pepe_prime comments on Is Scott Alexander bad at math? - Less Wrong

31 Post author: JonahSinick 04 May 2015 05:11AM

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Comment author: pepe_prime 06 May 2015 04:51:28PM 4 points [-]

I'd like to point out that the 2014 survey found 7.0% of LWers to have PhDs and 2.9% to have other professional degrees. These objective measures are considered by society at large to be of roughly equal intellectual caliber. You probably don't outstrip this roughly 1 in 10 lesswrongers by a such a large margin.

Of course, the survey results may not be accurate. Furthermore while most of those degrees are in sciences, only a handful are in math or a close field. Thus if you consider math to require higher intellectual caliber (as I'm sure we both do) then you are still probably right about being of at least "higher" intellectual caliber.

I guess you think the expressions of high regard from elite mathematicians are pretty big indicators though.