Comments on: Who should skip college?

By: T. Beholder

T. Beholder — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:57:28 +0000

But, but, optimism!

Jim says:

If it was this bad 42 years ago, just imagine how much unbelievably worse it is today…

Well, now these mommy’s smart babies grew up, hence the results.

Mike in Boston says:

But I am sure that their ability to be good at what they do is not impaired by that fact; there is a sort of tactile, kinetic competence that seems mostly orthogonal to whatever an IQ test measures.

It’s a test disconnected from the real world or non-arbitrary practical abstractions (such as math). What can such tests measure?

On the low levels: ability to follow instructions and learn procedures. So it can strongly suggest disabilities, but due to single-value output cannot reveal any specifics (what exactly the subject can and cannot perform), so not going to be very useful other than as preliminary.

On the average and higher levels: ability to quickly figure out what the test-makers wanted the subject to do. Which does align well with suitability for some jobs… specifically, of the “bureaucrat” and “lackey” types.

Hypothetically, it’s possible to build a mandarinate on something like that, but the likely result is an hierarchy filled by hapless followers, thus either paralyzed or guided by random fashions. But then, USSR achieved this kind of pervasive management senility simply via iterative promotion of “safe” mediocrity due to perverse incentives.

By: Mike in Boston

Mike in Boston — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 04:19:16 +0000

My massage therapist can tell where it hurts, what needs to be loosened, and when a muscle has been pulled and needs treatment other than massage. My tree guy has a good sense of where to attach ropes and cut so the tree falls in the one place it won’t damage anything. I suspect neither of those guys would hit a score above Dan Kurt’s 105 on an IQ test. But I am sure that their ability to be good at what they do is not impaired by that fact; there is a sort of tactile, kinetic competence that seems mostly orthogonal to whatever an IQ test measures.

There’s also common sense: they both knew better than to join the military and risk being sent to their deaths for no good reason by some fool politician.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 03:29:04 +0000

If it was this bad 42 years ago, just imagine how much unbelievably worse it is today…

https://i.ibb.co/gFbhv9F3/fussell-class-university.jpg

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 03:18:46 +0000

Low-T economic parasite, Bryan Caplan, 53, would be warranted to plan to do something productive, now that President Trump is bearing down, shivs bared, upon Uncle Scam.

By: Dan Kurt

Dan Kurt — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 02:42:34 +0000

Forget the SAT as your touchstone as the IQ content has been watered down since the 1960s.. Pay the money and have a psychologist give you an IQ test, even a truncated one. If your results shows an IQ lower than 116 forget college and learn a trade. A military career is a great way to learn a useful technical job. If your IQ is 105 or lower, join a union and pray that automation does not make you redundant.

Dan Kurt