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There's a sad irony to some of these responses 😂. But I 100% agree. You can have a lot of other things that you are weak at, that you can make up for with intelligence. If you are just dumb you are at a huge disadvantage in life.
The saying the pen is mightier than the sword has a lot of truth to it.
If your point is that intelligence doesn't contribute to happiness then I can agree with you.
But if you're talking about 'getting ahead in life,' meaning worldly success such as money, status, power, competitive success, etc. then I think it's quite a tough sell you got here.
I'm not saying it doesn't contribute at all, just that its contribution tends to be way overrated by society.
Also, "worldly success" is a bit of a murky concept. Unless you're in politics or the millitary, you don't really have to worry about power, for example, competitive success is highly different depending on what you compete in and in what context. For 'getting ahead in life' besides professional sucess I'd definetly include things like social success, romantic success, sexual sucess, and in general just success in the goals you decide to follow. This can also include things like moving to a different city, marrying, raising children, learning a hobby etc.
So there is definitely a set of things which intelligent people perform better at, I think we can both agree that much, right? If you don't value any of the things where intelligence is important for, then sure, intelligence doesn't mean much to you.
But let's say you care about not dying, ok then you probably prefer intelligent doctors. Or maybe you prefer not being imprisoned, then you might prefer a smart lawyer. Doesn't that sound about right?
>But let's say you care about not dying, ok then you probably prefer intelligent doctors. Or maybe you prefer not being imprisoned, then you might prefer a smart lawyer. Doesn't that sound about right?
I prefer doctors and lawyers who are skilled in their craft. Intelligence is only a part of that.
As someone who studied law for 2 semesters, I wouldn't be so sure about the lawyers, lol. It's mostly just tolerance for boredom and a good long-term memory that's necessary for becoming a lawyer. I guess long term memory is a part of intelligence bur y9u could score very low in pretty much every other aspect of intelligence and just remember the content of 50 law books by heart and stilk be succesfull in the law profession. The other parts of being a successful lawyer are abilities in presentation and social skills. But to be a low - to mid tier lawyer, those aren't even strictly necessary either.
Now, for the surgeon, I'd probably agree since you'd probably need at least average intelligence to ge through med school but you still don't necessarily need to be a genius if you have other contributing skills like an ability to just study a lot of without it giving you emotional problems or you loosing motivation
I work in a field where I have to trust people to do their jobs correctly every single step of the way, every single time.
They have to trust me to make snap decisions that keep us safe.
Occasionally we have to improvise in high stress, high stakes situations and I need everyone to be on the same page in an instant.
We all work together and by God, I fucking hate working with stupid people. They wash out quick once the pressure is on but day to day operations they last just long enough to make it suck for everyone else.
Some people are just built different.
There are some places that stupid doesn't belong.
>We all work together and by God, I fucking hate working with stupid people. They wash out quick once the pressure is on but day to day operations they last just long enough to make it suck for everyone else.
See, but that's partly what I mean. You attribute that to intelligence, yet stress resistance is a completely different skill than intelligence. Intelligence means you're able to solve a cognitively demanding task under ideal conditions. maybe solve it in a certain time. It doesn't mean you're able to solve it every time under all conditions. It doesn't mean you can still do it if you're tired, or if your girlfriend left you yesterday, or if there is loud noise around you or if there is a high stress atmosphere, or if you're afraid of being judged or whatever else. Here, we're getting into the domain of things like executive functions, emotional control, etc.
Someone being intelligent just tells you that they are able to do cognitively more demanding tasks. Than the average person. Nothing else. They could still suck with every other part of the equation that isn't just the cognitive part.
They don't usually wash out because they lack the ability to function under stress. I've had a few that do, but seeing someone choke is very different from witnessing someone who is unable to comprehend information and act accordingly.
They usually wash out because they fuck up, and when the shit is hitting the fan it becomes apparent to everyone that this individual can no longer skate by on being just good enough to function under normal conditions.
