Intelligence: What is it?

Keep the discussions and debates nice and clean~

The Case:
Some people use their IQ scores to compare each other in overall intelligence.

The Point:
Since you cannot simply look at someone and say "what an intellectual" it takes time and experience to learn the details about each individual. The only shortcut would be finding something that summarizes it all up, would this be the IQ?

My View:
I think there are different aspects that comprise what intelligence is. Whether it is capabilities proven through testing, or even just street smarts. There can't be just one test that tells everyone how smart you are. It is a summary that gives an idea to teachers and colleges, but it doesn't summarize you as a whole.

To a degree I don't believe that people should attempt to rate others as intelligent or not unless they do it within a certain area. Obviously your mechanic is going to know more about cars than your math teacher who only knows math. Does that make either one more intelligent than the other? Not really, each has their own area of intelligence.

When I call someone smart, or intelligent I'm usually telling them that I think they have a lot of common sense type intelligence that surprisingly most lack. People who can cleverly word things on the spot, come up with great poems/stories quickly, learn things fast just from playing around with them, and people who can get technical about something and win because of it are generally the type of people I refer to as smart or talented, but that doesn't mean other people are stupid, it just means these people have intelligence on a different level.

Discuss:
What do you think it takes for someone to be seen as intelligent?

I believe there are different kinds of intelligence.

Intellectual, creative, practical, and social.

The intellectual is the thinking of school. Being able to memorize and repeat, apply to other things you have learned, and do well on test.

Creative is the artistic side or using something different then how it should be. For example, taking a band-aid and using it as tape to post a sticky note.

Practical is the type of thinking to identify the situation and apply it to a sensible answer. Like saving money because you can use it for later rather then buying a new car.

And social thinking is how well you interact and "use" people.

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses in these areas.

I believe that everyone is intelligent at certain areas at some point. No one is intelligent at everything.

I don't believe in test scores.

I have to agree with Ren.

Most "IQ tests" i have seen out there are mostly based on logical/formulative thinking. People doing well in these "test" doesn't necessary means that they are a cut above the rest.

What i believe is that on the most general terms, humans ourselves can be "classified" into 2 types ( Left and Right brain logic ).

Book-Smart = Good in studies, exams, logical thinking.

Street-Smart = Creative, have the ability to quickly adapt to things occurring around them & thinking outside the box.

Meaning to say if the "tests" are accurate in judging a person's IQ...
does that simply means being book-smart = good in studies = high IQ = intelligent?

For example, they may not be as quick to adapt when the situation goes out of their logical field of thinking whereas someone who is more streetsmart can.
Like what Glows said in her sticky-note example.

Then again, I wouldnt say there is no one who is both book and street smart. There are people who can really be called talented out there on this planet we call Earth. And as humans they have their own flaws as well.

Just my 2 cents worth please dont kill me.

So following Mia's topic,

what do you guys think of holding an "Intelligent Conversation" ?

Is it a conversation talking about solid facts or is it creative possibilities?

Yeah, I too think there are several types of intelligence - logic and social. Creative intelligence, I don't know, I would call it a skill which can be learned.. But maybe, intelligence about something could me the same as skill ?

Intelligent conversation.. Conversation without using words like s**t, a***le whatever. Then a conversation about some serious topics, whatever you consider serious..

I'm not into IQ tests and whatever. Well, one of the things I want my girlfriend to be, is high intelligence - it's specific type of intelligence I do not know how to describe specificly, but I know it when a girl does have or doesn't. But I wouldn't say it can be tested by some IQ test

Hmmm, from what i read from the net they did mention intelligence can be improved by working your mind more. But i dont quite understand what they meant by working your mind.

It's something like if you keep thinking about something, more neuro paths are being connected in your brain thus making you react more accurately and faster when similar situation arises. or something like that. (thus improving your wisdom & intelligence? ) { and get faster mp recovery and mdmg *coughs* }

I guess you can call it a skill. :s
btw. talk to me. whoever is online. i'm bored at work. D<

xMisakax wrote:Hmmm, from what i read from the net they did mention intelligence can be improved by working your mind more. But i dont quite understand what they meant by working your mind.

