One one things

For better or worse intelligence is a fairly important barometer of social standing. This is natural since intelligence is a fairly important factor in what we “make” of ourselves. So it’s fairly important to have a decent measure of intelligence. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka at least, ppl tend to equate intelligence with academic achievement. The older ppl in my family in particular have this tendency. Aachchi usually asks about ppl; “Is he/she bright? graduate? science or arts?” and makes an appropriate face, eyebrows raised in approval or a slightly embul face in contempt. Others would say “Apo, that bugger, failed all 4 AL’s, useless bugger” (amusingly when asked his AL results this chap apparently says 1 F, 2 F, 1 F). But then, many of the 1F,2F,1F characters have gone on to excel in their own fields, be it business, the arts and even politics. So they’ve got to have something smart, clever or whatever you want to call it, within them. It just so happens that academics aren’t quite the stage on which some ppl shine. There could be several reasons for this, the education system could be shite, for instance only testing skills like factual recall and analytic thought. But even if the education system is good, some ppl just aren’t cut out for academic performance bc they can’t be bothered. Being lazy isn’t equivalent to being unintelligent, specially if you can get away with being lazy, when push comes to shove lazy chaps can throw their weight and match up to the cleverest. For instance, I have friends who never quite cut it in school but will kick your ass in poker or 304 nine times out of ten (because it’s card games really count, not school). To excel in academics you need two skills, learning and application. So if you suck at one of the two you won’t get too far in academics. But in life you can get very far with the latter despite not having oodles of the former (as long as you know your own game well enough, and that doesn’t necessarily require vast amounts of knowledge).

In most job applications and graduate requirement tests and stuff you find a lot of emphasis placed on quantitative and language skills. Though these maybe important for the job or university course in question, I don’t think they are a complete measure of intelligence. They test different parts of your brain (left or right cerebral hemispheres, or something like that) and different skills. I know plenty of ppl who are hopeless at maths and yet are exceedingly smart. A combination of quantitative and verbal skills are also insufficient in my book. I think the best measure of intelligence is the way that someone responds to a problem for which he/she is unprepared, how they make best use of available information and come up with a viable solution. This places everyone on a level playing field, and there’s every chance that the bugger selling cadju in Galle face will pip a university prof. All the preparation in the world won’t matter for something you’re unprepared for.

Finally, should intelligence really be a measure of social standing at all? Quite naturally it is one such measure bc intelligent ppl will achieve more in life than ppl not blessed with it. Blessed, that’s the key word. Intelligence is a gift, and I don’t think that a million years of schooling can give it to you. School gives you the advantage of gathering knowledge, training yourself how to apply it and organize it effectively. But raw intelligence is innate, you either got it or you don’t. So should we really judge ppl on something based on pure luck? I shouldn’t think so. Maybe then we should judge ppl on how they use their available resources to the best of their ability to achieve what they want to. But then what they want to achieve may not be your or my idea of “good”, so it’s probably best to allow ppl to judge themselves. Ha, not a chance. What a twisted last paragraph that was.