Is Intelligence Innate and Fixed?

By Alvaro Fernandez | November 10, 2007 |

Giv­en the recent James Wat­son “race and IQ” con­tro­ver­sy, I took on to read Stephan Jay Gould’s clas­sic book The Mis­mea­sure of Man, in which he debunks IQ (and the under­ly­ing “g”) as mea­sure of defined, innate, “intel­li­gence”. Fas­ci­nat­ing read­ing overall, very tech­ni­cal in some areas. The key take-away? In the last chap­ter, A Pos­i­tive Con­clu­sion, he…

Read More

Clint Eastwood’s fountain of Youth: Learning

By Alvaro Fernandez | October 23, 2006 |

See this inter­view today. Quote: “By 76, most direc­tors have put their heavy lift­ing behind them, their pace slow­ing, the qual­i­ty of their films wan­ing. Not Clint East­wood.” Clint East­wood: “My father always said you’ve got to keep learn­ing, keep expand­ing or you will decline the oth­er way. I’ve always adhered to that.” Wise words. I…

Read More