Charles Murray, Genes, And SLATE
10/14/2014
From the great Charles Murray on Twitter:
Stop the presses. Genes matter in achievement. Query: Is anyone actually surprised? Besides Slate? https://t.co/vkng1lIZ8I
— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) October 14, 2014
Slate is refuting, easily, Malcolm Gladwell’s 10, 000 hour idea, which is that since great violinists, athletes, and so on can often be shown to have practiced for 10, 000 hours, anyone could become great, if they were willing to practice.
Gladwell sold a lot of copies of his book Outliers, which says this — see The Fading Of The Gladwell Era: 10,000-Hours Of Practice Won’t Nullify Genetic Factors, by Steve Sailer.
In 2007, William Saletan, Slate’s “Human nature" correspondent, defended James Watson on race differences in IQ
- Bravo for William Saletan in Slate
- Slate’s Saletan Echoes VDARE.com On IQ. Now What About Immigration/Fertility?
He was made to recant, probably by his editor, Bell Curve and Alien Nation hater Jacob Weisberg:
- The Fulford File, By James Fulford | Saletan’s Scuttle And The Curse Of Jacob Weisberg
- William Saletan And Race–”He loved Big Brother”
Subsequently, writing on the No Child Left Behind Act showed that he’d learned his lesson:
- Slate’s Saletan Triangulates Against VDARE.com’s Sailer. It’s A Phase He’s Going Through.
- Poor Old William Saletan
Watch Slate to see if these new writers are made to recant.