Comments by "David Butler" (@davidbutler378) on "Richard Haier: IQ Tests, Human Intelligence, and Group Differences | Lex Fridman Podcast #302" video.

  1. The Bell curve book and Jensen paper controversy was not about g factor or IQ score. It was about perception of individual and common group capacity as human beings. Whenever there is a hierarchical judgement based on limited measures of capacity there is going to be a pushback. Measuring just intelligence without including other capacities invites pushback. A smarter approach to the Bell Curve chapter 10 would have been in placing IQ score in context with capacities separate from IQ. Then any racist claims would have sounded hollow. One capacity different from IQ is stamina.
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  2. Question: how does relearning a skill relate to G factor? I use OpenOffice-Draw infrequently: usually years apart. Everytime, I must relearn how to use Draw but I usually relearn the skills quickly. David Butler
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  3. There was a book then a movie which answers the question of whether to take the dumb/smart pill. It concerned a guy and the mouse that died. David Butler
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  4. It's more likely that overall intellectual potential increases over time with more favorable social conditions in the same way living conditions improve with more favorable social conditions. Bad aspects of things tend to have more prominence than good things.
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  5. Neanderthals, on average, had larger brain cases than modern day humans but modern day brains are more complexly structured than Neanderthal brains.
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  6. A better test than academia's favorite (i.e. don't have to think too hard) 'Turing test' is have a list of tasks that humans are good at and a list of what machines are good at and use items from both lists as part of the test. David Butler
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  7. The IQ controversy missed the point. The objective should tapping as many capacities of every individual as possible: maximize the advantages of a varied use of human capacities and minimize the disadvantages of specialized use of human capacities. A focus on a single capacity encourages narrow hierarchical specialization.
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  8. About shifting G factor to the right: another book then movie about that.
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  9. Again, Richard's thoughts on life success overlook the social structure effect on individuals and the life success of individuals. Society has a selection process for where individuals fit in the social hierarchy. Only a few reach the top and merit is rarely the deciding criteria. My point is that specialty is a safe home and career inconvenience is rarely chosen.
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  10. Maybe, there should be a non college tutor option for high schoolers and post high schoolers which leads to a junior or senior year bachelor entry to college. Then admissions testing would be unnecessary for those individuals and the path to an undergraduate degree would be more flexible. I failed my first college attempt but succeeded in getting the degree later. David Butler
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  11. I suspect that in today's America, the first born is the practice child and the second child benefits as the first child learns. I'm very familiar with first child / second child interaction.
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  12. It seems today that to be a successful theoretical physicist you also have to embrace materialism over everything else which puts one into an empty void. Not a good place to be. David Butler
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  13. Any advice to young people should explain how to find mentors to help them on their life path. Only some them will listen due to naivite.
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  14. Although intelligence is Richard H's speciality, his speciality is too narrow to see the forest from the trees. That is, intelligence is not the only capacity a human being has: it's just the intellect. It's the same blinder that materialistic physicists have: assumptions morph into hypothesis then into pseudo laws. It's easy to overlook the inconvenient. Richard overlooks physical and especially spiritual.
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  15. A time traveler journeying back a century, who prepared for the difference in cultures, would be more knowledgeable and appear far smarter then than today.
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  16. I dislike tests, also ... especially the time limit tests.
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  17. It's important for the privileged to understand they have a responsibility to the rest of us. Everyone has a job based on the capacity to get the job done. Even post-docs are privileged despite the struggle they face getting their career on track. The privileged can find a less privileged job if they are unwilling to do due diligence for their responsibilities. The privileged belong in the limelight for the rest of us to keep a close eye on. Far better not to be in the limelight: I don't need 15 minutes of exposure.
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  18. The 'Flynn effect' sounds like a cultural effect. Is it more prevalent in Europe and Asia than in the US?
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  19. Ah, stepping around the importance of diversity and how this country has yet to understand how to pop the cork and let the genie out of the bottle. Someone needs to bring the founding father's true intent into 21st century context. I don't have that ability to do that but maybe there is someone who can. Maybe, you could bring that person onto your podcast. David Butler
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  20. I'm wary of proponents of any party line (especially Chinese Communists) because it's another version of the victor rewriting history.
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  21. About the mystery of the IQ scores drifting upward: you are only witnessing one capacity undergoing change without checking whether the other capacities are also changing. This is the problem with your formulaic measure of intellect. Again, another forest vs trees issue. You need a wider academic consultation approach. Don't worry, other academic specialties are doing the same thing.
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  22. About the 16‰ IQ 85 or lower: that implies a responsibility a nation has to its population. I doubt that an immediate fix is in the cards. However, a more serious focus on short and long term consequences is a wise objective.
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  23. The thing about human genetics is that it is the result of the merging of 8 human ancestors so race is an important effect on genetics. Although there is only one human species today, there is a wider genetic diversity than Richard has been willing to acknowledge. Elon's Martian colony is likely to widen human genetics diversity due to radiation effects.
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  24. About the 11 and 12 year-olds taking the SATs: the quartiles of the top 1% later years career results could well reflect biases in the career specialty hierarchy rather than individual achievement.
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  25. About race: current theory has 8 versions of human until the very recent millennia. The different human versions, to great extent, specialized in different Earth habitats and thus developed different survival skills. The 8 human versions merged to become current day Homo Sapiens. Race, effectively, emerged as the 8 human versions merged into one.
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