Why does it have to be about brilliance. The US armed forces is one of the bigger users of IQ tests and has plenty of data showing higher IQ scores leads to better performance.
I think it would be fascinating to view the outliers (low IQ when measured=high performance) and investigate the reasons.
(My hypothesis:) Naturally what I would expect would be found is that IQ is just one measure that sometimes correlates in certain types of people, and that it completely fails and miscalculates actual intelligence and mis-predicts future performance in other types of people. And that it fails in a statistically significant number of cases. And that due to the behavior confirmation effect (self-fulfilling prophecy) it ends up true in more cases than it could.
Meaning IQ is an OK measure in many cases, but very flawed. I'm curious what will eventually take it's place as more useful.
It is my understanding the DoD uses IQ test only for initial entry into the various services. I believe the threshold is 105 (although some military guys have said that at the peak of the Iraq & Afghan campaigns recruiters would let a few sub 105s in, quotas & bonuses.) I would be interested in a link to those studies (if you have them available.)
