The crucial aspect of people's ability to succeed isn't ability. It is not the difference between could vs could not; it is the difference between would and could. And that is exactly why IQ is so important.

IQ is often associated with the ability to solve complex problems, whether it be the ability to solve practical problems, in theoretical physics or just in an IQ test.

These abilities are definitely helpful to succeed in life. However, while smarter people certainly CAN do more in life, that is not the main reason they do better in life. To understand what this means, we must turn inwards. This post will explore the lived experience of a low-IQ brain and a high-IQ brain and draw conclusions on why IQ is so important on a societal level.

The subjective and pragmatic perspective

We all have parts of ourselves that we like and parts that we dislike. Our highest selves and lowest selves are constantly in a battle, and we all oscillate between them. It is a battle between clear and unclear thinking. Effectively, this is a battle between our high IQ and low IQ.

I am average IQ, around a 100. What does that mean? Well, it means that about half of the population naturally have a stronger ability than I have ... to handle complexity, think abstract and solve both mental and practical problems. About half of the population are weaker.

I am fairly good at handling complexity, and I am pretty certain that I would be able to learn to become good at pretty much everything. I have been raised peacefully, and I have never been forced into irrational belief sets. It has never been dangerous for me to listen to new ideas, and to my knowledge I have no big psychological barriers of any sort. Also, I come from a family with healthy habits.

I can essentially do whatever I set my mind to. However, whether I can do that or not doesn't really matter. I may be able, but what matters is if I am willing.

As an average-IQ person, I oscillate between clear and pretty unclear thinking every day. I actually know what it is like to have an IQ of 80-90, and I also know how it is to have an IQ of 110-120. There is an internal war going on for my brain.

There is a war in every mind, and we all have split personalities in some way. The one personality we really like is the one that takes perspective on things and usually makes good decisions. He's a good coach. Our other personality, however, is the one we do not like. This guy is all about the short term decisions, avoiding pain and seeking immediate pleasure. A terrible coach.

Sometimes, you get a really good piece of advice from your good coach, but you are not getting it at the right time. For example, the good coach says you have to stop snoozing in bed for several hours in the morning, but the good coach is not at all a morning person(ality), so he is always absent when you need him the most.

There's more. I have a goal of doing meditation every day. It makes me more awake; it makes me more clear-headed; it makes me more able to make rational decisions. It brings out the good coach in me because I know from experience that to meditate in the morning will give me a balanced foundation on which to approach my day.

Doing meditation is the meta decision of all decisions - the decision that is made in order to improve all other decisions.

However, there is a strong force in me that ALWAYS seeks immediate gratification and wants to avoid pain. That is exactly why meditation is so good for me because it helps me become aware of this force. With that awareness, it gets less influence over my decision-making.

With the meditation, then, it is my good coach, my higher self, that stakes out the course of my day. My higher self makes sure daily actions are in accordance with more long-term goals.

I always end up regretting the decisions of my bad coach Lower Ola. But he is power-hungry, and he often manages to plant his flag in my pre-frontal cortex, the part of my brain responsible for decision-making. Lower Ola would eat a full bag of chips if he got one, he would get stuck with Youtube videos for several hours, even though the original plan was to work. Lower Ola would simply forget that the day before, Higher Ola had laid out a plan and a vision for the day.

Higher Ola, the good coach, realizes that decision making has to be somehow cut off from the bad coach, Lower Ola. The decisions of Lower Ola must be outsourced. Lower Ola only has an IQ of 85, whereas Higher Ola has an IQ of 120. They constantly battle for the control of Ola’s mind.

Higher Ola can clearly see the future consequences of his actions. Lower Ola cannot. Lower Ola is extremely powerful, but meditation is his kryptonite. Higher Ola therefore has to be smart about when to plan meditation as well as make sure it is actually being done.

Technically, Lower Ola is of course fully capable of not eating a full bag of chips, but he is not willing to. He doesn’t actually believe that things that are happening now actually count, just like casting that ONE vote won't have any say in an election. However, decisions are only ever made in this ONE moment. Lower Ola is constantly using the excuse that the now (i.e. current decisions) doesn't count. After all, the thousands of other decisions in the future are a lot more important than that one decision today.

That's exactly why meditation is crucial.

Meditation is usually a pleasant little break from whatever you are doing. Many researchers even say it improves willpower. However, Lower Ola tricks himself into believing that meditation doesn’t matter right now. It is only meditation in the future that counts.

Lower Ola is fully capable of doing meditation right now. But that doesn’t matter since he is not willing to.

IQ

IQ is essentially the ability to think abstract. The more abstract you are able to think, the more clearly you will be able to see the consequences of your actions. The more clearly you see the consequences of your actions, the easier it becomes to resist the temptation of immediate gratification and instead make good long-term decisions.

