On NFC—NFC is moderately correlated with IQ, it’s true. But personality traits turn out to be equally accurate predictors.
I’ll also point out that the loose correlation between NFC and intelligence is an implicitly made assumption underlying the worry that the quality of posts at Lesswrong will deteriorate with the new user influx...if it were true that NFC has an extremely strong relationship with intelligence, unintelligent people would simply would not be interested in participating in the discussion on the site, and there would be nothing for the older-user base to fret about.
We observe in everyday life that NFC doesn’t imply giftedness...there are lots of people who have extremely complicated but stupid opinions. Ever spend time on a white nationalist forum? Or argued with an intellectual fundamentalist christian? They write long sentences and cite academic papers, while simultaneously lacking even a basic understanding of how the world works. I don’t know whether people like this would score low or high on an IQ test—it’s possible that this faulty reasoning results from deficits which does not influence IQ scores—but it can’t be disputed that they’ve put a lot of thought into it.
On existential depression—This will naturally be correlated with intelligence, since you need to ponder philosophy in order to be identified as having this issue. However, is a social life really the cure for that? It seems to be like introspection is the only solution to existential depression … the issue arises via faulty philosophy in the first place.
Moreover...it would be really easy for someone suffering normal depression to attribute it to existential problems. We often feel emotions and then look around for the source afterwords. Naturally, only intelligent people would think to attribute the sadness to a philosophical issue.
On social life—I agree that smart people are more socially fulfilled when they are around other smart people.
In my earlier post, I was conveying that social needs and intellectual needs can be met separately. If I understand your post, you believe that in order for the social need to be met, one must be conversing with an intellectual equal.
From your post, it appears that you feel like an adult surrounded by children. The children tirelessly engage in activities which you do not find appealing, and will be unable to understand complex, adult matters.
I guess I feel more like a child surrounded by adults. The thing that bothers me about people is a profound unwillingness to engage and a stubborn lack of curiosity about anything. Yes, there are things that they don’t understand .. but that’s okay, those are my things and I can play by myself, like I always have.
I guess it’s not really a point that can be argued, since there’s no accounting for utility functions. Either you’ve got different needs, or the gap in intelligence for you is greater, etc...
Anyway, I’ll pick your brain on this, since you seem to have thought about it quite a bit - how does one create these safe havens for smart people? Is it really as simple as filtering out those who don’t pass an IQ test’s threshold?
On NFC—NFC is moderately correlated with IQ, it’s true. But personality traits turn out to be equally accurate predictors.
I’ll also point out that the loose correlation between NFC and intelligence is an implicitly made assumption underlying the worry that the quality of posts at Lesswrong will deteriorate with the new user influx...if it were true that NFC has an extremely strong relationship with intelligence, unintelligent people would simply would not be interested in participating in the discussion on the site, and there would be nothing for the older-user base to fret about.
We observe in everyday life that NFC doesn’t imply giftedness...there are lots of people who have extremely complicated but stupid opinions. Ever spend time on a white nationalist forum? Or argued with an intellectual fundamentalist christian? They write long sentences and cite academic papers, while simultaneously lacking even a basic understanding of how the world works. I don’t know whether people like this would score low or high on an IQ test—it’s possible that this faulty reasoning results from deficits which does not influence IQ scores—but it can’t be disputed that they’ve put a lot of thought into it.
On existential depression—This will naturally be correlated with intelligence, since you need to ponder philosophy in order to be identified as having this issue. However, is a social life really the cure for that? It seems to be like introspection is the only solution to existential depression … the issue arises via faulty philosophy in the first place.
Moreover...it would be really easy for someone suffering normal depression to attribute it to existential problems. We often feel emotions and then look around for the source afterwords. Naturally, only intelligent people would think to attribute the sadness to a philosophical issue.
On social life—I agree that smart people are more socially fulfilled when they are around other smart people.
In my earlier post, I was conveying that social needs and intellectual needs can be met separately. If I understand your post, you believe that in order for the social need to be met, one must be conversing with an intellectual equal.
From your post, it appears that you feel like an adult surrounded by children. The children tirelessly engage in activities which you do not find appealing, and will be unable to understand complex, adult matters.
I guess I feel more like a child surrounded by adults. The thing that bothers me about people is a profound unwillingness to engage and a stubborn lack of curiosity about anything. Yes, there are things that they don’t understand .. but that’s okay, those are my things and I can play by myself, like I always have.
I guess it’s not really a point that can be argued, since there’s no accounting for utility functions. Either you’ve got different needs, or the gap in intelligence for you is greater, etc...
Anyway, I’ll pick your brain on this, since you seem to have thought about it quite a bit - how does one create these safe havens for smart people? Is it really as simple as filtering out those who don’t pass an IQ test’s threshold?