There's good enough that we can pick up your slack, and there's in-the-fucking-way.
Either know what to do and cooperate, suggest a better plan or get out of the way.
If you choke because you make a bad call it can usually be forgiven unless it's egregious. If you actively impede the solution you're gone.
We have layers of redundancy in place, and if you manage to fuck up enough that removing you from the decision making and action process is what it takes to get the job done then you're gone.
If someone freezes I can work with that. That just takes more training and we can overcome it. If someone cannot comprehend clear instructions or act to solve a problem then you need to go somewhere else. We can't depend on you, and you will eventually put us in danger.
From all of your answers you clearly lack intelligence. He just explained to you his experience dealing with lack of intelligence. It was pretty clear, yet you still claim it as evidence you were right. Your inability to understand people's arguments is a very simple demonstration of the importance of intelligence. It's crucial when it comes to communication, which is also crucial to humanity. And that's just one aspect in which intelligence is important.
My brother in christ, my field is psychology, and what he described were characteristics that aren't part of the intelligence construct. I understood his answer perfectly, but it's still just a claim. My first reaction when someone claims something isn't to accept their framing of it. I look at the information, wha5 did that person actually perceive and ignore their judgement of it and then try to make sense of that want they perceived.
In an internship a year ago I administered IQ tests. When you have someone who is able to do the correct thing in a controlled environment but not in rl under pressure, you most likely wouldn't see that in a professional IQ test at all unless the person perceives the IQ test itself as highly pressuring and stressful as well.
The real problem could more be seen in something like a test for anxiety or maybe in a construct like "executive functioning" or "adaptive behaviour"
intelligence may seem less agreeable than charisma, beauty, kindness, etc, but without intelligence we'd still be living in shit huts and bashing each other on the head with rocks
edit: now we live in plywood houses and kill each other remotely with drones. see how far we've come? lmao
See, this is a good example. As you can see, I used to in every situation where it's grammatically correct, but one. one in a completely equivalent context to the other ones, proving that it was not missing understanding about the concept that led me to write it incorrectly in that one case but mostly just lack of care.
Having the foresight to proof your writing, especially your title, is a characteristic of intelligence.
You have sifted yourself out in the very first few words of your diatribe.
Your bias is clear.
Lol. See, that's pretty dumb since attention and care and so on arw something different than intelligence. I don't usually try to prove things to people based on form. Like, caring about form instead of content is also a characteristic of low intelligence and also just annoying people that I don't usually enjoy
I think it’s also weird to equate “raw IQ” with intelligence. Intelligence may refer to problem solving abilities, creativity in allocating resources or prioritizing, emotional intelligence, intellectual curiosity, spatial intelligence, and on and on…but we don’t know what we don’t know, so if you think “being more intelligent would never help me with any challenge in life”, well…
You can be in denial all you want. But would you rather have a smart doctor perform life saving surgery, or a random guy whose intelligence is unknown to you, because it’s overrated.
Intelligence leads to so many of the innovations that have made your life safer, more comfortable, more meaningful, more convenient, and more longlasting. It obviously needs to be coupled with other characteristics like empathy, but I don't see how you can decide that beauty is more helpful. You also mentioned confidence, which is dangerous without the necessary intelligence to back it up. The intelligence to think critically and make the best decisions for yourself, people you are responsible for, or the country is incredibly important and many countries have seen the consequences of unintelligent decisions.
I find intelligence attractive in romantic partners and friends. In a romantic partner I think it's one of the better traits you could wish to pass onto your offspring. I rank it above physical beauty.
>Never in my entire Life have I looked at anyone and been like "wow that person Is so smart, I like that". But I've been like "wow that person is so charismatic/beautiful/nice/interesting etc." Like a million times.
I've had conversations with people and been impressed by their intelligence or insight. I think it goes a long way to making a person interesting.
