At what point is freedom maximized on the IQ curve?

📰 Hacker News · amichail

While it is obvious that low IQ will not give you many options in life, I think it is also the case that very high IQ will take away your freedom as well. There are after all expectations on what one should do with a very high IQ as not to "waste" it. For example, if you are the sort of person who can win a gold medal in the International Math Olympiad, then maybe becoming an entrepreneur will not make optimal use of your brain power. Moreover, entrepreneurship is risky. Why should a very smart person take such risk? Isn't academia safer? And so the question becomes, what sort of IQ is best to maximize freedom? P.S. Very high IQ people who have exercised significant freedom in their projects/career have often been ridiculed. Consider for example Wolfram and Marilyn vos Savant.

Published 23 Apr 2009
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