If you have ever been involved in anything remotely academic, you will know what I mean when I talk about IQ. However, what does this number which supposedly determines how proficient you are and what your potential is to outmatch others of the human race mentally actually mean in a practical sense?
The IQ test was in fact first coined to test stupidity and mental disability rather than intelligence, with the levels of intelligence ranging from 'normal' to 'moron' down to 'idiot'. Nowadays, the IQ test is supposedly a distinguisher between those who are able to do... well... do well at an IQ test and those who aren't, putting you on a scale where 100 is the average. The IQ test is meant to test a range of different skills which in fact constitute human intelligence, but personally I believe this to be completely untrue. I believe a test is only as good as the person who makes it - there is no one test which can be used to test peoples' intelligent. People, unlike animals, think in different ways which is what distinguishes us from animals which are of lesser intelligence which all seem to have many more stimulus-response functions embedded into their brains, as opposed to more open and free thinking abilities.
But the fact is that this supposed 'test' of intelligence isn't really that great at all. Think of all the people mentioned on this page, with surprisingly average IQs coupled with outstandingly brilliant levels of success.
What I am trying to say is that IQ has absolutely no link to what you might consider to be a 'useful' person whatsoever. What I mean when I talk about a useful person is a person who is able to actively contribute to add to the total sum of knowledge or ability to see the world in different ways of society as a whole - someone who might help other people, not through common action but through acts of intellectual good (or in cases such as Fritz Haber and military research, occasionally thinking up intelligent ideas about harming others). Think of the coining of germ theory, by Louis Pasteur, or the amazing impact that Newton and Einstein have had on the paradigms of scientists everywhere.
Paradigms are what I see in my head almost immediately when I think of IQ. Stephen Covey's famous book on the '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' relied on this heavily in defining what made an effective person who they were. The way we view the world is simply the world we then live in, work in, have fun in and learn in. The mind is an amazing thing - what it produces is literally what the mind then experiences. We could in fact very feasibly be living in a world quite unlike that which our thoughts seem to suggest, and yet be completely unaware for our entire lives simply because we do not know how to see the world any differently. A great example of this is the amazing moment when Tommy Edison, a blind Youtuber, was asked to draw pictures of objects. Something I was astounded at was his blatant lack of depth perception. As he drew images of objects, everything he drew seemed to be right in front of him, since the only way he experienced things was by touching them. Even the sense of sound is different, since not being able to see meant that sounds getting softer might not mean things getting 'farther away', but might in fact mean these things simply becoming quieter as they faded out of his existence. Unfortunately, to truly understand his experience you would have to be blind. But we can in fact take this attitude and change our own paradigms in other ways to become more creative and intelligent.
If two people are given the same mundane task, and yet one person has a different, a more proactive almost, paradigm - who do you think will perform more effectively? For example, two men are sent out on a fishing trip by a grocer, each to catch a certain number of fish for him in a day. They are lent boats by the grocer to do this task and a sum of money is agreed for both of them when they have given him the fish. Unfortunately, any excess fish will not increase the wage since the grocer has a limited number of customers and the fish go bad within a day or two of being caught. One fisherman views this trip as an opportunity to catch the minimum number of fish required of him. He does so through hard work and as soon as he is finished rushes back home to give the grocer his fish so he can in return receive a set sum of cash. He laughs as he thinks of the other man who is still sitting in his boat for hours after him, while he is at home enjoying a warm drink and wonders what stupid thought came into his head to make him stay out for, what this man regards as, an unnecessarily long amount of time. He won't be able to sell the grocer any extra fish anyway!
The other man however, is very aware of what he is doing. He has stayed out to catch extra fish for himself. He viewed this fishing trip as an opportunity to utilise the free resource of a boat that was given to him by his employer - the grocer. He comes back home late at night and sells the set number of fish to the grocer that the grocer had asked of him. However, the next morning he then takes the extra fish to the market. Now that he is safely aware that he has made enough money to take care of his family for the day, just as the other man has, instead of sitting at home until the next day of work he can now make extra money by selling these fish. He sets up a table there and begins to sell.
By the end of the day he has around double the amount of money he needs to support him and his family for a day. He then uses this extra money to employ a fisherman - the very man he was out fishing with yesterday - to go and catch fish for him, benefitting from the profits and make a long term gain, simply because he viewed the same task in a different way and then acted upon his thoughts. He saw the fishing trip as an opportunity to use the boat rather than sell the fish and make some quick cash. This man might need never go fishing again now, whereas the other man will never give up his single-minded view and will never grow.
The difference between the two men in this story was their views on how the world works. One man saw the world as a logical place. The other man had what might be regarded as a more creative view - less moulded by the walls of society which we build in our own heads. These walls limit how we see the world and consequently limit how we are able to use our resources. It is not what you have but how you use it!
Similarly, it has often been said that the size of brains has a direct effect on intelligence. This is however, according to numerous scientific studies, completely untrue. In fact, individuals with larger brains than the human race may actually be considerably less intelligent in the conventional sense. Think of whales for example. Similarly, brain size in humans does not seem to have any correlation to scores on IQ tests.
What does have an impact on how "intelligent" someone is, is how they view the world and how they view academic challenges. Think of how differently people would live if they saw maths as an arcade game. They would not consider it in the same way ever again. Instead of coming to a problem and asking for help from another person who had already solved it, they would try it themselves, attempting to come up with the best solution possible - the most creative solution. Why? Because they found it enjoyable! Much as they would if they were given a mission in Call of Duty or a quest in World of Warcraft or perhaps an opportunity to play football for their favourite team. The only thing which stops people being brilliant at things are excuses: I'm an average mathematician, I'm not that great at tennis etc. etc. etc. It is only when we can learn - to take Harry Potter as an example once again - to take the leap and run at Platform 9 $\frac{3}{4}$ that we discover that barrier was non existent in the first place. We unlock a whole new magical world which would have just as easily slipped through our fingers if we had delayed the opportunity long enough.There is then no such thing as magic, not in terms of intelligence. However, the products of intelligence, or as I would now like you to see it - enjoying being able to challenge yourself to see things for what they could be rather than what you think that they are, are what can really be said to be magic.
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Paradigm shifts:
More paradigm shifts:
Is that person annoyed at you, or simply frustrated at the way they can never seem to get close to you?
If nothing really matters in the end since we die, why shouldn't you just go out and do what you want?
For a visual paradigm shift explore this 3-D technique:
http://www.magiceye.com/
If you would like to shift your paradigm now, go and watch these videos:
This video might change your view of violence in other countries
And this one might change your view of the blind and the difference words can make
Please post any paradigm shifts you come across! These, I believe are the key to intelligence. In other words - be inspired to think differently! This is what humanity is about. How do you think Siddhartha Gautama came to become enlightened? He realised something different about the world - something nobody else could see was there. This whole article has been about how intelligence simply didn't exist - it was a paradigm shift for me however long it was ago. What can you see, that nobody else can?
