What Does The Bell Curve Representing Intelligence Look Like?

lxskllr · Feb 6, 2025

I never considered myself smart. I always figured I was about average. All the stupid shit of the last few years has me reassessing that, and I think I might be smart. That's fucking appalling when I'm the smart one in the room. I used to not entirely seriously think I was surrounded by morons. I'm now absolutely sure of it, and I could call everyone I meet a fucking moron. Statistics would make me right more often than not.

So... If I'm smart( D^: ), what does the bell curve look like? Where are the people I think of as smart? The physicists, cryptographers, astronomers, scientific researchers of various kinds... Or am I average, and the bell curve is somehow an inverted V?

What's an example of each end and the center of the bell curve?

BoomerD · Feb 6, 2025

Take it with a block (not grain) of salt...

The Bell Curve and Cognitive Elites

The average IQ of Ivy League college graduates such as Harvard and Princeton has increased in recent history from 120 to 142 - an extraordinary increase. This is the cognitive elite.

www.iqmindware.com

stargazr · Feb 6, 2025

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

BoomerD · Feb 6, 2025

stargazr said:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

I know nothing...and I can prove it. (and do often)

IronWing · Feb 6, 2025

stargazr said:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

The guy had to have known a thing or two to invent the Fun Factory.

Red Squirrel · Feb 6, 2025

When I used to work tech support, I found the most dumb people were actually the stereotypically smart people. Doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers etc. Some of them were just so clueless about basic things, like navigating Windows. Like, they use their computer all day to do their job, but get them to do something basic that should normally be part of their daily work flow like go to a certain web address and they are clueless and you have to walk them through every single step.

Charmonium · Feb 6, 2025

The shape of the bell curve is . . . a bell.

For intelligence, I think that's really interesting. It gradually increases at an increasing rate then slows to a peak and then everything reverses.

If you want to see how smart you are, find your local branch of Mensa. IIRC it means 'table' in Latin. The only requirement is that you be in the top 2% of a recognized test of intelligence. But they have their own admission test you can take.

According to the chart in the second post, the 2% starts at an IQ of 130.

I belong to DBSA (depression and bipolar support alliance). I find that most people there are fairly intelligent - which goes along with the idea that genius and insanity tend to go hand-in-hand.

The meetings are open to everyone so you could always see if they have meetings in your area. As I recall, you're in a fairly well populated area so you should be able to find one.

lxskllr · Feb 6, 2025

A couple years ago, I saw an iq test in a meme or some nonsense online, and it included an address, so I took the test for the lulz. It was a struggle getting through it cause tests bore the shit out of me. I persevered, get to the end to find they want money to get the results. I'm not paying money to get graded for some dubious test that doesn't matter anyway. Pissed me off.

I started this thread cause I saw something that looked like a bell curve but wasn't on a lemmy post, and I've been thinking a lot about all the stupid motherfuckers I hear about Every. Single. Day. Some of the shit that comes out people's mouths... I wonder if they're just fucking with me, or they're truly that stupid. I get no feedback that they're fucking with me, so...

IronWing · Feb 6, 2025

The bell curve (normal distribution) is good for populations which are actually normally distributed (duh). If the population being described isn’t normally distributed then the bell curve isn’t appropriate. My impression (without data) is that intelligence is a lumpy distribution with several peaks, a small peak of exceptionally smart people, a big peak of reasonably intelligent people, a dip in the middle, and another peak of plain old morons.

[DHT]Osiris · Feb 6, 2025

I'm of the opinion that generalized intelligence is something of a red herring. Most people are good at something, some people are good at a few things, and a few people are good at a lot of things. There's outliers on the edge of I guess you'd call a 5th dimensional bell curve but it's too squiggly to put real borders around. The notion that intelligence should be compared between people is probably just rooted in ego and trauma.

Torn Mind · Feb 6, 2025

It is heavily skewed in which most people are flatline and then there are some masterfully elite beings of "intelligence". Then there's the matter of work ethic. Character...likely to be deficient, but people have a dumb cognitive bias which treats intelligence as a good thing when it is neutral at best and dangerous at worst.

The rulers we selected are vastly superior in intelligence to the masses for the most part, but for the low hanging, over-eagar ones who enter the occupation too soon.

biostud · Feb 6, 2025

More than 50% will think they are smarter than the average.

Lost_in_the_HTTP · Feb 7, 2025

Invert that curve and my point in it will be obvious.

dank69 · Feb 7, 2025

There are many different kinds of "intelligence." Assuming you're talking traditional IQ, if you are around 120 or above, the average person is going to seem really, really stupid by comparison.

