Intelligence

Intelligence

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.”—H. Jackson Browne 

Success can be defined as looking back on your life so far, and saying I did the right thing.  I'm proud of who I was (not of who I intended to be or what others believed I was).  Put another way, we could have no greater fulfillment than to say to ourselves, honestly, "Well done".

We berate people who acquire wealth (unless we are one of them), but if it was acquired and used with honor (which we tend to assume was not the case), they have a lot to be proud of in providing for their families as well as jobs and prosperity for others.  Money, fame and especially power all require great character to avoid their misuse, but they are far from being the only forms of success.  If, say, two people independently make a significant discovery, but only one achieves public acclaim and monetary rewards, is the other not also successful if the only issue was the luck of timing?   If a person in Japan had been able to warn us of the attack on Pearl Harbor, thus saving many lives but lost his own life anonymously in the process, would he not have been a success, or even a hero—even if the warning had been ignored?  Are husbands and wives not successful who raise responsible children in a supporting atmosphere?  There is only one quality required for success—character.  And if character is maintained, success is automatic.  We can't be a person who missed the acclaim and then drop out. We can't say, I'll bum my way through life then make sure I go out in a blaze of glory. We can't abrogate the responsibility for raising our children to a pill.   People with character do the right thing all the time, when no one is watching, and when everyone is watching.  The judge we all stand before on judgement day is Truth, stripped of our illusions and in its unavoidable light, we are unable to lie to anyone, including ourselves, and forced to be our own judges.

Man's superior tool for achieving success is his intellect. Much has been made of some types of intelligence, while others are downplayed.  Is society not missing out if we don’t try to develop them all?  What follows in this section are some basic types of intelligence, observed and noted by your humble author as food for thought.  They are certainly not to be considered definitive.  Call it a semi-educated shot-in-the-dark.  One thing is certain, intelligence should be a matter of more serious study without the obstacle of cultural bias.

The moron, the multitalented genius and the idiot-savant form a triad inside of which we can all be found. Studying intelligence is a matter of importance.  If we recognize and learn more about the vagaries of intelligence, instead of reducing everyone down to a basic IQ number that emphasizes some attributes and de-emphasizes others, we will enable people to more fully recognize their capabilities and level of success.   They will then become more productive members of society and more fulfilled as individuals with a better sense of their self-worth.  In the meantime, until we do learn more, we mustn’t sell ourselves short.  Many view themselves as being of lower innate intelligence, when in actuality what they may have is a deficiency in the surmountable attributes of knowledge and confidence.

We’re all familiar with those who can learn to play a musical instrument by ear, instinctively operate a computer, thread a football through a defense to a tertiary receiver, or solve a mathematical problem with ease.  They are naturals at what they do.  We may not all have such superior natural skills, but we do all have the potential to be better than most at something.

The decision to include the following list was a difficult one and there is no claim to any expertise in intelligence, but it may spark an interest in the many avenues for fulfillment that there are.  The point is that we must learn who we really are beyond our illusions and what we’re good at by looking first at what we enjoy doing which so often leads to a subject that is a combination of both.  If this section helps some to consider an unexplored aspect of themselves, that’s all that’s intended here.

What is offered below is a speculative list of possible types of intelligence that may help some recognize an ability that they had previously considered superfluous, but now worth developing if for no other reason than to develop their self-confidence.  It should be understood that this list, or an eventual more refined one, is only the first of many steps to come as we move forward from the straight-jacket of our very limited IQ measurement or other commonly recognized characteristics of intelligence.

Of the types of intelligence listed here, it should be pointed out that knowledge itself is not one of them as that is one of the things to which we apply our intelligence.  Also, it is doubtful that math, verbal or artistic ability are discrete types of intelligence, but are more likely just combinations of the other forms.

Active Memory—Amount and detail of raw knowledge retained and retrievable on demand (Rote memory).

Passive Memory—Amount and detail of raw knowledge retained and retrievable with prompting such as with multiple choice questions (forms a considerably larger amount of information storage than active memory for most people.)

Cognitive Speed—varies for each individual depending on the application such as information retrieval or motor reaction time.

Multitasking/thinking under pressure—self explanatory.

Muscular coordination—Athletic ability and physical aspects of speech.

Hand eye coordination—playing a musical instrument, working with tools/machines.  Related to muscular coordination, but less dependent on strength and endurance and more on finesse.

Social Receptivity—Ability to receive and interpret social signals. One who can read body language and between the lines.          

        Factual Receptivity—Ability to comprehend facts and ideas.

Social Projection—Ability to project social signals and impart emotions to others such as with leadership, charisma or intimidation.

Factual Projection/problem solving—Ability to communicate facts and ideas or apply them.

(The previous four are very interrelated and are the most easily subjected to suppression or distortion by the emotions, especially factual receptivity.  Gamesmanship, leadership, “followership“ and intimidation are skills resulting from the combination of these abilities.)

Symbol recognition—interpretation of words and other symbols or symbolic ideas.

Linear Logic—If a=b and b=c concluding that a=c; looking forward several steps in a chess game.

Intuitive Intelligence—The ability to make a "leap of logic", or better stated, to make an intuitive leap; e.g. decoding anagrams, finding a relationship between two or more seemingly unrelated facts.  Many times it occurs after studying a problem, the answer suddenly appears as an epiphany or in a dream.  It is the most ephemeral form of intelligence and hardest to define with probably many sub-facets; one of which would be characterized as imagination or the ability to create original ideas.

Sense of humor—ability to originate, communicate or understand something that is humorous or amusing.

Sense of irony—ability to originate, communicate or understand something that deliberately contrasts apparently opposite meanings for humorous or satirical effect.

Artistic intelligence—abilities encompassing the inception and/or interpretation of any of the arts. It is the expression/understanding of artistic, original creativity.

Spatial awareness—(e.g. Is my right front tire going to further flatten that road kill up ahead.)

Focus—the workhorse of intelligence which is important to all the other types.  It comes in the form of concentration and persistence, which is harder to measure since it may need evaluation over periods of time as long as a lifetime.  Someone low on cognitive speed but high on focus would probably be seen as smart but slow or a late bloomer.

   

The incorporation of reason into one’s understanding of the world is sometimes avoided because it appears to require an intimidating amount of effort and intelligence.  Living requires effort, but avoiding reason can be more wearing than abiding by it due to the nagging realization that we aren’t being honest with ourselves leading to the effort spent maintaining the wall of emotion and tangle of lies fending off reason.

Further, like a little exercise for the body benefits our physical as well as our mental stamina, so too the appropriate use of both reason and emotion actually becomes soothing with use instead of their being an irritant.  As for applying intelligence, the only things required is an understanding of the nature of Truth and determining one’s particular intellectual abilities which we all have in some areas—and all of which are almost certainly not possessed by anyone.