Nice Paycheck, Smarty Pants
A new study published in the journal Intelligence suggests that brains aren’t necessarily a route to riches. The author, Jay...
A new study published in the journal Intelligence suggests that brains aren’t necessarily a route to riches. The author, Jay Zagorsky of Ohio State University, set out to see if there’s a link between IQ and financial success, particularly in terms of income, net worth and whether you’re running from creditors. The most interesting stat: People with IQs above 140 go bankrupt nearly as often as those with scores of 80. This probably isn’t news to all the brilliant, debt-laden graduate students and post-docs filling our nation’s campuses, wondering how they’re ever going to repay their loans.
But there is hope. We’d suggest looking up Jim Simons, a former math professor at Stonybrook University who turned himself into a billionaire hedge fund manager. Though Simons, who recently bailed out the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider with a $13 million cash infusion when its funding was cut, is very private, he’s supposedly fond of hiring ex-scientists to work at his company, Renaissance Technologies. Can’t find that assistant professor job? Go make some money instead. As Simons has shown, science needs billionaires, too.—Gregory Mone