When people say “a dollar was worth more 50 years ago”, you don’t reply “nuh uh, a dollar has always been worth exactly one dollar.”
Yes, but “a dollar is now worth $x” where x is different from 1 is still meaningless unless you specify you’re talking about today’s dollar vs some other year’s dollar specifically.
That’s correct, but usually I don’t see that mistake made about IQ. On a handful of occasions I’ve seen someone say “we could raise the average IQ by 10 points” or something like that, and some pedant responds that “the average IQ must always be 100″. Which is technically correct, but misses the point. It makes it difficult to have discussions about IQ over time.
Yes, but “a dollar is now worth $x” where x is different from 1 is still meaningless unless you specify you’re talking about today’s dollar vs some other year’s dollar specifically.
That’s correct, but usually I don’t see that mistake made about IQ. On a handful of occasions I’ve seen someone say “we could raise the average IQ by 10 points” or something like that, and some pedant responds that “the average IQ must always be 100″. Which is technically correct, but misses the point. It makes it difficult to have discussions about IQ over time.