[extropy-chat] morons in office

[Damien Broderick]

At 03:55 PM 10/27/2004 -0400, Brian Lee wrote:

>Were they using a standard deviation of 10 or 15? For a standard deviation 
>of 10, Gore is near genius with a 135.

Sorry, 15 or 16. (I can't be bothered going to Vdare.com either.) The NYT 
sez Bush is 95th percentile (1 person in 21), Kerry in the 91st percentile 
(1 person in 11). 135 is about 1 percent of population. Cf. e.g. 
http://members.shaw.ca/delajara/IQtable.html

IQ probably doesn't correlate well with running prowess, say, but it might 
have something to do with running a meeting or a country. But my impression 
is that companies and nations don't want people who are *too* smart at the 
top. You can't trust the fork-tongued bastards, they're always waffling and 
looking for evidence instead of crisply reaching A vs. Z decisions that 
anyone can grasp and get behind.

Damien Broderick