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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday November 02 2017, @05:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-they-only-surveyed-the-nimnobs dept.

Why can we talk about PISA results, comparing the performance of students in school, but we are not allowed to talk about differences in IQ? Bring this subject up, and you are immediately accused of racism. And yet. And yet, if there are substantial differences in intellectual capability, might this not explain some of the world's problems?

An update of a massive "study of studies" is underway; this article summarizes the work to date, and provides links to the work in progress. A quick summary of the answers to the questions no one dares ask:

  • Eastern Asia (Japan, China): IQ around 105
  • Europe/North America: IQ around 98
  • Middle East: IQ around 85
  • Africa: IQ around 70

In the first instance, it doesn't even matter why there are differences. They may be genetic, or disease related, or nutrition related, or something else. If these differences are real (and the evidence is pretty strong that they are), then we need to deal with them. Imagine if the low IQs in Africa turn out to be fixable - what would the impact be, if we could raise the IQ of an entire continent by 30 points?!

Sticking our collective heads in the sand, because the topic is not PC, is not going to solve any problems.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 03 2017, @01:17AM (2 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday November 03 2017, @01:17AM (#591458) Homepage Journal

    Just before I started kindergarten I was given an intelligence test in which I attempted to identify line drawings of various objects.

    The teacher was quite surprised that I knew what an airplane was. Well I knew that because my father flew to Vietnam in one just a week before.

    It was a long time before I realized that I was in the college preparation track.

    I worked like a demon in hopes of skipping some of my grades in school, so I could escape my batshit crazy family by enrolling in college at a much younger age. But when I was fifteen my father told me that the schools had made the offer, but my parents turned it down because they felt it would be best for me to be with kids my own age.

    I have never been so angry and upset in my entire life. I was bullied so much that I regard myself as lucky to have survived my childhood.

    I majored in Astronomy at first at Caltech, then changed to Physics. I got expelled for sleeping on a couch after the Master Of Student Housing told me not to.

    To be able to work is uncommon for those who have Schizoaffective Disorder. I finished my degree at UCSC, now I'm a contract programmer. The last perm job I had paid $130k. In '95 and '96 I was a Senior Engineer at Apple, working in the role of Debug Meister.

    But I have very little to show for all the money I have earned. I would have done better to burn the banknotes to stay warm on cold nights.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @02:29PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @02:29PM (#591679)

    so I could escape my batshit crazy family

    so apparently mental illness is inheritable