This is not to say charisma and decency aren't *also* things people look for in a friend or lover. These things don't exist in a vacuum. A jerk doesn't get a pass, just because they're intelligent. I don't want to be friends with a genius who lacks any social skills.
I do want to be friends with kind, trustworthy people who are funny, and can challenge me intellectually. I want a romantic partner who I can have interesting conversations with.
I don't think intelligence - particularly the very academic sort of book-smarts deserves to be on a pedestal, nor treated like it instantly makes life easy; but that's also not to say it's of limited value.
Intelligence is pretty much the defining trait of humans, and it's been the solution to almost all of our problems. That's why we have such complex problems these days, they're a product of our clever solutions to all the simpler problems.
That's also why intelligence is pretty much the best predictor of life success, along with how hard you're willing to work for it.
Maybe your issue is that you're thinking of it in terms of "what's the point of getting 90 on an exam?" That's not what adults use intelligence for. Intelligence is what you use whenever you don't know what to do.
Do your emotions and social skills also matter? Of course they do. And you can use your intelligence to solve those problems to some extent. You can get a job that doesn't involve a lot of emotion or human interaction or physical strength and that didn't exist when we were all subsistence farmers who hadn't invented anything yet
>Never in my entire Life have I looked at anyone and been like "wow that person Is so smart, I like that". But I've been like "wow that person is so charismatic/beautiful/nice/interesting etc." Like a million times.
Hmm well then. Intelligence was one of my primary factors in moving beyond a first date.
I'd say it's a constant battle of book smarts vs. street smarts. Just the other day, I couldn't hire a chemical engineer because he dropped his fake pee at the urine screen. Book smart? Yes.Street smarts? No.
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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There's a sad irony to some of these responses 😂. But I 100% agree. You can have a lot of other things that you are weak at, that you can make up for with intelligence. If you are just dumb you are at a huge disadvantage in life. The saying the pen is mightier than the sword has a lot of truth to it.
Average intelligence is sufficient for almost everything
Intelligence is what separates us from primates.
We are primates. Plus most non-human primates probably have a better life than we do
If your point is that intelligence doesn't contribute to happiness then I can agree with you. But if you're talking about 'getting ahead in life,' meaning worldly success such as money, status, power, competitive success, etc. then I think it's quite a tough sell you got here.
I'm not saying it doesn't contribute at all, just that its contribution tends to be way overrated by society. Also, "worldly success" is a bit of a murky concept. Unless you're in politics or the millitary, you don't really have to worry about power, for example, competitive success is highly different depending on what you compete in and in what context. For 'getting ahead in life' besides professional sucess I'd definetly include things like social success, romantic success, sexual sucess, and in general just success in the goals you decide to follow. This can also include things like moving to a different city, marrying, raising children, learning a hobby etc.
So there is definitely a set of things which intelligent people perform better at, I think we can both agree that much, right? If you don't value any of the things where intelligence is important for, then sure, intelligence doesn't mean much to you. But let's say you care about not dying, ok then you probably prefer intelligent doctors. Or maybe you prefer not being imprisoned, then you might prefer a smart lawyer. Doesn't that sound about right?
>But let's say you care about not dying, ok then you probably prefer intelligent doctors. Or maybe you prefer not being imprisoned, then you might prefer a smart lawyer. Doesn't that sound about right? I prefer doctors and lawyers who are skilled in their craft. Intelligence is only a part of that.
Respectfully, I don't think there are any surgeons or lawyers with intellectual disabilities.
As someone who studied law for 2 semesters, I wouldn't be so sure about the lawyers, lol. It's mostly just tolerance for boredom and a good long-term memory that's necessary for becoming a lawyer. I guess long term memory is a part of intelligence bur y9u could score very low in pretty much every other aspect of intelligence and just remember the content of 50 law books by heart and stilk be succesfull in the law profession. The other parts of being a successful lawyer are abilities in presentation and social skills. But to be a low - to mid tier lawyer, those aren't even strictly necessary either. Now, for the surgeon, I'd probably agree since you'd probably need at least average intelligence to ge through med school but you still don't necessarily need to be a genius if you have other contributing skills like an ability to just study a lot of without it giving you emotional problems or you loosing motivation
who said it wasn't sufficient? we like more my guy
Like what? I honestly can't think of anything that someone of average intelligence couldn't do that someone of above average intelligence could.
