Intelligence
Intelligence is a very weird thing. People seem to think they know it when they see it. Growing up I had people telling me that I was smart, but those statements have always made me recoil. I think it is because it goes against a core belief that we are all the same, or maybe it is more because I am worried that intelligence is a measure of worth.
Whatever it is I just know that I have never liked people saying that I am smart, yet I find myself telling my kids how smart they are. What is even worse (in my eyes) is telling other people how smart I think they are.
Like most things these days, intelligence is a philosophical problem for me. When people talk about other people being smart what are they talking about? Their ability to remember facts? Their ability to solve problems? Their ability to communicate clearly? Their ability to stay out of trouble?
A few weeks ago someone asked me if I was a genius. They then said that most people know if they are a genius from the time they are little kids. Now, I know that I am not a genius, but that statement was the first time that I thought other people might have observed the discrepancy that I feel.
Don’t mind me. I am just confused and rambling about it publicly. I am interested if you have any thoughts on this. Are you smart? How much do you care?
Cory posted in part about “smarts” today. He and I have discussed on more than one occasion the idea of knowing people smarter than you keeps you humble but also gives you more opportunities. I believe that if you insulate yourself from other ideas and influences you can too easily start believing as fact ideas that are little more than assumptions.
This gets into epistemology and what exactly it means to “know” something. I am not sure intelligence and “knowing” are all that closely related, but then again, I don’t know much.
I go to a top tier law school. We had a class discussion yesterday about rape in my Criminal Law class in which I had to defend my position that, in fact, “no” does not mean “yes”. The admissions officers spend a lot of time using formulas to decide who to let in.
I have come to the conclusion that there is no accounting for “smart”.
In the process of dusting off the cobwebs on my blog, I have discovered something amazing. Throwing ideas out there in discussion (as you are doing) can cause a response that presents thoughts you did not previously have. In that way… Blogs and the blogosphere are something different than search engines. It adds a human component, providing us with new ideas, new research and new ways to look at things. If we are open, we will never stop learning, and what could be “smarter” than that?