What is Intelligence? How to get the Smartest People, Part I

Here's my views on intelligence

I'm trained as a psychologist which is a branch of the humanities and politics despite what you've been told but I can accept that.  And the adultery between the sciences and humanities is good in my opinion.  Anyway, the point is, I will not sound like a computer programmer or neurobiologist.

Information is any virtual data byte, modeled on any medium, be it on paper or in human brains, or in cells.  By virtual I only mean that it is not tied to a medium, though it has to have a medium.  In addition to content knowledge, you have relationships between information, which are descriptors of information (like metaphor).  And operations to process information and produce an output.  You also have to decide what strategy to use to process the information, and you have your catalogue of strategies.

Here's how that breaks down as a cognitive theory:

1.  Rote content knowledge.  

Like information on a hard-drive, may be text, visual, audio data, etc.  I'll call this rote information.  In 1+1=2, the rote content is 1,1,2.  Kim Peek, autistic savant, had lots of content knowledge from books, but lacked basic abilities.  So basically, he had lots of content knowledge fewer strategies for transforming that content and making it useful.  To be intelligent, you want a larger quantity of rote content knowledge; however, as the example of Kim Peek shows, even having a tremendous amount does not make one intelligent (as Kim Peek could not dress himself, navigate basic social situations, and other things we take for granted)

So, RC+

Another form of content knowledge is strategies:

2.  Strategy content:  

Strategies are the operations that produce an output from a piece of content knowledge input.  It may be an algorithm.  Strategy content is the rote information content of a strategy, rather than the performance of the strategy.  One would want to maximize the quantity of strategies.  So, SC+.  In 1+1=2, the strategy content is addition (other strategies could be multiplication or division).  These are strategies that one can do to numbers and there are of course many in mathematics.

3.  Strategy choice and performance (SCP):  

The performance of a strategy and the ability to pick the right strategy to apply to a problem is another aspect of intelligence.  This is a quality centered in but not limited to the brain.  In the equation 1+1=2, the SCP aspect is that when presented with two separate oranges and someone asks how many ya got, you are able to choose the strategy of addition and to perform the operation to get the correct answer.  The person who is able to do this is called creative and wise, creative when it's applied to novel problems and wise when applied to everyday issues.  This includes the ability to make useful value judgements and do cost-benefit analysis.  And far more importantly and too frequently neglected is the ability to make decisions under uncertainty.

4.  Performance of operations:  

Another aspect is the effective performance of operations.  In the example 1+1=2, the simple performance to get the right answer is what is meant.

5.  Philosophical and meta-knowledge:  

This is the ability to apply philosophical frameworks to knowledge.  For example, taking a scientific approach, or a belief approach (to knowledge).  One would want a greater content of philosophical strategies, and the ability to correctly choose and apply a framework to knowledge.  For example one may have a strategy of privileging a scientific approach over a religious approach.  Science and belief  are only two algorithms for how to frame knowledge, there are many others and the intelligent person has many and applies them creatively.  In the example of 1+1=2, one can frame this as cardinal numbers, ordinal, etc., meaning there are different philosophical frameworks from which to see these numbers and the intelligent person has many.  Essentialism is a philosophical system that denies all other philsophical frames, thus, someone who is only essentialist or absolutist denies this form of intelligence.  Many people are unaware that 1+1=2 is not just absolutely 'right'.  It is an information fragment that requires a philosophical frame and fits in many frames, not just one.  There are also frames where the statement is not correct.

6.  Working memory (performance) WMP+:  

Working memory is a performance variable of the amount of memory available for quick real-time use and ability to retrieve these memories.  It also includes real-time awareness of both past memory, present memory, and present awareness capacity.  Present awareness capacity is one's present awareness of mind, body, and the outside world.  This includes such abilties as walking and swallowing, which do not seem like important intellectual activities but are in fact very important.  In fact, swallowing difficulties can cause health problems and death in infants and others, while falls are a major causes of disability and death for older persons.  These abilities have important intellectual aspects.

Attention difficulties are a well-researched intellectual challenge.  So the most intelligent person has clear and effective attention to his thoughts, his body (can effectively move, swallow, and interpret pains intelligently and modify behavior accordingly for positive health outcomes), his environment (can see danger in his periphery while focused an absorbing task), and has excellent memory retrieval.

Present awareness is memory and hence has a small, unnoticeable delay.

7.  Total memory (performance)TMP+:  

Total memory is content and retrieval of long-term and short-term memories.  The most intelligent person has a great ability to store and retrieve memories.

8.  Physical brain health, healthy metabolism, and brain speed.  

The mind and body must be healthy for greater intelligence.  This includes speed of learning, literal speed of the brain, and effective metabolism.

