What Does a High IQ Do For You?
John Sexton 10:40 PM | June 05, 2025 AP Photo/John Raoux, File Atlantic staff writer Helen Lewis has a new book coming out titled " The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea ." The book itself won't be released for another two weeks but she wrote an article based on the book which gives a pretty good idea what it's about. I can't prove it but it feels like the motivation behind this had a lot to do with dunking on Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and any other Tech Bros who have veered off the progressive plantation . I’ve been thinking about which people attract the genius label for the past few years, because it’s so clearly a political judgment. You can tell what a culture values by who it labels a genius—and also what it is prepared to tolerate. The Renaissance had its great artists. The Romantics lionized androgynous, tubercular poets. Today we are in thrall to tech innovators and brilliant jerks in Silicon Valley. You can imagine how...