Why Geniuses Don't Make Money

[roadglide]

The point I see missing here is that the people with high income possess the people skills to go along with above avg. intelligence. As a teacher who has worked w/ gifted & talented students, I see all the time that high IQ's and poor social development are usually connected. This inhibits their ability to network and market their skills in a way that leads to riches. When we find the ones who possess both sets of skills (ie. Bill Gates) we usually find very rich people.

The other problem is that most wealth in today's society is inherited and not earned and IQ plays little role especially with all the inbreeding in high society. Look at the Prez. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[roadglide]

People skills correlate to IQ's inversely when compared to thos in the normal range 90 - 110.

[mackthefork]

[ QUOTE ]
Mr kiddj, The word is implying.

You inferred from his post that it was doubtful his IQ was truthfully stated, and then you implied that he wasn't being honest. I inferred from your post that you are not as smart as you think you are, and I am directly stating my opinion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tell 'im mister.

Mack

[kiddj]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Easy answer: Lack of honesty? Lack of drive?

[/ QUOTE ]

Lack of drive certainly hurts the earning potential of many "geniuses", but I fail to see how lack of honesty fits in there. Whether it's kissing the CEO's ass, or concealing your joy at having flopped quads, insincerity (not to be confused with outright fraudulent behavior) can be a huge asset in the business world, or on the poker table.

[/ QUOTE ]

When i said "lack of honesty", i was referring directly to the quoted poster's question about why HE wasn't making a lot of money, inferring that he was being dishonest about his 148 IQ.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mr kiddj, The word is implying.

You inferred from his post that it was doubtful his IQ was truthfully stated, and then you implied that he wasn't being honest. I inferred from your post that you are not as smart as you think you are, and I am directly stating my opinion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely right! My choice of word was not correct. I don't believe I ever claimed that I was smart, however. You incorrectly inferred that I was implying that I was smart. I was just being a jackass to the guy with the genius IQ. No harm intended: my sarcasm font doesn't work when I'm posting here. ;-)

[EliteNinja]

[ QUOTE ]
Hustlers do a better job of learning to manipulate people. Geniuses spend their time instead learning how to better manipulate the physical world.

I think there's more money to be made in manipulating people.

[/ QUOTE ]

People have money. The physical world don't.

[David Sklansky]

The original hypothesis is just wrong. Unless possibly if you define genius to be one of those few hundered ivory tower airheads who doesn't know how to tie his shoes.

The average net worth of all Americans who are extremely smart is greater than the average net worth of all Americans who are very smart which is greater than the average net worth of Americans who are somewhat smart. There are two reasons why this isn't obvious but if you fall for them it is YOU who isn't smart.

First is the fact that extremely smart people are very rare. Say the top one percent. Now look at the Forbes 400. Say eighteen of them are from the extremely smart group. It is probably more but we will be conservative. A quick glance at that statistic will lead morons to proclaim that being smart doesn't help, you get into the Forbes 400. I won't insult you by explaining further.

Secondly as regards to risk taking, it is possibly true that a higher percentaqe of non geniuses opt to try to become entrepeneurs than geniuses. But this is not because geniuses are risk averse. Rather it is because the pot odds are different for them. They are risking more to win less. Even with no people skills at all, most geniuses can enter the computer field or something similar and guarantee himself a few million eventually. So why would he dream about opening a chain of restaurants? He knows that most of those who try that fail. In spite of that I believe that geniuses actually take more risks than non geniuses. Partly because they are easily bored. Partly because they know if thy fail they can use their smarts to get one of the jobs that is open pretty much only to people as smart as them.

[purnell]

I am not as smart as I think I am.


[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Warren Whitmore]

Let me start by saying I am no genius (although me wife refers to me as a genuine ass). Missed by 1 point, got 130 on my Mensa exam and needed 131 for entry. On the brighter side I got all the logic and pattern recognition type problems correct all the way through. It was those definition problems that killed me. Anyone who has ever read one of my posts can no doubt understand why.

OK enough of the disclaimber stuff. The example of the car salesman is an excellent one. It turns out that birds of a feather do in fact flock together. To have a popular restaurant, car dealership, pop music hit, TV show, etc.. You must appeal to the IQ 100 types plus or minus one standard deviation (15 points for men 13 for woman). Which is why there are more men playing 300:600 stud than woman.

So lets say you are two standard deviations above the mean. Are you going to be listening to popular material..No. You are going to be interested in a very narrow range of books, movies, music. For example looking at the first few books on my book shelf I see.. Hereditary genius by Francis Galton, the bell curve by Charles Murray, and Atlas shrgged by Ayn Rand. For vidios Warren Buffett talks buisness, Statistics by the standard deviants, and Sklansky the semianr. Would any of these products be owned by someone with a 70 IQ I doubt it.

Lets take a more extreme example. Lets say someone has an IQ of 145 (+3 sigma). When that person has to deal with a normal person IQ 100 it is equal to a person with a 100 IQ trying to carry on a conversation with a Downs syndrom child with an IQ of 55. The difference is that the person with the IQ of 100 only finds himself having to do that a few times a year. The person with the IQ of 145 may have to do that several times a day. Ok lets get on with your questions...

1) Why is there a disparity between income and IQ. There are lots of reasons but I believe the main one is that high IQ people tend to work out of the Investment & Bussness quadrants which generate Billions in net worth but no income. People who are not to bright tend to work in the employment and self employment (poker) areas where they trade thier time for money directly which is a very limiting thing to do. Warren Buffett for example turned $1 000 into 100 billion in 45 years try doing that as a self employed person.

2)I really think people gravitate towards what they are good at. I agree.

3) I think bottom line people get rich because they understand the marketplace consumer. Birds of a feather flock together.

4)This is what generates a higher earn for the hustlers than the genuses. I couldent agree less. If you think a hustler type makes more money at poker than a Mason Malmuth or David Sklansky you need to recheck your data collection methods. Not just at poker but at anything. I take that back at politics there is an exception but that is because tax revenues are stolen but at anything earned no way.

(5) How does this relate to poker?

"Those in the top range of IQ had incomes that were conspicuously above those with lower IQs even within the high IQ occupations." The bell curve by Charles Murray

[purnell]

Interesting post, thanks.

BTW, I blew the mensa exam away, but my bookshelves are about 75% "How to..." stuff and my video collection consists of 90% animation. The only Television show I like is "The Simpsons". Go figure.

edit: One more thing. For quite a few years before I began to learn how to play poker, I was a pizzaboy. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[IronUnkind]

[ QUOTE ]
The average net worth of all Americans who are extremely smart is greater than the average net worth of all Americans who are very smart which is greater than the average net worth of Americans who are somewhat smart. There are two reasons why this isn't obvious but if you fall for them it is YOU who isn't smart.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you pull these nebulous stats from the usual orifice?