Poster Child

Whenever the discussion turns to IQ, usually because genetics are involved and people find it offensive to think so, there is much resistance and protest.  Much ink has been spilled over why this is.  While it is difficult to discern motives, especially at a distance, I think that in the aggregate, people want credit for their other good qualities - their hard work, their resilience, their ability to get along with others, their charm, their adaptability; next, they also don't like to think that their favorite solutions may not fix some things, because that takes away their favorite sermons and pronouncements. 

As with more political arguments, there is a motte-and-bailey aspect, that "some people have all the intelligence in the world, but they never accomplish anything" or the like. They point out, as if it is somehow a new concept to me that I haven't taken into consideration, that IQ isn't everything.

It bears mentioning that I am the poster child for IQ not being everything. I entered my freshman year of college with the highest SAT's and graduated near the bottom of the class (even after my grades improved under the good influences of my eventual wife for my last three semesters). I worked at low-status jobs at first, slid my way up to medium status over time, and coul only have been described as above-average status the last few years, and even then only among certain groups.  I never made $50K in a year. I did many other things outside of work that I hope were worthy, using skills that I was not 99th percentile in, that used IQ mostly tangentially. I think I made mostly the right choices, but even now there are times when I wonder at the cost.

So yeah, I've heard the rumor that IQ isn't everything.  You needn't explain it to me in that patient tone. But it is what it is, and on the group even more than the individual level, can be quite useful.