Can you judge intelligence?

[Hare]

The subject of intelligence seems to come up a lot, but what is it exactly? 

When you think of intelligence, do you think of IQ? Emotional Intelligence? Some other kind of intelligence? 

Or is your idea of intelligence something more dynamic and less measurable? 

How important is intelligence to you? What do you picture when you think of 'unintelligent' people? 

[N_E_Wunn]

Intelligence is generally defined as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. I'm not sure there is any test that can accurately measure all kinds of knowledge and skills. There are people who do extraordinarily well on tests, but I believe that talent does not equate to how smart a person is. I have known highly successful, educated and "intelligent" people who could not navigate from their office to the water cooler without a road map. 

Creative thought, for me, is a far better gauge of high level thinking. The ability to "think outside the box" is not measurable through testing.

I understand that there are people of varying "intelligences," and variety is what makes the world go 'round. Everyone has a purpose. And talent. Whether others view their purpose and talent as valuable is an issue with those who seek to judge. Rather, they should seek to embrace others' unique abilities.

[Digital]

Intelligence is to me the ability to consume information that is given to you. That information can be in any form. Granted some is easier to process and consume then others.

I also think intelligence is also closely tied to ones ability to communicate and relay information. Not only in spoken or written but through any form, creative or technical. 

I totally agree with takents and people having skills that they are more specialized in then others. 

[SingSong]

When I think of intelligence I think of the kind of people that are able to both take in and recall all kinds of information as well as understand the deeper concepts within that information such as the relation between things, the cause and effect, and details about how things function. Although there are different kinds of intelligence, that is the kind I think of when someone brings up the term, because I personally assign other types of intelligence different titles.

I definitely appreciate intelligence in other people, but like most people I stay with people around my level of intelligence. Some people can easily get into discussions over my head.

As far as picturing unintelligent people, you know what I think it is for me that makes people stand out, it's the ones that have no intention or desire to learn. They get stuck at a certain level and are content with it. Unfortunately, I'd say that the cause of this is usually parenting styles that don't put importance on expanding one's mind. School can kill the desire to learn as well. But a lot of people are given the opportunity and just don't try.

Adding to what Digital said, I also think we do judge the intelligence of people by their abilities (or inabilities) to communicate. A low vocabulary (and by that I mean using the amount of words a five year old might use in conversation) tends to make someone look less intelligent. There's no need to be highfalutin, but being so limited in the way you choose to express yourself (even though there are so many more options) shows, once again, that you don't put much value on learning. Therefore, you appear less intelligent.