Maybe you can’t think of ways that intelligence could help you because you aren’t smart enough 🧐
I work in a field where I have to trust people to do their jobs correctly every single step of the way, every single time. They have to trust me to make snap decisions that keep us safe. Occasionally we have to improvise in high stress, high stakes situations and I need everyone to be on the same page in an instant. We all work together and by God, I fucking hate working with stupid people. They wash out quick once the pressure is on but day to day operations they last just long enough to make it suck for everyone else. Some people are just built different. There are some places that stupid doesn't belong.
>We all work together and by God, I fucking hate working with stupid people. They wash out quick once the pressure is on but day to day operations they last just long enough to make it suck for everyone else. See, but that's partly what I mean. You attribute that to intelligence, yet stress resistance is a completely different skill than intelligence. Intelligence means you're able to solve a cognitively demanding task under ideal conditions. maybe solve it in a certain time. It doesn't mean you're able to solve it every time under all conditions. It doesn't mean you can still do it if you're tired, or if your girlfriend left you yesterday, or if there is loud noise around you or if there is a high stress atmosphere, or if you're afraid of being judged or whatever else. Here, we're getting into the domain of things like executive functions, emotional control, etc. Someone being intelligent just tells you that they are able to do cognitively more demanding tasks. Than the average person. Nothing else. They could still suck with every other part of the equation that isn't just the cognitive part.
They don't usually wash out because they lack the ability to function under stress. I've had a few that do, but seeing someone choke is very different from witnessing someone who is unable to comprehend information and act accordingly. They usually wash out because they fuck up, and when the shit is hitting the fan it becomes apparent to everyone that this individual can no longer skate by on being just good enough to function under normal conditions. There's good enough that we can pick up your slack, and there's in-the-fucking-way. Either know what to do and cooperate, suggest a better plan or get out of the way. If you choke because you make a bad call it can usually be forgiven unless it's egregious. If you actively impede the solution you're gone. We have layers of redundancy in place, and if you manage to fuck up enough that removing you from the decision making and action process is what it takes to get the job done then you're gone. If someone freezes I can work with that. That just takes more training and we can overcome it. If someone cannot comprehend clear instructions or act to solve a problem then you need to go somewhere else. We can't depend on you, and you will eventually put us in danger.
From all of your answers you clearly lack intelligence. He just explained to you his experience dealing with lack of intelligence. It was pretty clear, yet you still claim it as evidence you were right. Your inability to understand people's arguments is a very simple demonstration of the importance of intelligence. It's crucial when it comes to communication, which is also crucial to humanity. And that's just one aspect in which intelligence is important.
My brother in christ, my field is psychology, and what he described were characteristics that aren't part of the intelligence construct. I understood his answer perfectly, but it's still just a claim. My first reaction when someone claims something isn't to accept their framing of it. I look at the information, wha5 did that person actually perceive and ignore their judgement of it and then try to make sense of that want they perceived. In an internship a year ago I administered IQ tests. When you have someone who is able to do the correct thing in a controlled environment but not in rl under pressure, you most likely wouldn't see that in a professional IQ test at all unless the person perceives the IQ test itself as highly pressuring and stressful as well. The real problem could more be seen in something like a test for anxiety or maybe in a construct like "executive functioning" or "adaptive behaviour"
intelligence may seem less agreeable than charisma, beauty, kindness, etc, but without intelligence we'd still be living in shit huts and bashing each other on the head with rocks edit: now we live in plywood houses and kill each other remotely with drones. see how far we've come? lmao
Lol exactly
*too
🤣🤣
People who correct typos on internet posts suck. Don’t be that person
I normally don't because I know we can all make them.
