Asimov is fucking brilliant. So are his sideburns. +9,000
Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
11–20 of 62 posts
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#12The problem with this is that we now have totally abstract IQ tests, the invention of which did not break the concept of intelligence as a measurable thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravens_Progressive_Matrices
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#13I would ask Mr. Asimov: Do you think that, given a reasonable amount of training, your "intelligence" could be applied toward automobile repair? Or do you truly believe that your mechanic friend had a different sort of "intelligence" that made him better at car repair, while your brand of "intelligence" lent itself toward academia?
The Good Doctor has been dead for decades, unfortunately. If you want to learn more about him, you can read his (amazing) two-volume autobiography, In Memory Yet Green and In Joy Still Felt.
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#14This is the most important lesson my mother ever taught me. I (like her) have that same type of intelligence, the type that makes IQ tests and school exams far easier than they should be, and yet often isn't really that useful in life. I still find myself placing far too much importance in it when judging people, can only imagine how big headed I would be about it if she hadn't constantly reminded me how little IQ re…
I don't understand these meme of degrading IQ as having little real world value. That mentality seems to fly in the face of just about every observation one can make. It seems obvious that in general, smarter people tend to get ahead. Of course there are many counter examples, but overall the trend seems obvious. Why is it everyone must apologize, make excuses for, or somehow downplay their own intelligence? Maybe it's just a ploy to be able to say "IQ tests and school exams far easier than they should be" without coming off as boasting?
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#15I read somewhere that I ought to comment on these links, which is a shame because most of them speak so well for themselves. Does truth need comments, opinions? I'm sure I'll warm up to all this, but sometimes an unfiltered observation is a good way to start.
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#16This is the most important lesson my mother ever taught me. I (like her) have that same type of intelligence, the type that makes IQ tests and school exams far easier than they should be, and yet often isn't really that useful in life. I still find myself placing far too much importance in it when judging people, can only imagine how big headed I would be about it if she hadn't constantly reminded me how little IQ re…
I don't understand these meme of degrading IQ as having little real world value. That mentality seems to fly in the face of just about every observation one can make. It seems obvious that in general, smarter people tend to get ahead. Of course there are many counter examples, but overall the trend seems obvious. Why is it everyone must apologize, make excuses for, or somehow downplay their own intelligence? Maybe it…
It's definitely not a case of avoiding boasting in my case - and not because I'm a modest person, but because I'm the exact opposite, and I would have absolutely no problem shouting from the rooftops about how awesome I am based on IQ tests if I felt that to be something worth boasting about.
The thing with IQ tests is that it measures a very specific type of skill, and to use that to define intelligence is insulting to an awful lot of people.
The two people who own my company, who I work for, don't have degrees, they're not particularly mathematically skilled, and I don't think they'd do particularly well on an IQ test - not saying they'd get a terrible score, but they wouldn't come of as mensa candidates. And yet they're too of the brightest people I know, they've done amazing things in their careers and I have a huge amount of respect for them.
My dad is another person with a not-great IQ, and yet in my (admitedly biased) view he's the cleverest person I know Whether it's when he's buying/selling stocks, or betting on horses, or working out taxes, he can do it all in his head at a crazy speed - not with any education, just because maths is easy for him. But that's not why I think he's clever. He's clever because of the way he's lived his life and the decisions he's made, many of which have made me insanely proud.
I on the other hand have a high IQ, I did well in school with no work (well, I dropped out at 16 because I was bored, by "did well" I mean stuff like the fact that I got an A* GCSE in French at 15 even though I can't, and couldn't then either, speak French). Sure, it can be useful to be able to float through in areas where that kind of intelligence is useful, but it sure ain't everything.
My point is that there's more to life than one very specific set of skills, and to think otherwise is narrowminded and big-headed. Not big-headed about having an IQ, but about thinking that your high IQ makes you better than someone with a lower IQ.
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#17What is intelligence, anyway?
Many view genius as having a high IQ. I view it as extreme form of insight rather than a measure of IQ, although a high IQ helps. I like to think of genius in terms of perspective and thus measure it by how rare and valuable a perspective is.
Your level of insight/understanding will vary from one domain to another. A financial genius like Warren Buffet sees how the financial world connects in a way that few others do, but that insight/understanding doesn't necessarily mean he'll see the connections that an artist sees and yet you might say that both are genius.
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#18A friend of mine used to be a welder. I always found his political views simplistic to say the least. He couldn't control his liqueur and one day he felt down from high up and his arm got trashed. I always thought that he was going to end up as a looser, although I love him as a good friend. Years went by and he never really got anywhere, of course supporting my theory and increasing my concern. Then a friend suggest…
I wasn't impressed with the original article. It didn't attempt to define intelligence at all. If it tried to make the point that the social perception of intelligence is only for economic convenience, I found this short comment more insightful: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2884857. If it is about how academics overrate their intelligence and are therefore reluctant to get out of their comfort zone, the point wasn't very well made (http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-el... is a detailed treatment). And if it is about telling a story, I find yours much more inspiring.
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#19This is the most important lesson my mother ever taught me. I (like her) have that same type of intelligence, the type that makes IQ tests and school exams far easier than they should be, and yet often isn't really that useful in life. I still find myself placing far too much importance in it when judging people, can only imagine how big headed I would be about it if she hadn't constantly reminded me how little IQ re…
I don't understand these meme of degrading IQ as having little real world value. That mentality seems to fly in the face of just about every observation one can make. It seems obvious that in general, smarter people tend to get ahead. Of course there are many counter examples, but overall the trend seems obvious. Why is it everyone must apologize, make excuses for, or somehow downplay their own intelligence? Maybe it…
Hmm, but how do you define getting ahead? People with a high IQ will get ahead on stuff that works like IQ tests do, like getting a degree or passing highly selective interviews. Especially interview questions in the finance sector are probably much easier with a better IQ. But that is only because it is easy to make things work like IQ tests.
The people that seem to get ahead in society are those with excellent social skills instead. I'd gladly trade a dozen mathy IQ points for eloquence alone. Oh well, no political career for me.
And on the "honest work" side of things, people with persistence, a healthy lifestyle and passion for what they do seem to be the most productive. (Some people are also productive because they are obsessive, let's leave those out.) How do IQ tests with their super-clean mini puzzles measure any of those?
Re: Issac Asimov: What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
#20Having a pretty high IQ seems to be necessary but not sufficient for actual intelligence. Einstein, Feynman and a few others ( I wonder what E.O. Wilson's is? )have IQ's of between 120 and 140; good but not superlative. Perhaps the problem with IQ tests is that the problems are primarily deductive in nature, because it's easier to construct a test like that.
Actual intelligence though, requires a balance of deduction and synthesis. The ability to synthesize new ideas and hypothesis from known facts is much harder to measure; it's the creative side of intelligence and it's mostly left out of IQ tests.