In 1994 The Bell Curve was published.

It did not measure intelligence and it pissed off a lot of people. It analysed intelligence and reported on it but it did not measure it. The measurement was the Armed Forces Qulification Test. The arguments against the Bell Curve and it’s analysis are about race but intelligence doesn’t determine race. And just as cats think faster than dogs, some people think faster than others. Some people can hold a lot of thoughts simultaneously. Some people have larger memories than others. Some people have deeper memories than others but the idea that intelligence can be represented by a single number is a difficult idea to accept. Some very smart people are hateful while some very dumb people are very likable. We had a classmate who literally failed the first grade. He was also one of the most liked people in the class.  There is a bias against people who are too short or too tall. There is also bias against people who are too smart. They are called “smart asses” by others. I recall watching someone while they cosidered something that was said and it took a bit of time until they grasped the idea. they were thinking and it took time for the thought to register. Some people can grasp difficult ideas rather fast while others take a bit of time and some people cannot get those ideas at all. Thay shows the differernce between individuals with high intelligence and those with low intelligence. Intelligence is often referred to as “g”. “g” is what IQ tests measure. Faster, deeper, wider thinking individuals have higher IQ’s than slower, shallower and narrower thinkers. Some people doubt there is such a thing as “g” but they cannot explain why some people cannor grasp certain ideas or concepts. Individuals have many talents and it’s found that peole with high IQ’s can do many things well. And while intelligence can be measured it is not the only way to understand differernt people. Also, intelligence doesn’t make people better or worse because of the many, many attributes that individuals have. It is perfectly OK for someone to fall in love with someone because they have lovable attributes but over time people usually gravitate towards individuals in the same IQ range. It’s not a hard or fast rule but a generalization with exceptions.

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