Category: Human Behavior and Cognitive Science

–“I can identify a person with very high verbal intelligence by how they express their thoughts when they write.”–

Testing this. Yes. I think so.

Comparing it to speech instead: I can understand what Chomsky is doing, and what’s going on in his mind is miracle of neuronal construction. But his speech isn’t, and he a contrary indicator of the good and the true.
I can understand what Dave Rubin is doing, and his speech is extraordinary, if for nothing other than the sheer velocity of his composition. But what’s going on in his mind is nothing compared to Chomsky – and again he can obscure a duplicity without effort. I can understand what Ed Witten is doing, and his mind is almost incomprehensible but his spoken word is anything but of course, he’s almost single handedly put physics in the wrong direction for decades. Sam Harris speaks elegantly but he’s largely storytelling and his logic is embarrassing.

We will almost always find extraordinary verbal intelligence among the ashkenazim for reasons obvious. But something is always wrong with their reasoning precisely because it’s verbally excellent but not systemically.

I can’t mirror any of those men in speed or working memory. But I wouldn’t fear debating any of them whatsoever.

Conversely, I can both understand Hilbert and imaging doing developing those skills. I can understand Hayek and not only what he says but what he means and what he implies. I can understand Darwin and see the man in the mirror.

In other words, It is certainly true that verbal intelligence is an asset for its bearer and a gift to its consumer. But I’m more than a bit concerned that the feminine-verbal (vs the masculine-systemic) will continue to produce extraordinarily seductive and entertaining verbosity and another iteration of the false promises by use of compelling fictionalisms that have plague each previous age of ignorance including the present.

Verbal intelligence is only as helpful as the integrity of its use.

Cheers

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