Crownless_Prince comments on Genetic "Nature" is cultural too - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 18 March 2016 02:33PM

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Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 21 March 2016 10:23:31AM 3 points [-]

Why is this bizarre? It simply means that high IQ individuals don't capture all the value they create.

Consider that if it had been the opposite - IQ was more a personal benefit than a country benefit - we'd be explaining it as "obviously smart people benefit themselves at the expense of others". Being able to explain something or its opposite isn't explaining, unless we dig deeper.

Comment author: Crownless_Prince 21 March 2016 11:50:39PM 0 points [-]

Consider that if it had been the opposite - IQ was more a personal benefit than a country benefit - we'd be explaining it as "obviously smart people benefit themselves at the expense of others".

Yes, it's called basing your beliefs on the evidence.

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 22 March 2016 11:04:25AM 2 points [-]

No, it's choosing the first plausible rationalisation for the data. People have been suggesting lots of plausible explanations for the effect, and they all sound plausible (and may all the true, to some extent), but we really don't know until we test.

Comment author: The_Bird 23 March 2016 02:34:46AM 3 points [-]

So, why were you calling reality "bizarre" again?

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