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u/WannaBeDistiller 17h ago
TIL my stupidity is genetic
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u/Thefar 17h ago
But only 50%. You can still blame half of it on the educational system.
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u/Anxious-Slip-4701 16h ago
You can also blame yourself. You're not a push button recieve bacon machine. You get to participate in your own life.
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u/BigLlamasHouse 16h ago edited 16h ago
Intelligence is genetic in that your genes give you a ceiling. The environment including your own life decisions dictate whether you'll reach that ceiling. You can imagine, almost no one reaches their true ceiling.
Edit to add: Also, now we know thru epigenetics that the environment can change the expression of genes, meaning the ceiling can change throughout your life. It's not completely fixed at birth.
That's the reaction range model in genetics.
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u/Skadiheim 15h ago
Very simplistic view. Intelligence isn't one dimensional with a 'ceiling' stopping growth. It's multi faceted with a big numbers of variables each having their limitations and interactions.
Imagining it has a single gauge you can push in two directions is misleading
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u/codePudding 15h ago
This. I've met some of the smartest professors who were the world's leading expert in their field and I've seen them fail to use a coffee maker. At minimum intelligence can be wide and deep. The professors were very deep in their topic but, in general knowledge, they weren't very wide. And since there are infinite fields to study, intelligence has to be massively multivariable.
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u/Zap_Rowsdower23 13h ago
Pretty sure this is an excerpt from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
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u/Vio_ 15h ago
The fact people can "study" and get get better at IQ tests pretty much shows that they're useless
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u/summon_pot_of_greed 16h ago
Not exactly. Current research shows that your maximum potential intelligence, especially as you age, does converge to genetic factors.
About half of your IQ is linked to genetics.
Honestly though, it's doubtful that most people reach that potential due to environmental factors.
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u/Alienhaslanded 16h ago
My parents couldn't afford the premium package. They settled for basic trim.
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u/Styled_ 17h ago
Gattaca in 2026 let's go
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u/wineandcheese 10h ago edited 10h ago
We’re speed running all the other dystopian scenarios from the 90s and 2000s; add Gattaca to the warnings we didn’t heed
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u/artgarfunkadelic 17h ago
This is the one with Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman, right? I've seen this one.
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u/grimmigerpetz 17h ago
I could see why you want reduce risks of genetic diseases that might lead to a short, or painfull, or miserable life. But that is right out of a Dystopian novel.
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u/Silent-JET 17h ago
I took a class once where we talked about that. It became really interesting when you try to solidly define what’s a genetic disease/deformity.
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u/FoolishConsistency17 16h ago
We used a donor because my husband has a clear, 100% unambiguous bad genetic disease (a dominant degenerative bone disease).
Choosing the donor was an interesting process. Like, if you have to choose anyway, what sort of criteria are ok? I avoided non-white donors because I didn't want my kid to have to explain to anyone that his dad was too his "real dad", but that bothered me: was attempting to hide it basically making it seem shameful? Did picking a donor with interests aligned with my husband and I sort of setting us up to be disappointed if our kid was nothing like us (which can happen even when you do use your own genes)? I mean, maybe the desire for your kid to be "like you" is inherently toxic.
In conventional conception, this sort of thing just doesn't come up. But again, you have to choose based on SOMETHING, so what things are emotionally healthy?
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u/mugworter 14h ago
I think you're coming at it from the right place. My mom picked her donor, in many ways, to not be like her; she said she chose someone who was "smarter, taller, more athletic and musically gifted" because my mom believed she herself was none of those things. None of that was true, but it nonetheless felt like a point of failure when I did not fulfil any of those qualities lol
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u/pdinc 12h ago
"Hi, I would like to return this babby"
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u/Watergirl626 10h ago
We did IVF with PGD due to a single gene severe immune disease. We paid off our loan when our kid was 4 and spouse and I used to joke with one another that we finally owned him and that the bank couldn't come repossess him now.
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u/Amethyst-Flare 10h ago
I suspect you might have gotten some self-esteem issues from her, though!
(Partial joke - I hope you're doing well. Don't feel the need to weigh yourself against your donor sire)
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u/lilacsan 15h ago
I feel like picking someone that looks like your husband is perfectly normal and shouldn't need explaining. Avoiding that criteria feels like virtue signaling.
I've heard some same sex couples consider family members (sperm or egg), because of the genetic similarity to the parent, but I think societal norms make that weirder that choosing a stranger.
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u/Fattydog 12h ago
Why is that weird? If a brother donates to fertilise his sister’s wife then the child is closely related to both women, which is the whole point.
The alternative is illegal.
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u/Dapper_Indeed 11h ago
Sorry if silly question: what do you mean about the alternative being illegal.
