Thread: Intelligence

You're always smarter than someone else, and someone else is always smarter than you. At least, from your perspective.

I think people are more intelligent in different ways. For instance, many people I know know lots more about things like literature, but I know more things about math and computers. We focus on different things as we grow and learn - if I had concentrated on literature, I'd probably know mroe about that, as well. However, I didn't - I concentrated more on hard sciences, so I know more about that. I think it all depends on what we've focused on.

hmmm.... intelligence.

That depends on how you define intelligence. People tend to
view intelligence as a mixture of knowledge and logic.
Look at those IQ test... knowledge and logic.

I am perceived as knowlegable in some subjects like computers
and math stuff and very logically, to a point where it's annoying.

As always, a good mixture of both is neccessary.
Knowlegde without logical reasoning is worthless.
Logic without facts to base it on is equally worthless.

A comment that I very much enjoyed was:
"I don't like to play nv's opponent... he doesn't make mistakes"
overheard at one of our bi-weekly Axis&Allies games

People always try to evaluate each others intelligence.
This will always be incorrect. You can do test of logical reasoning.
But knowledge is always subjective. No one can know it all.
Everybody knows something, but not everything is important.

Is someone less intelligent because he knows about the mating
habits of kangaroos instead of computer programming ? Hardly.

I think history is quite important. It scares me how little people
know about history. I'm not talking of school grades here.

I also know people who seem to measure your intelligence
in words per minute. I don't like talking so much. It's a way of
communicating. If a small but precise sentence is all that's
needed, why make a whole 10 minute conversation out of it.

I can chat with someone for fun, or I can talk to someone
seriously. Don't mix that up please. If I need an info, I don't
need a whole chat, I need exactly that, an info. The shortest,
most precise way possible. If that is done, we can chat as long
as my chatpartner likes.
Do anything else and I will perceive you as less intelligent.
You can be the next Einstein, but that is one of my topmost
criteria for intelligence. If you can't seperate information
interchange and chatting, you lost some respect with me


IQ tests are very subjective. Most of them are in english on the
net. So it's not only an IQ, but also an english test for all of us
non-native speakers out here. And you'd be surprised how hard
it can be to find out if SDFIWH reorganized gives an animal, city
or river, if you have to do it with foreign cities, rivers and animals.

Test: Does these characters form
a) a european town
b) a european river
c) a european animal
d) a european plant
in german ?

UBERSELS

(* hint: yes, you HAVE to rearrange them *)

I'm pretty sure I'm a genius.

i think that intelligence is the ability to solve problems and find
the hidden links in a very difficult problem... you know, genious...

so i can hardly see how a man that is good in history is intelligent
just because he is good in history.

if you are intelligent you must be good not in everything you do
(as rick said) but good in things that requires brain activity!

so, i think that i can easily say if someone is intelligent or not if i
talk with him, but i am not a racist!

i think that i am smart, smarter than the average
i am also a MENSA member (but usually people take this as a bad
thing to say)

i also think that people who programs are also very very smart...
and i think that here in this forum there are many persons smarter
than me.

intelligence is knowing when to shut your mouth, sit back, and nod...

mxr

Originally posted by ehsiq
i think that intelligence is the ability to solve problems and find
the hidden links in a very difficult problem... you know, genious...

so i can hardly see how a man that is good in history is intelligent
just because he is good in history.

if you are intelligent you must be good not in everything you do
(as rick said) but good in things that requires brain activity!

Quite true. One minor point--for intelligent people, everything requires brain activity. Running isn't moving one foot in front of the other as fast as possible, it's finding the optimum efficiency of your own body. It's not punching someone as hard as you can, it's using as much of your body as you can to hit while leaving as little as possible vulnerable. It's not endless practice to improve your drawing abilities, it's learning the proportions of the human body sufficiently well.

so, i think that i can easily say if someone is intelligent or not if i talk with him, but i am not a racist!

i think that i am smart, smarter than the average
i am also a MENSA member (but usually people take this as a bad
thing to say)

Heh. MENSA. I could pass the Mensa entrace exam(120 IQ, I think) blindfolded, double amputated, sleep deprived, and under the influence of illegal psychoactive drugs. And I'm modest, too...

The thing I find about IQ tests is that people with high scores(130+) very rarely strike me as unintelligent, whereas people with low scores(100-) strike me as intelligent almost never.(I decline to say never because I don't know the IQ scores of people I find intelligent).

Fortunately, I've come to the point finally where I can just accept the difference between my own mind and others' minds.

>if you are intelligent you must be good not in everything you do
(as rick said) but good in things that requires brain activity!<

Siq, it seems to me that anything that requires intelligence
requires brain activity--and vice versa. Scientists generally
regard intelligence as a measure of how a person adapts
to his environment, his ability to make changes in his own
behavior, or to change the enviroment in which he finds
himself, or even his ability to find an entirely new environment
if necessary.
Your interpretation of intelligence as an ability to solve problems
is correct only in relation to one type of brain activity. There is a
clear distinction between the analytical, or what scientists call
convergent type of thinking that you espouse and another
mode of thought, called divergent thinking which encompasses
a richness of ideas and originality of thought. Both are necessary
to creative performance, although in different degrees according
to the task or occupation. A mathemetician or a programmer
might exhibit more converrgent than divergent thinking and an
artist and historian the opposite.

My statement regarding intelligent people being good at every-
thing they do is a generalisation based on personal observance,
and it is a proposition I still maintain. Most, if not all "intelligent"
or "smart" people are good at everything to which they apply
themselves.

rick barclay