Scott Alexander reviews 'Hive Mind' by Garett Jones, which argues that national IQ matters more for economic success than individual IQ, while raising several criticisms of the book's methodology and conclusions.
Longer summary
Scott Alexander reviews Garett Jones' book 'Hive Mind', which explores the hypothesis that a nation's average IQ matters more for its economic success than individual IQs. The book presents various studies and theories to support this idea, including how high-IQ individuals are better at cooperation and long-term thinking. Scott finds the book interesting but raises several criticisms, including questions about the direction of causality between IQ and development, and how the findings from small-scale experiments might apply to real-world nations.
Shorter summary