How do you know if someone is intelligent.

[8tg]

I’m gonna talk about this from sort of a workplace and job focus.
 

The biggest giveaway for me is when I get new employees who go beyond their regular task or actively work to improve or optimize it. It’s a rare scenario where I see it, and usually those people get pulled aside and pushed into higher programs and better jobs pretty quickly because they’re valuable to the larger scope of the company I work for.

 

Its an odd topic, because intelligence is measured a lot of different ways, but generalized intelligence is mostly down to someone’s ability to learn and adapt.

More average intelligence people don’t really seek to understand their surroundings and what they interact with on a daily basis, it’s just how it is and it works the way it does to them. You can pick out the people who are generally smarter based on that, if they seek to understand everything around them.

And then there’s specialized intelligence, just being proficient in something more specific. I don’t know shit about carpentry for example behind a rough idea of how it works. But I don’t need to know everything about carpentry because I don’t do a lot of it. Should I need to though, I can learn how, and I’ll probably be pretty good at it.

 

This also gets into sort of the shitty mindset of “I can do whatever and do it better than you can”. And that lets you weed out the truly intelligent versus people almost pretending, if they talk about themselves being intelligent. Smarter than average people tend to stick together for a variety of reasons, it’s mostly to have people you’re on a similar level to for more complex conversation and social interaction, being able to talk about an endless variety of topics and have it be understood by everyone involved even if they had no prior knowledge of the topic of discussion. And within these types of groups it either clicks with those people that “oh shit I’m above average” or they’ll never realize they were above average at all.

These topics sound kinda shitty and demeaning and it’s why you don’t hear smart people talk about them often, it feels bad even amongst their peers to discuss it. Revealing to the average people that you’re smarter than them makes you look like you view yourself above them, and they view you as an enemy.

It’s a difficult part of my job, because I’m the boss of a lot of people who aren’t that type of intelligent. Chances are in a lot of places those above you are the different tiers of intelligent, not always, but most of the time. That’s how a lot of the world works almost in secret to the less intelligent, because they won’t realize it. 
Now what’s concerning is when you are working above someone and they realize this, and see that you’re on average more intelligent, and very quickly both of you pick up on it, and it can drastically change interactions in the workplace. There’s a lot of people in a lot of different situations and it’s not always a given that those with above average intelligence are in positions both career wise and socially that fit them, I work with two guys in particular who I know are of that similar level to me and my peers, but I am their boss, they become more of a focus and in some ways a favorite but you can’t let everyone else see that because they’ll have the same reaction of seeing you as a threat, but then also those you favorite as well. 
 

So how do you know if someone is intelligent? If you’re also generally intelligent you’ll just know, it stands out. If you’re not you’ll usually realize it by just sort of picking up on context of what they do, how they manipulate their day and life. Intelligent people are playing a very easy game to them that it’s hard for others.

[Wictorian]

9 hours ago, 8tg said:

I’m gonna talk about this from sort of a workplace and job focus.
 

The biggest giveaway for me is when I get new employees who go beyond their regular task or actively work to improve or optimize it. It’s a rare scenario where I see it, and usually those people get pulled aside and pushed into higher programs and better jobs pretty quickly because they’re valuable to the larger scope of the company I work for.

 

Its an odd topic, because intelligence is measured a lot of different ways, but generalized intelligence is mostly down to someone’s ability to learn and adapt.

More average intelligence people don’t really seek to understand their surroundings and what they interact with on a daily basis, it’s just how it is and it works the way it does to them. You can pick out the people who are generally smarter based on that, if they seek to understand everything around them.

And then there’s specialized intelligence, just being proficient in something more specific. I don’t know shit about carpentry for example behind a rough idea of how it works. But I don’t need to know everything about carpentry because I don’t do a lot of it. Should I need to though, I can learn how, and I’ll probably be pretty good at it.

 

This also gets into sort of the shitty mindset of “I can do whatever and do it better than you can”. And that lets you weed out the truly intelligent versus people almost pretending, if they talk about themselves being intelligent. Smarter than average people tend to stick together for a variety of reasons, it’s mostly to have people you’re on a similar level to for more complex conversation and social interaction, being able to talk about an endless variety of topics and have it be understood by everyone involved even if they had no prior knowledge of the topic of discussion. And within these types of groups it either clicks with those people that “oh shit I’m above average” or they’ll never realize they were above average at all.

