I look at the IQ results for the survey every year. A selected handful of comments:
Karma vs. multiple IQ tests: positive correlation (.45) between self-report and Raven’s for users with positive karma, negative correlation (-.11) between self-report and Raven’s for users without positive karma.
SATs are very high: 96th percentile in the general population is lower quartile here. (First place I make the Harvey Mudd comparison.)
SAT self-report vs. IQ self-report: average SAT, depending on which one you look at and how you correct it, suggests that the average LWer is somewhere between 98th and 99.5th percentile. (IQ self-report average is above 99.5th percentile, and so I call the first “very high” and the second “extremely high.”)
I’ve interacted with a handful of Nobel laureates, I’m familiar with the professors and students at two top 15 graduate physics programs, and I’ve interacted with a bunch of LWers. LW as whole seems roughly comparable to a undergraduate physics department, active LWers roughly comparable to a graduate physics department, and there are top LWers at the level of the Nobel laureates (but aging means the ~60 year old Nobel laureates are not a fair comparison to the ~30 year old top LWers, and this is selecting just the math genius types from the top LWers, not the most popular top LWers). Recall Marcello comparing Conway and Yudkowsky.
I look at the IQ results for the survey every year. A selected handful of comments:
Karma vs. multiple IQ tests: positive correlation (.45) between self-report and Raven’s for users with positive karma, negative correlation (-.11) between self-report and Raven’s for users without positive karma.
SATs are very high: 96th percentile in the general population is lower quartile here. (First place I make the Harvey Mudd comparison.)
SAT self-report vs. IQ self-report: average SAT, depending on which one you look at and how you correct it, suggests that the average LWer is somewhere between 98th and 99.5th percentile. (IQ self-report average is above 99.5th percentile, and so I call the first “very high” and the second “extremely high.”)
I’ve interacted with a handful of Nobel laureates, I’m familiar with the professors and students at two top 15 graduate physics programs, and I’ve interacted with a bunch of LWers. LW as whole seems roughly comparable to a undergraduate physics department, active LWers roughly comparable to a graduate physics department, and there are top LWers at the level of the Nobel laureates (but aging means the ~60 year old Nobel laureates are not a fair comparison to the ~30 year old top LWers, and this is selecting just the math genius types from the top LWers, not the most popular top LWers). Recall Marcello comparing Conway and Yudkowsky.
That last link is kinda cringeworthy.
I just spent the last minute or so trying to figure out what you didn’t like about my percentile comparisons. ;)
The underlying subject is often painful to discuss, so even handled well there will be things to cringe about.
I don’t know if you knew that my question was directed at IlyaShpitser and not at you… I do not doubt your data.