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u/dragonblade_94 11h ago
Weighing the emotional and ethical implications of how to choose the parentage of your child is not 'virtue signaling,' it's one of the most consequential decisions they will ever make.
Like what the does that term even mean anymore...
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u/Dapper_Indeed 11h ago
Yeah, that made me uncomfortable. It seems to be used by people who lack empathy against those that have it.
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u/Pheighthe 15h ago
That’s a rough one, because they probably don’t let you choose based on things that matter. There’s not a blurb that says “Matthew tested positive for Kindness and his friends and family have rated him in the top 5% for Loyalty and the bottom 5% Entitled and Conceited.”
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u/Bradski89 15h ago
Not that direct. Though the place my wife and I went to, they had some simpler personality profiles you could use to sort of get a feel.
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u/AveDominusNox 12h ago
I can’t imagine they list personality negatives for what they are. None of those files is gonna say “kind of a dick to customer service employees.”
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u/shin-chan 11h ago
They do have little snippets written by staff that interacted with them though. They aren't all super complimentary either, although none are mean.
They are politely written and could say something along the lines of "very reserved" or "not much of a talker", which could possibly be understood to mean "not overly friendly".
I'm saying this as a non-chatty, reserved person myself.
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u/Dapper_Indeed 11h ago edited 11h ago
Oh, that’s super interesting. I imagine that’s pretty useful but I could see it being problematic if their behavior on those days was atypical for them. I’m glad they had some personality tests, mentioned by someone above. I’d never thought about how difficult it would be to try to pick a bio father from what is written on paper. I know this is SO not reasonable, but it would be cool to have interviews with potentials. I’d want to see their sense of humor, their laugh, etc.
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u/the_original_kermit 15h ago
I feel like you can get a pass on race and other physical traits, because you could just do that without a donor list.
Like you could just choose to date tall white guys only.
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u/RigilNebula 13h ago edited 12h ago
This stuff does tend to come up on conventional conception, though. People often find partners with a similar level of education, and people often date people they share at least some interests with, or with comparable levels of intelligence. They may also (not always) fall within the same class or culture. There are exceptions, of course, but many of the things someone is choosing from a donor are things they would be choosing in a partner.
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u/Dapper_Indeed 11h ago
Yes, I had never thought about that until today. When picking our partners we think we’re only looking for someone who is a good fit for us, but biology has our subconscious looking for someone who would make good babies with us.
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u/bearpics16 13h ago
Well you want your child to have the best chance of an easy life, hence why you chose IVF. In your case, you also chose race based on that same criteria (perceived social issues). Does personality have a genetic component? Probably less so but there are undoubtedly some genetic predispositions so why not choose based on that as well if you have the option to… things like eye color, hair color, height, if you’re narrowing it down between people, you might as well
We often implicitly select for those things as well when we’re choosing a partner. It’s why pretty much all animals have some criteria when selecting a mate
With designer IVF (same parents, selecting traits), it’s a bit different because you’re not just narrowing your options. You are cycling through embryos until all the criteria are met. That’s unnatural. We accept it for certain diseases, but it’s unnatural to do that for superficial reasons. It is profoundly vain and we all know those parents that care so deeply to spend that much on trivial things are going to be terrible parents
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u/xShooK 17h ago
Backed by Peter Thiel, and one of the reddit guys. Lmao oof
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u/TheDunkening 16h ago
You mean the same guys who were talking about billionaire eugenics and spreading their genetics with Epstein?
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u/BaronMostaza 15h ago
Thiel hosts those parties now and they include a dating app, or bordello
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u/TheNazzarow 14h ago
Of course it's fucking dystopian but it's also the inevitable future. The technology is here. It is of monetary and national interest. It's just a matter of time until we start seeing genetically modified humans. Nations that do it first have a huge advantage - "better" humans - and I'm sure you can think of a few countries that would like genetic super soldiers for example.
I fear it's like the race towards the atomic bomb - everyone knows its coming, everyone involved knows of the risks and permanent changes we unleash upon this world but no one is able to slow down or step away as everyone needs to be the first to discover it.
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u/Cilarnen 14h ago
"Matter of time?"
What do you mean by that? We already know there's gene augmented people alive today.
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u/Chudsaviet 17h ago
Gattaca
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u/Going_Native 16h ago
I don’t care about IQ but several genetic conditions run in my side of the family. My fiancé and I are on the fence about having kids because of it. If we were able to know our child would not subject to those we’d almost certainly have a baby. It’s hard to watch a love one suffer. To witness that as a parent would destroy me.
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u/R_Harry_P 12h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/jRBs6e2dWIvbHHlbkX
What could go wrong.