These topics sound kinda shitty and demeaning and it’s why you don’t hear smart people talk about them often, it feels bad even amongst their peers to discuss it. Revealing to the average people that you’re smarter than them makes you look like you view yourself above them, and they view you as an enemy.

It’s a difficult part of my job, because I’m the boss of a lot of people who aren’t that type of intelligent. Chances are in a lot of places those above you are the different tiers of intelligent, not always, but most of the time. That’s how a lot of the world works almost in secret to the less intelligent, because they won’t realize it. 
Now what’s concerning is when you are working above someone and they realize this, and see that you’re on average more intelligent, and very quickly both of you pick up on it, and it can drastically change interactions in the workplace. There’s a lot of people in a lot of different situations and it’s not always a given that those with above average intelligence are in positions both career wise and socially that fit them, I work with two guys in particular who I know are of that similar level to me and my peers, but I am their boss, they become more of a focus and in some ways a favorite but you can’t let everyone else see that because they’ll have the same reaction of seeing you as a threat, but then also those you favorite as well. 
 

So how do you know if someone is intelligent? If you’re also generally intelligent you’ll just know, it stands out. If you’re not you’ll usually realize it by just sort of picking up on context of what they do, how they manipulate their day and life. Intelligent people are playing a very easy game to them that it’s hard for others.

Thanks a lot your comment is very valuable and I agree with your points except one. I think less smarter people notice smarter people too. Or maybe they just call what they don’t understand smart.

[IPD]

Intelligent people can't necessarily recognize other intelligent people--because the types of intelligence may be too dissimilar.  But no matter what, a real intelligent leader will find a way to leverage the various skills of his underlings to maximize collective productivity.

[Tan3l6]

In my conclusion - intelligence is a made up bullshit word..

Not gonna negativelly comment anymore.

[Wictorian]

On 9/24/2022 at 4:21 PM, Tan3l6 said:

In my conclusion - intelligence is a made up bullshit word..

Not gonna negativelly comment anymore.

Yeah though many things are and it just works.

[AudiTTFan]

In my opinion, the only people who aren't intelligent are the ones who act like everyone else isn't intelligent. As I've learned from selling and buying on Kijiji/Craigslist, (where I give people unnecessary reminders about the meeting time/place several times) I'm one of those people

Edited September 26, 2022 by AudiTTFan

[Wictorian]

12 hours ago, AudiTTFan said:

In my opinion, the only people who aren't intelligent are the ones who act like everyone else isn't intelligent. As I've learned from selling and buying on Kijiji/Craigslist, (where I give people unnecessary reminders about the meeting time/place several times) I'm one of those people

No. I strongly believe everyone is morons. This doesn’t mean they can’t be intelligent.

[wasab]

instead of intelligence, i would ranked people on whether they are skilled and competent in an xyz areas. People are simply specialized nowdays and innately, by personality, personal values, passions, temperament, and demeanor. You can be gifted mathmatical genius and logician but completely socially inept for example. Bad interpersonal skills will handicap your ability to succeed as much as lack of proper common sense and the ability to critically think. If both of them meets the other, both will probably think of the other as lacking intelligence. 

[IPD]

4 hours ago, wasab said:

instead of intelligence, i would ranked people on whether they are skilled and competent in an xyz areas. People are simply specialized nowdays and innately, by personality, personal values, passions, temperament, and demeanor. You can be gifted mathmatical genius and logician but completely socially inept for example. Bad interpersonal skills will handicap your ability to succeed as much as lack of proper common sense and the ability to critically think. If both of them meets the other, both will probably think of the other as lacking intelligence. 

The inability to convey ideas/thoughts/concepts due to a lack of articulation and/or interpersonal skills, is a sign of lower intelligence, imho.  Being able to take MENSA level abstracts and outlining them clearly for the layperson is a classic depiction of intelligence.  It's why we have looked up to Neil DeGrasse Tysons, Stephen Hawkings and Carl Sagans of the world.

