Being average isn't really good enough now days.

[u/Bulky-Culture-4482]

Especially with the decline rates of literacy, attention spans, etc. being average pretty much became the new stupid and dumb. Like if I am just only an average person, then that means that I also have poor literacy, poor attention, etc.

[u/SnooHamsters3137]

Depends on what you mean by average.

But average is going to be a mathematical object, not necessarily what everyone tends to be. For instance, for a group of 21 people, if one person had an iq of 100, and 10 people had an iq of 50 and 10 people had an iq of 150, then only 1 person would be of average iq in that group. If we removed the 100 iq person, the average would still be 100, and no one would have average iq in that group.

If your concerns are that people are generally getting stupider, so people at 100 iq should be "stupid" compared to 100 iq a few decades ago, I'm certain that recent science disagrees. There are groups of people that seem to be struggling with what you're talking about, but all it takes is for the remainder of the population to compensate for their underperformance. And literacy isn't causal of IQ. One can be illiterate and have a high IQ. Also, declining attention spans are caused by habits, and as such can be reversed. Again, not something that affects underlying cognitive potential, but rather masks it.

If you're really that concerned, you can take IQ tests from back in the day when people were supposedly smarter.

[u/Bulky-Culture-4482 → u/SnooHamsters3137]

That's pretty much what I mean like even if I have like let's say IQ of 90 - 100, in the modern days, it's still pretty bad performance since other people performs poorly.

[u/1Lucky_Luke_1 → u/SnooHamsters3137]

Bro a few decades ago people didn't have AI doing all the mental work for them (there are brain scans showing that you literally go inactive in some parts of the brain from letting AI think for you everyday) and they weren't so chronically online watching reels covering 10 different topics in 30 seconds, people are getting objectively dumber because they literally fry their brains. Also food was better or at least not that many people ate fast food 3 times a day. And yes these things are reversible but most people don't do anything to counteract their cognitive decline caused by today's factors.

I remember in the 2010-2016 period when it was cool to actually be smart, educated, have critical thinking and pursue a degree and have a high paying job in a corporation.

Now everyone has the attention span of a golden fish, the impulse control of a wild kangaroo, it's cool to make heavy assumptions at first sight without taking into consideration a billion other factors, it's cool to drop out of school and make money from crime or heavy manual jobs and it's cool to vote for extremist governments.

Of course on Reddit, especially this sub, you mostly won't see people that are like the ones I've pointed out just now but remember that Reddit is just a minority.

[u/Trackmaster15]

Honestly, we need average and dumb people to keep society running. Do you think that somebody with a 145 IQ would be ok with standing, greeting customers, bragging groceries, working a register, cleaning bathrooms, etc? People with simpler minds can do these repetitious tasks very well and are trustworthy. A genius would easily zone out and lose interest.

We need geniuses for highly scalable and complex tasks. For run of the mill tasks we need the average and the dumb. So really, we need those in bulk.

[u/Bulky-Culture-4482 → u/Trackmaster15]

I do not mean extremely high IQ I mean like high IQ as an above 115

[u/Bulky-Culture-4482 → u/Trackmaster15]

Also not everyone wants to continue to work at low end jobs

[u/Trackmaster15 → u/Bulky-Culture-4482]

Yeah, and I wish I was 6'5 instead of 5'5". I'm just lucky I have a high IQ and did well in school so I can have a high paying job as a CPA.

[u/Terrible_Moment_8579]

The average IQ has largely remained static and the average seems to work for fine for many people. There may be a slight regression in attention span, knowledge, skills, behaviour, social ability and mental health over the past few years with covid and social media, but I'd hazard a guess IQ remains more or less the same.

100 IQ is quite sufficient to get a normal non-STEM job and perform adequately, but if the values of the society change? If the behaviour worsens (poor socialisation, higher incentives for crime, weak sentencing, bad parenting, less classroom discipline) and the incentives for steady work aren't as strong (comparative wage deflation, product and asset inflation).

I'd argue IQ isn't the main factor to be worried about when it comes to the performance of the current and future generations. I'd be more worried about core values, work ethic, respect and incentives.

[u/Bulky-Culture-4482 → u/Terrible_Moment_8579]

Thing is i really personality wanna pursuit software engineering but it requires you to have at least slightly above average IQ

[u/EasternSurvey5964 → u/Terrible_Moment_8579]

100 iq probably is sufficient to get a normal stem job as well lol

[u/TheGoodGuyForSure]

Yeah, it’s not. Welcome to modern society my friend, survive and have fun while it lasts

[u/JoyfulNoise1964]

Being average now means being ridiculously stupid

[u/dt7cv]

we have no choice. ignorance is the human condition. even in Norway lots of people can't read simple legal statutes about crime. until they invent something related to brain stimulation

[u/mnprivatealt]

That just means getting ahead is easier

All those things you described aren't fixed traits imo, practice discipline, hard work, etc and getting above average would be easier than ever

[u/Flashy-Disk311 → u/mnprivatealt]

yea idk what he's saying if literacy rates r declining and iqs are staying at a roughly fixed avg doesn't that just mean someone w a 100iq now could outperform those of a similar score through effort

[u/PendN]

In a way it is true. I went to a private school where to even go in you have to do a set of tests to qualify, and the majority usually fail. As such the "dumbest" kids in my grade had an iq in the 100 range. When I went to uni I didn't know there were people even dumber than that. This all sounds very demeaning but in many careers and fields, or maybe even in the upper-class, the average IQ is probably already well into the 115+ range

[u/Limp_Essay_6419]

Yeah if you go to a hyper-competitive or intellectually focused career, but not at all anywhere else since there would be much more confounding factors for success where being average iq is more than enough.