intelligence

These are just a few random thoughts I have about intelligence. Some is a rehash of what I have already said. That will happen on occasion, though.

For the longest time I thought I was naturally intelligent. I remember the first time my arrogance subsided and I realized that this wasn't the case. The summer I turned fifteen I was at a church youth camp where different cabins competed in a Bible quiz tournament throughout the week. While I was undoubtedly the geekiest in the cabin (most of the other guys were skaters), I was actually the intellectual liability on our team. That was a difficult thing for me to swallow. It only occurred to me later that whatever academic strength I have is not natural intelligence. My one real intellectual strength is that there are some things that I happen to care about more than other people do so I think through them a lot. In those fields where I do not have enough interest to expend much thought I am dumber than the screws holding a doorknob in place.

Another epiphany I had about intelligence was in college. I realized that many of the people who, by participation in class or by GPA or by whatever other outward measure, appeared smart were actually putting on a show, and this was a very large percentage of the "smart" people. While most people who get good grades and participate in class are intelligent, that intelligence has a limit and a lot of people have found ways to keep from inadvertently looking stupid. This does not describe every intellectual person I know, but it is pretty prevalent. It is assisted by the fact that people are more likely to equate shows of confidence with intelligence than they are to equate much anything else with intelligence. Confidently use a lot of words that people think they should know but don't and your reputation is made. Any "average" person can get a brainy reputation without too much real effort.

My latest revelation has been that there really are not many things that are difficult to understand if you have enough time to learn them. Math isn't hard. Mathematical notation is just intimidating and is usually poorly explained. English and grammar aren't hard. They are just mind-numbing for most people to try to study. None of the sciences are all that difficult to understand once you're past all of the vast rote memorization that is required. The field I chose was no different. Computer Science has some key concepts that must be understood, but the notation is what makes the field seem hard.

To sum all of this up, throughout my life I have been struck more by how similar supposedly stupid people and supposedly intelligent people are than by their differences. In many cases they follow the same logic in life. They make the same mistakes. They have the same recreations. In fact, I believe that most differences in apparent intelligence can be traced back to a question of interest or learning style rather than natural intelligence. You will go far in the American education system if you happen to do well sitting at a desk with someone lecturing to you. If you do not do well with lectures and multiple-choice tests, the decision will be made that you are somehow inferior and you will be shut out of a lot of the options in life that require traditional education. I have already been fairly clear on my opinions about education, so I should end my rant here.

I say all of this as someone who has actually benefited from the system in place. I tend to get good grades because I tend to be academically minded, so in that setting I can appear smarter than I am. A system that uses bad methods to determine whether kids are smart, though, should be corrected.