@shortstories @EvilSandmich @Humpleupagus @HarryNuggets By that logic, if you had the right combination of teaching methods, motivation, and resources you could grab any random small child out of the ghetto, the back alleys of Mumbai, or some backwater village deep in the Congo, and turn that child into a brain surgeon or chess grand master or cutting edge mathematician. And the only thing holding us back from that bright, golden future is that we have yet to find that magical combination of teaching methods, resources, and means of motivating people.

But no one really believes that, not even you. Everyone knows in their gut that intelligence is like physical abilities. You can develop what you have more fully with the proper training, but ultimately we all have hard limits coded into us. If I trained like mad, was trained by the best coach, ate and exorcised exactly as I was supposed to, I could be made to be a better basketball player than I am. But I will never, ever, no matter how hard I train, make it to the NBA, or even a low ranked college team. I am too short, my reflexes too slow. My body isn't made to be a top level basketball player, and no amount of desire and training will over come that.

You can not make a person more intelligent than they are wired to be just like you can't make me a 6'8" power forward. You can help a person develop their intelligence such they can make the most of what they have, but you can't give them more than what they have, not without somehow rewriting their DNA.

People have limits, we are born with them. Life isn't some anime where you can train every day to become some kind of super human. Groups of people, being different, will inevitably have their own average intelligence level, just like average height, skin tone, eye color, speed, etc. You might hate it, but it is what it is.