It's something like if you keep thinking about something, more neuro paths are being connected in your brain thus making you react more accurately and faster when similar situation arises. or something like that. (thus improving your wisdom & intelligence? ) { and get faster mp recovery and mdmg *coughs* }

I guess you can call it a skill. :s
btw. talk to me. whoever is online. i'm bored at work. D<

Well, I think everything can be learned if you have proper motivation and tutorials/trainers/books/whatever... Training intelligence, I think that would be solving some mathematic or logic puzzles, or something.. And maybe thinking about game strategies, I mean poker or something like that, it's quite about logic lol

True true... actually there are alot of logical and strategic games out there. So i guess its to train peoples minds? haha.

I seem to be very picky with judging people, I look past all the obvious things that they offer for everyone else to see and look for the things they try to hide. o.o

Some people judge intelligence even by how others dress.. such as a business suit and glasses may give off a more intelligent appearance. I leave fashion and smarts in two seperate categories because people can be taught how to dress reasonably.

Intelligence to me isn't in what someone can learn or force upon themselves, it's what naturally happens inside. Capability can be proven through awards and test scores, but if someone cannot apply it to general logic and life...they fail in my mind.

I don't judge people until I actually have witnessed them being idiots. What does it take to be an idiot? That's a whole other debate.

Everyone can be a total idiot. But not everyone can be a truly intelligent person is all what I can say.

There is one saying in chinese to describe people who dress up appropriately or present themselves very nicely( Suit and all, looking all mature and intelligent ) but are complete idiots and jerks.

Directly translating it becomes... Demure, sophisticated person. FAILED.

Well Mia to be honest.. I consider intelligent person as somebody who is tolerant and can understand somebody who is for example suffering from a mental or physical illness. And honestly, most people who havn't experienced this wouldn't understand it and will act like idiots when speaking to suffering people. But after you suffer enough, you understand it and you became tolerant, and, intelligent in this way.
I think intelligence is about experiences too, this was just an example.

But yeah, that was just social intelligence..

And I don't judge people by looks, it's just.. stupid, doesn't need explanation

You know.. People aren't black or white, I'm doing something like you do, finding out what they have to offer and what are they hiding.. I like your way of thinking. In real life, I would be happy if you would join my social circle, people like you are good to know and be friend with.

IMHO, to put it simply. basic intelligence of a person may very well just be common sense and the person's ability to assess a situation at hand then act appropriately, not jumping into conclusions just by looking at the surface scenario.

Thank you Fuujin, I appreciate that.

Good point, speaking of experience, sure it helps but some suffers their whole life and never get it. The smart will learn and grow. The idiot will stay a victim his entire life lol. etc

I have a question, if someone does not know how to express their thoughts with words, does it make them dumb?

There are a lot of stereotypes of people being dumber such as those with accents. What do you think of these stereotypes?

