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210 on a standard IQ scale (15 points per std dev) would mean more than 7 std deviations, order of 10^-12

it's hard for me to not reject the article already for it's click bait headline...

ps: 170 is 4.666 std dev, about 10^-6. that's very rare, hard to measure but at least real.



Yeah, IQ tests don't really go above 160 precisely because there's no way to statistically validate the result. There aren't enough people.

Someone can design a test and claim it determines IQ up to 210, but there's no way to statistically validate that so it's simply meaningless.


yes, and there were other scales with other std deviations, decades ago. but that really shouldn't be a headline any more.

to me the 210 simply signals a certain distance of the author to the topic. that may be unjust, but I can't help it.


If you just take the statistical definition of IQ and run with it, AFAIK the smartest person alive will be at something like 190 IQ. If you really run with it, the smartest person that has ever lived should be around 200.


As a New Zealander, I have often wondered about the standard deviation of sheep intelligence.




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