How do you know if someone is intelligent.

[Wictorian]

Obviously I know the answer to this however I thought this would be interesting. I don't think it is as straightforward. For me I think if someone is hard to talk to that usually means they are intelligent. I dont mean they are painful to talk to. You almost feel pressured when talking to them and this kinda makes you smarter too.

[wanderingfool2]

8 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Obviously I know the answer to this

Ultimately there isn't an answer to this.

 

What defines intelligence can be drastically different based on what type of definition you go for.

 

e.g. Someone can be a linguistical genius, but terrible at math.  That person would in my opinion still be intelligent.

Other example, I had a prof. who was given the nickname human compiler.  He could look at your code and within a second tell you not only whether it would compile but where issues would be.  It was pretty crazy actually to watch him.  Yet this was the same teacher who struggled plugging in an USB (was plugging it into the Ethernet port).

 

10 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

For me I think if someone is hard to talk to that usually means they are intelligent

That's just a stigmatism really.  I've met truly intelligent people who you would not know are intelligent, they act completely normal.  The only way you know they are intelligent is when you see them working on something and they are showing off their intelligence that way.

[Wictorian]

38 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Ultimately there isn't an answer to this.

 

What defines intelligence can be drastically different based on what type of definition you go for.

 

e.g. Someone can be a linguistical genius, but terrible at math.  That person would in my opinion still be intelligent.

Other example, I had a prof. who was given the nickname human compiler.  He could look at your code and within a second tell you not only whether it would compile but where issues would be.  It was pretty crazy actually to watch him.  Yet this was the same teacher who struggled plugging in an USB (was plugging it into the Ethernet port).

 

That's just a stigmatism really.  I've met truly intelligent people who you would not know are intelligent, they act completely normal.  The only way you know they are intelligent is when you see them working on something and they are showing off their intelligence that way.

I think we can agree intelligent people have a good understanding of abstract concepts and such?

 

What I meant by they are hard to talk to is not they they act abnormally. You need to think twice before saying something to them as they also usually do. Especially if you are debating against them your job is very hard. I think people like " the human compiler " have specialized and their gift probably isnt limited to that. 

 

 

[WildDagwood]

Tricky one I think, and likely need to lay down some commonly defined terms if you want a consensus at all. Also, you need to remove a certain level of knowledge from the equation, or you're just measuring how much someone might know on a given topic.

 

Ability to understand complex/abstract concepts, as well as the ability to apply logic with limited information for solutions and desired outcomes are up there, in my eyes.

 

Busy atm, but might respond back again later.

[Wictorian]

22 minutes ago, WildDagwood said:

Tricky one I think, and likely need to lay down some commonly defined terms if you want a consensus at all. Also, you need to remove a certain level of knowledge from the equation, or you're just measuring how much someone might know on a given topic.

 

Ability to understand complex/abstract concepts, as well as the ability to apply logic with limited information for solutions and desired outcomes are up there, in my eyes.

 

Busy atm, but might respond back again later.

yeah it is similar to what I said. I don't think it is too necessary to discuss what is intelligent as that will be answered upon answering how we detect it.

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, Wictorian said:

Obviously I know the answer to this however I thought this would be interesting. I don't think it is as straightforward. For me I think if someone is hard to talk to that usually means they are intelligent. I dont mean they are painful to talk to. You almost feel pressured when talking to them and this kinda makes you smarter too.

There are various ways to measure aspects of intelligence. Testing on things like memorization and memory retention, critical thinking skills and problem solving skills, the ability to perform logical tasks repeatedly, etc.

 

Something like the standardized IQ test attempts to take these various aspects into consideration, so that we can measure different people against one another. But the IQ test isn't perfect, and for some people that are intelligent in non-typical ways may not accurately represent their intelligence.

 

TL;DR, there really isn't a meaningful way to truly measure someone's intelligence.

[Wictorian]

or someone is a genius if they can center a div

[Guest]

Doesn't matter if someone is intelligent or not.

 

What they do is what matters.

[Wictorian]

11 minutes ago, fpo said:

Doesn't matter if someone is intelligent or not.

 

What they do is what matters.

yeah I think so too

[crazzp]

12 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Other example, I had a prof. who was given the nickname human compiler.  He could look at your code and within a second tell you not only whether it would compile but where issues would be.

I wouldn't call that smart. He has been doing this for many many years. If I did something for many years, I would be able to achieve feats which many would consider smart but it's just something that comes with practice/training.

 

What I would consider smart is when someone thinks of an excellent solution (to a problem) which no one thought of or can understand complicated concepts (having been just introduced to it) fast and build on that knowledge easily.

[Wictorian]

2 hours ago, crazzp said:

I wouldn't call that smart. He has been doing this for many many years. If I did something for many years, I would be able to achieve feats which many would consider smart but it's just something that comes with practice/training.

