Calling All Intelligent People

[milly143]

There are a lot of people on here who appear extremely intelligent and not just knowledged up on one particular subject but people who have a huge amount of factual information on many different, that they clearly haven't just copied and pasted from Google. So, how do you become to be so intelligent?

[MarkRae]

It's a difficult one, Milly...

I think you need to ask yourself what you want to be able to learn. Are you interested in gaining the ability to win pub quizzes? If so, buy this: http://www.amazon.co....qid=1299584367&sr=8-2 and learn a page of it every day. Within a year or so, you'll amaze your friends.

Alternatively, would you like to be able to discuss the latest Martin Amis novel, and compare it with his earlier works, or even with the works of his more famous father?

[andy-hughes]

I received a good basic education, coupled with a voracious appetite for reading.

I was lucky in my teens to meet a group of friends who were curious about the world, and we debated and discussed all manner of subjects at great length, as well as swapping great literature and music among ourselves.

I would agree that life experience - with the accent on 'experience', rather than simply drifting through life with no interest in events and people around you, will give you a varied education on all sorts of things.

If you are blessed with the basic equipment of an intelligent equiring mind, and the willingness to look and listen, the rest follows.

[david51058]

Knowledge is gained as one gets older. Intelligence is what you are born with.

[LoftyLottie]

Milly, read and read and read on the internet as well. Do quizzes, listen to the news and current affairs programmes.

Yes, I was lucky and do have quite an academic brain and did well at school (with little effort). However, that's only a very small part of my knowledge. If you are really interested in things then you will build up a lot of knowlege about it.

Have some confidence in yourself!! You come over on here as quite intelligent actually!!

[Old_Geezer]

Not just intake & store, although that helps. It is more to do with the ability to understand and use that understanding.

[LoftyLottie]

Agreed David. But the more knowledge you have the more intelligent you seem!!

Intelligence is genetic but it needs to be brought out. That is where good parenting comes in. Kids generally follow their parents example and good parents will nourish their childrens thirst for knowledge.

[LoftyLottie]

Very true Old Geezer.

[MarkRae]

> Intelligence is genetic but it needs to be brought out.

Indeed. In fact, that's what the word 'education' means literally...

[venator]

Nature and nurture - reading seems to be an inherited skill in our family - we are all fiendish readers, my daughters and 2 grandchildren could read between 3 and 4, so could I.

Interestingly, we have an intense dislike of driving - probably a good ecological trait!

[milly143]

It is difficult Mark. Take the Q&P section on here for example, it scares me. I will occasionally open a question in there that has an interesting title and immediately feel incredibly stupid because my mind works in a litteral sense so I will look at the question and try to think of something obvious as the answer, which of course is often not the case when it comes to quizzes, etc.

Appreciate the comment Lofty. I think I have a certain level of common sense and I *try* to make an effort when it comes to grammar, spelling etc but even then I often fail hopelessly.

I find even with things that I am really interested in, I struggle to hold knowledge on. For example, I love motorbike racing such as MotoGP. I watch every race, I follow the testing that goes on before the season starts, I read up on the riders and teams but when it comes to it, I so often forget the simple things like which team a rider is in or their position in the race.

I often read questions and answers on here that I know absolutely nothing about but just to try and understand. Maybe one day things will start to sink in.

[BetteK]

I have always felt intimidated by knowledge ... always felt a failure because I don't have a degree or anything other than "secretarial studies" after school and mediocre GCSE's. Getting older has changed my opinion slightly because I now know you go on learning all the time ... I am not an "expert" on any one subject and maths still fills me with fear but I can get by and, more importantly, am ok with "getting by".
I love doing quizzes (no surprise there!) and love, love, love reading. I can often answer a couple of questions on University Challenge but mostly don't even understand what the question is and am never more delighted than when I give the same wrong answer as one of the Uni students!
I think you need an open mind and a willingness to wanting to learn - listen to what is going on around you ... this will sound SO daft but my geography is hopeless (when playing Trivial Pursuit my hubby always asks me a geography question if - WHEN - I get to the centre before him) but I have learnt so much from doing a couple of recent quizzes - one of which was towns around the British coast. I sat pouring over the atlas for days and now I have a much more general idea of where places and counties are. Still wouldn't win Trivial Pursuit but I learnt a bit!
I would love to be much more clever and intelligent than wot I am but am no longer the "write-off" I was upon leaving school and enjoy having a head full of a jumbled up mixture of trivia ... it's just remembering it when I need it that is now the problem!

[venator]

Surely someone should have raised the old IQ thing by now?

[MarkRae]

I studied Latin at school and am very interested in languages, so 'ex ducere' is fairly obvious. But knowing the etymology of a word doesn't make me intelligent per se. How would that snippet of fairly useless information assist me in comforting a bereaved friend or dying relative? My mother recently retired from being a home-help and geriatric aid. The ability she had with these vulnerable people was astonishing to me. I could not have done that for all the money in the world - I simply would not have known where to start.

[venator]

I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours, sort of thing

[milly143]

It's interesting what you say about education and nurturing Mark.

I'm trying to recall my childhood and how my parents were in regards to our education. Once again, my memory lets me down a bit. I know they were not soft touches (well, there is an exception to that in my later teens) but they were not hard on us either. They would read our school books with us but I don't recall there being much more than the neccessary being encouraged. Having said that, they had 7 children and 4 jobs between them so there probably wasn't much time for extras.

BetteK, I can empathise with a lot of what you say. I get the intimidated feeling when it comes to learning a lot. Over the past few years I have lost my fear of books and reading and enjoy it now so perhaps I just need to expand the type of books I read and the amount.

[andy-hughes]

milly143 - you shouldn't be so hard on yourself.

Some people - myself included - are able to effortlessly soak up facts and information about things that interest them - in my case music and culture - but that is simply good fortune, and nothing to castigate yourself for if it's not something you find easy.

Your desire to improve your knowledge puts you ahead of a large chunk of the population who care nothing for the world around them, and simply drift on through life knowlng little, and caring less. keep reading and listening, and you will be amazed at what you actually pick up without really trying.

venator - my perception of IQ tests is that the only thing they actually prove is that some people are good at IQ tests, and others are not - but they are useless as a measure of genuine intelligence in any meaningful sense.

[rowanwitch]

MarkRae...so she demonstrated high levels of emotional intelligence..
one type you can't fake with the help of google...
it's like some people are amazing problem solvers..its the best argument against trying to measure intelligence...too many types...