Just a Thought

In many of his videos, Stefan has given the phrase "politics is down stream from culture" and has expounded on it sufficiently. However, in a recent video he expanded this idea. That "culture is down stream from economics". This immediately caught my interest and I wondered if there is more to it. I can speculate all I want, but I would rather hear more about it. Any one want to help a guy out?

I am sure this is a topic that has been talked about endlessly, but it is something that I find very interesting. As someone who is going to school to be a teacher, it is very important in my life. There is a lot of push back from teachers unions because reform could damage their job security. However, the real focus should be the children and their best interest. So I am looking every where I can for strong ideas. There needs to be plans to bring back the power to reform education back to the state and local level; and in a perfect world maybe even back to the private sector. I would say that most people see the dangers in Common Core (generalization I know, but here is a good video that has helped me understand its dangers: ). I have been looking into Voucher systems and the laws that made education a government department. Can some one point me to other good discussions about this and if you have any good ideas about how to these problem? Law in general is not very user friendly, so if there are good articles or if you have good explanations about them please feel free to post them or direct me to them. I need as much information as I can get.

I went back and looked at it and it's references. It was a slightly different topic that what we are discussing. My bad. The article talks about how, as the brain is developing and growing, IQ can fluctuate. As one grows older, it will become more and more stable. Similar but not the same, and it makes sense I guess. The hardware is still building itself for maximum efficiency. You can look at it and see if there is anything that I missed. I am dyslexic and reading small print is really hard for me. It is very possible I missed something. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v479/n7371/full/nature10514.html RoseCodex, that makes a lot of sense thanks for explaining. I definitely want to research this more. I find this topic really interesting. But I can't help thinking that something might be off. It just rubs my moral compass the wrong way. That may be a cultural thing, but what ever. I can't help feeling like stuff like this will be used in bad ways. Everything can of course, but it feels like an excuse for intelligent people to rule less intelligent people. It feels very collectivist by splitting people into categories of intelligence. I would rather be more individualist in my assessment of peoples intelligence. Thoughts?

Please feel free to expand as much as you want. I would love to know as much as possible. If you do write a paper, please link it in this thread. I would love to read it. A lot of these thing I knew and thought about but never put into words. That made it difficult for me to explain things to other people. If you continue to keep explaining, I believe that it will help me organize my thoughts and I might even be able to not sound like an idiot when I talk hahaha.

I don't see how this pertains to this conversation but ok. I have never actually taken an IQ test. I didn't think it was relevant to my life before is started researching intelligence. I have started looking around but a lot of them don't look to reliable. Got any suggestions?

Ok. So if we still use the computer analogy, IQ is like the processing power of a computer. You can still make amazing things on a slow computer if you have the right software. On the other hand, a really good computer is useless if it doesn't run any software or is never used. Is that were we are? And if so, does this still correlate with IQ findings between groups of people? I would like to clear this part up before possibly going back to other things such as changing IQ or environmental factors. However, that might possibly be another thread. Also another possible thread: Does IQ have a direct relationship with with willingness to listen to reason and fact based arguments. This one I know nothing about. Let me know if you are interested in starting that conversation. Or if you have the answer just tell me.

I have been reading up on economics recently and and I am starting to realize the huge learning and complexity curve that it entails. I recently went back and saw a video by Stefan about the scale of America's problems. He talked about how much debt we are in and lols of other economic troubles and how the is very little to nothing that can be done to prevent economic collapse. So here are my questions: 1. Has that changed at all? Are we doing better or worse since the video for a year ago? 2. If there is anything that can be done, what would those options look like? What steps would need to be taken to move toward a freer market? Whether that is policies or changes in practice in the private sector. Anything really. or is it better to just start stocking up on canned food in my basement. haha.

Alright here we go haha. I understand where Will Torbald is coning from, but what he is referencing can be said about most intelligence theories. Just about all theories hold that a large part of intelligence is hereditary. A lot of people have problems with the IQ theory. IQ is suppose to give a total view of ones intelligence, but it really doesn't. The two main things that are measured are reasoning and problem-solving skills, and the test taking speed is also taken into account. Now while these things are important, I believe it doesn't capture the whole spectrum and complexity of human intelligence and is ultimately just as snapshot of one part of the brain. It doesn't measure things such as creativity, curiosity, and emotional readiness and stability. Not to mention, IQ has been shown to change overtime and may be different the next day. This of course is hard to measure but there are some studies on it. One study showed that after four years, 33 applicants' scores varied up to 20 points in either direction. that is a pretty big disparity. Environment and culture also has an effect on IQ, but that is a completely other can of worms. I also think that the IQ theory benefits people with good test taking skills. So it may be lopsided in this respect. There are lots of other theories out there. However, since they try to take into account thins such as curiosity, creativity, emotional stability, empathy, musicianship and artistic skills; it becomes kind of muddled. It is hard to measure these things in concrete terms and many argue that there might be spiritual implications for those who they are important to. After all, how can you measure ones ability to understand and know themselves? Do I think that the tends that IQ studies are totally debunked in these lights? No. Especially the ability of intelligence people and non-intelligent people to get along. I just think it is dangerous to put something as complex and vast as human intelligence into little boxes and label them nicely. Life isn't as neat and organized as that.

Hey everyone! I am new here and I am looking to learn as much as I can. I am interested in intelligence and IQ. My main question is "Why does this blog hold the IQ intelligence theory to be true rather than some other ones?" I have been researching this topic for a while and there are a lot of options out there. I can flesh some out if you guys want. Just let me know.