I know a great many people who never received a degree of any kind, yet they are some of the most knowledgeable and respected engineers in the field. Similarly, I know too many people who have advanced college degrees and have awards and recognition plaques all over their office walls, yet they are incapable of doing the simplest engineering designs.
Like most people, I have tremendous respect for a person who is obviously brilliant yet downplays it. Concept: If a person is extremely intelligent, it will be obvious to everyone after a casual conversation. However, the people who brag about their own intelligence are rarely as smart as they want you to think they are.
The most talented and brilliant people will often say the least and listen the most. Ironically, people like that are often not very gifted at all, but carry on the show to make themselves look that way. Do not ever allow yourself to be counted in that number. On the other hand, it is quite impressive to meet individuals who do not have anything on their wall, constantly downplay themselves and their accomplishments, and yet are true geniuses.
Within moments of meeting and talking to a person like that, you know that he or she IS a genius, and yet they will never make mention of it. That is the person you want to emulate. Never, EVER look down on a person because they lack the education or position that you have achieved. From the CEO to the lowest level employee, everyone knows something that you do not and they can often be valuable sources of information and new ideas.
Treat them with respect, as you would want to be treated, and you will be amazed what they can teach you. Do not be one of them. These people are fairly rare, but they do exist.
They typically have strong, aggressive personalities and are smart enough to adapt their personality style to the situation. Dealing with such a person can be trying at times, but at least they have intelligence to back their bravado and their knowledge can be extremely helpful when you are faced with a technical dilemma.
Insight: Even though many technicians and operators may lack higher education, they are usually extremely knowledgeable of the plant and its operation.
Their knowledge of the process and its hidden interactions and problems as well as the effort it takes to keep the plant running is invaluable to an engineer. Subscribe to receive weekly updates of MindShift stories every Sunday. Search-Icon Created with Sketch. KQED is a proud member of. Always free. Sign In. KQED Inform. Save Article Save Article. Can Everyone Be Smart at Everything? Tina Barseghian. Nov 4, Failed to save article Please try again.
All of this raises further questions. What values about learning do we want for our kids? Is it important for them to be naturally smart to be ultimately successful? What does this say about our school assessments?
How do we measure and define "achievement" without grades? More food for thought. That's the hope of neuroscientists focused on understanding the basis of intelligence. They have discovered that the brains of people with high IQs tend to be highly integrated, with neural paths connecting distant brain regions, while less intelligent people's brains build simpler, shorter routes.
But no one knows why some brains construct much longer-range connections than others. For the first time in human history, he said, "the concept that intelligence can be increased is reasonable.
It's a titillating thought but, considering the aphorism "ignorance is bliss," one might wonder: Would it really be better to be brainier? What would life and society be like if we all suddenly became, say, twice as intelligent? For simplicity, imagine that instead of our current mean IQ score of , humans had an average score of Experts say this isn't a true "doubling" of intelligence because the IQ scale doesn't start at zero and, furthermore, the test isn't actually designed to yield a score as high as — but we will set aside these qualifications for the purpose of argument.
According to Earl Hunt, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Washington and president of the International Society for Intelligence Research, approximately one person in 10 billion would have an IQ of With a current world population of 7 billion , there may or may not be one such person alive today and, in any case, his or her identity is unknown.
However, the 17th-century genius Isaac Newton, discoverer of gravity, calculus and more, is sometimes estimated to have had an IQ of though he never took an IQ test. So, using him as an archetype, what if we were all a bunch of Newtons?
Would the world be much more advanced than it is today? Haier believes greater intelligence, which he defines as the ability to learn faster and remember more, would be highly advantageous on an individual scale. They might enjoy reading more, might have a greater depth of appreciation for certain things and more insight into life," he told Life's Little Mysteries.
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