I think this misses the point of the OP, which wasn’t that IQ or intelligence can accurately be guessed in a casual conversation, but rather that intelligence can be guessed more accurately than other important parameters such as “conscientiousness, benevolence, and loyalty”, for which we don’t have tools nearly as good as those we have for measuring IQ.
The consequence of which being, since we can’t assess these as methodically, people can fake them more easily, and this has negative social consequences.
On a second read, I agree with you- I don’t think I paid much attention to the third sentence, because the first two both rubbed me the wrong way. I have known people who turned out to be all hat and no cattle, intelligence-wise, and see that as a general phenomenon, and think verbal ability can be very distinct from mathematical/technical ability. There’s significant anecdotal and statistical evidence for that.
for which we don’t have tools nearly as good as those we have for measuring IQ
We have good measures of conscientiousness, but are either benevolence or loyalty single factors? Benevolence or loyalty to a single entity we have moderately good tests for, and it’s not clear to me it’s possible to do better without mindreading.
I think this misses the point of the OP, which wasn’t that IQ or intelligence can accurately be guessed in a casual conversation, but rather that intelligence can be guessed more accurately than other important parameters such as “conscientiousness, benevolence, and loyalty”, for which we don’t have tools nearly as good as those we have for measuring IQ. The consequence of which being, since we can’t assess these as methodically, people can fake them more easily, and this has negative social consequences.
On a second read, I agree with you- I don’t think I paid much attention to the third sentence, because the first two both rubbed me the wrong way. I have known people who turned out to be all hat and no cattle, intelligence-wise, and see that as a general phenomenon, and think verbal ability can be very distinct from mathematical/technical ability. There’s significant anecdotal and statistical evidence for that.
We have good measures of conscientiousness, but are either benevolence or loyalty single factors? Benevolence or loyalty to a single entity we have moderately good tests for, and it’s not clear to me it’s possible to do better without mindreading.