Comment by oscargrouch
4 years ago
The average IQ sample here is higher (period). If you don't know this already, i guess you are not here long enough.
Its just a question of the fields people that use to come here represents.
With that i'm not implying that i'm part of it, as i might be average. But i have spent a lot of time here to know that this community have a high average level, giving the topics and the discussions happening over here over the years.
> The average IQ sample here is higher (period).
If you asked me, that'd be my guess as well, but saying it such a way that it projects hopelessness for the rest of the humanity is a bit too much :)
Narcissism is dangerous as it tends to create and feed extremist communities. For an example, see any political forum full with extremists (these days it's hard to find any without) and observe how often they call themselves intelligent (or woke, or whatever fancy words they use to work around the obviousness of self-flattery).
I get what you are saying, but there are a couple of points that make this different..
First, of course is a subjective experience and therefore prone to error, but i came to this conclusion by observing this community over a long period of time.
Second, the communities you mention have mostly common ideological guidelines and goals, working like a cult or a religion. Therefore there's this feeling of belonging. HN is far away from that as people here have all sorts of different beliefs, background, etc. It's an heterogeneous community that will hardly agree on anything.
There's also no sense of belonging here, to a group, or a brand. etc..
There's no HNer, not a club, or have a card in the sorts of "Mensa" that you would proudly show to tell how smart you are.. as most of us are anonymous here.
So i don't think the patterns apply here. I think some people spend too much time on toxic social networks and suddenly start to see 33 all over even when the number is 21, because his neurons are seeing the same pattern too many times with these algorithms that are optimized to turn us all into neurotics.
>If you don't know this already, i guess you are not here long enough.
My account is six months older than yours. I lurked here for quite a while prior to creating this account.
I guess the difference between our experiences is that I didn't internalize the smug superiority that runs rampant on this website.
I think the user you're referring to is merely making an observation, not speaking out of malevolence nor arrogance. I was also lurking (my username checks out) for years before I made an account, and I've always felt that HN has one of the smartest groups of people on the web.