Life In 19x19

jlt wrote:I just skimmed through dfan's link, but I understood that
* Men in leading positions of big companies are generally tall
* So one may wonder if height is correlated with intelligence
* Since top chess (or go?) players are not taller than average, we can conclude that the answer to the preceding question is negative.

I think this gives the wrong impression. Dan thinks that the prevalence of tall men suggests that we’re biased towards tall men. He briefly considers an objection that there’s a correlation between intelligence and height. He notes that correlation is weak, and points to chess players as counter-evidence. It’s basically pre-empting a clever sounding but invalid objection he’s anticipating.

The real point is not “are tall guys smart?”, it’s “hey, this bias exists, and that seems pretty bad.” In a way, that’s pretty obvious, but this is an industry that fancies itself objective and rational.

Knotwilg wrote:the Dutch preponderance in high level amateurs is suspicious ...

In the Netherlands, I think most of our top 10 go players are tall even by Dutch standards (my estimate is that most of them are 1.95-2.00m, or 6'5"-6'7").

jlt wrote:I just skimmed through dfan's link, but I understood that
* Men in leading positions of big companies are generally tall
* So one may wonder if height is correlated with intelligence

People in leading positions in business and politics tend to be tall, but I don't know if height correlates much with intelligence. I think it's just easier to become a leader when you're tall. People instinctively tend to respect tall people more and percieve them as natural leaders. This may instill more confidence in tall people, so there might even be a feedback loop.
Maybe the same goes for people with deep voices. Tall men may also benefit there, as their larger bodies would also give them deeper voices (longer wave length of the sound waves they produce).

US presidents are generally tall (Biden doesn't appear on the picture, but he is about as tall as George W. Bush).
Among the last 8 French presidents, 4 are tall and 4 are short.