I need to go some years backward to remember some cheerful discussion with my friends we had about intelligence in people. The typical conversation was like:
“X is very smart. I think that is smarter than Y. He is capable to solve the the sum of 2+2 faster than Y, so it’s smarter for sure”.
The conversation may not had been that, but you can understand the context. The point was that my friends and I agreed that X was smarter than Y just for the simple reason that academically had obtained higher notes. Stupid but real. I still feeling embarrassed for have had that point of view.
Even more, I remember a conversation with one of my them where he pointed out that people who have more culture make better decision during their lifes. I denied. My ingenuos mind thought….”What…because you read more you have bigger IQ?. This guy is completely foolish". However, the silly was Ander Heriz.
Misunderstanding
My issue in the past was than I wasn’t able to differentate between intelligence and decision-making.
Inteligent is determinated in great % by your genes and is just a number that the world has decided to score to your intelligence capability, i.e. your cognitive ability. Unforntunetely, this number is poorly modifiable during your life. (irony).
On the other hand, decision-making is the process of choosing alternatives based on your preferences. This is most related to how you bet. This is changeable and may be learning during your life.
Thus, X is smarter than Y? Maybe. The questions is the definition that you are giving to the concept of “be smart”. My definition (and I do think the one that may help to you) is to be a good-decision-maker.
A person may be very intelligent (that is, high IQ) but very poor decision-maker. During my last years I realized that the latter vast more importance than the former.
Think probabilistically
As in the last post, Taleb help me to understand how to bet apropiatelly, specially in thoughtful decision. When making decision I think probabilisticaly. The first step that I take is to think twice and after that, I start with the “second derivatives” such as,
What else may happen?. What are the % that I estimate that X thing may occur?. Which is my downside if I’m wrong?. There is any optionality on it?.
Now, I was wrong when I thought that a cultured person wasn’t have to be linked to be smart?. From my point of view I was totally wrong, this is a subjective opinion though. Usually, a person who have acquire more culture would be able to choose better than an ignorant, however, this is not a natural law.
Wrapping up, focusing on the IQ is useless, still, having a good approach to decision makin is meaningful ( don’t think only economically, but in all the areas of your life). There are a lot of people out there that are categorized as succssesful* because of their decisions not their human intelligence.
*The meaning of being successful in another post!