There'r many types of intelligence, most of u stated some of them. There's also emotional intelligence and others I don't remember now xD
If some1 'think' that there are several types of intelligence that some1 is wrong because it's a fact that there are many types of intelligences ,it's(or should be) a common knowledge.
Pure intelligence is nothing but an abstract concept that can't exist alone. In this anyway shallow discussion(from the psychologist's point of view)[nah I'm not the one xD] u have pointed many things, mistook them for intelligence like intellect, wisdom, intuition. The part of all that three is intelligence but it's "only" the part of them. For example over-outlined example but it's giving substance of the matter: Math teacher can be more intelligent but more stupid than trashman. Many intelligent fools r out there too(by intelligent fools I mean also ppl who're using their intelligence for doing evil; evil is foolishness). Intelligence is not wisdom nor intellect itself but it can be part of it, part of wisdom.
@xMisakax in her last post said that intelligence "...may very well just be common sense..." isn't that sanity..and we all know that the most intelligent ppl r usually so called mentally sick xD. and "...and the person's ability to assess a situation at hand then act appropriately..." if by 'appropriately' u mean fallowing common accepted behavior, fitting norms, politeness, savoir vivre, acting according to common intelligible logic then I'm not saying u r wrong but it's only fallowing the norms which is not always good a specially when some1 doing it out of fear; 'appropriate' behavior, behavior that every1 can understand - for this u don't need too munch intelligence(as I stated before - it's common logic, commonly understandable 'appropriate' behavior) and of course fast reaction at some particular moment doesn't need to mean that some1 is intelligent, it can be just fast reaction, like reflex. About "..not jumping into conclusions just by looking at the surface scenario." ,that's a part of wisdom&intellect, it's not necessarily intelligent man's attribute a specially if he lack in patience ;p and tolerance for example.
Well even if some1 is intelligent, intellectual,wise and had read&write tons of books that's not definitely mean that he/she has always right or he/she hasn't bad days and acting like some1 could say, an 'idiot' time to time xD
Too often ppl r carving in their minds a one-frame image of a certain person, projecting their own person in their minds which is so wrong; ppl changing all the time, one day u r that person and other day u r almost completely different person(moods, emotional states, tiredness etc. for example) that's what ppl can see by communicating by net that's why systematic,long contact with a person is needed to know him/her little better but by internet it's very handicapped a specially if other person don't have overall distance, a specially if don't have distance to what I've just stated(about communicating by net, projections..)
About the question "What do you think it takes for someone to be seen as intelligent?", Answer: Not munch really but it depends on who's looking.. ,to be seen as intelligent among naive children u just need to act like some1 important for example, with authoritative, 'serious' pose(a specially if u have some piece of paper that saying u r professor and that's why u r soo wise so great authority xD) and then ,even if u r saying complete lies/bullsh..I mean nonsense, ppl still stare at u like a halfwit because for example, they don't think too munch, can't think too critically&with distance.
And yes u can 'learn' intelligence or rather 'cheat' a little by learning about some mechanisms that ruling ppl or something else a specially when ppl that r unconscious/unaware of that acknowledge. There are some medical boosts as well, like some pills or just by doing regularly crosswords u r 'keeping your brain in form'; u can too, learn how to think, develop your apparatus of independent-thinking by study the philosophy for example, that's one of the way for developing your intellect.
Human can teach an animal, dog for example how do do some things, dogs have intelligence so they're learning for example command 'bring a tv pilot!' and the dog can see positive emotional reaction of his owner when he bring the pilot but he can't comprehend why that thing makes his owner so happy ;P because it's only a dog but ppl really love to impersonate animals..
And something like 'overall intelligence' don't exist, there's only some test/s who should somehow 'measure' your 'overall' IQ -they r very inaccurate, vague but sometimes they don't look like.
And if some1 doesn't know how to express they thoughts with words it means that that some1 is probably getting to know that some things can't be expressed with words or even if they can, it's inaccurate. Languages,words weren't really developed for expressing some things..like some deep, inner thoughts that's one of the reasons why words r so inaccurate in some matters.
About ppl ,for example with accents..well it's just stereotype foment by tv news for example, like they r in tv saying the translation of some foreigners..I mean lectors..they jus sound dumb, making u think that the person he/she translating(reading the script) is stupid.. on cnn for example.. xD

It should be just a post so I won't write more but hmm it looks little long but I really tried to put things in general terms :/
Overall sorry for not 'nice and clean' post ;( ,I'm really tired that's why..

This is some deep conversation. lol

The smart will learn and grow. The idiot will stay a victim his entire life lol. etc

Exactly, that's right, lol. Because there is soooo much people just whining they can't do anything becauze blah blah when your brain is just making excuses

Common example of this is, some dude likes some girl, he doesn't know her, but he wants to talk to her, but in his brain it's like "I can't speak to her, it's weird. She would think of me I'm weird. I'm not good enough. Blah blah blah."
But yeah that's not the suffering I was talking about, just a little offtopic