Smart is What Smart Does

Smart is What Smart Does
Originally uploaded by lorenzodom

Smart is What Smart Does

Okay, alright, this is a spur-of-the-moment musing on the nature of intelligence, nothing revolutionary to impart here, because this ain’t going to be all-too well thought out.

I do have an essay I’m writing on my personal reflections on genius though, and hope to post that soon. So let’s just call this a warm-up of sorts.

So, as per the screenshot posted above, some computer program has calculated that I’m smarter than the average bear. Mmmm, I don’t buy it.

First of all, the questions were trivial, they did not test any area of knowledge in particular and so what it truly concludes is that I have stored and can agilely retrieve little bits of inconsequential information. Big fricken deal.

I’ve studied the nature of intelligence and genius for many years now and find that most general intelligence tests test test-taking. Moreover, they are pretty culturally and class-baised.

More importantly, the areas they measure are pretty limited and ultimately do not assess the vast number of skills that the human brain endows us with. To name a few of the valuable life-skills that IQ tests overlook:

· people skills (the art of persuasion, negotiation, diplomacy)
· street smarts (surviving daunting circumstances, remaining calm amidst chaos, getting out of tight spots, getting what you want)
· leadership and risk-taking (the courage to go for it, to fall and get up again, to persevere)
· athletic skills (agility, balance, strength, tenacity, endurance)
· optimism (to know and act as if nothing is impossible)
· creativity (using one’s imagination, being artful and original, creating)
· wisdom (being able to capture and impart lessons about life that others know, but do not have the skills to capture or impart)
· love (the capacity, intelligence and willingness to love and appreciate the beauty of life and others)

Anyway, I took the test because I was bored, and I have an ego. Admittedly, If I had anticipated that the results would indicate I wasn’t so smart, I probably wouldn’t have taken it in the first place and certainly wouldn’t have posted it…

So, if you’re bored and have two minutes…TakeThe Test.

Then you can make your own conclusions about what it all means.

“However dull a woman may be, she will understand all there is in love; however intelligent a man may be, he will never know but half of it.” - Madame Fée