Nothing as Useful as a Bad Theory

To a true anti-hereditarian, every day is fresh & new & surprising, because hardly anything happens as they expect.

Gregory Cochran, "Local brain drain"

Are IQ Tests Biased against Non-Western Populations?

IQ, as measured by IQ scores, is a decent measure of the cognitive skills that you need in order for technical innovation or more routine science and engineering. It’s generally useful in modern technical civilization. Populations with low average IQ produce very few individuals that are good at innovation. Very few. If there were one or a few kinds of intelligence that were not measured well by IQ tests, but allowed people with low IQs to accomplish remarkable things - you’d think we would notice. We know that they don’t invent railroads or transistors or penicillin: what comparably important and useful things have they done?

Gregory Cochran, "The Only Game in Town"