Wednesday 13 July 2016

Intelligence and IQ

Motto: Intelligence alone does not get us where we need to or even necessarily where we want to go. For that, the human creature must exercise harder-won capacities of wisdom, and wise action. (Krista Tippett)

I hear that often, with people that ask if hard work and average intelligence can surpass a high IQ. And i always tell them that yes, it is possible. Because IQ is only half of the equation. The intelligence quotient is just an estimation of your intelligence level. But, as I was saying, this is not all. We also need to check the ability to use that given intelligence, the efficiency of what was give to you and how you put this in practice.

Just to explain it better, I will use a hypothetical situation.

We got J. with an IQ of 100 and 100% efficiency in using it. The resulted real use of intelligence is 100 x 100% equal 100.

We got K. with an IQ of 120 and 50% efficiency in using it. The resulted real use of intelligence is 120 x 50% equal 60.

We got X. with an IQ of 160 and 30% efficiency in using it. The resulted real use of intelligence is 160 x 30% equal 48.

If I ask who will be probably the most successful out of these three individuals, what you will say?

It is the first one J., as he got the better aggregate ability, even if he got the lowest IQ. Now you just find out why some apparent average guys are much better in something that innate geniuses. And the good news is that your efficiency in using your intelligence is a trainable skill. Bluntly said, can you raise your IQ? No, not yet. Can you learn how to better use your intelligence? Definitely yes.

Friday 1 July 2016

Super Humans - Adora Svitak

Adora Svitak (born October 15, 1997 in Springfield, Oregon) is an American writer, public speaker, and activist. Svitak was born in Springfield. Her mother, Joyce, was a Chinese immigrant who grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Her father, John, studied physics and worked as a software engineer. 

A voracious reader from age three, Adora Svitak's first serious foray into writing - at age five - was limited only by her handwriting and spelling. (Her astonishing verbal abilities already matched that of young adults over twice her age.) As her official bio says, her breakthrough would soon come "in the form of a used Dell laptop her mother bought her." At age seven, she typed out over 250,000 words -- poetry, short stories, observations about the world - in a single year. Svitak has since fashioned her beyond-her-years wordsmithing into an inspiring campaign for literacy - speaking across the country to both adults and kids. She is author of Flying Fingers, a book on learning.

Her inspired TED Talks "What we can learn from children" has more than 4 millions viewers. And her knowledge and use of a complex vocabulary is somehow astonishing.