I see a lot of discourse about IQ online but most of it is either people dunking on the concept entirely or people acting like it determines everything about your life. What does the research actually say about what a high IQ predicts in the real world? Not just academics, but like job performance, income, health, relationships, whatever. Is it actually useful to know your IQ or is it just trivia?
The research is pretty consistent. IQ is one of the strongest predictors of job performance, and the advantage grows as job complexity increases. Income follows a similar pattern across decades of longitudinal data. What surprises most people is that it also predicts health outcomes, lower cardiovascular disease risk, better medical adherence, longer life expectancy. The explanation is that higher g supports better decision making across time, not just better test taking. None of this means IQ determines everything, but the idea that it is just an academic curiosity does not hold up. Something like RIOT IQ is useful here because it breaks ability into 6 domains across 15 subtests, so you can actually see where you are strong rather than just getting one number.
The health finding is the one that gets people. Most accept that IQ predicts school and work outcomes. But the same reasoning ability that helps you solve problems also helps you make better decisions about your body, finances, and long term planning. That is what makes g such a broad construct.