Sunday, March 12, 2017

Signs of real intelligence

SIGNS OF REAL INTELLIGENCE

  1. You learn from mistakes
  2. You read for fun
  3. You can argue from multiple perspectives
  4. You think before you speak
  5. You don't care what others think 

Note how four of those five factors simply don't apply to gammas who like to consider themselves highly intelligent. If you are a gamma male who refuses to admit mistakes, only argues from your current point-of-view, reacts emotionally and incontinently to criticism, and observably care deeply about what others think of you, what are you telling others about your intelligence?

And before anyone tries to get pedantic, note that if you refuse to admit your mistakes, you are most certainly not learning from them.

The fifth factor may explain why Sigmas tend to be more intelligent, on average, than Gammas.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

This should go viral.

Stg58/Animal Mother said...

I don't care what people think of me, that must make me a solid Sigma. Vox, are there any other tips you can give me so I can solidify my Sigma status?

P. Lester said...

These are what in earlier times would have been called the traits of a wise man.

dc.sunsets said...

The devil is in the definitions here.

The third point reminds me of something on Heartiste, referencing a claim that Leftists have puerile, adolescent, narrow moral thinking while Rightists' moral considerations are more nuanced, with more ability to see the Leftist's perspective (and recognize why it's incomplete and wrong.) This confirms for me that Leftists are stupid.

(Basks in self-satisfaction.)

JJ from AZ said...

3 and 5 are contradictory. Now if you meant, that you don't care what others think of you, then I'm right there with you on all five, but in order to argue from multiple perspectives, you have to think about what others think, so you can refute the mindless drivel that pours from their retarded mouths, and then ignore it, or just ignore it if the drivel spewed can not effect your life (preferable).

Manu said...

No, JJ, those points are not contradictory. What Vox is saying is that an intelligent person ought to be able understand other positions, and to be able to argue from them, not necessarily that you care about what another person thinks of you, personally.

As for me, on this list I've still some trouble with numbers 4 and 5. For number 4, old habits die hard. For number 5 I've improved greatly, but still occasionally let other people get under my skin in a way I shouldn't.

Zaklog the Great said...

On point number three, how many leftists have you encountered who are capable of reproducing a conservative argument on any given issue? It's a very rare thing, as far as I can see, but I know plenty on the right who can reproduce theirs.

But they're the smart ones, right? They tell us so all the time.

Matt said...

Must be a mental block, but I can argue in a civil manner with anyone other than my siblings.

MichaelJMaier said...

I hate making mistakes, but point them out so I can learn from them faster, dammit!

I hate arguing any more. I loathe "brights" that only use rhetoric. And I'm pretty sure that's all of them.

Ben Cohen said...

I fit the bill except for: not sure if I learn from mistakes, and I care what others think.

What's that mean?

Mocheirge said...

The original article defines reading "for fun" as reading "for pleasure rather than actively trying to seek out new knowledge". Ergo, that BBW reading about her wealthy alpha cowboy is showing signs of higher intelligence than a guy who's enjoying a book about Byzantine history? The guy might be obtaining knowledge accidentally and adulterating the pleasures of reading.

Also, I find that definition somewhat apt considering it's from the Daily Mail.

Ben Cohen said...

Mocherige, great point. I read Norwich's Byzantine trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tatooine Sharpshooters' Club said...

What if one's responses to 1 and 5 vary from time to time? Does that mean the friend I'm asking this for is mentally ill?

Jokah Macpherson said...

These are good. I would slightly tweak #5 to, "You don't base your value on what others think."

Koanic said...

Those tempted to sperg on this should consider the original source in the clickbait chain:

http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/12-ways-to-tell-someone-is-really-intelligent-and-not-just-faking-it.html
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-tell-if-somebody-is-intelligent/answer/Shane-Parrish-2

The game of telephone is strong with this one.

Mastermind said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mastermind said...

Only 1 and to a lesser extent 3 have anything to do with intelligence.

Robert What? said...

I try not to make the same mistake more than thirty or forty times :-/

One Fat Oz Guy said...

6. You learn from the mistakes of others.

No point in learning everything the hard way.

One Fat Oz Guy said...

6. You learn from the mistakes of others.

No point in learning everything the hard way.

GAHCindy said...

I think #5 has less to do with whether you care what others think of you personally (though that's going to follow) than with whether you allow the opinions of others to unduly influence your own. When you're one of the smart ones, you learn quickly that everyone else's opinion is often rubbish. And THEN you stop caring what they think of you personally. But it's really that you don't care what they think at all, of anything. What most people do to make their minds up on any given issue can scarcely be considered thinking, after all.

GAHCindy said...

Of course, wisdom requires us to listen to the wise, too, and care what they think. So I could argue a totally different way on point five, couldn't I?

Unknown said...

@One Fat Oz Guy

Agreed. That can get tedious:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/kendra-syrdal/2016/09/date-someone-who-treats-you-like-shit/

Careful, Love; your hamster's showing.

ScottC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ScottC said...

Vox, doesn't this also apply to alphas?

dc.sunsets said...

#5 I read as feeling less compelled to fit in, to herd even if doing so makes you uncomfortable.

To me, this is a key metric in the measure of applied intelligence. It's the transmission of horsepower to the pavement. It is a measure of how much ones mind is used to light the way rather than simply make excuses. (FTR, this is where I see high IQ leftists, rationalizing their beliefs to ignore the reality.)

Anonymous said...

VD
The fifth factor may explain why Sigmas tend to be more intelligent, on average, than Gammas.



to the contrary, i find the phrasing of #5 to be infelicitous.

#5 should read more to the effect of
"You don't care what others emote and are unperturbed by expressions of outrage or disdain"

can you be dissuaded from your existing position by citation of fact and principled expression of logic? that's "thinking".

Nate said...

Dumb people cannot learn from their own mistakes.

Average people learn from their own mistakes.

Smart people learn from the mistakes made by others.

SirHamster said...

Vox, doesn't this also apply to alphas?

Not Vox, but why would you think otherwise? These are traits of intelligence, not the SSH classes.

Alphas will have an ability to not care what people think and make decisions accordingly. At the same time, as Alphas, they are aware of what others are thinking and how to maintain their own position in the hierarchy.

Their ability to not care adds to their intelligence; their need to care (as Alphas of their group) may limit their intelligence.

SirHamster said...

For example, take Trump. Definitely a smart guy who is a very strong communicator. Absolutely an Alpha, who defies the accepted rules and makes his own.

At the same time, he's not Alt-Right despite Alt-Right being closest to the truth. He speaks of and promotes civic nationalism.

Now, we don't know what he's really thinking - but he is limited from being Alt-Right due to his need to be presidential to accomplish his agenda, and that presidential duty is to a lot of squishies who aren't comfortable being Alt-Right ... yet.

A hard time is upon us, and it will create hard men.

Shadowjoser said...

I struggle with 5 and I'm not sure how to adopt it an a way that would not lessen my compassion for people in general. I'm frustrated by how much I care about what others think of me but I know I don't like the person I turn into when I try to fortify myself against it. For me at least, it seems to that I have to choose which set of pros and cons I want to live with.

Mansizedtarget.com said...

I think with regard to # 5 there's a huge difference of being (a) influenced or persuaded and (b) pressured. If you're changing your mind, you're deciding, not the love of flattery, fear of censure, or other lower motivations of weaker minds. That said, no man is an island, and man is a "social and political animal" so independence is a relative thing. If you're truly a law unto yourself and indifferent to everyone, you could very well be a psychopath. That's not a prerequisite for wisdom or mere intelligence.

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