Comment by voidhorse

It's a common problem in any field that presumably revolves around intellect, since supposedly being smarter gets you further (it may, but it is not enough on its lonesome).

People, in general, severely overestimate their own intelligence and grossly underestimate the intelligence of others.

Consider for a moment that most of the geniuses on hacker news are not even smart enough to wonder whether or not something like IQ is actually a meaningful or appropriate way to measure intelligence, examine the history of this notion, question what precisely it is we mean by that term, how its use can vary with context, etc. etc.