From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Sep 14 2002 - 23:57:37 MDT
Mitch writes
> Regarding Jews, I wondered if Jews are so smart, how come I
> am not a physicist or an engineer? Recessive genes, victim
> of fetal alcohol syndrome, my mother ate too much lunchmeat,
> what?
Did you want to be a physicist or an engineer? Besides, as the
Terman study of the gifted made clear a long time ago, many smart
people never amount to anything, e.g., Heinlein, as was said, who
was only a writer. Remember, they proved that *intelligence* has
high heritability, not actual *accomplishment*.
As for the point that no one would have heard of Heinlein if
he hadn't written science fiction, well, when you consider
how many people in the world there are who deserve to be
famous, you realize that there aren't enough slots open.
Say the Anglosphere has about 500,000,000 people in it,
and we each have capacity to recognize the outstanding
achievements of 50,000 people, then it follows that only
1 in 10,000 can become at all well-known. So those that
do also have a certain amount of luck.
> I do not find the Bell Curve useful in identifying or
> solving problems, Ron, because the author's work, doesn't
> cure disease, doesn't produce an alternative to gasoline,
> doesn't build bridges, etc. It seems altogether pedantic.
So far as I'm concerned, its chief value is to provide
explanations (call that pedantic if you wish). Others
will argue that since the purpose of government is to
regulate our lives, government policy needs to be
informed on what works and what doesn't.
Lee
P.S. Actually, I admire writers greatly, but couldn't
resist piling-on after what DB wrote. :-)
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