Original printed byline: Hawkeye Z. Hoerr
Historical April–May 2010 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
“How smart are you?” Don’t take that question personally, cowboy (or cowgirl); I’m trying to make a point.
I mean, clearly, I don’t even know who you are, so it’s not as if I said you were s-l-o-w or anything! Are we a little sensitive? It’s amazing how touchy people are about their intelligence.
I mean, you don’t get in trouble if you tell someone that they’re a shoddy shortstop, a poor poet or a terrible tumbler.
But tell them that they’re dirt dumb and they get offended. Go figure. Anyway, intelligence is something we think and talk about a lot.
It seems that everyone has an opinion about smarts – even if that opinion isn’t always smart.
Here are some opinions. • B. F. Skinner: “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” • Abigail Adams: “I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.” • Carl Sagan: “Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.” • Woodrow Wilson: “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow” • Albert Einstein: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer” My favorite quote on intelligence comes from hockey great Wayne Gretzky who clearly has a GPS embedded in his brain.
His definition is hard to beat: “I skate to where the puck is going to be.” And by far, the most accurate definition of intelligence comes from psychologist E. G. Boring.
He intelligently said, “Intelligence is what the tests test.” Well, yeah. So where does that leave us? You’ll note that no one mentioned intelligence being based on filling in the correct circle, much less choosing “all of the above” when in doubt. Sure, reading and writing and calculation have their place; no question about it.
After all, if you can’t do these things, your options are limited unless your last name is Picasso, Pujols, or Perfidy. Plus, think how hard it would be to do a crossword puzzle if you couldn’t read. So yes, Lucy, the 3R’s are important. (Was that a poem?) But clearly intelligence is clearly more than the 3R’s; is that clear? You need to have skills in reading, writing, and calculation – and at the risk of being redundant, if you are intelligent, you’ll likely have these skills. At the risk of being redundant, if you are intelligent, you’ll likely have these skills. (No, that wasn’t a typo – get it?) Real intelligence, though, goes beyond the 3R’s and it encompasses far more than those R’s. Here’s what scientist Carl Sagan said, “Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.” Think of different that is than “Intelligence is what the tests test.” Similarly, Howard Gardner, the modern day guru of intellect expands our thinking about intelligence when he defines intelligence as “solving a problem or creating a product that is valued in society.” “Product” widens the pool considerably, hear that splash?, and pulls in Elvis, Evita, Ellery Queen, John Elway, and Queen Elizabeth: music, acting (acting?), writing, athletics, and leadership. It’s nice to know that there are many different ways to be smart. (If you’re a pessimist, of course, this means that there are many more ways to be not smart. Duh.) Unlike the weather or health care, we can do something about our intelligence. No doubt Steven Hawking was referring to intelligence when he said, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” So however smart you are, you can be smarter. Yep, you can be thinner and taller too. OK, forget taller; would you settle for thinner and smarter?
The reality, you see, is that working to be smarter shares a lot with working to be thinner. Both require focus, effort, and a denial of chocolate. OK, you can have chocolate and be smart; I was just seeing if you were paying attention.
But to improve, what should do you? Simple: Eat reasonably, and always leave some food on your plate. Work out regularly, and stay away from fatty foods. Oh – how to become more intelligent? Well, that’s a bit more complex.
Here are the ten steps to getting smarter. Follow them and I guarantee that your mind will be a-bubbling with active brain cells and you’ll impress everyone at the party should you be invited. Rule number 1: Ask questions. Rule number 2: Listen to answers. Rule number 3: Seek people who will cause you to question you assumptions and think differently. Rule number 4: Drink orange juice each day. Rule number 5: Read. Rule number 6: Read some more. Rule number 7: Comb your hair a lot (the stimulation is good for the brain cells). Rule number 8: Don’t watch television with the volume turned on. Rule number 9: Eat dark chocolate. Rule number 10: Take juggling lessons.
If you’re a multi-tasker who only has 20 or so minutes a day to work on raising your intellect, you can eat chocolate while you juggle with one hand and read a book that you’re holding in the other after, for sure, you’ve had your orange juice. Believe me, 20 minutes doing this each day will do the trick. Not to put any pressure on you, but next month’s column has a do-it-yourself intelligence test. Scores will be posted.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2010.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2010_04.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