You have probably heard of the Stanford marshmallow experiment, a series of studies performed in the late '60s and early '70s. Kids were given one marshmallow, but they were told they could get one more in 15 minutes if they did not eat the first one. While some kids rushed to eat it right away, others gave in to the temptation after minutes, whereas some managed to win the 15-minute battle and end up with two delicious marshmallows in the end. Of course this is harder for kids because kids do not have fully developed IQs and are not able to think abstract enough to compare different outcomes of decisions in the now. Resisting the temptation to eat the marshmallow would be an easy task for most adults - even assuming the temptation was equally strong. Simply because the future consequences are so clear.

Follow-up studies found that kids who were able to resist the marshmallow temptation - to delay a gratification - generally had better life outcomes than the kids who ate it right away. This article sums up the implication of the ability to delay gratification and references the mentioned follow-up studies.

Clear thinking makes it easy to make good decisions. Unclear thinking makes it very hard to make good decisions.

The more you know about the consequences of, say, smoking, the more power you have to change it.

Your lower self essentially has less free will than your higher self because your higher self, your good coach has access to knowledge (about the future) that your lower self does not.

IQ comes down to will, not ability. Everyone can achieve stuff. But can is mostly irrelevant. It is those who are the most willing. And the most willing happen to be the ones who have a higher IQ.

It isn’t the IQ itself that sets them apart. It is the IQ that provides them with the ability to think more clearly. This ability leads to a willingness to make better long-term decisions.

Making foundational changes in your life

Even though I have been building on these insights for several years, I still find it incredibly challenging to battle with my lower self because it is still winning many of the battles in my life. It makes me extremely humble towards people who had a harder background than I did and towards people who are undergoing fundamental, permanent change in their own lives. What you can change comes down to who you let be in charge of your decision making.

Quite a bit of psychological exploration is required in order to reach conscious awareness that your own mind can oscillate so wildly between these states.

As a student, using proper reading strategies when approaching a text, such as closely reading a title, the conclusion or doing some preparatory work, is something I really benefit from at the end. Using such a strategy may take me 3-5 minutes extra before reading it, but in total it saves me time.

Guess what I usually end up doing. I forget. I forget to consciously use reading strategies when I open a chapter/article etc. At the moment of action, my lower self kicks in and makes the unintelligent decision of just starting to read from the top. I just want to get through it - to minimize the “pain”. Of course, the pain will be stronger in the long term when I avoid it in the short term.

I have tremendous respect for people who manage to make permanent change. It is incredibly challenging.

The objective, statistical perspective

We have talked about IQ from a subjective perspective. It does not have to hinder you. It may make your life more challenging, but in no way does your IQ determine your life outcome. HOWEVER, looking at statistics of a general population, the only reasonable thing to expect is that IQ will be an important determinant of people's life outcomes, as is found in books such as The Bell Curve.

According to the Brookings Institution, Americans will almost certainly avoid ending up in poverty if they follow three simple rules: finish high-school, get a full-time job and wait until 21 before getting married and getting children. Are less intelligent people technically less able to accomplish these things? Well, not really. But they are less willing. Therefore, they are statistically less likely to actually do it.

Also, could you get everybody in a low-IQ population to do meditation? Well, of course, in theory an entire population could. But an entire population wouldn't. Only the ones fortunate enough to read this post.

How to bypass your low-IQ hurdles

Let's go back to the pragmatic perspective.

I am effectively smarter than a person with 200 in IQ was a 1000 years ago because I am equipped with, say, knowledge of the scientific method. I would easily be able to figure out stuff that was impossible a 1000 years ago. Similarly, a person with an IQ of 90 who has learned the discipline of philosophical thinking, i.e. epistemology, logic, self-knowledge, biases and so on, would be more equipped to have an argument than an 140-IQ person without those skills. But even though one may be equipped with better tools, and thus be effectively smarter, doesn't dispute the fact that there is such a thing as actual brain power. It's just that my brain power then will be channeled better for an intended purpose.

My average IQ does not make me less worthy than other people. Nor is it a tool for excuses. With the knowledge that my IQ is average, I in fact become empowered because that knowledge enables me to identify accurately what is holding me back, namely unclear thinking. When I know that this is the main thing holding me back, I now have the power to be strategic and consciously circumvent the hurdles set up by my average IQ.

Those are some examples of what you can do for yourself. What can you do for others?

To my knowledge there are no proven measures to improve IQ itself,. As is also the case with height, there are, however, ways to harm the development of it. Malnutrition is proven to cause stunting. Similarly, there are things that hinder the development of IQ, such as corporal punishment (i.e. spanking children) and not breastfeeding, even though the latter is disputed.

Spreading this information could potentially help many, many people. Apart from that, leading by example through good life decisions is probably the best way you can help others overcome their own low IQs, although that requires that people understand that their low IQ is holding them back in the first place (which sadly is harder the lower IQ you have). Long-term, however, the best way to overcome the societal challenges posed by differences in IQ, is to talk honestly about it.

IQ is not determinism.