
Bill Kerr: "Point of view is worth 80 IQ points" explained - rbanffy
http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2006/12/point-of-view-is-worth-80-iq-points.html
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Jun8
I have to admit this remark doesn't quite compute (e.g. people who "have more
IQ" can adapt their POVs more easily, etc. etc.) and the Roman calculation
example, i.e.

"It was based on a few things from the past like how smart you had to be in
Roman times to multiply two numbers together; only geniuses did it. "

is baloney. There were three method of calculation in the Roman times (e.g.
see
[http://books.google.com/books?id=bfgRxVzjbMYC&pg=PA79...](http://books.google.com/books?id=bfgRxVzjbMYC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=history+of+mathematics+roman+multiplication&source=bl&ots=nS6TwS_ijS&sig=hJ9Qr6BNpgP92AvcR4xF1I8Xkxs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HnACT5aiO8OQgwfShdGSCQ&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false).
Multiplication (or division) was handled by a combination of table look up,
which is also a common technique in Babylonian and Egyptian math, and using
the abacus to handle resulting summations. It was no walk in the park,
obviously, but you didn't need to be a genius either. Incidentally the word
_calculate_ stems from the small pebbles, called _calculi_ , used in an abacus
(see here for a fascinating discussion on Roman calculating boards and abaci:
<http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57572.html>).

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warmfuzzykitten
No, point of view has little to do with representation. For example, the
gradual acceptance of abstract reasoning in mainstream culture is said to be
responsible for the steady increase of IQ scores over the last century,
causing testmakers to constantly shift the curve to keep the center score at
100.

But I don't think that was Kaye's point, either. I think he was saying if you
have the correct perspective you will make better choices than smarter people
who don't. Rather than decimal notation vs. Roman numerals, consider DynaBook
vs. "computers". For some (easier to come up with) negative examples: People
who realized that everything done by timesharing would migrate to the desktop
were able to escape dying industries before they collapsed. Bye, DEC. Ditto
for people who realized that performance of personal computers would overtake
workstations. Bye Sun and Silicon Graphics.

