On intelligence

Life is not like the movies. This is one of those common sense adages that I think is not so common. I knew a person, a former friend if you will, who I never quite admired intellectually–yet who’s doing quite well professionally nonetheless–that always seemed to view the world as if it were a movie. I remember he would make comments, and I’d think to myself, “wasn’t that from a TV show?” One topic that this person would comment on that sort of vexed me in particular as an academic was on intelligence–specifically what it means to be smart, who is smart, and things of those sorts.

When we look at intelligence in the movies, or genius in particular, we immediately conjure up films like A Beautiful Mind or Good Will Hunting. I think the movies portray intelligence with this sort of showmanship and flashiness that is, quite honestly, required for them to sell tickets, but is certainly not a realistic reflection of what actually goes on in academia. I think the reality is much less sexy. Intelligence, in my mind, is both biological and developed. It is also multifaceted in the sense that there are different forms of intelligence. True intelligence takes years, decades, or even generations to develop. You can’t capture that in a movie.

I think where I’m ultimately going with this is that society’s notion of intelligence is not very, well, intelligent. The average person, by definition, is very average in intelligence. Thus, if your aspiration is to be admired for your intellectual achievements, you have to sort of not be afraid to challenge some of the notions of what it means to be smart by the people around you.