I think Laura is getting it right. Even though intelligence might help people increase their status in a vacuum, highly intelligent people tend to have other traits that might decrease their seeking of status or success at attaining it. It’s a tradeoff.
For instance, many highly intelligent people are introverts, yet extraversion is probably an advantage for leadership. There is also a correlation between intelligence and openness to experience. While you probably need decent openness to be a good leader, you will seem wishy-washy if you have too much.
In certain fields that depend on competence, such as science, technology, and some parts of academia (but not others), status depends more an accomplishment and is more tightly linked to intelligence. In other fields, the most intelligent and epistemically-trustworthy people will have trouble ascending to leadership positions.
For instance, many highly intelligent people are introverts, yet extraversion is probably an advantage for leadership.
Is this true? Or are highly intelligent introverts just more likely to put there intelligence into book learning and paper writing that make it easier to evaluate their intelligence?
The Wikipedia page on introversion and extraversion cites a couple studies suggesting a link between introversion and intelligence/giftedness, such as this study.
A bit more Googling lead me to a study using Big Five extraversion finds that the relationship might be more complex.
Of course, within the subset of intelligent people, ascending to higher status might also reduce their epistemic hygiene, as Eliezer observes. (Though these individuals will maintain the same intelligence.)
I think Laura is getting it right. Even though intelligence might help people increase their status in a vacuum, highly intelligent people tend to have other traits that might decrease their seeking of status or success at attaining it. It’s a tradeoff.
For instance, many highly intelligent people are introverts, yet extraversion is probably an advantage for leadership. There is also a correlation between intelligence and openness to experience. While you probably need decent openness to be a good leader, you will seem wishy-washy if you have too much.
In certain fields that depend on competence, such as science, technology, and some parts of academia (but not others), status depends more an accomplishment and is more tightly linked to intelligence. In other fields, the most intelligent and epistemically-trustworthy people will have trouble ascending to leadership positions.
Is this true? Or are highly intelligent introverts just more likely to put there intelligence into book learning and paper writing that make it easier to evaluate their intelligence?
The Wikipedia page on introversion and extraversion cites a couple studies suggesting a link between introversion and intelligence/giftedness, such as this study.
A bit more Googling lead me to a study using Big Five extraversion finds that the relationship might be more complex.
Of course, within the subset of intelligent people, ascending to higher status might also reduce their epistemic hygiene, as Eliezer observes. (Though these individuals will maintain the same intelligence.)