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u/SYNTHLORD 7h ago
Gattaca is such a good movie. Rewatching tonight.
I can’t believe this was poorly received when it came out.
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u/BlueRaider731 4h ago
First time I saw it, thought it was slow. And kept thinking I’d see his space journey.. nah.
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u/R_Harry_P 4h ago
In the sequel, his heart condition ruins the billion dollar mission and puts his crewmates lives at stake. Everyone is surprised the heart condition didn't present itself during candidate screening. ;)
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u/GloomAndCookies 6h ago
You and your partner should 100% get genetic testing before reproducing to make sure you aren't risking giving your baby a debilitating disease. Heck, I could even argue for in-vitro genetic testing to rule out really bad abnormalities so your baby doesn't suffer.
But yeah, this ain't build-a-bear, people.
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u/LostMyFuckingSanity 4h ago
My stepmother was a carrier with 100% chance of ducheane muscular dystrophy in male children. She chose to never have kids, but maybe if testing had been around she might have considered differently. I have a child with down syndrome, it wouldn't have changed my mind if we had known before BUT I wouldn't shame another parent because they chose not to have a baby with down syndrome (or any of the many things that are so much worse than Ds.)
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u/Version467 14h ago
Yeah well if I could pay money to reduce or eliminate the risk of my child having a debilitating genetic disease I'd obviously do it.
People hate eugenics because it was rooted in deep racism and used to justify horrific acts of violence including murder and forced sterilization, not because genetic selection doesn't work in principle.
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u/ouath 17h ago
Not sure high IQ is a gift in this world, that is a recipe for chronic depression for their life.
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u/playmeforever 17h ago
True especially if you are born into the working class
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u/BloodyBeaks 17h ago
I'm guessing the odds of someone that can afford this service being born into the working class are relatively low.
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u/Low_Pickle_112 8h ago
"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
-Stephen Jay Gould
I feel like I was a lot smarter before landleeches made housing unaffordable while these eugenics shitheads talked about how rent control is bad because it would make superior humans like Donald Trump (peak humanity right there huh?) very sad.
The older I get, the more convinced I am that people decline because they never get cut any breaks. How are you supposed to be smart when you're wondering how you're going to get dinner? If your life is stable, of course you're going to do better on average.
Meanwhile, now I've get migraines that are probably from a decade of stress, that can't be good, but apparently that just means I'm genetically inferior. It's nothing new; orthodox neoliberal economists have been advocating racial superiority for decades dressed up as a concept called "the resource curse", which states that the problems of the global south are not due to centuries of brutal imperialism and plundering but rather that those people are "cursed" (which they only say because saying the words "genetically inferior" would be too open for now).
As the imperial boomerang always does, I expect this attitude will hit closer to home as material conditions worsen for the working class in the US and Europe.
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u/999forever 15h ago
This old trope needs to be taken out back. High IQ is actually clearly associated with decreased mental health issues compared to the general population, which when you stop to think for even a second makes sense.
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u/dnyal 15h ago
And yet we still find ways to make our lives miserable. In all seriousness, the research I've seen is kinda all over the place, with the latest paper I read about it showing that, based on the median, your statement is true, but beyond the highly gifted IQ, mental health actually goes down.
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u/Fantastic-Cupcake890 16h ago
Where do you get this information from? Or is it because you are depressed and think you are superior?
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u/summon_pot_of_greed 16h ago
There is a common misconception that high intelligence is correlated with depression.
It is true that being more informed on world events can make you more anxious or depressed, and highly intelligent people tend to be more informed.
So there are covariance to consider but no causal links.
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u/Fair-Tangerine-9472 15h ago
Yes, but also, disorders like autism and ADHD occur more often in those who are "intelligent" by popular metrics, and those disorders commonly bring depression
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u/CSPN 17h ago
I’ve always thought A few points above average is the sweet spot. Emotional intelligence is probably something more important to chase
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u/beefcake1993 16h ago
Has no one fucking seen Gattaca?
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u/NohFyoochur 16h ago
The tech bros have seen all of the sci-fi movies. That's where the ideas came from. They just ignored the moral of the story.
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u/Existing_Is_All_I_Do 15h ago
They’ve created the Torment Nexus from the classic Sci-Fi novel Don’t Create the Torment Nexus
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u/WTFwhatthehell 15h ago edited 15h ago
It's also kinda funny how people will totally ignore elements of a story for the part of the moral they like.
For example the main character in GATACCA is a terrible person.
He's repeatedly shown willing to put innocent peoples lives in danger for the sake of his ambition.
He almost gets drivers killed so that ge can show off to a girl while trying to get laid and the broader plot is in essence equivilent to following the plan of a 747 pilot to falsify his medical certification.
