I think it was @wesyang who pointed out that some unknowable but large subset of those who "just don't test well" are actually simply not as smart. Which is fine! Mental horsepower isn't everything https://twitter.com/SometimesSoftly/status/1287263813486559233

I was always top of my class up until leaving HS, then had the classic """"gifted kid"""" experience of disillusionment. But I've also always had access to various brilliant adults. I've never been the smartest person in my own life.

intellect and class are the two Big Things that everyone dances around in polite society

unfortunately for polite society, its boundaries are much more permeable these days... it loses its bodily integrity...

what's funny is I remember having these conversations in high school, and kids who I vastly outstripped academically saw the whole more clearly than I did. I always cringed to be told "you're so smart Sonya!" by peers but it was true

> Mental horsepower isn't everything

one of the reasons why this topic is so touchy is that nobody (to an approximation) believes this

b/c mental horsepower genuinely is a lot — though again, not everything. and b/c the technobureaucrat class (think Vox types) is insecure

b/c the latter ostensibly earns their keep with intellect but has a bone-deep realization that they aren't quite the skimmed cream that they once thought

if you feel that your only or primary value is in your brainpower, it's terrifying to look over to SV and see nerd after nerd who pwned you in math class now pwning you irl without even garnishing the proper plaudits!

https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1278860334787371008?s=21 https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1278860334787371008

the semi-esoteric issue that I'm most worried about is people in high-INT bubbles (assortive marching go brrrr) being fundamentally unable to grasp how dumb most people are. This experience gap causes so many policy failures, and the people meant to be helped bear the brunt of it

sympathy is no substitute for empathy https://twitter.com/sonyasupposedly/status/1280580034294542336?s=21 https://twitter.com/sonyasupposedly/status/1280580034294542336

like, this guy means well and is even onto something, but it applies so narrowly

the majority of people don't even understand algebra. Tragic levels of high-INT bubble demonstrated here

probabilistic misery... https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/24/how-bad-are-things/