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.
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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.
I'm just as smart as my dad, maybe even slightly smarter, and while I've never had a formal IQ test (only taking Raven's progressive matrices unofficially, which is a good test, but it's up to you how you want to weight it, getting a value of 130), I've literally scored 100th percentile in a prestigious international competition that tests your grasp of English, and usually get something around 99.9th, in more general aptitude tests that were widely administered when I was a kid.
So yes, I'm confident I'm around 130 IQ, but unlike my dad, who is an insanely hard worker, running a hospital while working as a Consultant, I am incorrigible lazy and have ADHD.
Put me in his shoes, starting off as a penniless refugee from Bangladesh arriving with his family as a teen, and I strongly doubt I could have gotten to where he has, becoming a comfortably wealthy consultant surgeon with modest but national renown. Maybe he'd be internationally famous if he spoke better English.
I feel like a car with a great engine but broken transmission, severely bottlenecked. I'd likely trade trade like 5 IQ points to go to merely average in terms of consciousness, because while I highly value and take pride in my intelligence, I have a hard time making the most of it.
It takes an enormous amount of energy and tenacity to run a business, especially in a corrupt and cut-throat environment like India. I have no wish to find out whether or not I can handle it myself, because I am doubtful that my dad passes away anytime soon, or at least not before AI makes even incredible cognitive talents in humans moot.
Having ADHD sucks, so I hope an extreme example illustrates your point. My dad has always been slightly disappointed that I don't apply myself the way he can, and it takes all my effort and meds to keep progressing in my career instead of being stuck where I am forever.
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