Which is why only pure-blood Germans must be allowed to the higher education unlike Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and other such Untermenschen. sigh

Genetics don't determine that much as some would like to believe, seriously.

You’re implying that the beliefs here must be racially consistent, which is a straw man.

I'd thought HN was above calling people Nazis? I've said nothing about race.

If we want a meritocracy we have to be comfortable with genetics playing a role in outcomes.

Personally I've realised that a meritocracy would not be "fair" in the way that a lot of people assume.

Alright, let's talk about eugenics then? After all, it's not just Nazis that had eugenics programs in the newest history: the USA had forced sterilization well into the seventies, so it can't be all that bad.

The evidence would suggest otherwise [1]. Race is a very bad proxy for intelligence, but that doesn't mean intelligence isn't genetic.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-consid...

A heritable trait is not inherently genetic.

That’s where twin studies [1] come in. The evidence for genetic factors explaining intelligence and academic achievement is extremely robust.

[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/genes-dont-just-infl...

Genetics does determine quite a lot, race is just not the primary factor involved. There have been many twin studies to this effect.

There seems to be this mental block for certain people about genetics when it comes to anything brain-related. Genetics have an impact on your athletic ability? Of course! Genetics have an impact on your intelligence? Impossible!

Amazing isn't it, net downvotes for facts!

I think people strongly want (need?) to believe that good things have happened to them mostly as a result of their own virtues which are of course entirely self-determined.

In fact if free will even exists (evidence is against) the scope for its operation to affect one's future is very narrow. We are who we are, and where we are, because of our parents plus a little bit of chance.

As societies we can decide (to some extent, if democratic) to redistribute wealth and strive for equal opportunities for all. This is a good thing for civilisation, by giving the best minds access to the best training and resources we can make more scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs.

But is it "fair" in the sense that we all have equal opportunities to achieve greatness? Of course not, we are not all born into (genetic) wealth.

Do we even want less able people to be given the best education? If we would give everybody the same (perfect) education what benefit do people on the lower three-quarters of that spectrum get? You'd need a degree to get even the most menial jobs? That doesn't seem to benefit anybody.

A better idea seems to be "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". We should stop judging the value of a person by their wealth or their ability or their achievements. We're a very long way from that though.

I think it's 60-70% of academic achievement can be explained by genes. If you know kids from a big family, their academic success can vary significantly although they have the same parents.

Sure, and they may not all have the same colour eyes - variation is expected.

But still, we have nature (genes, 60-70%) and nurture (hey, parents again). What else is there?

Luck (excluding controllable factors by wealthy parents)

I'd say opportunities. When there are fewer kids matriculating into college it's easier to get into a better school (see Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers)

Professors and Teachers, the variability of them is huge.

Friends can have a huge impact as well. Is the norm to skip classes to go work on a startup or focusing on getting good grades?

Resources such as the Numberblocks which make math more visual and accessible. My pre-K kid was doing multiplication because of that show.

Yes, and identical twins raised apart show extremely similar academic achievement, far more similar than non-identical siblings raised in the same household. This strongly indicates that academic achievement is highly explained by genes but that recombination [1] causes enough scrambling to result in large variance among non-identical siblings.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_recombination