SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
This morning, as I'm having my first morning cigarette and getting my first sips of coffee in me, The Roomie joins me outside and starts telling me about how this highly educated youtuber has declared war on IQ tests. Which goes to show two things:
- The Roomie is a bastard.
- Education offers no warranty against idiocy.
IQ tests are quite good at testing what they actually test. They're also astoundingly bad at testing what they don't actually test. Unless you're talking about the extreme ends of the scale and you think they aren't very good tests, you don't understand what they really test and need to shut up now before you look like an even bigger dumbass. You're basically saying that screwdrivers are shitty tools because they make lousy hammers. That a high school dropout understands this while a guy with a PhD by his name doesn't demonstrates my second point quite nicely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:59PM (7 children)
They hate anything that reveals the stupidity of their "equity" lies.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:39PM (3 children)
Nah, libertarian in policy and conservative in personal decisions. He just listens to all kinds of silly-ass people on youtube way too much.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:26PM (2 children)
That's even worse than listening to all kinds of silly-ass people on SN.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:40PM
Much, much worse, yep.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 09 2019, @03:57PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:53PM (2 children)
Stupidity is equally distributed along the political axis.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:21AM (1 child)
Depends how you measure.
You could make an argument for that if you are going by Population*AverageStupidity, but I would argue the population on the extremes is just too low for this to be realistic despite their often impressive stupidity levels.
If however you bow to the reality of the extremes setting the agenda regardless of their relatively low numbers, and look instead at the average individual stupidity of the population at the extremes (on any axis), you find it dramatically higher. This makes the distribution into more of an inverted bell curve.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday January 09 2019, @02:48PM
After I had posted that I had given it a bit more thought and came up with the "inverted bell curve" too, which does make a lot of sense.
Everyone is stupid in one way or another, but the extremists are a special kind of stupid.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday January 08 2019, @01:56PM (9 children)
That's why Blacks can dance and play sports, and Whites can read books and play strategy games.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:28PM
Yeah, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire were fakes. So was Buddy Rich I hear... And Joe Namath and Art Donovan? Pfft!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:08PM (7 children)
If you're not careful all this racism will get your account banned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:10PM (3 children)
Fuck you! He's not a racist! Learn to think, man!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:04PM (2 children)
Found the racist! And what are IQ tests, if not covert racism?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:48PM (1 child)
Nope, white trash gets caught in the net too. Class has a far bigger effect. Well, for those that earn it. It doesn't take intelligence to inherit it. We should demand that he take a test!
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:00AM
The obvious solution is to add a curve based on the general relevant dis/advantaging factors (racial, religious, economic, education, genetics, age, gender, physical activity, injuries, diet, parental involvement, and numerous others) to normalize IQ scores at exactly 100 for everyone.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:47PM (2 children)
Not on this site it won't. We're not about telling you what you're allowed to think or say.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 09 2019, @09:02AM (1 child)
You call it Algorithm. Otherwise known as Robot. And it stops people from tweeting. If the Spam Modders don't like their Tweets.
There was the story about the 9/11 cyber, the Insurance Company files. And someone tweeted, "oh, there's a Grand Jury meeting about 9/11." Someone tweeting about 9/11, in the story about 9/11. Spam Modded because someone didn't like the Tweet. So unfair!!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:18AM
Nice sig.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:26PM (3 children)
It's HAMMER TIME! ;)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo [youtube.com]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:34PM (2 children)
No, it's HAMMER TIME [youtube.com]!!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:48PM
Quality link. I'd completely forgotten about that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by RandomFactor on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:49AM
Hammer Time [youtube.com]
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:36PM (3 children)
Does an IQ test measure what most people actually think it measures? If not, then maybe that is a valid reason to oppose their improper use.
A better tool analogy might be Duct Tape: non HVAC people might assume that it is good for use on ducts because it says so in the name, while HVAC people know this is a misconception.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:50PM
Indeed, you use foil tape on ducts and duct tape on everything else. That's no reason to confuse the shit out of everyone by changing the name this far along though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:39PM (1 child)
You can actually measure IQ with duct tape. Thinking quickly can save your life [universetoday.com].
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:03AM
Does it move? [pinterest.com]
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:53PM (8 children)
Not as good as a crescent wrench perhaps, but I can't think of a better tool for unsticking the float.