 

What I would consider smart is when someone thinks of an excellent solution (to a problem) which no one thought of or can understand complicated concepts (having been just introduced to it) fast and build on that knowledge easily.

yeah while thats the definition of it, its not necessarily how we can detect it.

[mr moose]

You know someone is intelligent when they don't talk down to you or lecture you about something they really want to educate you on.

[Rauten]

12 minutes ago, mr moose said:

You know someone is intelligent when they don't talk down to you or lecture you about something they really want to educate you on.

Someone can be extremely intelligent yet at the same time be a total asshat. One does not exclude the other.

[wanderingfool2]

4 hours ago, crazzp said:

I wouldn't call that smart. He has been doing this for many many years. If I did something for many years, I would be able to achieve feats which many would consider smart but it's just something that comes with practice/training.

 

What I would consider smart is when someone thinks of an excellent solution (to a problem) which no one thought of or can understand complicated concepts (having been just introduced to it) fast and build on that knowledge easily.

No matter how many years you have looking at code, looking at new code and pointing out errors/deficiencies in logic within mere seconds isn't something many would be able to do.

 

I've had plenty of profs who would not be able to do that, despite them def. being in the business a lot longer.

 

Some things just come intuitively to people, see Ramanujan.  A brilliant and intelligent person, but not necessarily the strongest at proofs but genius in math.

[mr moose]

56 minutes ago, Rauten said:

Someone can be extremely intelligent yet at the same time be a total asshat. One does not exclude the other.

But the intelligent ones know 2 things the ass hats don't,  1. people are more likely to listen when you are not an asshat and 2. They know they might be wrong themselves and as such are interested in proper discussion.  Anyone who wants to just educate you and is a prick about it does not display intelligence in this regard.

[Wictorian]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

You know someone is intelligent when they don't talk down to you or lecture you about something they really want to educate you on.

there are no smart teachers¿

there are some tbh

[Wictorian]

1 hour ago, Rauten said:

Someone can be extremely intelligent yet at the same time be a total asshat. One does not exclude the other.

thats more about wisdom and smart people eventually accumulate wisdom.

[Isuck Assimov]

From personal experience i think the more you learn and the more knowledge you accumulate, the more you will realize how limited your understanding of any given concept is.

The smartest people are those that confidently tell you about all the stuff they know nothing about.

[Middcore]

I find reading their posts on an internet forum usually gives a pretty good indication. 

[Commodore256]

Everyone is intelligent, there are college graduates with down syndrome.


I've been told I'm intelligent. I've also been told I'm stupid. Intelligence is too difficult and subjective to quantify, it might as well be an anti-concept. Let's imagine the most intelligent person on the planet having bad grades. Why would a smart person have bad grades? There could be a plethora of reasons, but to name one, being too stressed to learn anything. It could be anything and everything.

[Wictorian]

3 hours ago, Commodore256 said:

Everyone is intelligent, there are college graduates with down syndrome.


I've been told I'm intelligent. I've also been told I'm stupid. Intelligence is too difficult and subjective to quantify, it might as well be an anti-concept. Let's imagine the most intelligent person on the planet having bad grades. Why would a smart person have bad grades? There could be a plethora of reasons, but to name one, being too stressed to learn anything. It could be anything and everything.

I dont think smart people have particularly good grades. 

[Tan3l6]

Even smart people do stupid things. Like savants who might know something in extreme details, might know little of anything else. 

Intelligence is an interesting label, useful yet.

So smarts is not intelligence and vice versa.

Ability to learn is the most important on the quest of intelligecia..

[itshurleytime]

1 minute ago, Wictorian said:

I dont think smart people have particularly good grades. 

There is a correlation measured IQ and grades. This doesn't mean something is going to happen, it just means it is more likely to happen.

[Wictorian]

2 hours ago, itshurleytime said:

There is a correlation measured IQ and grades. This doesn't mean something is going to happen, it just means it is more likely to happen.

but does it say people with high IQ have good grades or people with good grades have high IQ.

 

If so how high?

 

And are intelligence and IQ the same thing?

[itshurleytime]

1 hour ago, Wictorian said:

but does it say people with high IQ have good grades or people with good grades have high IQ.

 

If so how high?

 

And are intelligence and IQ the same thing?

IQ is a measure of intelligence, however accurately measuring IQ is tough. Say you are of average intelligence, you could take 3 different (yet widely recognized and used) IQ tests, and wind up on various places on the bell curve. 

 

Higher intelligence is correlated to getting better grades. If you can decrease the amount of time or mental stress required to pick up challenging concepts, you've just saved yourself a bunch of time and energy and frustration.

You are going to have people with high intelligence who fail and people with low intelligence who do very well, but having high intelligence is a huge advantage.

 

Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient for more info.