I don’t think sex workers are thick. Maybe it’s not an academic job but we get a lot of money so can’t be stupid.

I can say with confidence that some of the thickest people I have ever met (and I mean people so spectacularly dense that you wonder how they function in the real world at all) have been sex workers and at the other end of the scale, so have some of the brightest and most capable. All that means is that a) I've met a lot of sex workers and b) there's no correlation at all in my experience (and nor is there one between intelligence and being well paid - that's one of the most bizarre things I've ever read on this board!)

What I do think is that there's a link between intelligence (actual intelligence, not academia or qualifications) and success - the people who consistently do well over a long period tend not to be as dumb as a rock, and although there are definitely exceptions they tend to be the ones so greedy, selfish and unprincipled that they'll get their success by fucking over other people. Again though, in my experience that goes for self employment generally, not just us.