What does an IQ test? Haven't all the political issues been resolved yet?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:04PM (6 children)
Broadly, your abilities to learn and reason. They try to spread the types of tests and subject matter out a bit so that it gives a broader view of those abilities but it's not remotely going to test every aspect of either. It's a damned fine benchmark for coders and an absolutely worthless one for political pundits, artists, advertisers, and frankly pretty much any job that isn't heavy on the mental stuff.
There aren't any political issues with the test. The only even semi-valid complaint comes from those who aren't native speakers of the language the test is in and they should be taking one in their native language anyway.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:30PM
they should be taking one in their native language anyway.
I don't know. Adds to the challenge, don't you think? Don't mind me, I'm just a bit of a stickler for learning more than one language, before you take the test of course... But taking it in your second language would make it much more interesting.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @09:43PM (3 children)
There's little evidence of that, especially seeing as how IQ comes from the social 'sciences'.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @11:51PM (2 children)
There's plenty of evidence of it. There's just also plenty of evidence that if you try to say it tests something it doesn't, you're not going to get the same results.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @10:51PM (1 child)
Well, sure, if you redefine success, anyone and anything can become successful. The social 'sciences' are good at that. IQ correlates with several things, but it is unknown how much those things are related to general intelligence.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:01AM
Exactly. If you're using it for general intelligence and bitching about its efficacy, you're basically complaining that phillips head screwdrivers are shit because they don't work worth a damn on torx head screws. If you know a test is quite good at specific things and shit at others, use it only for those specific things and quit bitching.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NewNic on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:34AM
Not really. IQ tests measure your ability to take IQ tests. This is somewhat correlated with those abilities. The fundamental problem is that there is not a good, universally accepted definition of "intelligence". It's difficult to measure something that you can't define.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:29PM
Apparently people's patience and their ability to react proportionally.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:06PM (10 children)
Sounds like the debate sparked by Taleb being a stellar example of an IYI.
http://nassimtaleb.org/2016/09/intellectual-yet-idiot/ [nassimtaleb.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:06PM (6 children)
Good chance it was. I try not to save stupidity to long term storage unless it's really funny, so I don't remember.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:53PM (5 children)
He's done this sort of thing enough that I've similarly binned him. Might glean useful bits, but generally don't take him seriously. Of course, that applies to a whole raft of True Believers anymore...
BTW Soylent was misbehaving mightily a few minutes ago... similar but not identical to having CSS disabled.When it finally deigned to take my previous comment, then it fixed itself. Was working fine earlier today....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:11PM (4 children)
Yup. Not sure why it was having the wiggins. Nothing especially helpful in the error_log. A bounce of the apache processes seems to have cleared it up though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 08 2019, @09:18PM (3 children)
I can break anything... :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @11:54PM (2 children)
Would you like to be martyb's stuff breaking minion? It mostly goes like: I write the code, he breaks the code, I fix it, he breaks it again, someone comes along and wants a cosmetic change, he figures out how the cosmetic change caused 512 new bugs, I give up and push it live anyway. It's a simple little system but it works for us.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday January 09 2019, @03:27AM (1 child)
Sounds like martyb doesn't need any help from me ... I usually whine until bugs go away, rather than making new ones. Well, you'll never be out of a job... :D
BTW found a lovely dark theme, "SoylentNews Night Mode Red".
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:41AM
Is pretty nice, yep. He has it listed as CC0 (which he can't technically do if he used any of our GPL'd stuff but I don't particularly care) so there's no issue with including it in the next site update if time allows.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:13PM (1 child)
After reading some reviews, it appears that the man engages in some serious projection. *He has found the enemy...*
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:48PM
Yep, others have pointed that out. Not for the first time, either.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Funny) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:49PM
My old man's definition of an "intellectual" was someone educated beyond their intelligence.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 2) by AssCork on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:29PM
I worked with my fair share of PhDs in the past - all were the best in the world in their field.
However, one needed a cassette tape with spoken instructions to drive to/from the office (this was before GPS, and yes, they did get lost if they didn't stop the tape at a red light).
Another claimed to be a paraplegic for the entirety of their career (good parking, custom office equipment, etc) - only to walk up and receive an award the day of their retirement.
School, as they say, is no place for smart people.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.