I’d suggest that the people on top are the ones who are on top of all metrics: Healthy, Rich, born to an affluent country, and intelligent.
This is because, even if intelligence only makes up 1% of your “winning at life” skill, it still gives you a 1% edge over those who are merely healthy, rich, and born to an affluent country.
The research I’ve seen suggests intelligence does nothing for happiness, that national IQ seems to influence national wealth, but that individual IQ doesn’t really influence individual wealth. I’ll admit I’ve not seen anything on IQ vs health. does a quick Google search Well, alright, apparently IQ does positively correlate with life expectancy :)
Still, I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that a high IQ correlates with success/winning. Success->High IQ is a different correlation, and can be explained by other causes, as I pointed out above :)
but that individual IQ doesn’t really influence individual wealth
Really!
Can you link me to the data you have for this. It seem so counter-intuitive that I’m tempted to defy the data. It seems to me there are so many mechanisms by which an intelligence advantage turns into a wealth advantage. Ignoring billionaire businessmen as a tiny proportion of the population, what about doctors or lawyers, those both require above average intelligence (I think) and pay better than the average job.
Edit: Just my personal two cents, but having gone through the job searching and raise process a lot, I’d agree that there’s very few companies that actually hire/promote based on intelligence/performance. One’s ability to look credible and impressive on an interview is far more important, and it’s quite easy to do that with a lower IQ. So, while I’d expect that intelligence would correlate with wealth in a perfect spherical society, it makes sense to me why there’s a much less significant correlation in our actual, existing society.
I’d suggest that the people on top are the ones who are on top of all metrics: Healthy, Rich, born to an affluent country, and intelligent.
This is because, even if intelligence only makes up 1% of your “winning at life” skill, it still gives you a 1% edge over those who are merely healthy, rich, and born to an affluent country.
The research I’ve seen suggests intelligence does nothing for happiness, that national IQ seems to influence national wealth, but that individual IQ doesn’t really influence individual wealth. I’ll admit I’ve not seen anything on IQ vs health. does a quick Google search Well, alright, apparently IQ does positively correlate with life expectancy :)
Still, I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that a high IQ correlates with success/winning. Success->High IQ is a different correlation, and can be explained by other causes, as I pointed out above :)
Really!
Can you link me to the data you have for this. It seem so counter-intuitive that I’m tempted to defy the data. It seems to me there are so many mechanisms by which an intelligence advantage turns into a wealth advantage. Ignoring billionaire businessmen as a tiny proportion of the population, what about doctors or lawyers, those both require above average intelligence (I think) and pay better than the average job.
Is there really no correlation!?
http://www.halfsigma.com/2006/06/high_iq_does_no.html and http://www.halfsigma.com/2006/07/higher_intellig.html were the posts I checked to confirm the cached belief, and provide significantly more detailed and nuanced claims. The short version is that education, not intelligence, influences wealth; intelligence does seem to give one an edge in getting that education, but certainly an education isn’t outside the reach of the average person.
Edit: Just my personal two cents, but having gone through the job searching and raise process a lot, I’d agree that there’s very few companies that actually hire/promote based on intelligence/performance. One’s ability to look credible and impressive on an interview is far more important, and it’s quite easy to do that with a lower IQ. So, while I’d expect that intelligence would correlate with wealth in a perfect spherical society, it makes sense to me why there’s a much less significant correlation in our actual, existing society.