Intelligence.

[robvalue]

Nature vs. nurture. I think cognitive ability is capped by genetics, but for all sorts of reasons most people rarely come close to reaching their potential.

I agree with this.

The problem with IQ tests particularly is they don't mean much past a certain age, if I recall correctly. When you're young, your mental faculties are rapidly developing. So you can see how far ahead or behind the curve you are. But at a certain age, things start to generally plateau for any individual, or even get worse. Using age as a quotient then becomes less meaningful.

That's from what I remember reading about IQ tests, a while ago. I took one (a proper one) when I was about 13-15, but I don't know what would happen if I tried to take one now. For a variety of reasons I'd expect my score to be lower. My brain isn't as sharp as it was anyway, and CFS fucks with my head and slows down my thinking procedures. And being 39 might make the results meaningless for the above reasons.

Do they even offer them past a certain age? It's been so long that I'm out of the loop about it. I also agree that they only measure a very specific kind of "intelligence" and should by no means be considered definitive.