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Thursday, April 20. 2017

IQ and The Job Market


Prof. Peterson's stats are surely correct, same as Charles Murray's. Stats do not account for individuals very well, though. Obviously, low or average (100) IQ people with amiable personalities can do well in many fields including politics and sales. High IQ people can be easily found working in the "trades" because they like the freedom and hate cubicles.


These were not issues when 90% of people lived on family farms. In a complex post-industrial society, it's pretty clear that low IQ and character weaknesses can be limiting but there is still plenty of work to be done out there.


As I have mentioned many times, character traits can be more important in advancing one's life goals than IQ. Also mentioned many times, not everybody's life goal is wealth. Wealth is just a default goal for people without other more interesting goals. That said, money is darn useful and I like it.



Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss at 14:25 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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You have described it well. IQ is an advantage, but it is only one thing and on an individual level, may not be the most important thing for getting the job, mate, or wealth you want. Measuring at the group level then, of course the group with Advantage A is going to do better. Taller people will rate out as better basketball players, but height is not the only thing that goes into basketball.
#1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2017-04-20 22:34 (Reply)
He is concerned about people with an IQ below 80, (which is a much bigger percentage of the population than I ever imagined). Have things changed so much that we now have to worry about this? I know that under 70 IQ or so is considered mentally retarded, and we Americans have always taken care of our family and friends who can't do for themselves. Has our society really become so negligent that we now have to worry about what will become of our less gifted members?
#2 LP on 2017-04-20 22:47 (Reply)
IQ is not a predictor. My predictor of success in any endeavor is based upon well defined goals, written down, updated, reviewed, kept secret from others. For each goal write a detailed action plan. Dreams are flippant, gone in a moment. Stay focused, write them down in a journal. Read them every day, revise and change if need be. Be careful, for what you write will be. That is the scary part. If you know your destination, you will reach it. Also by three words for success are persistence, integrity, and attitude. Love ya too, work hard, be hard. SgtPete PS stole this from motivational speaking people in the eighties. It still works.
#3 Peter John Seniuk on 2017-04-21 01:27 (Reply)
Many years ago I read that the average lawyer is smarter than the average truck driver but one out of ten truckies is smarter than the average lawyer.

(smarter = IQ score)
#4 James Graham on 2017-04-21 10:01 (Reply)
In many fields high IQ is needed. I am an electrical engineer and used to do a lot of work for the advanced technology section at the company where I worked. That section was totally composed of PhDs but I managed to keep up with them. They were really smart people there. It's like being in college. After you have been there awhile, you know who are the smart kids and who are the dumb kids.

@ James Graham
That's not a high bar in either case. One of my engineer friends went to law school and became a lawyer and told me law school is easy compared to engineering school.
#5 Ray on 2017-04-21 15:26 (Reply)
Folks, as LP says, he's talking about people with IQs below 85 or 80. And he's right on target: there simply isn't any work out there that they can do. It's not a matter of gumption, or work ethic, or focusing like a laser on your dream. They. Can't. Do. It.

The rule about not joining the Army was put in place after McNamara's Project 100,000 recruited a bunch of them and sent them to Vietnam (officially, to give them a chance to move up in society). They were demonstrably dangerous to the other Americans around them, just from their inability to understand what to do; they died at shockingly high rates.

They. Can't. Do. It. They can't be a fry cook, because they can't remember how long the food can stay out without getting you sick. They can't be a Jiffy Lube worker, because they can't reliably get the right kind of oil for the cars they're working on. They can't work as a landscaper, because they can't get the two-stroke vs. four-stroke fuel thing straight and wreck expensive tools. They can't be a grocery stocker, because grocery stores have 30,000 items (no kidding) and they can't figure out what needs to go where. They can't order things on line without help, they can't work smart phones, they can't do fractions, can't understand documents like bank account terms... They. Can't. Do. It.

YOU won't let them work on anything you care about, because you don't want it bungled. Even if they're doing it as a volunteer, even if you love them like a brother, even if they ARE your brother.

I've worked with plenty of people in the IQ 85-ish range, unskilled workers doing repetitive tasks in a factory-- even things like getting them to put a sticker on the correct face of the package is difficult and error prone (do it 1,000 times today, but forget it by tomorrow morning). The only plus: they don't get bored.

I don't have an answer, but at least don't be patronizing. Height isn't everything in basketball, but don't say the 5'0" guy has a chance at making the team next time, if only he works on his free-throws or something. He's not going to be playing basketball on your team, unless somebody MAKES you take him (and then you'll resent it, and make jokes about him being so awful and losing games for your team).
#6 Janet on 2017-04-21 15:59 (Reply)

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