Imagine that you are on an intercontinental flight and that immediately after takeoff the pilot makes the following announcement:
Dear passengers, I hope you will join me in celebrating a wonderful achievement of one of our navigators. His name is Vincent. Vincent’s childhood dream was to become an airplane navigator but unfortunately he was declared unfit for the job because of his serious heart condition. True, he does occasionally have symptoms of heart disease, like shortness of breath and chest pain, yet he is certainly not the kind of person to be deterred from pursuing his dream so easily. Being quite convinced that he is up to the task and that everything would be fine Vincent decided to falsify his medical records. And indeed, with the clean bill of health readily forged and attached to his application, he smoothly managed to get the plum job and is very proud to take care of your safety today. Can we please get some applause for Vincent’s accomplishment and perseverance in the face of adversity? And, by the way, keep your seat belts tightly fastened during the entire flight.
It's like when people totally fail to notice that the protagonist in fight club is an awful person.
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u/AvatarIII 15h ago
You heard them at that thing recently "make star trek real" or whatever, the only problem is they want to make Star Trek Into Darkness.
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u/Mushroomcraft01 17h ago
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u/dirty_cuban 17h ago
When it was originally made, it was a work of fiction. With enough time it will be a documentary
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u/RCer1986 17h ago
That's what made the most uncomfortable episodes uncomfortable. The fact that they could easily become reality.
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u/bobsmith93 16h ago
Fifteen million merits keeps working its way into my thoughts more and more lately. And I haven't watched it since it came out. Looking back, that one might have the most depressing ending for me because it's starting to feel so real. Too real.
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u/glyptodontown 11h ago
Ok but this is obviously a scam. This isn't cystic fibrosis. Intelligence is not determined by a single or even a handful of genes. There's no way you can screen an embyro for IQ.
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u/glyptodontown 11h ago
Also the dumb parents who fall for this probably don't have any "intelligence alleles" to begin with.
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u/Helphaer 11h ago
Im sure something differs on whether people are born with photographic memories, hyper intelligence, quick recall and reaction times and other factors so with enough analysis and research it could be possible to determine how to maintain those in designer babies but the person would still need to actually gain knowledge too.
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u/achatina 11h ago
The intrinsic problem here is that becomes very complicated, very fast (ignoring the potential ethical problems). Almost anything to do with intelligence is unlikely to be predicated on one or two little tidbits of a gene, so it becomes effectively impossible right now. That's unlike a number of diseases which we actually can determine with certainty are one or two spots in the genome being different.
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u/sabatthor 16h ago edited 16h ago
I suspect that altering your childrens genes in such a way will unfortunately inevitably become the norm in many, if not most countries on earth, for the same reason why AI development isn't properly regulated or the nuclear arms race occured decades ago.
Some country is gonna start introducing it or even mandating children to be altered for maximum intelligence and potential productivity, in order to gain a competitive edge over others.
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u/CiaranC 16h ago
You’re not ‘modifying’ the kids’ genes here, just picking an embryo with the highest genetic probability of certain traits.
The problem is that these traits are so complex and the genetic changes associated with them are quite weakly correlated.On top of this - complex traits are a mix of genetic variation, environmental factors, and random factors, so there’s no guarantee that your ‘smartest baby’ will even turn out to be smart. (A whole other discussion is how we even define intelligence).
It’s all a gross scam, really.
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u/CiaranC 15h ago
Totallyyyyyyyy.
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u/PrimeIntellect 14h ago
We've been doing this for centuries for every conceivable trait for every domesticated living plant or animal we can so not sure why people thought humans would be any different
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u/DrDeezer64 17h ago
So are some mental illnesses, medical issues, and temperament. But sure, let’s just look at IQ
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u/Protoavis 17h ago
It's because it's partly a scam and partly a far easier thing to test for.
Can pretty much guarantee they are just looking at the X chromosome for the ones with the higher markers given how much influence it has on brain.
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u/dwainedibbley 10h ago
Could u imagine asking for a refund in 18 years when you realise that its education system and parenting that failed them
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u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay 16h ago edited 15h ago
I’m from a literal family of geniuses. Grandmother was a genius. Aunt was a genius. Sister is a genius at 150. One of my kids is a genius. Other highly gifted. That’s not a flex. I am here to tell you that high iq is just high iq and often it’s a burden.
If anything it is often in association with autism. They aren’t filtering for that. Or personality or creativity or grit.
EQ matters far more than iq once you hit the normal range of iq.
This company is perpetrating an attempt at eugenics by choice. That child will not be more likely to thrive. It takes serious work to raise a gifted kid and not break them. People don’t understand high iq at all.
