Comments on: What I’m Reading http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-19/ taking the most charitable view of those who disagree Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:09:54 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.32 By: Weir http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-19/#comment-461805 Fri, 13 Nov 2015 00:34:31 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=6040#comment-461805 Jones is talking about a 30% pay cut for someone with an IQ of 135. If she drops two standard deviations she loses 30% of her salary. That’s not a modest pay cut. Compared to 700%, it’s relatively modest. But it’s real money.

]]> By: Jonathan Graehl http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-19/#comment-461786 Wed, 11 Nov 2015 22:30:56 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=6040#comment-461786 All of us have only learned to be smart in connection with a functioning hive. We didn’t build that. We’re all an unfortunate time-travel-machine breakdown away from being stranded, useless and shivering, in an incapable past.

]]> By: Jonathan Graehl http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-19/#comment-461785 Wed, 11 Nov 2015 22:27:36 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=6040#comment-461785 What a stark counterpoint to the usual equalist emphasis on intra-group variation – they’re so desperate to wave the “culture explains everything” wand that they’re now willing to admit meaningful inter-group differences? If they were only a little more self aware, they would say less.

]]> By: Jonathan Graehl http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-19/#comment-461784 Wed, 11 Nov 2015 22:20:59 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=6040#comment-461784 Insects react faster than humans. We have much to learn from insect culture, which imparts to all an equal ration. (Henrich, this willful idiot, as told by Kling, is nobody I’ve heard of). I see “Handle” has made the same point more seriously.

]]> By: Handle http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-19/#comment-461782 Wed, 11 Nov 2015 21:20:08 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=6040#comment-461782 It’s very odd indeed to use reaction times as a proxy for inter-species comparisons of ‘intelligence’. Many animals, some much more rudimentary than humans or chimps, have much faster reaction times – including for complex tasks like flying and pouncing on hunted prey – that put us to shame.

For instance, even the lowly star-nosed mole has some of the fastest reflexes (which are like reaction times) in the animal kingdom.

Better to compare individuals within the same species. And then the question is what accounts for the dramatic variances one observes in cognitive abilities, not just within a culture or ethnic group, but even within the same family. Those variances are hard to blame on ‘culture’.

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