https://glennloury.substack.com/p/wrestl...uality?s=r

An interesting discussion on cognitive inequality. Some comments explain why Democrats think everyone should learn to code.

"...I read The Bell Curve a couple of times, and one of the things Herrnstein and Murray said in that book that really stuck in my mind is that academic types like you and me, we virtually never encounter anyone in the lower 50th percentile of the cognitive distribution. When we think an undergraduate's dim, they have an IQ of 110, and that's like 80th percentile. And so you get blinded as you move up especially the academic ladder. You get blinded to the fifteen percent of the cognitive distribution, because those people are not in your purview. They're not in your circle...."


"...Anyways, the US military has been doing cognitive testing since World War I about. And they determined—I don't remember when, and this is part of American legislation—that you cannot be inducted into the armed forces if you have an IQ, I think, less than 80. And the reason they determined that is because they couldn't find any military job of any sort that someone who is that cognitively impaired could manage proficiently. That's a killer issue because it's not like the military isn't highly desirous of pulling people in, especially from, say, the working class. So they were motivated to find the opposite. And that's like ten percent of the population.

We have a problem, and no one will face this, as far as I can tell, liberals or conservatives. Ten percent of the population can't really function in a complex cognitive environment, and that's what we're producing for everyone to live in. We can't have a conversation about that, because you know, the liberal types think everyone can be trained to do anything, which is complete bloody rubbish. And the conservatives think, well, if you just buckle down and work, away you go. And there's some truth in that, because conscientiousness does predict long-term economic success. But that doesn't deal with this other issue at all. It's ten percent of the population..."

This is a big point made by Jordan Peterson, with the military example as well, first heard him say it a few years ago.

(04-26-2022 10:46 AM)bullet Wrote:  "...Anyways, the US military has been doing cognitive testing since World War I about. And they determined—I don't remember when, and this is part of American legislation—that you cannot be inducted into the armed forces if you have an IQ, I think, less than 80. And the reason they determined that is because they couldn't find any military job of any sort that someone who is that cognitively impaired could manage proficiently. That's a killer issue because it's not like the military isn't highly desirous of pulling people in, especially from, say, the working class. So they were motivated to find the opposite. And that's like ten percent of the population.

We have a problem, and no one will face this, as far as I can tell, liberals or conservatives. Ten percent of the population can't really function in a complex cognitive environment, and that's what we're producing for everyone to live in. We can't have a conversation about that, because you know, the liberal types think everyone can be trained to do anything, which is complete bloody rubbish. And the conservatives think, well, if you just buckle down and work, away you go. And there's some truth in that, because conscientiousness does predict long-term economic success. But that doesn't deal with this other issue at all. It's ten percent of the population..."

We actually discussed this a few months ago at my poker night. (I had seen a talk by the author of this piece expressing the same senttiment).

The prevailing opinion (other than me) was that this has always been a problem. The bottom 10% of the population has always been too dumb to be of much help to anyone else. In the 19th century, at least half were too dumb to farm efficiently enough to support themselves and at least 10% were too dumb to be a hired hand without constant supervision. So what did they do? They were a drain on society back then, and they're a drain on society now.

Like I said, I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. But my friends' position might be true, and Peterson might be wrong that this is a modern phenomenon.