Intelligence Measured

What classifies as smart? Is it based on profession? How well a human can operate? How genius their answers are on a test? There are all kinds of classifications. You can characterize it by the way someone carries themselves, or by how they score on a test. It could be how much stupidity they can withstand, or whether they only learn from the best. I’m not sure what classifies as a smart person anymore when the line is so blurry.

I’d like to think there are many ways to describe one. Someone who learns from their mistakes — actually learns, not just performs the lesson for an audience. Someone who doesn’t think they know everything, and isn’t threatened when they don’t. Someone with a presence you can feel before they’ve said much at all — a steadiness, a warmth, an attention that makes you feel seen instead of sized up. Smart isn’t always the loudest voice in the room. Sometimes it’s the one that listens longest before speaking, and means what it says when it does. But that doesn’t quite fit either. Smart people get anxious. They overthink, they blurt things out, they spiral. So maybe that’s not it.

I’d like to think most people are smart in their own way — in how they’ve learned to adapt to their surroundings, how they make a life for themselves through whatever means they’re given. These are smart characteristics too. If you go back years and years, you’ll find that only scientists and the people at the top were considered the smartest, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture. Intelligence can also live in the way we choose to operate in this new world — in what feels natural and what doesn’t, in being able to tell what’s right and what’s wrong, what holds up over time and what falters under pressure.

A mother’s intelligence is often looked down on because of what she doesn’t know in certain areas. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t smart. She’s smart in what she does, and her intelligence is natural — earned through a kind of attention most classrooms can’t teach.

Dumb people bring in money all the time, so it can’t be based on salary, right? There are a lot of stupid people rolling in dough — no offense. Maybe it’s easier to characterize what a stupid person is instead. Because intelligence varies.

A stupid person is someone who doesn’t want to know, and pushes the idea of knowing. Someone who cannot tolerate not being correct. They’ll bend reality just to accommodate their story rather than admitting they were wrong. Stupidity can be missing the obvious too, when someone is so wrapped up in themselves they cannot even fathom the thought of the obvious standing right in front of them — so they’ll turn away. The person who knows something is bad for them and chooses it anyway, repeatedly. Not weakness — stupidity. Maybe the stupidest thing a person can be is unkind to someone on purpose. Because treating someone cruelly backfires, it satisfies their need to rule while someone suffers at their expense. This usually comes from someone who hasn’t figured out that other people are real. There’s something unintelligent about that. Like the bully in the highschool movies, arrogant and apathetic.

Maybe this can help classify what a smart person is better. I’ve known very intelligent people who also had these characteristics, so like I always say — the line gets blurry.

If you ever feel stupid, think of it this way: if you feel bad about it, chances are you’re intelligent enough to recognize it and adjust your behaviour. I think this is key to being a good person. There, I said it. I gave it away. An intelligent person is a good person. Why? Because what’s better than someone who treats everyone with respect until it’s lost, who knows who to cut off and when, who holds their ground while still living their life? Someone who can recognize when something is off, or when things are going well, and knows how to keep it that way. You might think — yeah, I fall under that category of being stupid sometimes. We all do. That’s just part of our intelligence growing.

Maybe that’s why it’s easier to say, “I’ve got good marks, so I’m the smartest.”

Because there are so many ways intelligence can show up, the narrow definitions end up leaving most of us out — and that makes people feel bad. You’ve probably felt this when you and your friend handed in something similar in class and they got a better mark for whatever reason. Did they use different words? Add extra things you didn’t think were necessary? Probably. Which is why I think the marking system can be flawed when it comes to identifying intelligence.

Does this make you want to be smarter too? I’m talking as if I’m the dumb one, because I am — reading this over I think, well, yeah, I’m pretty stupid. Does that help? That it’s okay to feel stupid sometimes, when your definition of stupid is different from everyone else’s?

Here’s the thing though — intelligence can be taught. It can be learned. You can choose to go to school, to learn harder, to perform better. You can choose to be smarter! It doesn’t mean you’re going to be the smartest. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to have stupid moments. And this goes for a so-called intelligent person too.

So in the end — an intelligent person is a good person. They could get average marks, have an average lifestyle, an average friend group, an average partner, and still be very intelligent. That’s an intelligent lifestyle too. Being rounded in everything. Having yourself dispersed across different areas of life, and maintaining it.

To all those people in class wondering what the teacher just said and thinking you’re an idiot — or the person at work who messed up and can’t get their mind off it — you’re not dumb. You’re not stupid. It’s none of those things.

I think we need to be more generous with the word intelligent. More generous with ourselves when measuring it against someone else. You might feel smart sometimes, and dumb other times. People might think you’re intelligent because you excel in one area, when really there’s so much more to it.

Overall — you get to decide your label, through your actions, words, and feelings.