@Norwegian-Mugabe said in Race and IQ:
The validation of IQ is interesting. People says that IQ measures intelligence as people with higher IQ are more likely to get certain outcomes that the bourgeoisie values. Yet, people with extraordinary high IQ gets generally worse outcomes than people with moderately high IQ. If IQ is a valid test of intelligence because higher IQ leads to better outcomes in certain areas, shouldn't the correlation trend be perpetually positive? Are most of the people with 150 IQ dumber than the median person with 135 IQ?
Several explanations that come to mind:
extraordinary intelligence lets itself more to outside-system thinking. A 110 IQ person thinks "what can I do to get good grades/get into a good university/get promoted at my job?". A 140 IQ person thinks "what flaws are there in the system that I can exploit to obtain the most money for the least amount of effort?";
consumerism part 1: more intelligent people might be more immune to marketing and general social pressure to consume, and thus might be less oriented towards material gain. A 110 IQ person will watch an ad designed by 130 IQ people to manipulate them into buying a new phone and will work hard to obtain it; a 150 IQ person will not be manipulated and thus will not be motivated to apply themselves more;
consumerism part 2: less intelligent people might be less able to occupy and entertain themselves with their own thoughts and inner experiences, and thus require more external stimuli that cost money. Diogenes could enjoy himself living in a barrel, while there are people who would start self-harming after a couple hours alone in an empty room;
energy requirements: a high IQ brain is an energy hog, and thus with a damaged metabolism such a person might lack energy to properly perform. It doesn't matter much if your IQ is 150 if you cannot stop yourself from falling asleep during the day, get tachycardia from walking 100 meters, or cannot focus enough to drive a car. It might even manifest itself in specifically mental impairments: Ted Kaczynski (IQ 163) has made groundbreaking mathematical discoveries and he had managed to evade the feds for 18 years, yet his big brain apparently couldn't realize that his brother would inform on him, or that no one will be influenced by his manifesto;
social connections: the higher is your IQ, the more isolated you will be. There's military research that shows officers should be only so much smarter than their subordinates - too much of a gap makes effective leadership impossible, as the higher-IQ person cannot empathize and understand the lower-IQ one. First of all, this is a major life impairment - avenues for conventional success are pretty limited for a high-IQ weirdo. Such a person will be passed for promotions and might struggle to even get a job. It also makes one a high risk for depression, anxiety and such. Second of all, such an isolated person will be more immune to social pressure to conform, since they cannot fit in anyway. So, less motivation to have a "proper career" or to buy the right status symbols.
