find this factor overlooked, because we have quite precise measurement of IQ but it's difficult to compare 'being energetic' statistically.
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