6g_Miller-2009-Changes-in-intellectual-functioning.pdf (125.1 KB)
My father was still very sharp witted up until a few days before he died of terminal heart failure. I get reasonably good scores on high range tests, the scores for which are seldom age adjusted.
What I don’t have is much common sense!
This makes 2 of us. I’m very booksmart, but common sense? Nope, not even an inch!
I think none of us have a great common sense. You have to be common for that 
probably
There was a famous psychologist who said using psychology I can take any kid and make them a doctor or lawyer. With the right tools, motivations, and freedom from constraints a lot of probabilities can happen. I’m a firm believer in a growth mindset. I can see a change in my thinking from last year to now from all of the books I read and experiences I had living. The cumulative effect of age and retrospection.
I do think having a good mindset is important. However that differs from ’ with the right attitude you can achieve anything you want to achieve’. Up until a few years ago my mindset doing intelligence type tests was far from perfect. Any questions where the answer didn’t come to me quickly I basically gave up on.
Nowadays I have less of a defeatist mindset, including more mental stamina, and make more of an attempt to answer such questions. As a result, although comparatively weak in certain areas of cognition, my performance on them has significantly improved. There is however no way I can achieve anything I want to achieve, as a result of that improved mindset.
I think for psychological shaping to have full effect someone has to be young because children are impressionable. They’re innocent they believe in the Easter bunny. More of a blank slate. When you’re older you’re set in your ways. Sometimes the damage is done. Therapy sometimes doesn’t even work. That’s why to shape someone’s trajectory gotta catch em young.
I always like reading your insights on things.
The desire to shape someone’s trajectory has the potential to be a very narcissistic act. It can cause a lot of psychological damage to the person whose life is being shaped. Benignly helping someone to maximise their potential is very different from what I would call ‘achievement by proxy’.
I think you’re reading too far into the text and I wasn’t explicit with what I was saying. I meant whatever a child chooses to be when they grown up the psychologist can shape their upbringing appropriately to meet their goals. You have seemed to find the negative in my writing due to a lack in being explicit and a filling in the gaps on your part with confirmation bias. Good things. I do agree anything can have a negative counterpart.
