What I perceive intelligence to be

in intelligence •  7 years ago 

After many long discussions I've had with people (sober or not :P) I have come to the conclusion that everybody perceives intelligence differently.

Many think that a person with a lot of knowledge (which is actually commonly mistaken for intelligence) that has read a lot of books or has studied a lot, has gotten a degree, is reputable in his field or anything is very intelligent. Others believe that people good in maths, physics or programming are (I am a good programmer and have generally been damn good in maths, so I am inherently kinda subjective here) very intelligent. These subjects require very good reasoning and problem-solving skills after all... Well, I think that this is quite wrong because it "measures" intelligence in a very limited range of things. IQ tests (though I am definitely not an expert) don't tell the whole story either.

This leads to what I think intelligence really is. I think it is all about being able to adapt easily or not to new things/environments. Let me explain. What I have always noticed about people I perceived to be "smart" is that they engage in conversations with subjects completely unknown to them. They try to learn more about it and connect it with knowledge they have previously acquired, therefore not only gaining, but also contributing to the conversations. On the other hand, many people just don't participate or try to change the subject to something more familiar to them, therefore not really gaining anything...

Well, that's just an interesting topic I thought would be nice to bring up, so what do you guys think? There really isn't a right or wrong answer here, it's all just opinions.

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