–“WHY DOESN’T A HIGH IQ (ALONE) MEAN YOU’RE SMART?”–
I’ll give you the correct answer.
1 – Measured Intelligence, or Intellectual Capability is equivalent to a personality trait. There is such a high correlation between openness to experience and intelligence that this idea will go mainstream in the next decade if it has not already. Intelligence may be the most important personality trait.
2 – The remaining personality traits, (five or six factors, and ten or twelve dimensions) and their predictable gender biases, affect the application of intelligence.
So like Anna Karenina’s “all healthy families are the same, and all unhealthy families are different”, or like the domestication of animals, which requires a certain combination of behaviors are present, demonstrated intelligence requires not only its presence as an ability, but the absence of traits that interfere with its expression.
In other words, many things must go right, and if any one goes wrong, we do not demonstrate that intelligence (or at least do not demonstrate it beneficially).
- So, demonstrated intelligence depends upon the following:
a) What we call ‘g’, or general intelligence (which has many components but all scale together), which is a loose measure of the rate at which you accumulate information and identify patterns – the obvious differences being the female verbal and the male spatial biases in brain structure. Despite claims as far as I know, it is not possible to alter it.
b) What we call ‘short term memory’ – the ability to preserve states over time (I do not possess this and am constantly aware of it) As far as I know, despite claims, it is not possible to alter it.
c) General Knowledge – the totality of knowledge (information and experience) that we can draw from in identifying opportunities for patterns. (Hence why being well read and are the best things that you can do to improve your demonstrated intelligence. )
d) What we call “personality traits” that do not negatively interfere with the expression of one’s intellectual capacity/measured intelligence/g.
e) And the wildcard of “beliefs and wants”. One can increase the correspondence of one’s thoughts with the universe, or one can decrease the correspondence of one’s thoughts with the universe. If you want something that is impossible, or you believe something is false, you will constantly err, and accumulate errors. The more false and impossible beliefs and wants, the more error you will accumulate.
As I currently understand mankind, our primary drive is status, whether shelf image or reputation, or behavior of others toward us despite our self image and reputation.
And the majority of failures of intelligence are caused by the inability to develop, or lack of training in, the mindfulness (stoicism) to judge one’s value in the markets for communication, association, friendship, productive cooperation, reproduction(family), commons production, political production, and military production.
So many of us wish the world were different, and go slightly foolish, anxious, depressed, or entirely mad, because we cannot tolerate a self image that corresponds with reality. Meaning, we cannot develop a self image that accurately describes our market value to others: Our Status.
Otherwise, trauma causes similar dysfunctions, since trauma forces us to work constantly to avoid activating parts of our memories ( minds, brains), via association. This becomes exhausting. Which is why hallucinogens work so effectively at allowing us to observe experiences rather than feel them, and therefore create alternative pathways and weights that allow us to circumvent those traumas (land mines).
Cheers.