[YellowJersey]

I just assume that everyone (including myself) is stupid.

[IPD]

49 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

I just assume that everyone (including myself) is stupid.

That's a rather sound gameplan.

[YellowJersey]

1 hour ago, IPD said:

That's a rather sound gameplan.

It's served me surprisingly well.

[Wictorian]

9 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I just assume that everyone (including myself) is stupid.

I think that makes sense. Don’t count on luck. 

[Kamina]

Pattern recognition and the ability to adapt quickly in almost any environment. 

 

I often get told that I am smart but I'm not sure why. 

[Arika]

if anyone ever tells they are are intelligent or is constantly saying how smart they are, chances are pretty high that they're not.

[Vishera]

On 9/3/2022 at 9:13 PM, Wictorian said:

I think I know a thing or 2 about IQ (tests). You can certainly excel at them if you study to do so. I have done so. Also it's not about memorization or anything like that. 

Studying for IQ tests renders the results invalid...

It's pretty much cheating.

 

1 hour ago, Arika S said:

if anyone ever tells they are are intelligent or is constantly saying how smart they are, chances are pretty high that they're not.

I disagree,

There is a renowned physicist (i won't name him) that got into a debate with an engineer and was very disrespectful.

Doesn't mean that he isn't smart, It just means that he is arrogant.

As for the results of the debate at the end both were right, just the perspective was different.

 

1 hour ago, Kamina said:

Pattern recognition and the ability to adapt quickly in almost any environment. 

 

I often get told that I am smart but I'm not sure why. 

I am pretty good at critical thinking and problem solving but my pattern recognition capabilities are relatively bad.

On IQ tests i score 140~150, except for MENSA challenge test in which i score 117 because it greatly emphasizes on pattern recognition.

[Wictorian]

1 hour ago, Kamina said:

 

 

I often get told that I am smart but I'm not sure why. 

Yeah..

[Wictorian]

40 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Studying for IQ tests renders the results invalid...

It's pretty much cheating.

Yeah I know but it is a thing.

 

Some schools include IQ tests in the entrance exams and it is wiser to study for those parts instead of maths. 

[YellowJersey]

14 hours ago, Wictorian said:

Yeah..

I'm often told that I'm so smart and I keep looking at these people like they're from space. People have told me multiple times that I have "imposter syndrome," but I just don't see myself as anything special. If the majority of humanity is dumber than me then we really are doomed!

[Wictorian]

3 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I'm often told that I'm so smart and I keep looking at these people like they're from space. People have told me multiple times that I have "imposter syndrome," but I just don't see myself as anything special. If the majority of humanity is dumber than me then we really are doomed!

You’d not believe how dumb humanity is. You’d not believe how clever humanity is.

[YellowJersey]

46 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

You’d not believe how dumb humanity is. You’d not believe how clever humanity is.

Make something idiot proof, and someone will invent a better idiot.

[Wictorian]

4 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

Make something idiot proof, and someone will invent a better idiot.

Haha. Still come on you know you can deal with most people, plus people get more intelligent over time.

[WhitetailAni]

3 hours ago, Wictorian said:

plus people get more intelligent over time.

Boy how I wish this were true.

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Boy how I wish this were true.

There are so many generalizations in this thread it's kind of hilarious.

 

Yeah some people get more intelligent with time. Lots of people actually have the opposite happen. After they leave formal school, they tend to forget a huge amount of what they learned.

 

Plus as people reach end of life, cognitive decline is not exactly uncommon.

 

IMO the truth is that Intelligence is very difficult to define and measure, and a lot of things people are saying here that are signs of intelligence only apply to some intelligent people.

[Wictorian]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

There are so many generalizations in this thread it's kind of hilarious.

 

Yeah some people get more intelligent with time. Lots of people actually have the opposite happen. After they leave formal school, they tend to forget a huge amount of what they learned.

 

Plus as people reach end of life, cognitive decline is not exactly uncommon.

 

IMO the truth is that Intelligence is very difficult to define and measure, and a lot of things people are saying here that are signs of intelligence only apply to some intelligent people.

No I mean each generation is smarter than the previous one.