Further very high iq is going to be a liability in the age of ai. These kids are already bored to tears 90% of the time. Now imagine removing the requirement to think deeply.
Don’t tell me bs that all these kids will be in charge or managing the hellscape of the future. IQ is zero predictor of success. Again as stated above. High iq has nothing to do with grit, personality, charisma, character, creativity or privilege (because don’t lie, privilege matters). High iq often comes with a layer of autism, ADHD, dyslexia or dysgraphia. IQ has nothing to do with eq.
This WILL backfire.
Edit to add: person with the hilarious magic comment who immediately blocked me -that’s awesome. And that’s part of the problem because we can’t talk about iq without people getting weird, insulting, assuming you’re bragging. These are real issues. It’s a burden to be very high iq. It can break people emotionally because they can intellectually process things that they can’t emotionally process. It can be traumatizing for young kids. A child who understands politics and sees a war in another part of the world processes it differently than a child who isn’t aware there is a far away conflict.
You can be a jerk. Doesn’t change that what I said is true. These children will struggle and in some cases suffer. In other cases they will be working menial jobs if they work at all while hating their lives. In other cases the will choose labor and menial jobs because it’s a relief. Maybe that work allows them to go into autopilot and think while they work.
In some cases the will become the behavior problem, the criminal, the conman. Without proper care, social skills, protection these parents are making future problems.
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u/lordlemming 10h ago
Gifted students are special needs students. And I don't mean that to be derogatory. They have special needs that normal students do not have. A lot of them will try and rush through their courses as fast as they can and then by junior or senior year they literally have nothing left. They can try and go to college, but a lot of places aren't going to accept them because they are too young. And depending on their home life, a lot of them are being pushed by their parents and they either don't want to push so hard or they don't have a plan so they burn out.
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u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay 10h ago
We either need to radically change the education system so that it’s built in that every child is challenged at their level or we need to put gifted kids in special ed. Because they are struggling. We lose them for so many reasons. Giftedness has nothing to do with high achievement. It can be a barrier for many of the reasons you said and many more. There are many highly gifted people out there who literally think they are stupid for the sole fact that they think differently and annoyed their teachers and peers.
For my kid I ended up putting him in a school that did project based learning and focused on social emotional learning. This let him to work up to his own level of challenge. It also allowed us to focus on social skills (he was always super social and had lots of friends) but I could see that if we didn’t double down even more on social skills it would be a problem for him. This helped him to learn tolerance for peers who weren’t keeping up with him and it helped him to learn how to advocate for himself without generating animosity. I’m a big fan of project based learning.
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u/n8thegr83008 13h ago
Yeah people think that just because you have a high IQ you're set for success. I have a high IQ. I got an official test when I turned 18 and it came out to 130. So that means I must have been a straight A student going on to excel in college right? Lol. I was a chronic C student in high school, never went to college, and just coasted into a trade after a few years of doing nothing.
Maybe I could've been that person. But I didn't have support. My parents never cared if I succeeded. They certainly never ensured I would be able to go to college. They ignored my neurodivergence, punished mistakes but didn't reward success, and overall just neglected me. So I fell neatly into mediocrity.
Now I'm a mechanic. I make okay money. I'm good at my job. But I always wanted to be an engineer. Maybe I'll get there some day.
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u/fistfulloframen 14h ago
You could say I'm smarter than the average bear, it's lonely I can't talk about any of my interests. Over the years I've culled my vocabulary. It's frustrating seeing coworkers not get things that are basic. I've ended up just trying to fit in.
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u/MrMacduggan 12h ago
I recommend getting into cryptic crosswords to flex that vocabulary. I enjoy it as a battlefield where I can deploy all of the useless but delightful words in creative ways!
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u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay 14h ago
I hear you. Please look for a hobby, group or something where you can flex the vocabulary and think big thoughts about things that make you fulfilled. ❤️
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u/MysteryNews4 15h ago
YESS THANK YOU!!!! I have the same problem. I’m 17 and I have no idea how to learn because everything at school is so simple I can just memorise it instantly without ever having to really think about it. I have no work ethic and give up whenever I’m confronted with anything that requires any actual effort or thought. Plus I’m lonely because nobody can relate and as you said, school is so boring it feels like nails on a chalkboard sitting around while everyone else goes so slowly though stuff you could’ve and in some cases have grasped years ago.
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u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay 15h ago
My kid had to deal with this stuff this year. He took multiple APs and while the work isn’t hard for him it’s the first time he’s been forced to do homework. They require note taking and “showing the work” in his classes and he was in shock. Previously he just memorized or already understood the work. Now he has to write stuff down. On paper. With a pen. He had a moment to process that. Meanwhile I was loving it. Because at some point if things go well in college he will be challenged and he has to know how to study, take notes and persevere.
