TGIF – Get The Lead Out, Smart Ass

As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.

Quote of the Week: “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”  Napoleon

Humor Break: “I was standing in the park wondering why Frisbees got bigger as they get closer. Then it hit me.”  (probably Steven Wright)

Stat of the Week: The world is getting smarter.  IQs are on the rise.  In the US overall IQs rise about 3 points a decade, which is a good thing because in 1900 the average American IQ was 67 (and by today’s standard that means a majority of Americans were intellectually disabled).  We ought not brag.  IQs in many other countries including Spain, Holland and Kenya are rising at even higher rates.

One of the contributors to “smartness” is the removal of lead from gasoline, which may have added 6 points to the I.Q. of American children. One thing I don’t understand is with this increase in “smartness” why do people text in cars, kids get wired in and singularly focused when crossing busy streets and parents yell “kill” at children’s’ football games? If this smartness isn’t finding its way to the brain, where does it go?  Need you ask, smart ass!

Action Tip: Want more on rising IQs?  Read newly published Are We Getting Smarter? by James R. Flynn, the founder of this field of study (“The Flynn Effect”).

Self-Development Corner: Want to keep up with rising IQs?  Here are three courses beginning next week on the free online university Coursera: Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes, (12 weeks, Princeton); Computational Investing, Part I, (8 weeks, Georgia Tech); and The Modern and the Postmodern, (14 weeks, Wesleyan University).

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.