Clarification—Intelligence

In my previous post, I stated that I did not put much stock in intelligence. I felt this needed some unpacking. How “smart” someone is does not really interest me. Intelligence is biology. It’s like being really strong. It makes certain jobs easier. But a weak person can basically do what a strong person can do, it might just take longer. As noted linguist Noam Chomsky says, anyone can understand anything that anyone else can understand. Human intelligence doesn’t really vary that much. Chess geniuses are just a little less terrible at chess than the rest of us. Humans are bad at chess. It’s why we play it.

And as I pointed out, there are many kinds of intelligence. The person with “math and science” smarts merely has one kind of smarts. But might be seriously terrible at languages. Or learning musical instruments. He or she burns relatively hot in that limited department.

And, I have noticed, many are proud of themselves for being smart. This is pathetic. It would be like being proud because you’re tall. You did not choose to be tall. You did not choose to be smart. And if you are really smart, then you just have greater responsibility owing to that fact. Your smarts should be spent helping people. But, just sitting around being impressed with yourself because you’re smart? This is to be pitied.

I do not know what my IQ is. I could not care less. Anything north of a bowl of oatmeal would be fine with me. I know my strengths and I know my many weaknesses. I do have a very high moral intelligence. It has stopped me from doing a lot of things in this life—though I have gotten to do a lot. I cannot bear unnecessary human suffering. You’ve seen my Facebook page: not a lot of family photos on the beach. (No, I’m not saying that those having fun in the sun automatically have low moral intelligence; I’m just recounting my own experiences.) There is only the work. Though I would like to spend more time in the Middle East, but my health has gone sideways, which has made international travel undoable right now. Maybe next year. Wait, when did this post become about me? Weird.