Can you only talk to people within X IQ of your own?
There is this claim sometimes seen when discussing highly gifted people. One interested reader emailed me to ask where it was that Arthur Jensen made this claim: Anyway, what I…
Autistic children attend a course delivered by a specialised teacher Caroline Berge (L) at the College du Parc in Aulnay-sous-Bois, northeast of Paris on October 9, 2019. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)
Autism diagnoses are rising, yes, but autism, probably not
We can read in many outlets that the reason autism is increasing in prevalence is that clinicians are becoming more aware of it. The idea being that autism was already…
Jan-Erik Lönnqvist vs. Emil Kirkegaard on mental illness and the left
Occasionally, academics launch an unprompted attack on me. Unprompted in the sense that I had never previously heard of this person as far as I know. Recently a Swedish professor…
Preferences can be sick: mental illness from an evolutionary perspective
In the continuing debate about mental illness, we have roughly the following situation: Bryan Caplan representing the Thomas Szasz camp Scott Alexander representing the pragmatist "define mental illness in a…
Cannabis probably causes schizophrenia
A lot of countries are currently pondering whether they should legalize or decriminalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use. Cannabis is generally considered a fairly safe drug, at least,…
Social media, mental health, and political polarization
Richard Hanania has a nice post: How I Changed My Mind on Social Media and Teen Depression. He looked into the trends of mental health problems and whether this could…
Homosexuality is a mental illness
To be precise, exclusive homosexuality is. But let's backtrack a bit. Scott Alexander has a new piece out that begins with this disclaimer: CONTENT NOTE: This essay contains sentences that…
Does school make students kill themselves?
I know, I know. It's fashionable to hate on formal education in the rationalist community. Here's an obligatory Twitter poll: And there's even some push-back in the funny article Why…
Drug users vs. drug abusers
Drugs are bad mmk? Well, are they? The go-to argument involves looking at drug abusers. It's hard to say something positive about drug abuse in general. Everybody has a story…
A theory of Ashkenazi genius: intelligence and mental illness
I want to put together a theory to explain a putative phenomenon: Ashkenazi Jews have more geniuses relative to non-Jewish Europeans (gentiles) than one would expect based on their average…