Just be your own advocate and build things into your work to challenge yourself. That’s what I tell him. Public schools will never do it. So choose essay topics that challenge you. Read books on the topic discussed but at a higher level whenever possible. When you do that extra challenge build in time to practice note taking and studying. You’ve got to do these things for yourself. You can also ask teachers if you can read a different book. And don’t forget that sometimes things that are deceptively simple can have much deeper analysis.
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u/fistfulloframen 14h ago
It doesn't get better. I work at a job with little oversight so I'm usually doing a side project ie lora, software defined radio, home lab, software development. I could never work a "regular" job.
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u/Majromax 11h ago
I’m 17 and I have no idea how to learn because everything at school is so simple I can just memorise it instantly without ever having to really think about it. I have no work ethic and give up whenever I’m confronted with anything that requires any actual effort or thought.
This is probably obvious, but it needs to be stated explicitly: this is a ticking time bomb. If you follow (or want to follow) a high-achievement path†, then you will eventually rise to the point where success is not automatic.
Once you hit that ceiling, all of those "hard work" habits really matter. In the best case, you're in for a few months of panic as you try to build the plane while flying it. In the worst case, you fail out or decide that because it's not easy it's something you're not capable of, and you unintentionally give up on your potential.
school is so boring it feels like nails on a chalkboard sitting around while everyone else goes so slowly though stuff you could’ve and in some cases have grasped years ago.
Yes, this is a noted problem in high school. The advanced (AP, IB) classes are better than standard ones, but even those have a fixed curriculum.
If you go on to university, it starts to change there. As fair warning, it doesn't change so much with the initial coursework – the first year or two of many programs spends much of its time getting its students up to a baseline – but rather with the opportunity that university presents. In the university environment, you can start to stand out with extracurricular or side projects. If you're interested in the sciences, for example, seek out a research assistant role to get a glimpse of both the cutting edge and 'how the sausage is made'.
In the meantime – and regardless of your core interests – I cannot give a high enough recommendation to reading widely. Even core scholarly research is much more approachable than many people expect.
Also, take advantage of AI. Don't let it do thinking for you, but ChatGPT or whatever has read a lot more books than you have. Pick a topic you're interested, ask for an overview of the state of the art, and drill down into details. Ask for sources, then follow up on those sources. You might be able to get even textbooks through an interlibrary loan and/or a high seas adventure.
If your interests lie in a tangible domain (art, electronics, design), then start side projects. Your first ten will probably be crap, but that's fine – they'll still be yours.
In my opinion, the true secret to success – the real reason that even 'average' people can do very well – is that successful people constantly seek out challenges. They don't wait for life to hand them a textbook problem, even though this is the opposite of what high school would have you do.
[†] — If you don't, that's okay too! Lots of people do boring things to make ends meet and then define themselves by hobbies or social connections. However, let that be a choice you make openly, not something that circumstance forces you into.
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u/Gold_Classic 7h ago
THANK YOU. This has also been my experience— I’m just bright, sandwiched between genius siblings, raised in a family scattered with geniuses, and I have never ever ever ever ever once wished I had their iqs. Truly. I cannot stress enough how being at either end of a bell curve is hard.
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u/SaveTheAles 16h ago
"Have your best baby" only males. I think I've seen this one play out before.
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u/bismuth92 16h ago
How can you tell that those babies are male? Babies just look like babies to me.
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u/BarryTGash 16h ago
At what point can I put in a refund request? If they're not walking or talking by a certain age? After primary/elementary school? High/secondary exams? College or university? After the kid refuses to get a job?
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u/makoman115 16h ago
My favorite part about this is that the LA republican raw milk anti gmo moms are gonna be the first people to sign up for a gmo baby
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u/Sc0rpza 7h ago
that’s stupid. IQ isn’t 50% genetic. They are likely talking about heritability which isn’t purely genetic, it just SOUNDS genetic because heritable sounds like something inherited. i really wish people would stop treating IQ like some sort of dbz power level.
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u/TheAzureAzazel 16h ago
I mean everyone (hopefully) wants their children to have an advantage, as that's supposed to give them a better life. What I worry about is how this'll impact the children socially and such. If you've been genetically altered to be more intelligent, that'll put a ton of pressure on you to ensure that translates into academic performance. Failure might impact them even more harshly.
Also what if this causes a social divide between people who were genetically altered and those who weren't?
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u/MiloHorsey 15h ago
This shit happens too often already in a few Asian cultures. Not the genetic part, but the pressure part. There's nets on stairwells in some of their schools (and their second school of the day) due to the abhorrent suicide numbers in their young generations.
Imagine if these kids were genetically modified, too? I dread to think.
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u/ArchSchnitz 16h ago
Way back in the 70s when my parents were trying to conceive, they eventually turned to donor gametes as a way to have a family.
My donor must have been a fucking genius. On paper I'm pretty smart, but my family is a bunch of fuckwits that couldn't pour milk out if a paper bag given a week. I'm also like a foot taller than all of them.
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u/TwinSong 16h ago
Pour milk out of a paper bag? Wouldn't it just soak right through the bag?
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u/JeebusChristBalls 16h ago
Yes, the point is that something that is easy and would happen fairly quickly on its own is something that his family can fuck up. That's how dumb he's saying they are.
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u/Rossdavilla 15h ago
IQ is actually about 70% heritable in adults.
Plomin, R., & Deary, I. J. (2015). Genetics and intelligence differences: Five special findings. Molecular Psychiatry, 20(1), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.105
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u/BuddelTheWolp 15h ago
Having a high IQ means nothing.
I had a high IQ when they tested me and I'm an ADHD ridden dumbass
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u/StoicAthos 14h ago
Ok, I thought this was a crispr like thing where they can alter DNA to give you a paint by numbers baby, or at least attempt it. instead it's just adoption with extra steps for IVF. Still kinda fucked up but less so than I initially envisioned.
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u/SoullessGamesDev 13h ago
Honestly i don't understand what's wrong with idea of enchancing child to give it a better life. Ideas of eugenics were bad on the level "we should wipe people with bad genes or don't let them breed by force", but come on, changing genes to make them healthy and fit for the life? What is the difference with having a surgery to fix a problem?
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u/ProbingYourProstate 12h ago
I agree, I really don't understand why it's so controversial to rid babies of disease, predisposition to mental illness, physical deformities, etc. The world would be a much happier and healthier place.
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u/Madame_Kitsune98 16h ago
Having a high IQ does not guarantee anything else.
You can have academic success, career success, and then one bad moment and a TBI later, you still have the high IQ, but some synapses don’t fire correctly, or they have lag time. And then you’re sitting there, able to understand what you’re hearing, but unable to translate it, so to speak, because the link between hearing and speaking has been damaged.
One split second in a car accident can change your life forever, and no amount of selective breeding can change that.
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u/impy695 15h ago
Or you could have a high IQ, do awful in school due to any number of reasons, and end up working multiple minimum wage jobs you hate.
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u/Madame_Kitsune98 15h ago
Yup. Being “gifted” in elementary school through high school does not guarantee success in adulthood.
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u/Thin-Quiet-2283 13h ago
I know a few people in MENSA. Some of them are amazing successful people while others cant even have a normal conversation with anyone.
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u/Madame_Kitsune98 13h ago
This is my experience.
I have known a brilliant man, a physicist, post-doctoral studies, ridiculously intelligent….and absolutely zero social skills or situational awareness whatsoever.
I have literally, on my way to work, picked him up on the side of the road, walking 15 miles across town to the old bus station, in sub-zero weather, because his car had decided not to start, and instead of calling someone, he decided to hoof it to catch the Greyhound to go visit his daughter. I told him to get in the car, and he argued with me.
I told him to get in the damn car before he got frostbite. He stopped arguing with me.
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u/shrimpedy 10h ago
my uncle was a professor at a world-renowned university, has won tons of awards in his field, spoken in front of congress, etc.
still the most awkward person i’ve interacted with.
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u/HurtPillow 8h ago
My ex has a genius IQ but like your guy, he had zero social or situational awareness at all. His nick name was Mr. Inappropriate.
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u/MiloHorsey 15h ago
That and there's other mental health problems that damage your way of thinking.
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u/scottasin12343 13h ago
this hits hard... its how I feel after developing epilepsy/needing tobtake anti-epileptic meds.
I used to be smart... now I'm slow and have a terrible memory. I am truly not the person I was before, and its so ridiculously frustrating.
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u/bagel-bites 12h ago
That’s the situation I’m in specifically.
I often will hear something, and I understand the words, but it just doesn’t click, because all of it is crashing together or stumbling over one another until the tangle of words has obfuscated meaning. Unfortunately, this happens with my own thoughts regularly, both conscious and unconscious, so it creates a situation of: how does one separate a solitary, single pea from a vegetable soup, when the contents include not only every conceivable vegetable, but morsels of every fashion or category? At times, I’m not even aware soup is on the menu until it’s mentioned or pointed out.
It also makes memorization frustratingly difficult at times because it affects working memory, causing issues with encoding.
I find it much easier to write, as I can bypass some of the initial problem, take my time to gather my thoughts, as well as offload some of the process to a visual space to create a more reflective canvas for structuring thought — as if painting yourself from a mirror’s reflection.
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u/geminiwave 12h ago
Also high IQ links to poorer mental health and I believe this. As a high IQ person who struggled with anxiety….
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u/jannycideforever 14h ago
"Redditor discovers that trait that predicts success doesn't guarantee success"
👏👏👏👏👏
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u/LadTy 17h ago
Considering the state of the world right now, I'd sue my parents if they made me have more than 80 IQ on purpose...
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u/tilmanbaumann 14h ago
I doubt this company has their selection down to a useful degree.
But I absolutely don't understand why people get their knickers in a twist whenever people take some responsibility for their reproduction. We are intelligent enough to unshackle ourselves from the cruel mechanism of random mutation and natural selection. Why shouldn't we?
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u/beyd1 16h ago
Gattica! Gattica! Gattica! Gattica!
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u/superluminal 16h ago
There no I in Gattaca because there's no i in the DNA sequence.
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u/WorriedQuality3189 17h ago
Le monde est devenu fou, nous vivions dans une dystopie. Des guerres H24, les pauvres sont stigmatisés et les riches peuvent acheter des humains comme au supermarché ( leurs propres enfants ou les enfants des autres...).
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u/Agreeable_Band_9311 16h ago
Are you also against having an abortion if you know the baby will have Down’s syndrome
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u/I_SLEEP_NORMALLY 16h ago
And once you have that baby, make sure to bring them to your local phrenologist.
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u/dewittless 16h ago
Surely this is a route to extinction, as certain traits being selected for means natural evolutionary mutations are discarded in favour of uniformity. It's basically trying to say humans have peaked and now variation is weakness, which it provably isn't.
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u/Hold_onto_yer_butts 16h ago
We’re less than a dozen generations out from the first Industrial Revolution. We’re THREE generations out from the dawn of the computer.
The notion that evolutionary forces have introduced any kind of adaptation that’s even remotely relevant to today’s world is laughable.
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u/bomboid 13h ago
The ad is insane but sexual selection was not invented by this ad and does not lead to extinction in any way whatsoever.
A lot of traits are deemed overall more desirable (like better developed bones, nicer behavior, intelligence) and tend to be selected for when people choose each other, often subconsciously, given that even personality is partially genetic. We as humans are intelligent and sensitive enough that we can reflect on that and how unfair it is, but at the end of the day it's a neutral fact.
Things like the average height increasing in many countries are both the result of better nutrition and sexual selection, people really underestimate how much of a person is influenced by their genes and therefore how much of all of that is filtered and selected in reproduction. This ad basically offers to do that selection for you. Still crazy to be clear, especially given that having an intelligent parent doesn't guarantee anything, and that either way unless you have a low IQ score the average person will not be hindered in life by not being a genius because most people have an IQ score closer to the average. The average normal kid in other words isn't gonna stand out negatively.
Either way it doesnt mean "evolutionary mutations are discarded of in favor of uniformity" as mutations still happen and can't be stopped, it simply means this ad hopes it can convince you this corporation can deliver designer babies that will make it in life for a price
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u/KowardlyMan 10h ago
Not only have humans not peaked, they cannot peak. There is no particular direction. A rat, a jellyfish, a human and really anything living at a given time is equally "evolved", i.e it and its ancestors managed to survive the fuckery of events that life is, so far.
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u/tinselt 16h ago
we do that all the time these days tho..with everything.
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u/dewittless 16h ago
And they're all incredibly vulnerable. You need permission to grow grapes for wine because if a disease breaks out that harms that grape, ALL the grapes of that type will die. It's a perfect example of exactly what I'm talking about.
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u/FoST2015 17h ago
Eugenics movements usually include things like forced sterilization, or disenfranchisement of entire groups of people.
Saying someone can pick better traits from any group or race or whatever isn't the same thing.
People have this consciously or subconsciously forever. Selecting mates on the possibility of their offspring having more desirable traits isn't news. Now that it's possible to have children without having a mate it's perfectly reasonable to select certain things.
Arguably there would be a moral imperative to select against traits which cause abject pain and difficulties.
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u/Invade_Deez_Nutz 16h ago
The early eugenics movement included both “positive eugenics” meaning encouraging “desirable” people to have more kids, and “negative eugenics” meaning preventing “undesirable” people from having kids, so it can be both
But the point should be that murder, forced sterilization, discrimination etc are wrong. It parents on their own make decisions (such as selecting the best embryo for IVF) that’s very different from the state violating people’s right to start a family
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u/dquilon 16h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/h59DXe7QOV9LMZkvwH