> The whole article reads bizarre to me. It’s like pg believes there is some kind of generic smartness metric that characterizes people, and so you’re either smart, very smart or not smart at all.
Yes it's true that some people are good at some things and bad at others. That does not mean there isn't a general underlying "cognitive ability" factor.
General intelligence is absolutely a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_factor_(psychometrics)
Yes it's true that some people are good at some things and bad at others. That does not mean there isn't a general underlying "cognitive ability" factor.