WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON INTELLIGENCE?

Terry

An intelligent person--describe them for us; what are they and what are they not?

Who are your hero-types of intelligence? Great thinkers, writers, philosophers or ordinary people?

This is a very broad question. It is determined by me differently whether I am talking to the person or reading something they have written. Since we are on a discussion board, I will narrow my conclusions down to how I determine intelligence based on a person's written words.

The first clue, for ME, is something as simple as the frequency of spelling errors and syntax errors. I know people will argue with this, but this is MY opinion. To me, if a person wants to come across clearly and intelligently, which I suspect most people want, they will take the time it takes to make sense to their audience. A person's whole argument can be lost amongst typos; and we all know how much the meaning of a sentence can be changed with a misplaced comma. Also, I think people will higher intelligence have a greater vocabulary and seem to be able to remember the proper spelling and usage of words most of the time.

Another factor, imho, is the speed that concepts are realized and the ability to make a clear, understandable post.

My hero-types? That's a hard one . Leonardo Da Vinci pops into my mind; Stephen Hawking another.

This is a near impossible question to answer because very often we unconsciously determine who is intelligent as opposed to who is not. I know I'm not considering all of the factors that I use to determine an intelligent person, and the ones I brought out may be deemed as nit-picking, but this is just my opinion.. I'll think on it some more.

Oh, one thing, some people confuse verbosity with intelligence, and that's just not right. (Thanks Bigboi)

Narkissos

Freedom Fighter

It is my belief that intelligence can be sub divided into different categories. I have experience of people who are 'academically and scholarly intelligent' but lack common sense. Give them a practical problem to solve and they run a mile, but they could however write a paper about it.

There are many non - academic people who are blessed with a great practical intelligence - like engineers, trades people, the people who take ideas and make them into practical reality. Unfortunately the educational system in the UK places much greater emphasis on academic achievement rather than vocational. This is why we currently have a shortage of decent plumbers, joiners, etc.

The next category I would propose is emotional intelligence. There are people who may be very intellectual and well read, or technically expert but cannot relate to people. This is what happens when these people are made into managers, they are great at their job, but cannot manage staff- I have seen this quite a few times in my own workplace. The person who can tune into and instinctively help others is definitely worth their weight in gold. They always know the right words to say and how to manage potentially stressful situations.

I would say that we should rethink the whole concept of intelligence. For too long it has been defined in a very one dimensional way - this stops us from celebrating the gifts that we all have and often don't classify as intelligence.

FF

candidlynuts

i know the older i've gotten the smarter my parents seem to be.

Confucious

Terry,

My views on intelligence is this...

Know WHERE YOU ARE and WHAT YOUR LIMITS ARE.

And WHAT YOU CAN ACCOMPISH.

This thread is good. Because my pet peeve is people who are obviously IDIOTS that won't admit they are stupid.

There are MILLIONS of stupid, dumb-ass people in the world.

Just like there are MILLIONS OF UGLY people in the world.

It's not that taboo to call yourself "Unnatractive."

But it's taboo to to call yourself "stupid."

My take is, just admit who you are and what you are.

I saw a GREAT documentary on Showtime called, "Year of the Bull."

They followed a high school football star around for a year.

I LOVED it because he admitted on camera.

"I'm not that smart. But I can be clever."

I know TONS of stupid people. A lot of them have gifts in other areas that I could NEVER ammount to.

But I'm realistic.

Me. I think I'm VERY smart in somethings, but a total dumb-ass when it comes to other parts of "education" like Math.

But I'm realistic. And it doesn't bother me to say that.

It's just that so many people would just benefit themselve by NOT LYING TO THEMSELVES.

Know where you are. Who you are. And how you can improve from there.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Confucious

Confucious

BTW,

This tread is dear to me.

Because when I was growing up, my sister was the smartest in her class.

She is a doctor now.

But I graduated in the lower 1/4 percentile in my class.

I am NOT book smart.

NOT IN THE LEAST.

But I was honest enough to myself to say, "Hey. I can't be a doctor. But I can channel my energies to something else."

I did that, and today I am VERY successful in what I do best at.

Mike Tyson, in his glory years, said...

"I can do ANYTHING that I can put my mind to."

That is so bullshit.

Just like no matter what I do in life, I can NEVER be an NBA baskeball player.

I was never given those gifts.

But Mike Tyson. Bullshit.

I'm your biggest boxing fan, but you're a dumb ass.

Be honest with yourself. And know what gifts you were given and run with it like you're being chased by a pit bull.

But there are few people in the world that are honest enough to admit their true intelligence.

Con

Euphemism

Let me say a big "me too" to Freedom Fighter, who said just what I was thinking but put it better than I would have. (And for the record, I'm the academic type who can write long papers but sucks at the common-sense stuff.)

Mulan

The first clue, for ME, is something as simple as the frequency of spelling errors and syntax errors.

Those things really bug me too, but one of the most intelligent women I know, can't spell to save her life. Fortunately she doesn't have to write very much. In a debate situation, I doubt many here could stand up to her. She is very quick, very smart, and very witty.

My brother is a very intelligent, intellectual, well read man. He talks in such big words, I often have to ask him to define a word (that's embarrassing). He has an extremely high IQ, but isn't very successful financially or personally. Although just last week had a big breakthrough in business and stands to earn a six figure commission. True, he has had some tragedies in his life that have scarred him, so his emotional health is not too good. (I've written about him before..............in 1977 they were JW's, his wife died after a botched childbirth, bled out, and really died from lack of a blood transfusion.................baby was stillborn)

So as others have said, intelligence is a broad area to discuss and many factors can affect it.

StinkyPantz

Those things really bug me too, but one of the most intelligent women I know, can't spell to save her life.

I would like to explore this: How did you determine that she is 'the most intelligent woman you know'?

As for spelling errors bugging me.. that wasn't what I was discussing. I was saying that an intelligent person would spell correctly most of the time, or at least according to MY criteria. I understand that some people have dyslexia, that's not what I mean.

----

As far as "emotional intelligence", I think that's some sort of pop-phrase. I think people can be emotionally stable or mature or able to recognize their emotional shortcomings, but the term intelligence doesn't fit for me. I mean, let's just add intelligence on to some other words.. what about athletic-intelligence, or psychological-intelligence..

That being said I do believe that everyone has gifts that need to be explored and encouraged. Everyone is not blessed with superior mental-intelligence, but have artistic-"intelligence", etc. (hehe) instead that should be nourished.

WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON INTELLIGENCE?

Share this