can you describe (suitably anonymized, of course) three* of these stupid math wizzes and the evidence you used to infer their stupidity
Of course the problem is the most memorable examples are also the easiest cases.
1: Dogmatic catholic, knew for a long time without ever witnessing her doing anything clever.
2: As a nuclear physicist I assume this guy is considerably better at math than I am. But this is probably bad evidence as I only know about him because he is so stupid. But there appear to be quite a few scientists and engineers that hold superstitious and irrational beliefs: witness all the credentialed creationists.
3: Instead of just picking someone, take the Less Wrong commentariat. I suspect all but a handful of the regular commenters know more math than I do. I’m not especially smarter than anybody here. Less Wrong definitely isn’t dumb. But I don’t feel like I’m at the bottom of the barrel either. My sense is that my intellect is roughly comparably to the average Less Wrong commenter even though my math skills aren’t. I would say the same about Alicorn, for example. She seems to compare just fine though she’s said she doesn’t know a lot of math. Obviously this isn’t a case of people being good at math and being dumb, but it is a case of people being good at math while not being definitively smarter than I am.
Of course the problem is the most memorable examples are also the easiest cases.
1: Dogmatic catholic, knew for a long time without ever witnessing her doing anything clever.
2: As a nuclear physicist I assume this guy is considerably better at math than I am. But this is probably bad evidence as I only know about him because he is so stupid. But there appear to be quite a few scientists and engineers that hold superstitious and irrational beliefs: witness all the credentialed creationists.
3: Instead of just picking someone, take the Less Wrong commentariat. I suspect all but a handful of the regular commenters know more math than I do. I’m not especially smarter than anybody here. Less Wrong definitely isn’t dumb. But I don’t feel like I’m at the bottom of the barrel either. My sense is that my intellect is roughly comparably to the average Less Wrong commenter even though my math skills aren’t. I would say the same about Alicorn, for example. She seems to compare just fine though she’s said she doesn’t know a lot of math. Obviously this isn’t a case of people being good at math and being dumb, but it is a case of people being good at math while not being definitively smarter than I am.
I suspect that “smarter” has not been defined with sufficient rigor here to make analysis possible.