What sector has the smartest people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain parts of the IT sector.

I feel like the smartest people gravitate to the sectors where lots of change and innovation is currently going on and money can be made (ex: not "the space industry.") For our generation-that's IT.

In Silicon Valley, it's software engineers (other engineers, like hardware and stuff, don't get paid as well).

Satellite engineer get paid pretty well.

Curious what you consider pretty well and where you work. Aerospace tends to pay modestly.

[Anonymous]

Smartest people I have met were all in physics, electrical engineering, crypto/algorithms.

The interesting thing about the highly intelligent is that they don't come off that way to many people,once you get about 2 SD's away from their range. Effective communication fails for people outside that range, which may in part explain why you don't see as much of the cognitive elite among the professional elite. In other words the king needs to be able to translate what the wizard says to the peasant...

https://www.zmescience.com/science/psychology-science/smart-leaders-poor-leaders-0432432/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Space industry?

Medicine?

Law?

Government?

Media?

What else?

You seriously think that journalists and marketing people would compete with engineers and scientists in terms of IQ? Oh boy.

Of your list, I'd say:
1. Space industry
<huge gap>
2. Medicine
<gap>
3. Law
4. Media
5. Gov't

Um yeah? NP here. I aced all my advanced math classes coming up and through undergrad, but became a journalist. I have a better grasp of history, government, literature, etc. than the doctors and scientists I know. My philosopher husband is smarter than pretty much everyone I've ever met. There are smart people in every field; they all have different skills.

Being a savant who gets a perfect SAT math score doesn't count for much with me if you can't discuss even basic philosophy 101 texts with any original insight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in Mensa, and a lot of the people there seem to be in IT.

My guess is that because being a "computer geek" makes people feel insecure and that they have to prove themselves with stupid memberships that are full of insecure assholes.

[Anonymous]

The 5 smartest people I have known are/were in: academia, journalism, engineering, medicine, and research science.
I also know some very smart people who are teachers, social workers, artists, musicians, and lawyers. I know a lot of people in IT fields and while most are bright, they usually don't seem very well rounded/intelligent in other areas besides strictly IT stuff. To some extent, this is also true of many engineers and medical doctors as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 5 smartest people I have known are/were in: academia, journalism, engineering, medicine, and research science.
I also know some very smart people who are teachers, social workers, artists, musicians, and lawyers. I know a lot of people in IT fields and while most are bright, they usually don't seem very well rounded/intelligent in other areas besides strictly IT stuff. To some extent, this is also true of many engineers and medical doctors as well.

+ 1

I’ve met exceptionally bright people in every field but will honestly say the smartest and most impressive people I’ve met are journalists, think tank types, high ranking diplomats and military professionals.

While people in trade professions such as medicine and engineering are smart and can retain industry jargon and understand specifics of their field, I’ve foujd that most are incredibly dumb. Doctors who have no idea how to talk or know who Ben Bernarki is. Engineers who can build a rocket but don’t know anything about Charlie Wilson and the Mujahideen.

The smartest people in the world are well rounded, intellectually curious individuals who have grasped the full breadth of the human experience, history, government, sciences and all. It’s far more impressive to know the trajectory of human development across time and space than to only know the nuts and bolts of how a computer is put together. You need to be a visionary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STEM people, especially those that have to use math in some compacity. and physics field. They are brilliant but like everything else, they may lack in social skills. If they have good social skills and can work as a team with others, they do amazing things.

Lawyers are all talk and laws. They appear to know more only because they know the law behind what can and can not be done.

I don't understand all this worship of STEM majors.

Stem majors memories rules and equations and apply them.

There isn't anything revolutionary or special about 2+2 =4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STEM people, especially those that have to use math in some compacity. and physics field. They are brilliant but like everything else, they may lack in social skills. If they have good social skills and can work as a team with others, they do amazing things.

Lawyers are all talk and laws. They appear to know more only because they know the law behind what can and can not be done.

I don't understand all this worship of STEM majors.

Stem majors memories rules and equations and apply them.

There isn't anything revolutionary or special about 2+2 =4.

Written like a non-stem person. We don't memorize anything. We learn how to solve problems. Big difference. I have no problem looking things up.

The hard part is determining what needs to be looked up. Once you get it to 1+1, it is easy.

