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How much is a child's future success determined by innate intelligence? Economist James Heckman says it's not what people think. He likes to ask educated non-scientists -- especially politicians and policy makers -- how much of the difference between people's incomes can be tied to IQ. Most guess around 25 percent, even 50 percent, he says. But the data suggest a much smaller influence: about 1 or 2 percent.
So if IQ is only a minor factor in success, what is it that separates the low earners from the high ones? Or, as the saying goes: If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?
Science doesn't have a definitive answer, although luck certainly plays a role. But another key factor is personality, according to a paper Heckman co-authored in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month. He found financial success was correlated with conscientiousness, a personality trait marked by diligence, perseverance and self-discipline.
Why aren't you rich? You obviously slept with the wrong people!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday December 28 2016, @08:05PM
Science doesn't have a definitive answer, although luck certainly plays a role
Yeah like being lucky enough to have rich parents, for example.
This has been sitting in the queue for a long time so I've been able to think about it, and there's two aspects:
There's some classic class books about class in america and its stereotypical lower or at best lower-middle to be focused on income. Upper is more about balance sheets, at least economically. Poor people think rich people work real hard on getting $$$ and spending every penny both more effectively than they do, so your job which depends on working hard or IQ or banging the right manager or whatever is very important because every penny of the paycheck is gone in less than two weeks. Actual upper class people assume they have connections such that they'll never be really poor and they worry a lot more about the long term balance sheet where your job doesn't matter a hell of a lot compared to how you structure your estate and make sure the trust doesn't get eaten up in taxes and such. Your balance sheet only very loosely correlated to intelligence or hard work. So its very lower or lower middle class to assume smart people are "rich". Highly paid, "rich", peasants are very smart and hard working, I agree.
The other aspect is there's tradeoffs and depending on who's very fuzzy math you use I live around 90th to 95th percentile income and a reasonably good balance sheet too, HOWEVER I don't think more money is worth the tradeoff in quality of life. I have what I need, I buy what I want, I don't lack for much, I have enough lying around for generosity occasionally, my kids lack for nothing important although I probably do spoil them a bit despite trying not to, what more do I need? So I guess my answer would be "I feel rich, although there are a hell of a lot richer people than me". I'm not as rich as my grandparents were with vacation homes and sailboats and lakefront property and trust funds but I'm well enough off to have a totally fun lifestyle. I wouldn't do all that much different with 2x the money, maybe even 10x the money. I was very poor as a starving student starting out in life so I know quite well what its like to 10x or 20x your annual income. It wasn't really all that hard either, although it was BS enough that I'm totally not motivated enough to 40x or 100x my starving student era income. In fact if I got 10x the income I'd probably just stop working and only take a single monthly contract per month, then go sail the Caribbean, just me, a fishing rod, maybe two chicks at once (office space reference).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday December 28 2016, @09:49PM
Looking at some of the comments I think I can more clearly explain my first paragraph as lower and middle class folk think rich is all about becoming rich, getting a large enough wage-slave income to become rich and in DnD stats its all about your INT and to a lesser extent to survive the extensive hazing, your CON and STR values.
Upper class mostly rich people see rich as being all about keeping that wealth and not squandering it or getting greedy and losing it all like an idiot. Not losing your wealth is all about DnD stats its almost entirely WIS expressed as sensible non-greedy time preference, DEX in a mostly mental sense, and especially CHA/CHR to not get bluffed by the roiling cloud of ripoff artists surrounding every hex you're stand in.
So what the sociologists found was the main DND stat for being rich is the ones that help rich not become poor, not the stats resulting in the best wage-slave pay rates.
In DND speak if you wanna get rich you work the skirmish line or tank or whatever it takes to slay that dragon or Balrog so its STR and INT to the max, but to be rich or more specifically to remain rich, its mostly about being a bard or REMF, basically. I mean, maxed out CHA with lots of WIS and some DEX, that's basically a bard class, isn't it?
Its easy to become a millionaire with maxed out INT and a magic wand, but good luck keeping that million after the adventure unless you maxed out your CHA, or someone who did is going to end up with it all. The girl at the gaming table in the chainmail bikini becomes the trophy wife becomes the alimony collector and next thing you know you're helping the cityguard kill rats in the sewer just to get something to eat.
When I was young and met a lot of rich upperclass people sailing or at the club or whatever with my grandparents there is some variation of course but most were only average-ish intelligence and generally somewhat lazy but very shrewd long term charismatic thinkers.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday December 28 2016, @10:54PM
The girl at the gaming table in the chainmail bikini becomes the trophy wife becomes the alimony collector and next thing you know you're helping the cityguard kill rats in the sewer just to get something to eat.
So, in decreasing order of financial success:
Maybe you could just skip the first two and go straight to the rats. Who knows? If they're giant, maybe they'd be smart enough to be a blast to hang out with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 29 2016, @03:04AM
http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ [greenspun.com]
"William Henry Gates III made his best decision on October 28, 1955, the night he was born. He chose J.W. Maxwell as his great-grandfather. Maxwell founded Seattle's National City Bank in 1906. His son, James Willard Maxwell was also a banker and established a million-dollar trust fund for William (Bill) Henry Gates III. In some of the later lessons, you will be encouraged to take entrepreneurial risks. You may find it comforting to remember that at any time you can fall back on a trust fund worth many millions of 1998 dollars. "
Dumpster diving to read other people's source code helps too:
http://patch.com/california/losaltos/microsoft-co-founder-paul-allen-recounts-his-days-of-7a8784789a [patch.com]
"That phase of Allen's life involved taking the bus–sports coat, tie, leather briefcase and all—down to the offices of local computer gurus. “I would boost Bill into dumpsters and we'd get these coffee-stained texts (of computer code)” from behind the offices, grinned Allen."
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday December 29 2016, @03:09PM
Poor people think rich people work real hard on getting $$$ and spending every penny both more effectively than they do …
From what I've seen/experienced, that's actually closer to what middle–class people believe, along with the notion that poor people either are lazy, stupid, or aren't good at managing their money. Most of the poor people I've known were all too aware that highly affluent people typically inherit their wealth, have better opportunities/connections, and hire people to ensure their funds are well invested — but still clung to the hope that hard work & wise choices could lift them out of poverty.