Earlier this month, my wife and I visited Cambridge for the first time. The city was buzzing with tourists, shoppers, students and cyclists, despite being a cold November afternoon.
The University of Cambridge is the heart and soul of this city. It is formed by many different colleges and faculties distributed along the river Cam. Each of them is remarkably beautiful and one can peacefully appreciate most of their facades by taking a punting tour of the river.
As we walked around the city, my wife brought up the topic of intelligence. After all, the University of Cambridge was the home of people like Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawkins, Charles Darwin, and many distinguished minds, including over 90 Nobel prize winners.
Cambridge is ranked 3rd in the world for more Nobel laureates, only behind Harvard and Columbia.
But what about today’s students? I am sure they are intelligent, but how are they intelligent?
Let’s go back a couple of years.
Back in primary school and even late into my university years, people who could read quickly, memorise facts and then repeat them during a test were classed as intelligent.
I was one of those intelligent kids.
For some reason, having good memory was misinterpreted as being intelligent. Not by students though, but by the education system and a lot of misinformed parents. Pupils were tested and labelled based on their ability to remember a date, a name, a mathematical theorem or an article from the constitution.
If you were good with those things, you got good grades and with good grades, you had a better chance of landing a place in a fancy university. At university, you will experience more of the same; memorise stuff and write it on a piece of paper, again and again.
After 4 years, you would get a diploma certifying you as intelligent. But, how are you intelligent, really?
I don’t know any graduates from Cambridge. I am sure they are incredibly book-smart and can recite poems and quotes and theorems and the chronological order of the British monarchs going back to William the Conqueror. However, I have met many graduates from other institutions who excel in academics and fail miserably at every other aspect of life. Are they really intelligent?
The people at Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell have a terrific video describing the many elements that make up human ‘intelligence’. Quoting them, intelligence is the ability to solve problems, especially those connected with staying alive.
As humans evolve, so has the complexity of our problems. Staying alive and well while becoming a functioning member of society requires more than storing information like a human encyclopedia. Sadly, schools and universities in the developed world still demand students to memorise unnecessary formulas and facts that have little use in solving today’s problems.
Funny enough, as I write this, the UK government has announced changes saying that students will no longer be required to memorise formulas for the GCSEs in 2023:
Hear me out - I am not trying to say we should all stop learning history and start learning Excel and Python. However, let’s spend more time focusing on critical thinking and creative solutions, on dealing with everyday life, and on building a future that is worth living in.
Let’s return to that day in Cambridge.
After some discussion with the missus, we agreed that being academically smart can produce dramatic progress for humanity, such as inventing satellite navigation, splitting the atom or discovering penicillin; but it is only one type of intelligence. Fortunately, human existence is far more complex and entertaining than what can be studied in a classroom.
I used the example of the multiple intelligence model of Howard Gardner. It might be subjective, but one could argue that the empirical evidence behind it is interesting, to say the least. He suggests there are 9 different types of intelligence:
Artwork by Carlyn Beccia.
Great minds exist in all parts of this spectrum. Bruce Lee and Einstein are both geniuses, but for different reasons. So the question is not whether we are intelligent, but HOW are we intelligent?
If I had to grade my own intelligence types by using Gardner’s model, I would say:
Spatial: I suck ass organising the pantry after bringing the groceries home (5 / 10).
Musical: I learned to play the guitar so I could get some female attention in my teenage years. Still, I am mediocre at best (6 / 10).
Naturalist: Fuck mosquitoes. Who needs them anyway? (3 / 10).
Existential: I like asking the big questions in life, like who tf asked for your opinion? (6 / 10).
Interpersonal: I have been in a relationship for 10 years and my other half still cooks for me often so I must be doing something well (10 / 10).
Body-kinesthetic: Have I mentioned I won the volleyball county championship with my school team? (8.5 / 10)
Logical-mathematical: I was cursed with a talent for numbers and shit so naturally I was forced to get a Business degree and then live in permanent existential dread (9 / 10).
Linguistic: I have a way with words, you know what I’m saying, dawg? (9 /10).
Intrapersonal: Guided meditation makes me fall asleep within 5 minutes. My inner self is at peace (9 / 10).
Final Thoughts
The perception of intelligence is very fluid.
If you were regarded as intelligent once, and you don’t feel like it anymore, cut yourself some slack. Chances are you are comparing apples and pears. Maybe you used to be great at storing information and now you are a talented athlete who cannot remember anyone’s birthday. It’s okay, you are just allocating resources to things that matter to you now. The benchmark for intelligence is not determined by whether you can beat a Cambridge student in a mathlathon.
Also, intelligence relies primarily on learning and thus is not an entirely innate attribute. If it matters to you and you are driven, you can train to become a dancer, a cook, an avid reader or a mathematician. Don’t believe the fallacy that you were born ‘good’ for one thing and ‘bad’ for the other.
If it matters to you…
Peace out, kiddos.
Cesar.