Taleb dunking on IQ “research” at length. Technically a seriouspost I guess.
There are fields of biology that were largely discarded due to its racist foundations, (does eugenics ring any bells to you?).
IQ is a predictor of outcome only once you have discarded every other variable, I don’t see why such a weak predictor is being so stringently defended by you.
Also when I talk about racist baggage, I don’t mean that some racists use IQ as an excuse for racism. I mean IQ testing was popularised by eugenicists looking for excuses to do eugenics.
Did I ever argue for the tossing out of psychometrics?
IQ in its current state has not been extracted from its racist origins. If the sole basis of modern genetics was fascists and their hangers-on trying to find a new way to root out removed your arguement may have a point, but it has moved on from the eugenicists of old. Whereas the basis of IQ testing is largely unchanged from its origins and the consequences of that remain largely unexamined by the people that argue in its favour.
