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why geeks get the girls (pg. 7)
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| Spam |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
I only agree with this partially. I think true intelligence is the ability to work things out for yourself without any prior information or examples. Or, given information, the ability to apply it in a more efficient or effective way.
Most of us can do simple algebra when the concept is explained to us at school, but the really intelligent people work those kinds of things out for themselves because it just seems logical, natural and easy. |
Thank you for expanding on my thought. I agree completely. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by astroboy
I think intelligence is obtainable by all..
Unfortunately most people are not taught to value intelligence as children.. or simply never make the choice to cultivate it. |
I don't think is just true of children. I know plenty of people who I can tell are smart, but they're happy to slum intellectually. They don't want to learn, to ask questions, to show interest. That in itself is the biggest stupidity, regardless of their faculties or potential. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by astroboy
I think intelligence is obtainable by all.. provided you start young enough.
If you make the decision before the age of say 10 to strive to be intelligent.. and start reading books, being inquisitive about the world, trying to understand math/formal logic, and develop problem-solving skills you're guaranteed to grow up to be reasonably intelligent.
Unfortunately most people are not taught to value intelligence as children.. or simply never make the choice to cultivate it. |
Actually, we need to define first what we understand by intelligence first. According to Wikipedia, the guy that came up with the IQ test said that intelligence is "Judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one's self to circumstances...auto-critique."
Now, I'm clumsy, extremely impractical, and quite forgetful, to say the least. People that grew up in rural areas, apparently, also think I'm "slow". Yet, I fare very well in IQ tests in general. How so? Are they measuring anything relevant? Isn't intelligence too broad a term?
I'm sure Daniel Goleman can come up with a whole series on random intelligences :p |
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| Domesticated |
| Intelligence is indeed a very broad term. There is practical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, emotional intelligence, mathematical intelligence, et cetera. |
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| Zild |
| Yes there are many different intelligences. |
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| Lira |
| Exactly - and that's why any discussion about intelligence (and its limits) is doomed to failure unless we sort all these details out. For instance, is practical intelligence as limited after a certain age as, let's say, linguistic intelligence? |
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| Akridrot |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Now, I'm clumsy, extremely impractical, and quite forgetful, to say the least. People that grew up in rural areas, apparently, also think I'm "slow". Yet, I fare very well in IQ tests in general. How so? Are they measuring anything relevant? Isn't intelligence too broad a term?
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Wow, I would have never guessed if you hadn't said so. Strange.
Then again, a lot of people are nothing like their online persona. It's always surprising for some reason. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Akridrot
Wow, I would have never guessed if you hadn't said so. Strange.
Then again, a lot of people are nothing like their online persona. It's always surprising for some reason. |
Well, I can pick up languages easily, and I study quite a lot. But that doesn't mean I'm superman or anything. The reason I pointed out farmers think I'm slow (rather than my colleagues in university) is because to them it doesn't matter whether or not I speak a zillion languages and/or because I can talk about most canonical texts in philosophy.
I remember a particular woman thought I was too slow because, as I hastened to pick up something in my car (and run back to the same place where I was) I proceeded to run full speed with a huge backpack on my shoulders - she later pointed out that it would've been a lot smarter to ask her to look for my backpack and run free without anything on my back. I may have what they call linguistic intelligence, and I'm a rather encyclopaedic person, but that doesn't mean I'm by any means practical. Hell, I can barely do the dishes without chucking water all over me :p |
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| astroboy |
| quote: | Originally posted by Spam
This.
I used to be of the opinion that people could increase their intelligence indefinitely. But many people truly are incapable of learning.
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Look at any given baby and the amount it learns in the first 5 years of it's life.. truly amazing. Unfortunately some people stop exercising that ability in early childhood and hence don't have it when they're older. If infants' ability to learn is exercised through their childhood then they will always retain that skill. I honestly believe if my parents hadn't forced me to learn to read when I was 4 or 5 and introduced me to literature I would never have developed the ability to learn nearly as well as I did (not to imply that I'm some sort of shining beacon of intelligence or anything!).
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
I only agree with this partially. I think true intelligence is the ability to work things out for yourself without any prior information or examples. Or, given information, the ability to apply it in a more efficient or effective way.
Most of us can do simple algebra when the concept is explained to us at school, but the really intelligent people work those kinds of things out for themselves because it just seems logical, natural and easy. |
Again I think these are skils that are learned. Some people have more of a predisposition to that frame of thought and can pick it up through natural lifge experience. Some people need to be manually led through the experience of learning to "understand" basic logic first. But once those neural pathways are set in childhood I think anyone can understand mathematical logic.
I'm nowhere near being fantastic at maths. But I was one of those people that never needed to memorise formulae but could derive most high school algebra from first principles during exams. I don't think I was born with that wiring in my brain, I think it's because I did a lot of logic problems as a child and learned to think of mathematics as a language.
COR version: there are many types of intelligence and people are born with predispositions for particular ways of thinking, but I think everyone is capable of learning to think in a number of ways at a decent level of proficiency.
PS - Feel free to hang on me if I'm starting to sound like a wanker.. or ********. |
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| Fledz |
| quote: | Originally posted by astroboy
I think intelligence is obtainable by all.. provided you start young enough.
If you make the decision before the age of say 10 to strive to be intelligent.. and start reading books, being inquisitive about the world, trying to understand math/formal logic, and develop problem-solving skills you're guaranteed to grow up to be reasonably intelligent.
Unfortunately most people are not taught to value intelligence as children.. or simply never make the choice to cultivate it. |
I believe it's a perfect balance of four things:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Logic
Knowledge
One comes with age, another is taught/learned, the third you're born with and finally the last is exclusive to one sex only :p
| quote: | Originally posted by astroboy
Look at any given baby and the amount it learns in the first 5 years of it's life.. truly amazing. Unfortunately some people stop exercising that ability in early childhood and hence don't have it when they're older. If infants' ability to learn is exercised through their childhood then they will always retain that skill. I honestly believe if my parents hadn't forced me to learn to read when I was 4 or 5 and introduced me to literature I would never have developed the ability to learn nearly as well as I did (not to imply that I'm some sort of shining beacon of intelligence or anything!).
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Well yes and no. A childs mind is a sponge and most will learn extremely quickly. What you learn at a young age may or may not affect your adult life. The brain isn't that black and white. |
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| Acton |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fledz
I believe it's a perfect balance of four things:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Logic 9
Knowledge
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Fixed :p. |
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| Fledz |
| Would have been better if you put District 9. |
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