Thread: The Importance of Honesty

Most people are basically as intelligent as everyone else, it just depends on which area your brain is focused on. If you memorize the name of the top 5 American idol people for every year, that would put you on even setting as someone who memorized all the US presidents. The amount of information is roughly the same(idol people actually has like 5 or 6 extra names to memorize I think), but you don't really get credit for one compared to the other.

Usually we view education and intelligence as the learning of stuff that is practical, though the 'arts' are not entirely practical and are still associated with education.

What separates a 'smart' person from a 'stupid' one is usually the quality of information you know, your skill at learning new things, and reasoning ability . It is entirely possible to learn a lot of stuff that isn't true, but believe it is true. If you develop the ability to filter out the bad and keep the good your going to be a lot smarter. There is also only so many hours in a day, a person who is good at learning new things(and this is a skill not an innate ability, and one of the major things they teach in school) can process stuff more quickly and efficiently and so will learn more in a given time. Which will insure you know more and seem more educated. Then as you develop the ability to think critically about issues it will help you solve problems, which makes you seem more intelligent.

That said, if you take the 'smartest' person in the world, I bet you there are millions of 'average' people who know things that person does not. You can't know everything.

Originally Posted by Alric

Most people are basically as intelligent as everyone else, it just depends on which area your brain is focused on. If you memorize the name of the top 5 American idol people for every year, that would put you on even setting as someone who memorized all the US presidents. The amount of information is roughly the same(idol people actually has like 5 or 6 extra names to memorize I think), but you don't really get credit for one compared to the other.

Good point, thanks for sharing this. The definition if intelligence itself is sort of vague. Most people consider it to involve the ability to reason well, but quantity of knowledge (about worth things, as you say) is also often considered to be a part of it. I think I have the ability to reason well but not nearly enough knowledge, so I've been rather confused about whether I should consider myself intelligent or not. It is all only definition though, so it doesn't really matter.

Originally Posted by Alric

Most people are basically as intelligent as everyone else, it just depends on which area your brain is focused on....

That said, if you take the 'smartest' person in the world, I bet you there are millions of 'average' people who know things that person does not. You can't know everything.

I see a difference between the memorization of facts and understanding. As you said, anyone can memorize material they are exposed to. That is a function of the brain and is more or less innate in everyone.

Then there is the ability to synthesize such information into understanding. You can memorize all the names of the U.S presidents, along with all the major events and players in history without truly grasping the why behind any of it.

Memorization is just symbols. Dates. Names. Events. Facts. Knowing and understanding are beyond symbols - more than words in the mind. Facts may lead to knowing, but knowing goes beyond facts. To take credit for it and call yourself "intelligent" is silly, because knowing arises spontaneously. Thoughts self organize, facts fall into place and makes sense, connections are made between ideas to form a complete picture - but really none of this comes from your ego.

I heard a quote somewhere, went something like "If you can't explain what you know to your grandmother, you don't really know." When you understand something, you have infinite symbols you can use to explain it to others.

Double post.