Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Yet there's the exceptional young man from the local solid and dependable farm family, who got a philosophy degree at Auburn, first in his line to do so.

The political 'fashion' is perhaps more about not pigeonholing people by fallible means, and more about giving them a chance regardless?




> Yet there's the exceptional young man from the local solid and dependable farm family, who got a philosophy degree at Auburn, first in his line to do so.

Why do you associate farmer with lesser intellect?

Change it to:

> Yet there's the exceptional young man from the local family of village idiots, who got a philosophy degree at Auburn, first in his line to do so.

Now that'd be surprising.


Agreed. These days, running a farm of any size requires a great deal of financial planning and a strong work ethic.

I know lots of “farmers”, and I can’t think of any that I would consider to be of below average intelligence.


shrug

I come from a family of idiots yet both myself and later my my sister got college degrees in STEM fields. And I'm not talking about a little dimwitted, my parents are really, really dumb and lack any form of self awareness or critical thinking skills.

I don't see it as particularly surprising.

My grandparents on my dad's side aren't particularly dumb, my mom's parents are though.


Oh be reasonable. I used the euphemism to not have to say it out loud.

And in fact, its not a hypothetical case. I know the family; I know the young man. My wife helped him apply to Auburn.


You have answered your own question with the word "exceptional". This individual is truly, as you say, an exception to the rule.


I fear we understand genetics only relatively better than we understand phrenology...


In fact a little worse, right now: we can predict about 20% of the variance in IQ from brain shape [1] but only 10% from genes [2].

[1] https://authors.library.caltech.edu/87270/

[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0147-3




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: