I think the author is skipping a step in their logic.
Happiness doesn't come from succeeding in your goals. This seems childishly naive, like "if only I got that promotion then I'd be happy". "If only I had a better car then I'd be happy". No… you wouldn't.
The author's thesis that (tl;dr) "IQ tests only measure ability to pass IQ tests" completely disregards just about all research on the topic of intelligence and success, and the actual correlation between success in poorly defined problems and IQ tests.
It's not that "IQ test scoring" defines an intelligence scale. It's that it's strongly correlated with success.
So whatever intelligence is, IQ tests are strongly correlated with it.
But success, or intelligence, is not happiness.
A person with Down's syndrome can be very happy, but there is no "therefore is more intelligent than the Mensa member successfully running a multinational conglomerate" or the next Einstein, even if they are happier.
So this article is not "A new way to think about brainpower", but an old and tired disproved one.
I think the author is skipping a step in their logic.
Happiness doesn't come from succeeding in your goals. This seems childishly naive, like "if only I got that promotion then I'd be happy". "If only I had a better car then I'd be happy". No… you wouldn't.
The author's thesis that (tl;dr) "IQ tests only measure ability to pass IQ tests" completely disregards just about all research on the topic of intelligence and success, and the actual correlation between success in poorly defined problems and IQ tests.
It's not that "IQ test scoring" defines an intelligence scale. It's that it's strongly correlated with success.
So whatever intelligence is, IQ tests are strongly correlated with it.
But success, or intelligence, is not happiness.
A person with Down's syndrome can be very happy, but there is no "therefore is more intelligent than the Mensa member successfully running a multinational conglomerate" or the next Einstein, even if they are happier.
So this article is not "A new way to think about brainpower", but an old and tired disproved one.