To me it is chess. I know how the piece move but that is it.
Chill man. There’s loads of types of smart. Some people are great at chess, others have an intuitive feel of how a ball moves in the air, or how musical notes harmonize, or how equations collapse into simple forms, or how color or smell evokes emotion, or how ingredients work together to create pleasant texture and flavors, or how materials fold under the strike of a hammer, …
Point is, while you may not be smart in one area, there’s always areas to explore. Who knows, you may be a savant in your field. Enjoy the journey and appreciate the diversity.
I hate that people don’t recognize the depth of what intelligence can be. You alluded to athletic intelligence, but there’s so many more. Emotional intelligence is a big buzzword, but just being a kind person is a reflection of that type.
Some of the most insufferable people I’ve ever met are “smart” but holy shit would I prefer to spend my time with someone else.
I don’t think there is a great way to quantify intelligence, but IQ and MENSA ain’t it. And chess is just boring. I’m not good at it because I don’t want to be.
Some people are very smart at writing smart things like you !
Thanks, friend. I really needed that in light of the recent news.
You don’t. If you’re even entertaining the thought that there is more to learn than what you already know you are displaying intelligence. Stupid people “know” they’re NOT stupid and intelligent people constantly question their own intelligence. This is why a grown adult with the reading age of a 12yr old can spend twenty minutes online and become the world’s foremost authority on… 5G, vaccines, international geo politics, chemtrails, why the Nazi party were “ackshully” socialist etc. etc.
If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its life believing it’s a failure.
Yeah but I can’t even figure out how to breathe water
Doesn’t mean you’re not smart. People’s brains work differently. Some people enjoy thinking five moves ahead, or memorizing standard plays and reactions. Other people are good at math or chemistry. Talents aren’t an “all or nothing” thing.
I’m smart enough to know that everyone is both smart and stupid.
I’m stupid enough to believe that doesn’t apply to me.
Calculus III kicked my ass.
Calculus in general is beyond my ability
I was good at math until Cal III when I hit the wall. I’ve forgotten almost all of what I learned, though. So I’m not really good at math anymore. Unless you enter certain career paths, most people won’t need to use advanced math in their day-to-day. I bet you’re good at some non-math stuff.
Cal III was fun it was just a bunch of multivariable differentials. Cal II though sucked thanks to all the integration processes.
People smart enough to realize how much they don’t know are most likely to think that they aren’t smart… and it takes a certain level of intelligence to do that.
Something something Dunning-Kruger Effect. Dumb people who know very little about a topic will tend to overestimate their knowledge about said topic. As you gain more knowledge about the topic, the more you realize you don’t know, and the less confident you are about it.
In extreme cases, it ends with the person having Imposter Syndrome. When a person is very knowledgeable and experienced in a certain topic, but believes they aren’t qualified enough to be considered an expert. They feel like an imposter who will inevitably get outed by someone more knowledgeable than they are. So they have a lot of anxiety about speaking on the topic, because they’re afraid it will result in them being outed as an imposter.
Reading a book that explains a book I don’t understand and failing to understand either at the end.
Many of the things that really matter to us are fundamentally beyond human comprehension. We cannot understand ourselves, society, our place in the world, the consequences of our actions, or the laws of the universe, and we rarely agree or cooperate with each other.
one of the smarter folks of western civilisation history said “i know that i do kot know” so maybe asking yourself whether you are or are not smart is all it takes
My brain insists on telling me so several times a day so nowadays I just roll with it.
Same
On chess, there is a moment in 2001: a Space Odyssey wherein HAL and Frank Poole are playing chess. A more attentive person than me pointed out HAL cheated. I paused and looked at the board forever. I almost gave up. I thought I would never figure it out. Finally figured it out! I have never felt so smart for wasting so much time.
Everyone is smart about something but dumb about most things
Last week I moved the cheesegrater so I could look behind it… for the cheesegrater.
I’m likely average, middle of the road intelligence. Smart enough to get by and dumb enough not to excel at anything. I know a little about a lot of things and not a lot about one thing.