Lost_in_the_HTTP · Feb 7, 2025

And yet Doctors can't set their own watches.

dullard · Feb 7, 2025

stargazr said:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

From Oscar Wilde's the Importance of Being Ernest:

“LADY BRACKNELL. I have always been of the opinion that a man who desires to be married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?

JACK. [After some hesitation.] I know nothing, Lady Bracknell.

LADY BRACKNELL. I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.”

dullard · Feb 7, 2025

lxskllr said:
So... If I'm smart( D^: ), what does the bell curve look like?

We do need to be careful. IQ scores are bell-curved but intelligence might not be. That is because IQ tests are normalized* and have likely outlying questions removed before giving them to the test takers**.

* Normalization doesn't turn non-normal data completely into normal bell-shaped data, but it gets closer.
** Meaning, any question that might give bumps on the IQ histogram are not used and this biases the results.

JTsyo · Feb 7, 2025

repoman0 · Feb 7, 2025

You’re way the fuck ahead of the curve if you’re smart enough to know you don’t know everything, experts matter, and there are different types of intelligence. The median person in America can’t even comprehend those basics and as a result, Dunning-Kruger their way through their entire lives.

Lost_in_the_HTTP · Feb 7, 2025

I do the Schultz thing.

Charmonium · Feb 7, 2025

lxskllr said:
I started this thread cause I saw something that looked like a bell curve but wasn't on a lemmy post, and I've been thinking a lot about all the stupid motherfuckers I hear about Every. Single. Day. Some of the shit that comes out people's mouths... I wonder if they're just fucking with me, or they're truly that stupid. I get no feedback that they're fucking with me, so...

I solve the problem by not really dealing with people. I don't have to, so I don't. I would like to change that though. It's a matter of inertia I suppose. At some point, I'll probably want to overcome that though.

IronWing said:
The bell curve (normal distribution) is good for populations which are actually normally distributed (duh). If the population being described isn’t normally distributed then the bell curve isn’t appropriate. My impression (without data) is that intelligence is a lumpy distribution with several peaks, a small peak of exceptionally smart people, a big peak of reasonably intelligent people, a dip in the middle, and another peak of plain old morons.

I'm too lazy to go check but I vaguely recall that the distribution was invented for IQs.

The normal distribution, again IIRC, requires complete randomness - which is a little strange if you think about it the context of IQs. Humans vary in all sorts of ways, so I have to add my voice to objecting about putting too much emphasis on something so abstract.

Red Squirrel · Feb 7, 2025

That's what I like about my current job, don't need to deal with people much, at least not outside average people. Deal with techs and other employees of our company and other companies, but it's all technical people for the most part.

nakedfrog · Feb 7, 2025

It would be nice if dealing mostly with technical people meant you were mostly dealing with smart people, but I have not found this to be the case. Just yesterday I finished putting together a Powerpoint with screenshots and highlights because apparently a plain text doc with 7 steps that's 18 lines long (with some of those lines literally just being URLs or the names of settings) is too hard to follow. It was provided to one of our customers, they had problems, so I got on a conference call to help troubleshoot and then proceeded to read off the lines step by step to them over the phone, and oh my, then it actually worked!
Dunno yet if the Powerpoint version will help, I hope so. I guess if not, the next step would be a fucking TikTok video where I dance to some stupid song while I recite the instructions.

Charmonium · Feb 7, 2025

Red Squirrel said:
That's what I like about my current job, don't need to deal with people much, at least not outside average people. Deal with techs and other employees of our company and other companies, but it's all technical people for the most part.

Yeah, tech peeps seem to require higher levels of learning ability, memory, a variety of skills - I would even argue 'creativity.' Although, that usually causes some snickering. I think coding is extremely creative, but non-techies don't understand it so the impulse is to denigrate it.

JTsyo · Feb 7, 2025

repoman0 said:
You’re way the fuck ahead of the curve if you’re smart enough to know you don’t know everything, experts matter, and there are different types of intelligence. The median person in America can’t even comprehend those basics and as a result, Dunning-Kruger their way through their entire lives.

Yea, there's different kinds of intelligence. It's like the saying about judging a fish by how well it climbs a tree.

What Does The Bell Curve Representing Intelligence Look Like?

No Lifer

No Lifer

Diamond Member

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato​

No Lifer

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato​

No Lifer

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato​

No Lifer

Lifer

No Lifer

No Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Elite Member

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato​

Elite Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Lifer

Lifer

No Lifer

No Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato