Never thought of it that way

TimC said:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
ride my bike on back streets to the store.

OTOH, the other half must be above average, and would let you
draft behind them.

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

Quoted message said:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to
think just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local
shopping centers [..]

It's always been my motto that every other car has a driver with an
IQ < 100...

--
Chris

TimC said:

I'm reading Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon", which is about a
seriously retarded guy who gets brain surgery, and becomes much
smarter.

This promted me to actually search for an IQ distribution function.
Found one here:
http://www.geocities.com/rnseitz/Definition_of_IQ.html

Of course, it then proceeded to blow me apart, when I read this:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
ride my bike on back streets to the store.

Where I grew up most kids knew how to drive by the age of 12. If you
lived on a farm it was almost compulsory. This age coincides with when
you can push the pedals and see over the dash at the same time,
sometimes with the aid of a cushion. It's quite obvious that anyone with
a mental age of 12 can drive a car and most of them do. It's nothing to
be suprised about.

Marty

Quoted message said:

Where I grew up most kids knew how to drive by the age of 12. If you lived
on a farm it was almost compulsory. This age coincides with when you can
push the pedals and see over the dash at the same time, sometimes with the
aid of a cushion. It's quite obvious that anyone with a mental age of 12
can drive a car and most of them do. It's nothing to be suprised about.

Marty

Being physically able to control a car is one thing. To be consistantly
resposible enough to make use of that ability on a public road without
endangering yourself and others is something else altogether.

Resound said:

Quoted message said:

Where I grew up most kids knew how to drive by the age of 12. If you lived
on a farm it was almost compulsory. This age coincides with when you can
push the pedals and see over the dash at the same time, sometimes with the
aid of a cushion. It's quite obvious that anyone with a mental age of 12
can drive a car and most of them do. It's nothing to be suprised about.

Marty

Being physically able to control a car is one thing. To be consistantly
resposible enough to make use of that ability on a public road without
endangering yourself and others is something else altogether.

I agree with you. The point I was making is that intelligence isn't
related to the ability to drive a car, therefore you should expect some
car drivers to be less intelligent than average.

Marty

TimC said:

I'm reading Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon", which is about a
seriously retarded guy who gets brain surgery, and becomes much
smarter.

This promted me to actually search for an IQ distribution function.
Found one here:
http://www.geocities.com/rnseitz/Definition_of_IQ.html

Of course, it then proceeded to blow me apart, when I read this:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
ride my bike on back streets to the store.

--
TimC
If I'd known computer science was going to be like this, I'd never have
given up being a rock 'n' roll star. -- G. Hirst

TimC, look up this article if you want to be scared further, people who have poor skills rate themselves as having good ones, something like the bottom 25% rate them selves at 80% for some tasks, which explains why the roads are full of people who are good drivers and everyone else is [censored].

It is from the americam psychological association. http://www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unaware.html

I also had a great disclaimer on the all the details of the assumptions around the half the people are dumber than average comment*.

*normal distribution of intelligence scores
*median equal to mean
*intelligence scores passable measure of intelligence

blah blah blah

And there is this on human stupidity!

http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/stupidity/

Marty said:

I agree with you. The point I was making is that intelligence isn't
related to the ability to drive a car, therefore you should expect
some car drivers to be less intelligent than average.

More people are below average intelligence than above. Except people in this
group, we're all above average.

Theo

quote='Theo Bekkers'Marty said:

I agree with you. The point I was making is that intelligence isn't
related to the ability to drive a car, therefore you should expect
some car drivers to be less intelligent than average.

More people are below average intelligence than above. Except people in this
group, we're all above average.

Theo[/QUOTE]

But that the problem, you may not be good enough at intelligence to accurately estimate your intelligence....

On 2005-11-29, PiledHigher (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Theo Bekkers said:

More people are below average intelligence than above. Except people in
this
group, we're all above average.

Theo

But that the problem, you may not be good enough at intelligence to
accurately estimate your intelligence....

Everyone thinks they're more intelligent than everyone else.

--
TimC
It involves a static strap and absolutely no silk underwear.
-- magical truthsaying [censored] roney in ARK

TimC said:

On 2005-11-29, PiledHigher (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Theo Bekkers said:

More people are below average intelligence than above. Except people in
this
group, we're all above average.

Theo

But that the problem, you may not be good enough at intelligence to
accurately estimate your intelligence....

Everyone thinks they're more intelligent than everyone else.

--
TimC
It involves a static strap and absolutely no silk underwear.
-- magical truthsaying [censored] roney in ARK

Did you read the 1st article I posted, people who are good at things are better at accurately estimating how good they are, those who hav no clue still rate themselves in the top quartile.

I thin that observation is clearly reflected on our roads where almost every driver thinks that they are a good driver.

PiledHigher said:

Did you read the 1st article I posted, people who are good at things are better at accurately estimating how good they are, those who hav no clue still rate themselves in the top quartile.

I thin that observation is clearly reflected on our roads where almost every driver thinks that they are a good driver.

hmm. here goes.

I'm an 'average' driver (lack of practice 😄)
I'm above average rider (the average being anyone on a hybrid 😄)
Below Average racer 🙁
slowly improving bike mechanic
and I'm gonna end up alot dumber than my 11yr old! She is scary-smart :eek:

Marty said:

I agree with you im a [censored] head [censored] and that was the The point I was making

Marty

damyep

TimC said:

.. and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded....

Yep. I'm going to do my first 1 in 20 this weekend and I already feel seriously retarded... (runs away)😄

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 11:37:42 +1100, PiledHigher said (and I quote):

Quoted message said:

Did you read the 1st article I posted,...

This one:
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~joyce/DunJohnEhr&Krug.pdf

Quoted message said:

...people who are good at things
are better at accurately estimating how good they are, those who hav no
clue still rate themselves in the top quartile.

I thin that observation is clearly reflected on our roads where almost
every driver thinks that they are a good driver.

That article also says that those who are most competent tend to
underestimate their own relative competence. The clincher is that when
shown a representative example of other's (in)competence, the most
competent are able to adjust their self-evaluation, whereas the
incompetent are unable to make such an adjustment.
--
What was I thinking?

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:54:24 +1030, Michael Warner said (and I quote):

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
ride my bike on back streets to the store.

OTOH, the other half must be above average, and would let you
draft behind them.

Your statistics are faulty. It doesn't folow that half the population is
above average and the other half below.

If it was median intelligence...
--
What was I thinking?

"Baka Dasai" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:54:24 +1030, Michael Warner said (and I quote):

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
ride my bike on back streets to the store.

OTOH, the other half must be above average, and would let you
draft behind them.

Your statistics are faulty. It doesn't folow that half the population is
above average and the other half below.

If it was median intelligence...
--
What was I thinking?

Well it seems that we're breeding for dumb* so I'd guess that MORE than half
the population is below average intelligence.

*based on entirely non-rigourous observation of people I see here and there,
usually in shopping centres. YMMV.

"Baka Dasai" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:54:24 +1030, Michael Warner said (and I quote):

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
ride my bike on back streets to the store.

OTOH, the other half must be above average, and would let you
draft behind them.

Your statistics are faulty. It doesn't folow that half the population is
above average and the other half below.

If it was median intelligence...
--
What was I thinking?

Well it seems that we're breeding for dumb* so I'd guess that MORE than half
the population is below average intelligence.

*based on entirely non-rigourous observation of people I see here and there,
usually in shopping centres. YMMV.

Resound said:

"Baka Dasai" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:54:24 +1030, Michael Warner said (and I quote):

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:03:19 +1100, TimC wrote:

> Until I wrote this up this afternoon, I had never stopped to think
> just what intellectual diversity awaits us at our local shopping
> centers. Half the people we meet in cars on the road have
> below-average intelligence, and 1 in 20 must be seriously
> retarded, with a mental age of 12 or below. Ouch! I think I'll
> ride my bike on back streets to the store.

OTOH, the other half must be above average, and would let you
draft behind them.

Your statistics are faulty. It doesn't folow that half the population is
above average and the other half below.

If it was median intelligence...
--
What was I thinking?

Well it seems that we're breeding for dumb* so I'd guess that MORE than half
the population is below average intelligence.

*based on entirely non-rigourous observation of people I see here and there,
usually in shopping centres. YMMV.

Nope its that you notice the dumb people more

I am going to use that definition of stupid. That a stupid act is an
act that is a net loss to ALL parties involved. Its a great definition.
And the more I think about it the more it seems to hold up.

Dave