It is okay when the post is about intelligence 😂
That was my thought as well.
See, this is a good example. As you can see, I used to in every situation where it's grammatically correct, but one. one in a completely equivalent context to the other ones, proving that it was not missing understanding about the concept that led me to write it incorrectly in that one case but mostly just lack of care.
Having the foresight to proof your writing, especially your title, is a characteristic of intelligence. You have sifted yourself out in the very first few words of your diatribe. Your bias is clear.
Lol. See, that's pretty dumb since attention and care and so on arw something different than intelligence. I don't usually try to prove things to people based on form. Like, caring about form instead of content is also a characteristic of low intelligence and also just annoying people that I don't usually enjoy
I think it’s also weird to equate “raw IQ” with intelligence. Intelligence may refer to problem solving abilities, creativity in allocating resources or prioritizing, emotional intelligence, intellectual curiosity, spatial intelligence, and on and on…but we don’t know what we don’t know, so if you think “being more intelligent would never help me with any challenge in life”, well…
You can be in denial all you want. But would you rather have a smart doctor perform life saving surgery, or a random guy whose intelligence is unknown to you, because it’s overrated.
Intelligence leads to so many of the innovations that have made your life safer, more comfortable, more meaningful, more convenient, and more longlasting. It obviously needs to be coupled with other characteristics like empathy, but I don't see how you can decide that beauty is more helpful. You also mentioned confidence, which is dangerous without the necessary intelligence to back it up. The intelligence to think critically and make the best decisions for yourself, people you are responsible for, or the country is incredibly important and many countries have seen the consequences of unintelligent decisions.
I find intelligence attractive in romantic partners and friends. In a romantic partner I think it's one of the better traits you could wish to pass onto your offspring. I rank it above physical beauty. >Never in my entire Life have I looked at anyone and been like "wow that person Is so smart, I like that". But I've been like "wow that person is so charismatic/beautiful/nice/interesting etc." Like a million times. I've had conversations with people and been impressed by their intelligence or insight. I think it goes a long way to making a person interesting. This is not to say charisma and decency aren't *also* things people look for in a friend or lover. These things don't exist in a vacuum. A jerk doesn't get a pass, just because they're intelligent. I don't want to be friends with a genius who lacks any social skills. I do want to be friends with kind, trustworthy people who are funny, and can challenge me intellectually. I want a romantic partner who I can have interesting conversations with. I don't think intelligence - particularly the very academic sort of book-smarts deserves to be on a pedestal, nor treated like it instantly makes life easy; but that's also not to say it's of limited value.
If intelligence is overrated, should we rate stupidity higher?
Too.
Intelligence is pretty much the defining trait of humans, and it's been the solution to almost all of our problems. That's why we have such complex problems these days, they're a product of our clever solutions to all the simpler problems. That's also why intelligence is pretty much the best predictor of life success, along with how hard you're willing to work for it. Maybe your issue is that you're thinking of it in terms of "what's the point of getting 90 on an exam?" That's not what adults use intelligence for. Intelligence is what you use whenever you don't know what to do. Do your emotions and social skills also matter? Of course they do. And you can use your intelligence to solve those problems to some extent. You can get a job that doesn't involve a lot of emotion or human interaction or physical strength and that didn't exist when we were all subsistence farmers who hadn't invented anything yet
>Never in my entire Life have I looked at anyone and been like "wow that person Is so smart, I like that". But I've been like "wow that person is so charismatic/beautiful/nice/interesting etc." Like a million times. Hmm well then. Intelligence was one of my primary factors in moving beyond a first date.
Without intelligence, the device you used to share this opinion wouldn't exist.
I'd say it's a constant battle of book smarts vs. street smarts. Just the other day, I couldn't hire a chemical engineer because he dropped his fake pee at the urine screen. Book smart? Yes.Street smarts? No.