At last some good news…….
People too often forget that IQ tests haven’t been around that long. Indeed, such psychological measures are only about a century old. Early versions appeared in France with the work of Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in 1905. However, these tests didn’t become associated with genius until the measure moved from the Sorbonne in Paris to Stanford University in Northern California. There Professor Lewis M. Terman had it translated from French into English, and then standardized on sufficient numbers of children, to create what became known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. That happened in 1916. The original motive behind these tests was to get a diagnostic to select children at the lower ends of the intelligence scale who might need special education to keep up with the school curriculum. But then Terman got a brilliant idea: Why not study a large sample of children who score at the top end of the scale? Better yet, why not keep track of these children as they pass into adolescence and adulthood? Would these intellectually gifted children grow up to become genius adults?
More here – Nautilus
PS: Although I agree with the overall thrust particularly when it comes to success and traders I am always a little shy about historical examples how intelligent high intellectual achievers might be. For example Luis Alvarez who is cited in the example above comes from a family of very intelligent high achievers. His grandfather invented a better diagnostic mechanism for macular leprosy. His father was a physician at the Mayo Clinic and interestingly his son Walter Alvarez is a noted geologist. Likewise Richard Feynman – Freeman Dyson the noted English physicist was once asked what the Feynman method for solving problems was since Feynman had a gift for solving problems others found intractable. In fact in local maths competitions whilst at school his scores were so high that they initially thought he was cheating. Dyson said that the Feynman method was actually quite simple. You looked a the problem, screwed up your face and then simply wrote down the answer.
In people who are hyper bright IQ tests may either bore them or simply measure the wrong thing.
