Re:Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should ...
by chaosfactor on Thursday March 26, 2015 @12:51PM
(#9271070)
There is a strong correlation between IQ and reaction time. A leading theory is that IQ is basically a measure of reaction time.
On the other hand, IQ is steadily increasing on average. This may, however, reflect how as society develops better abstractions, it tends to increase our reaction time.
Sure, raw learning ability, or memorization speed which is what you are talking about, matters. But as long as you don't have a learning disability it pales in comparison to context. And we all have pretty much the same learning ability. Also, those people that are really smart have put in thousands of hours to acquire lots of context. The genius who can absorb new material by reading any subject in a single pass is a myth.