What Smart Is: Debunking the IQ Myth
Written by John Rozewicki   
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
I am a professional smart person. This is completely and utterly worthless unless you know the definition of smart. You might look it up in the dictionary, but that doesn't really give the complete description. It misses the flavor of the word, and plus, there are so many definitions of smart based on usage that the technical definition doesn't really matter. My definition of smart is more encompassing. Traditionally, IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a convenient way of scoring and categorizing the human intellect. It works pretty well, and is designed to be constant across age and racial barriers. Many people don't seem to know that part. It only tests the brain's ability to reason and figure. It doesn't test any other facet. It's not a bad test. It's just really hard to test those other facets, and so they focused on what they could measure at the time that it was developed. This just means that we should not be so quick to categorize people according to IQ. A high IQ really just means that a person can think through things quickly and accurately. IQ also doesn't take in to account knowledge. It's not that type of test, but nonetheless there's a lot of confusion as to what IQ means. There's a difference between having knowledge and applying knowledge. Doctors learn everything they need to learn in the first 2 years of medical school. They then spend the rest of their school career, and their actual career learning how to apply that knowledge. It's called wisdom. It tends to get mistakenly used interchangeably with intelligence. Wisdom tends to be downplayed. People argue with physicians all the time about their care; thinking they know better because they've spent a few hours online reading. They overlook the part where their physician has probably seen their condition hundreds of times and knows what tends to work best for people depending on the circumstances.

Wisdom

A lot of the very intelligent questions we ponder as humans can be solved with wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge usually go hand in hand, but not always. There are savants who might be able to best you every time at a game of Trivial Pursuit, but they can't really get their lives on track or use that knowledge for anything. Wisdom should be valued more than intelligence in almost every regard. Though, there's no shortcut to wisdom. Very very simply, it is learning from not only your own mistakes, but everyone else's mistakes too. Most people don't focus on that last part so much. Wisdom tends to comes from experience for most of the population. An illiterate person who also has the lowest IQ score possible can be a smart person as long as they can recognize smart people and then listen to them. So much of wisdom gets ignored because people have trouble applying things in other people's lives to their own lives. My definition of smart relies heavily on wisdom, but also heavily on the results. How people react to adverse conditions is what defines them. Anyone can thrive in a perfect environment with perfect circumstances, but this perfect environment can never exist. It's only theoretical. Everyone has problems. Some are worse than others, but people can overcome if they're smart. With wisdom, and intelligence, anyone can overcome any set of negative conditions. The only variables are how determined a person is to succeed and how smart they are.

Thriving versus Surviving

It's funny how people are drawn to stories of overcoming adversity, but are very quick to pipe up with excuses about how they can not overcome their own adverse conditions. You would think that we would be better at dealing with things after seeing so many situations that worked out despite horrible conditions. There are stories of people that overcoming personal, political, and geographical struggles throughout history. These inspiring stories should not be ignored. They usually contain timeless wisdom that everyone is able to benefit from. There are an infinite number of reasons not to do anything. I shouldn't be writing this right now. I should be taking a shower. I should be studying for my Japanese quiz tomorrow. I don't have time to sit down and write. Being smart, I can think through all of these and minimize the negative consequences. I know how long writing this article should take me. I know how hard my Japanese quiz is tomorrow. I know that I can shower in 10 minutes right before I go to bed. I've reasoned through it, and applied my knowledge of situations like this from the past and ones I've heard about. I know I can do this, and so I do. You can find a reason against doing anything; even winning a million dollars. Taxes are a bitch. The trick is to realize what is worthwhile, and most beneficial, then go for it. Smart is not necessarily intelligent. There's intelligent people all over the place, but smart is really an attitude. It's a state of being. Intelligence goes back to the IQ test, and being good at figuring. Smart is a personality trait. Smart people challenge themselves. Life is difficult, but it never stops people from doing all the things they really want to do. Delaying gratification is essential. Doing what is best, is frequently the most difficult course of action. It takes faith in yourself that things will work out if the effort is put in. For the most part, life is a series of things you don't want to do. You have to go to work to get a paycheck in order to apply that money to the things you really want. Doing work can never be escaped entirely. Why not take the high road, and get the better reward.

Concise Portrait of a Smart Person

Smart people never stop learning. Most people turn their ability to learn on and off at will. Being smart is being able to take disparate pieces of information and put them together in to a cohesive picture. They have a drive to do this. It's impossible to avoid doing it for people who are smart. I find that a lot of people around me and in my classes tend not to grab on to things as easily. It takes a little more work for things to stick. Learning is difficult, but smart people enjoy challenge. Learning is just another one of those things. Being smart is about diversity and flexibility. The person who reads at a high reading level, but only reads Shakespeare, isn't smart. They're intelligent, but not smart. They will know very little outside of Shakespeare. The smart thing to do is to be familiar with a great many authors, and have read a few things from each. It's being well-rounded that makes all the difference. Reaching outside of your main interests is the only way to learn and grow. Smart is not an elitist thing that only people with genius IQ's can possess. It has to do with wisdom, competency, and curiosity. Everyone has the capacity for smart, but the majority of the population never exercise it. Smart is seen as this intangible thing that some guy they heard about once had. They get bogged down with grades and other social ideas of what smart is. They don't realize that they can be smart too as long as they're willing to put in a little bit more work and delay gratification.

Happy, Content, and Fulfilled

If a person is happy and they have felt that they've succeeded, then there is no arguing with them. They've done exactly what they need to do to be where they are. That is its own type of smart that gets overlooked. Being smart doesn't necessarily mean doing everything all the time. Efficiency is important. Being happy and fulfilled is the ultimate goal. There is a difference between the two. Most people settle for being happy only in fleeting moments. Being fulfilled means happiness for the long term.
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