Your opinion on intelligence.

ZeroSixNiner · 2018-07-01T16:15:31+00:00

When you say "intelligent" do you mean knowledgeable about a variety of scholarly and trivial matters, i.e. what we refer to as "smart", or do you mean it in a more philosophical way, such as social/emotional intelligence?

Both have value, but I would say the latter is more important for living life. One could be intellectually ignorant, but still savvy with dealing with people and could get along in life. Having emotional and social intelligence is a sign of maturity, and it's a learned behavior. A lot of incel types lack it and/or self diagnose as being Aspies, but it usually comes down to poor socializing, particularly in their formitive years.

Of the two types, I would advise people to concentrate on the second without neglecting the first. There's certainly nothing wrong with building your knowledge base, but unless you're a hermit, you're always going to be dealing with people in one way or another.

PM_ME_UR_1ITIS_SNAP · 2018-07-01T20:07:42+00:00

Generalized intelligence is referred to as g, and it's widely considered just a higher firing cognitive capacity. Verbal, mathematical, even musical talents all correlate with g. Look up Ravens Matrices to see how G would be used.

Crystallized intelligence is knowing that the Battle of Hastings occurred in 1066 or Jim Henson created the Labyrinth. Look us Jeopardy! questions to learn how crystallized intelligence would be used.

Wit seems to correlate with intelligence. If I'm making clever jokes off the dome I either watch a lot of sitcoms or, more likely, I'm pretty intelligent.

People that just seem to be "good at whatever they do" either just happen to have a lot of time to try out new skills or they're intelligent enough to get a good grasp on it quickly. I used to work hard on this mobile game and wasn't nearly as good as my talented friends.

Then for a more practical example ask them to manipulate a string of numbers in their head to test their working memory. Look kind of spergy though.

Unintelligent people frequently pronounce words wrong, or may say a celebrity's name wrong for example. Every time I ask my slow aunt what movie she's watching she always mispronounces a word or something.

Unintelligent people also can't separate the moral argument from a logical argument I've noticed.

AllTheDevilsAreHere_ · 2018-07-02T00:00:02+00:00

When it comes to signs of intelligence, you'll find a bunch of pop-psych BS (evo psych, which I do love, is especially guilty of this) that gets plastered all over social media. The problem is that correlation doesn't equal causation and many of these studies aren't replicated.

I cannot definitively say that the following are "true" markers of intelligence, but I've observed many smart people who display some of the following traits:

They spend a lot of time building, using, and refining mental models and first principles to make sense of the world versus treating the latest study as fact. They also tend to focus on the big picture instead of cramming facts into their heads. It's one thing to memorize the parts of an engine, but it's another to know how an engine actually works.
They have the ability to delay gratification and can persevere in order to work through difficult tasks and get shit done.
They have an incredible curiosity in regards to the world around them. Though they may spend a bulk of their lives mastering 1 or 2 distinct areas, they become multi-disciplinary (think Renaissance Men) just for the sake of learning. Many of them will also borrow from different fields in order to create new ideas.
They're masters of spotting logical fallacies and have the ability to use these errors of reasoning for their own benefit (either good or bad). When discussing and debating topics, they're more concerned about creating the "best" argument rather than winning (for more on this topic, look into steel manning).
They admit their shortcomings and work towards filling in the gaps. To quote John Archibald Wheeler, "We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance."
They know how to act in a group setting and pay attention to other people's actions. Instead of getting wrapped up in drama and office politics, they can see the game being played around them and act accordingly. If you want to see an example of this in action,watch this interview with Robert Greene.

At around the 19-minute mark, the interviewer says "I've failed all of these Laws of Power." Greene immediately responds with "I highly doubt that," because he knows the interviewer is trying to downplay his success.

LittleWeeRow · 2018-07-01T17:05:42+00:00

If you are interested, look up WAIS-IV. Intelligence at least purely in cognition is made up mostly of verbal reasoning (Dog is to cat type questions), non-verbal reasoning (Visual puzzles), processing speed (How quick you complete tasks) and working memory (How much you can store in your short term memory).

Normally though, some testing removes processing speed and working memory and generate a GAI score (Takes only verbal and non-verbal results). This is because highly gifted people tend to be bad at processing information quickly. A laymans reason for this is because gift people tend to think through things or are "deep thinkers".

I think general IQ testing only provides us a small insight into a persons overall cognition but can be very good for finding areas that you are great at and bad at.

Being intelligent though, does not mean that you've got common sense though.

[deleted] · 2018-07-01T19:55:10+00:00

Weighing cost-benefit over emotional habit. Willingness to change beliefs when encountering new information.

Iwannachokekatie · 2018-07-01T16:10:38+00:00

What are you expecting to gain from this? You wanna fake being intelligent?

ReformSociety · 2018-07-01T17:18:53+00:00

If you have to ask this, then unfortunately, you are not very intelligent.

Signs of not being intelligent:

Being loud and obnoxious.

Letting little things bother you.

The tone of your voice. The words you choose as you speak.

Dressing and smelling like a slob.

Chewing with your mouth open.

Talking about pointless shit/drama.

There's so many factors and variables, I'm not sure what you're trying to get out of this.

Title	Your opinion on intelligence.
Author	AwkwardEmpath
Upvotes	1
Comments	14
Date	July 1, 2018 3:49 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/8vas2u/your_opinion_on_intelligence/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/your-opinion-on-intelligence.101571 https://theredarchive.com/post/101571

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