Al Fin: A Whimsical Visual Correlation of IQ, GNP, and Night Lights

15 June 2006

Hat tip to Fat Knowledge Blog.

Labels: IQ

al fin said...: Yes, you picked up on some of the "outliers" in the regression. An interesting comparison, nonetheless.

This link will take you to a good synopsis of the ideas in the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations. The map is a crude but graphic illustration of the concept. The night lights were my whimisical addition to the mix.

The dark interior of Australia is mostly for aborigines. Most of the European and Asian people in Australia live in a few large cities, mostly coastal, and spread out. Chile likewise has a relatively small population widely spread along a narrow coastal strip.

India is different because there is a great disparity of IQ between different groups, castes, ethnicities. Amy Chua's book World On Fire deals with this fascinating issue of market dominant minorities that prop up a nation's economy above what it would be otherwise. How many market dominant minorities in different countries can you think of, off the bat?

As for North and South Korea, no matter how high a people's IQ is, if you have a bloody dictator who restricts virtually all economic activity, the country will go dark.; Saturday, 17 June, 2006

Al Fin