macrocephalopod

[hesitantly raising hand in seminar] do you think ... possibly ... there might be nepotism at work here? is that a thing we should study? or inherited strong networks and superior networking opportunities? but mostly, like, nepotism? [gunshot rings out]https://twitter.com/aaronclauset/status/1375116257473789953 …

Tiger parenting, generally much higher value placed on education by parents, and I am sure genetics plays a big role (twin studies). I'd expect much less nepotism in academia than in, say, investment bank:)

Heritability not strong enough for genetics to play a big role -- corr between parent IQ and child IQ is 22% if they live apart (42% if they live together) which could explain parents of faculty having PhDs at a rate 1.2-1.5x more than general pop, but observed rate is 25x

This argument smells off to me. If you'll let me make the (ok, insane) assumption that top 1% IQ=you get a PhD, then 0.4 corr means that if your parent has a PhD, you're 8-9x more likely to have one than the general population. If tails are fatter then more extreme..