Can an average person ever break 2000?

A collection of sheets of paper, usually there are pictures in it.

No, the whole planet doesn't think that. Quite a lot of work, for example, goes on in examining the role of infectious disease, public health and sanitation in raising test scores. 

The Flynn effect is seen to vary between nations, and tracks fairly well to GDP increases as well.  And the effect seems to be coming to a halt in the most developed nations, while still being observed in developing countries. 

All it's really showing is what has been suspected all along: that IQ tests, whatever it measures, includes at least a bias towards environmental factors that allow for early childhood development.

It in no way shows that we as a population are getting more intelligent. Rather, it shows that we as a population are letting fewer of those at the bottom remain there. 

"the dumb shit people do today" as if people of 1000 years ago were so intelligent.  What an inane comment.

You should have kept reading, sir. 

Well it was an interesting argument that natural selection is skewed in the modern world.  So the average intelligence would be lower because "stupid" people don't die as often.  But the way it related natural selection to intelligence was tongue in cheek.  For example it seems mortality rates due to disease and famine would not be skewed by intelligence, and that dumb decisions accounted for far fewer deaths.

It also ignores the role of modern education and the benefit of learning from history.

If there were better arguments pages past I did miss them.

Sure, I was trying to be droll. 

Seriously, though, you don't think that a common Roman didn't benefit from the then "modern education" and history?

Also, it could, maybe, be argued that more intelligent folks were less likely to die from famine and disease.

Blah, seems I'm not very good at picking up on dry humor, at least in text anyway.

I'm not either! It's true!!!  Just a lot of training!!!  I'll prove it to you.  I'll break 2000 in 2 years.  Otherwise, you can say I'm wrong.

why did nobody ever tell me this

that gif is amazing haha

I read the link and it was interesting, but he was aiming for GM!! starting from 1880 ish and after two years had broke 2000. Well done to the blogger trying to achieve this and posting his progress however, I don't know what it adds to this argument of average + hard work and dedication to 2000 question. If anything it only supports the possibility because he hit 2000 in two years at the same time as studying for a degree, a girlfriend to pacify and a host of other hobbies.

GM is such a big ask and a differnt level of what we are talking about. (If the question was could an average person get GM then that would be different perhaps, unless you had a Polgar dad maybe.) Of course he was starting from 1800 but it only took him two years to break 2000 even under such part-time focus. Could not say 10 years under the same conditions take a person from 1500 to 2000? In my book clearly yes.

A file that you download to your Kindle, Nook, iPad, or similar device. Formerly a stack of clay tablets containing cuneiform.

I thought a book was a packet of matches or a bet.

It's the tricks you take before starting to score points.

'Book' is also the sum total of chess opening theory.

And for the mathematician Erdős, "The Book" was where God kept all the most beautiful proofs of mathematical theorems. For him to say that a proof was "in The Book" was his highest praise.

Then there was a chessplayer who was a Book, but with two umlauts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eero_B%C3%B6%C3%B6k

Very interesting. It seems Böök also wrote several chess books.

I didn't play chess at all until college.  My first rating was at age 22, it was 1100 (USCF).  I broke 2000 recently (peak of 2012) before dropping back to the high-1900's.  I still consider myself quite "average" without much special talent for the game & still quite capable of playing extremely badly.

So I believe there is hope for anyone willing to put in enough time & effort (for the most part I've been too lazy to read chess books but I do watch a ton of videos - on chess.com & previous chesslecture.com) and do a lot of tactics.

If you're extremely lucky like I was you can break 2000 on your birthday, winning a $200 prize & a $20 dollar bet with a friend that you won't accomplish it.

"You could, probably, argue that humanity is getting dumber with each successive generation since, I don't know, Roman times. 

Since natural selection no longer selects for humans, it's likely that the average Roman of 200 BC was more intelligent than the average American of 2000 AD."

Funny this is mentioned, there was an article recently suggesting just this.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/nov/12/pampered-humanity-less-intelligent

http://hipcrime.blogspot.com/2012/11/are-people-getting-dumber-and-less.html