I was actually surprised to read back over the post and see that it was about intelligence; in my memory I had translated it into an article about a one-dimensional scale of ability, which I also imagined including, as a critical component, ability to have effective collaborations.

I guess it was the example of Einstein that brought that to mind. Part of what impressed me the most about his career was that, when he was working on general relativity, he collaborated heavily with a mathematician. Marcel Grossman, I think.

There are two separate simplifying assumptions you can make, when modeling this situation. One is assuming intelligence is the most important factor. The other is assuming that ability is one-dimensional. I suppose that this post makes both of them.