I just read an interesting study about the IQ test's predictive ability (as far as I have seen, no one doubts its repeatability):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4557354/
I'll paste their conclusions below, but you should skim over the whole study yourself. What do you think, /pol/? Under what circumstances are IQ test results useful? I still think they have applicability for comparing large populations, but I am a little unsure of their use at the individual level, certainly in isolation of other things.
>Much in developmental theory, and psychology in general, depends upon the validity of IQ tests.
>In the absence of agreed construct validity this has weighed heavily on indirect validity using correlations with criterion outcomes among which job performance has a special status.
>Hundreds of studies prior to the 1970s reported low and/or inconsistent correlations between IQ and job performance.
>These correlations have been approximately doubled using corrections for supposed errors in primary results and combining them in meta-analyses. Such corrections have many strengths, theoretically, but are compromised in these cases by the often uncertain quality of the primary studies.
>The corrections to sampling errors, measurement errors, and to range restriction have required making a number of assumptions that may not be valid and have created a number of persistently contentious issues.
>The claim that the IQ-job performance correlation increases with job complexity is not born out in more recent studies.
>A range of other—including noncognitive—factors could explain a correlation between IQ and job performance, and even constitute part or all of the enigmatic “general factor.”
>There remains great uncertainty about the interpretation of IQ-job performance correlations and great caution needs to be exercised in using them as a basis for the validity of IQ tests and associated concepts.