[Anonymous]

In biotech...finding cures for Cancers or Alzheimers...These scientists deal with Math+Algorithms+Statistics+What not...everyday and they are classified as biologists. I met the best of the brains in this field, not saying I am one. These people could easily don the hat of an IT (coding etc) in a week and excel...I just admire their work! And sad that they are so under paid...and under-appreciated ofcourse!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STEM people, especially those that have to use math in some compacity. and physics field. They are brilliant but like everything else, they may lack in social skills. If they have good social skills and can work as a team with others, they do amazing things.

Lawyers are all talk and laws. They appear to know more only because they know the law behind what can and can not be done.

I don't understand all this worship of STEM majors.

Stem majors memories rules and equations and apply them.

There isn't anything revolutionary or special about 2+2 =4.

You don't understand STEM at all.

STEM classwork initially is all about developing logical reasoning in a particular language (mathematics), but the reality is that good design is an art-form that highly values creativity. What you are really learning is how to solve problems and requires someone who is an autodidact. You appear to be confusing something like a code monkey with someone who creates algorithms.

It is relatively easy to train someone with a STEM background to pick up a new field successfully assuming they have a decent EQ, but you can't easily train most other people to pick up STEM skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STEM people, especially those that have to use math in some compacity. and physics field. They are brilliant but like everything else, they may lack in social skills. If they have good social skills and can work as a team with others, they do amazing things.

Lawyers are all talk and laws. They appear to know more only because they know the law behind what can and can not be done.

I don't understand all this worship of STEM majors.

Stem majors memories rules and equations and apply them.

There isn't anything revolutionary or special about 2+2 =4.

Written like a non-stem person. We don't memorize anything. We learn how to solve problems. Big difference. I have no problem looking things up.

The hard part is determining what needs to be looked up. Once you get it to 1+1, it is easy.

Yeah I doubt that poster is familiar with the PE exam. Sure its open book, but you have to know exactly which formula to use....

Its no different that a surgeon knowing which surgical tool to use during a procedure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:are you comparing the smartest people in each field? Or asking overall which field is more likely to be attracted to smart people?

because, several of the smartest people I have run across are lawyers. but there is no doubt the field as a whole probably just passes average. barely, when you consider all the people out there doing divorces and traffic tickets and scamming immigrants. doctors overall are much smarter, but seemingly very few geniuses. Some. I think a lot of people in media are bright (and interesting!) but no geniuses. At all, as far as I can tell. Academia probably all very smart but it seems most of them are convinced they are geniuses. And, um, a few probably are.

I know less about straight science and tech fields. I assume the space industry if full of serious geniuses! But heck if I know. I know a couple of software engineers who are freaking brilliant.

This is spot on. People here are also conflating the intelligence it takes to solve a sector's problems (highest, I assume, in STEM) with which seetor has the smartest people (which, assuming we're talking about smartest in each field and not average intelligence by field, is probably law).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:are you comparing the smartest people in each field? Or asking overall which field is more likely to be attracted to smart people?

because, several of the smartest people I have run across are lawyers. but there is no doubt the field as a whole probably just passes average. barely, when you consider all the people out there doing divorces and traffic tickets and scamming immigrants. doctors overall are much smarter, but seemingly very few geniuses. Some. I think a lot of people in media are bright (and interesting!) but no geniuses. At all, as far as I can tell. Academia probably all very smart but it seems most of them are convinced they are geniuses. And, um, a few probably are.

I know less about straight science and tech fields. I assume the space industry if full of serious geniuses! But heck if I know. I know a couple of software engineers who are freaking brilliant.

This is spot on. People here are also conflating the intelligence it takes to solve a sector's problems (highest, I assume, in STEM) with which seetor has the smartest people (which, assuming we're talking about smartest in each field and not average intelligence by field, is probably law).

Ahh, the poor lawyer feels slighted... don’t worry we think you are smart and gosh darn it people like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know so many MDs who can barely hold a conversation that involves critical thinking or nuanced analysis outside of medical topics. One is downright dumb when it comes to anything a remotely educated person would be able to discuss in the world, but fantastic at his job and can memorize basically anything easily, go figure

I had a guy taking quantum physics with me when I was doing my masters. Every weekend he would copy my homework. He went on to become a MD. I think he actually makes a better MD than I would.

[Anonymous]

Quantum mechanics, sorry.