Sunday, December 5, 2010

Being Intelligent.

My personal definition of umbrella term intelligence is
-To be strictly be able to decide on priorities i.e., To discard the unimportant and improper.
-To be brave enough to implement the priorities ruthlessly.
-To be able to relate and resolve the problems (priorities) in minimal time, with minimum efforts.
But as per the Wikipedia “IQ scores reflect general capacity for performing intellectual tasks, such as solving verbal and mathematical problems”.IQ (intelligence quotient) = (Mental Age / Chronological Age) x 100. The average IQ score is 100.

50% of people have IQ scores between 90 and 110
• 2.5% of people are very superior in intelligence (over 130)
• 2.5% of people are mentally deficient / impaired / retarded (under 70)
• 0.5% of people are near genius or genius (over 140)
As they (intellectuals) always amaze me, thought of exploring inside intelligence.

Summarizing the wonderful traits of being intelligent is being cognitive. Which widens to include original, unusual ideas,creativity, superior abilities to reason, generalize or problem solve,vivid and rich imagination, extensive vocabulary, learns new things rapidly, excellent long term memory, grasps mathematical/scientific concepts readily, insightful, avid reader, complex and deep thoughts,abstract thinker, runs mind on multiple tracks at the same time.
Being emotional which means highly sensitive, beautiful sense of humour, perceptive, keen sense of observation, passionate,sensitive to small changes in environment, introverted, aware of things that others are not, perceive world differently, tolerance for ambiguity, can see many sides, childlike sense of wonder, openness to experience, emotional stability, serenity.
Being active/Social comprises great deal of energy, long attention span, persistent, cannot stop thinking, work myself to exhaustion,needs periods of contemplation, solitude, spontaneity, questions rules or authority, asks embarrassing questions, feels different, out of step with others, empathetic (feels along with others, helps them understand themselves).

Also some of questions arouse base on observations are “Why do they do crazy/unnatural stuff? Why intellectuals are night owls? , Why they insult ignorance? , why are they unhappy? , why do they have messy handwritings? , why are the atheists?, like Ravana (who was very knowledgeable) why intellectuals indulge in criminal/anti social activities ? Why intelligent men don’t cheat their partner?”

By evolution we adopted psychological modules to solve all the familiar problems. We have established standards for general issues.We know what to do when it comes to mating, parenting, learning a language or earning bred for family. These things already have ready-made solutions in our brain, but sometimes there are new problems that requires to think and that’s how intelligence develops.So in contention some people think, reason and solve novel problems.Some people even introduce new problems to engage and prove their intelligence.The key part of the equation is they derive new challenges and they sit and solve to feel intellectually satisfied. Hence intelligence makes people do unnatural things by not following the standards.
Once again, few of that intelligent people do unnatural things and staying up all night or may indulge in criminal/antisocial is part of unnatural things given human nature. Our ancestors depended on natural sources like wake up when the sun comes and go to bed when sun comes down. Being phylogenetically different some of more intelligent are more likely to engage in nocturnal activities. Same with believing in God. We are designed to be religious. Declining the higher power that cause natural phenomenon is another important trait of intellectuals and they become atheist, honoring their ability to reason.
Why is it so common for intelligent people to insult ignorance? Talking to a little kid is cute for 10 minutes. Imagine if everyone else was 3,4,5 year old? And Mr/Ms. Genius get to talk with someone who is comparatively less mature or less understanding for so long ! They will surely get frustrated while talking to someone who is not on same page intellectually.Personally I feel, Ignorance implies that a person doesn't know not that they are being intellectually dishonest.

why are they unhappy ? Some intellectuals have issues such as Asperger's Syndrome. This makes them rather focused or may be anti-social, but they are very skilled at specific things. Few geniuses get isolated at a early age because they have little interest in talking with others or people find them too smart to hang around with. Expressing things into words is also difficult for them because they might be presenting unique ideas..Regarding penmanship, It appears they care more about the message than how it looks. Show of the words is unimportant. They also have more stuff to figure out quickly then us which makes them least bothered about looks of the word. We see lot many doctors, lawyers,professors with sloppy handwritings which could be often a sign of higher intelligence.

How about proving their brains on sexuality ?
Recent example occurs to me is Tiger wood and Pandit Ravishankar.Genius in sports and music. Adopted new preferences and values in sexual liberalism … but well that dosen’t prove very smart of them based on logical research…Several researches are stating from studies that cheating men have a lower IQ. Or take it as smarter men (not woman) are more 'evolved', they are suppose to accept the new terms of evolution, which includes monogamy. Humans are by nature polygamous,which means that evolutionarily men had multiple mates, whereas women always had one mate in their relationships, So more intelligent men may like to reject that natural state of polygamy and value sexual exclusivity, whereas intelligence doesn’t affect women’s tendency to value sexual exclusivity…

This studies, like many other studies, tends to over-generalize, over-label, and under-appreciate the uniqueness of the individual human soul. There is a difference between being smart, being intelligent and being wise. For example, to design and build a hydrogen bomb takes intelligence - But is building something that could potentially destroy civilization is it such a wise use of brainpower? well there is no standard or formula to measure wisdom though. If you can derive ABC you are intelligent, If you know ABC you are smart, if you can see D coming you are wise... :-D

~Close up:

“There is no ‘why’?”

3 comments:

  1. do you mean to say that people with a beautiful handwriting are less intelligent?

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  2. - Thanks Lokesh.
    - Rashmi - I said "few" or "some". there are lot many genius with beautiful handwritings. nothing can be generalised. :)

    ReplyDelete