Defining intelligence

On a night where our lack of knowledge regarding The Office and animals in children’s literature was well on display, we somehow came away with a trivia victory. Honestly, of all the games that we have won this was simultaneously our best and worst game. It was our worst as there were entire categories where we couldn’t even hazard a guess on the questions. It was our best in that we answered multiple questions that no one else knew, including one that I want to use as an example as to how my brain works.

The category was historical blunders and the toughest question was “Where was Amelia Earhart trying to land on her ill-fated journey?” Now, for some bizarre reason Nova had a special on Amelia Earhart on Monday night. I’m not quite sure why I watched it over watching pro wrestling. I had flipped it on, saw that they had Gore Vidal giving commentary and was just too lazy to change the channel. Still, forty eight hours later I was able to immediately recall that she was heading towards Howland Island. I’m not sure why that stuck in my brain. I can’t remember the details of the conference call that I was on for work yesterday but random pieces of historical geography are etched in my mind.

It might not interest anyone else but this has always fascinated me. It’s tied to the argument that I have had regarding whether or not I am actually smart. For some reason, I’m the one who is constantly arguing that I’m not smart. This is probably due to the fact that I see myself on a regular basis and can detail every dumb ass thing that I’ve ever done. Just look at my closet, what’s hanging up there are not the decisions of an intelligent man. (That and the collection of Voltron DVD’s, though that just makes me a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome.) But what I can do is recall pieces of information from way back in my memory banks and most people view that as intelligence.

I don’t because that’s just a trick of genetics. I have neurons that interconnect in a way that lets me remember the names of the four Banana Splits even though that knowledge is completely worthless. To me, intelligence is equal to creativity and insight. While I’m creative I don’t know if I have ever been able to have one of those “a ha!” moments of genius. Basically what I am best at is taking a whole bunch of data, analyze it, find the interconnections and report on it. But I always need the data to begin with. Is there a degree of intelligence there? Probably but I’ll still consider it mainly being good at math.

Still, if people want to view me as smart more power to them. As I’ve always said, I’ve collected a lot of pieces of paper over the years that claim that I am intelligent. To me, I’ll look at a writer or an artist, someone who takes nothing and turns it into something and always go “Wow, I have no idea how you do that.” And that’s smart in my book.