I remember seeing a thread on Less Wrong that started with someone hearing that Feynman had an IQ of 115, and being surprised, and then asking what’s up with that.
I can find the thread, now, but I remember mostly people saying that that number was false, and offering various explanations for why one might think that was Feynman’s IQ, including that the test in question was from his teen-aged years, and IQ often stabilizes later in life.
In any case, Feynman was named a Putnam Fellow (top five scorer) in 1939, which gives some context on his general mathematical ability (aside from being a ground-breaking, noble prize-winning, theoretical physicist).
In the case of Feynman, I just don’t believe that his IQ was only 126.
I remembered gwern talking about this and found this comment on the subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1159719
I remember seeing a thread on Less Wrong that started with someone hearing that Feynman had an IQ of 115, and being surprised, and then asking what’s up with that.
I can find the thread, now, but I remember mostly people saying that that number was false, and offering various explanations for why one might think that was Feynman’s IQ, including that the test in question was from his teen-aged years, and IQ often stabilizes later in life.
In any case, Feynman was named a Putnam Fellow (top five scorer) in 1939, which gives some context on his general mathematical ability (aside from being a ground-breaking, noble prize-winning, theoretical physicist).