marlon said:
No,what i said was this : "common" people have a very small chance of actually doing something great. So small a chance that it is negligible. There is no point in pursueing non realistic goals. Please, save yourself the trouble. Also, it is a reality that most people have a lot of difficulties with just "passing through life in a decent fashion". That is what i meant.
So then why use it falsly to make a point ?
I never used the term IQ here. That is completely irrelevant to this discussion. There are quite some examples of people "with lower IQ" that achieved great things or invented really cool usefull new concepts/products. Really, IQ is the last thing we should be talking about.
When i mean "average people" i refer to the quality of their work. For example, you can be the best cardiologist out there and doing a great job in the clinic or have a very successful practice. However, this guy just does his job properly but he/she is not inventing new innovative concepts that trigger some revolution in our knowledge or development. Nevertheless, to be come a cardiologist you must study a lot and you cannot be a just a guy with minor capabilities. These people are far from stupid. So, if for this class of high profiled professionals, achieving innovative things is that difficult, how difficult will it be for "the guy around the corner ?"
Very few, i know, but if there ever was somebody who could do them all in an average manner, he would certainly not achieve great things. So this guy would be completely useless. One needs to be exceptionally good in one thing and you must be able to distinguish yourself from others based upon your capabilities. This is very rare.
If you state it like that, you are correct but this is not relevant to our discussion. Again, "average" means "just doing your job properly so that everybody (like your boss, clients) is happy with the result". That is average even if you have a high profile like a PhD or if you are a surgeon. Exceptionally means that you created new concepts that "change the world", as a have outlined many times here. THAT is something very few people can achieve and it is most likely that both YOU and ME will never acquire such a superior status.
Again, you totally misinterpreted my words. I just exlpained that you are and will always be a Joe Schmoe because you will not do exceptionally work. Now, be sure that you understand correctly the nature of the term "exceptional work". I have explained it several times in my post here.
regards
marlon
I am actually in strong agreement with marlon's sentiments throughout this thread. I am happy he's willing to say it like it is, without sugarcoating it.
OK, here's a simple fact : the average cognitive/intellectual/academic ability (let's put "IQ" aside for the moment) of PF posters is almost definitely significantly greater than that of the random "bloke on the street". We comprise a distribution that has a mean to the right of the general population. As such, I don't think PF posters can be said to be "average" relative to the global population. We are almost certainly brighter than average on this board.
Having said that, I don't think any of us can truly be said to be "exceptional" in ability. As such, our chances of making exceptional advances to humanity are indeed negligible.
I think I get what Marlon is talking about here. Here's a brief list of done accomplishments I would consider exceptional. Marlon, please correct me if I'm way off here
1) Proving Fermat's Last Theorem -- Wiles
2) Formulating Special and General Relativity Theory - Einstein, Lorentz, others
3) Unveiling the double helix of DNA - Watson, Crick, others
4) Formulating the Incompleteness and Undecidability Theorems : Godel
Here are some open questions that I believe it would take an exceptional intellect an exceptional amount of perseverance to crack :
1) Proving the Riemann Hypothesis. Finding a counterexample would also be a feat, but not of the same theoretical magnitude perhaps.
2) Formulating a Theory of Everything that stands theoretical and experimental scrutiny (and makes new predictions, most of which can be verified experimentally)
3) Deciding the NP-P problem
If anyone on this board thinks they have a decent chance of cracking any of those within their lifetimes, then hats off to you. I know I don't have a ghost of a chance with them. I can, perhaps, follow the proofs and theories when they come, and I already consider myself privileged to have the wherewithal to appreciate those genius-level accomplishments of others.
Marlon is not putting anyone down or discouraging anyone, but he's absolutely right about setting realistic goals for ourselves. I'm glad I'm in Microbiology, where there is a good chance I can make a name for myself characterising an unusual phenotype for a known bacterium, or maybe, if the stars align properly, even discover a new bacterium. The intellectual wherewithal to work through even the discovery and characterisation of a new microbe is not immense, just a little tedious and rigorous (verifying the work is important so you don't make a fool of yourself in the eyes of academia). All the methods to do this phenotypically and genotypically are already in place. Or I can dream of inventing a new rapid lab test (based on existing principles, this is just an optimisation/implementation problem) that has the potential to save lives. I consider these realisable dreams, because I believe I have the ability to work through them if the chance presents itself.
Entropy - don't be discouraged. Find out what you're good at, and try to improve the lot of mankind by working to your strengths. Neither of us may be able to make momentous discoveries in the league of Einstein or Newton, but we certainly can make a difference. The important thing is not to waste a life by chasing an unattainable dream. I think that was Marlon's point, and I agree with it.
Me too. 
Thanks Astronuc, as always you are able to state your thoughts in a far more diplomatic manner as i am. But anyhow, i do think that there is a "difference" between people. With difference, i mean the difference in level of capabilities. Only very few people are able to achieve something great in life that serves mankind. I know that most people don't like it when one says this but it is the truth. These words do not imply that most people are stupid, it just means that most people are not "great minds". I will certainly try to make something out of life but i do think that people should be realistic when it comes to "following their dreams". Personal overestimation has been the source of a lot of misery, depression, problems in this world. I my opinion, it is a bit the disease of our day and age.