Author: Oliver Emberton, founder of Silktide
"...you shouldn’t worry about your intelligence is because you can’t change it. You can, however, make a passionate point of behaving smarter - which is to say, doing the right things even when they're hard, instead of the dumb things because they’re easy. Master that, and you’ll be the smartest person you know."
Source: (2) Self-Confidence: Why am I a slow learner and not confident about my intelligence? - Quora
1. You’re blinded by educationMost people who think they’re stupid learn this at school. What you may not know, is that people are much dumber in the real world.Assuming you’re in any kind of higher education, you’re already in the top 50% or so for smarts - probably much higher. Your peers are similarly selected.Well, spend all day with geniuses, and you’ll conclude you’re an idiot. Spend 3 hours watching daytime TV and you’ll think you’re a genius. You can’t avoid this bias, but learn not to trust it.
2. Intelligence is not that big a dealTake a look at the observed IQ range of these professions:
Source: Modern IQ ranges for various occupationsNot that far apart, are they? The average janitor could be a manager. There are college professors with below average IQs. It’s true that having higher intelligence makes certain professions more likely, but the benefit rapidly diminishes. Forget being a MENSA candidate - anyone blessed with an IQ of 110 (top 25% - IQ Percentile and Rarity Chart ) can essentially do anything.
3. Success has little to do with school smartsWhen asked the speed of sound, Einstein said he did not carry such information in his head “since it is readily available in books”.
Yet too many people have the broken idea that passing examinations is a good measure of talent. Or that talent is a good measure of success. Most of the more powerful forms of intelligence - say, inventing Cheetos, or building a world-changing business - are not readily graded into a score out of ten. I’m sure Steve Jobs would have flunked an MBA, had he ever summoned the will to attend one.
Of course the main reason why you shouldn’t worry about your intelligence is because you can’t change it. You can, however, make a passionate point ofbehaving smarter - which is to say, doing the right things even when they’re hard, instead of the dumb things because they’re easy.
Master that, and you’ll be the smartest person you know.
