Rob,
I second Carma's suggestion that Gladwell's -Outliers- has some good insights.
> Would you conclude that social class, race, sex, educational level have more
> to do with general intelligence than genetic inheritance?
He makes a good case that
1) general intelligence is less important than many people think; while being smart enough is important, being much smarter than smart enough doesn't pay out in the form of real world accomplishment
2) social class has a lot to do with the capability to move up in the world (not in the sense of external barriers to movement but in the sense of the development of the world view that allows personal achievement)
3) luck--in the sense of being born at the right time in the right social and physical situation--has a bigger role in "genius" than we realize.
He does seem to imply that some sorts of "creativity" (I agree with people who caution against using the term broadly as a singular trait) are as innate as intelligence (in the "IQ" sense.)
On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 2:13 PM, Carma R. Gorman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
[snip]
>> Despite the many fascinating genetic explanations/revelations that have
>> been in the news in the last five years, I still find explanatory models
>> like the one in Malcolm Gladwell's book *Outliers* to be a lot more
>> persuasive: I suspect that social class, race, sex, educational level, etc.
>> (and the opportunities these characteristics offer or preclude) have a lot
>> more to do with individual and familial creativity than genetic inheritance.
I hope Topanga isn't washing down around you.
Gunnar
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