9.  Intellectual habits

One's habits, emotional and intellectual affect or comprise intelligence.

10.  Learning ability

Some examples:

Kim Peek.  Very high content knowledge, performance of operations, memory, and retrieval.  Low awareness, philosophical understanding, physical health, social performance and creativity.  Though considered a savant, he was also considered mentally challenged.  He was also unable to use creative strategies to apply all of that information in a useful way.

Krishnamurti (philosopher).  The appeared to have very high philosophical understanding, but disavowed academic learning, thus lacking alot of academic content.  He also disavowed 9 to 5 work and intelligence tests.  If you had to choose one of these people to have their ability, you would most likely choose Krishnamurti who was able in all useful ways rather than Kim Peek who had lots of content knowledge and retrieval but was incapacitated by social and mental disability.

People with sky high IQ and photographic or perfect autobiographical memory do not rise to be the most powerful persons or the greatest innovators.  This means that these measures do not indicate the greatest intelligence, or that these intelligences alone will not suffice to produce exceptional outcomes.

What's wrong with intelligence tests?

Intelligence tests basically don't measure independent thinking and creativity which are the strongest indicators of intelligence.  It pretends to measure strategy and performance but the truth is, those who do well have learned by rote the strategies to be used to choose the 'correct' answer.  So it is a demonstration of only content and performance, no creativity or independent thinking.  However, those who score highly can safely be said to have the content knowledge and performance ability, yet they will not necessarily have creativity or independent thinking ability.

Intelligence tests not only fail to measure philosophical and epistemic understanding, it assumes an absolutist, essentialist stance, all answers being right/wrong, rather than requiring extensive thinking.  It therefore gives the advantage to those who lack quantity of philosophical views, although that can be overcome by those who know the mindframe of the test-makers and can choose the answers they would choose, rather than the 'correct' or 'best' answers.

These tests can measure rote content knowledge, and mathematical operations and strategies but again it is done in an essentialist and artificial context and hence the correlations that are sometimes found with success measures are most likely confounded.  High technology employers understand this and many are recently giving less weight to education or even rejecting those with degrees but no demonstration of ability to produce value.  Employers have always rarely used test scores for hiring.

Also, most effective intellectual performance is the result of practice at a specific skill or job, rather than a general intelligence factor.

Intelligence tests are good for identifying low intelligence aspects, like an inability to read, but once ability approaches normal intelligence, differences in scores are less informative.

Specific intelligences and general intelligences:

Most intellectual performance for work and school depends on practice, not a general intelligence factor.  So if one wanted to become good say, at coding, studying math isn't going to do it.  You have to practice coding.

However, all of the factors I have expounded are general intelligence factors except perhaps content knowledge.  It is not likely for one to be 'smarter' than those of normal or great intelligence, except smarter at specific things.

It is however possible for one to be 'smarter' than someone of sufficient intelligence or one's past self if one were to have significantly better functioning of the intelligence factors listed, greater working memory, greater total memory, greater operation performance, greater thinking speed and brain metabolism, greater creativity, more strategies and ability to apply these to problems, and greater philosophical understanding.  The latter are most amenable to change and practice.  One could learn basic decision-making strategies and when to apply them.

How to become generally smarter:

Becoming specifically more intelligent is simply a matter of practice, but can one become generally more intelligent, at many things or all things?

Increase quantity of general decision- making and performance strategies:

One could learn or practice general thinking strategies and heuristics.  One might research the work of Nassim Taleb and the works that he references for greater understanding of heuristics that apply to many areas of life and the understanding of probability and decision-making under uncertainty.  Here are some examples of such heuristics from Nassim Taleb:

1. "If something looks irrational – and has been so for a long time – odds are you have a wrong definition of rationality.
2. Never take investment advice from someone who has to work for a living.
3. Being an entrepreneur is an existential, not just a financial thing.
4. The first one who uses “but”, has lost the argument."

They can be accessed for free here Nassim Taleb Aphorisms and Heuristics.

Creativity:  Unique solutions to novel problems.  It's not clear that one can improve creative ability but it's worth a try.  So one would practice by doing, fixing real problems with creative solutions.

Philosophical and meta-knowledge:  One can increase this by studying philsophy with an open-mind.  Kuhn, Feyerbrand, are good places to start on philosophies of knowledge.

Working memory, total memory, and speed of learning:

It is quite difficult to increase any of these, from what we know.  There are some nootropics such as donezepil may improve memory and supplements like creatine that can provide greater brain energy.  Exercise of course improves brain health and neurogenesis.  It is important to keep healthy to slow the natural decline of brain metabolism.

There are memory champions who mostly claim to have no innate advantages at memorizing things, but who use strategies they have learned so these may be worth learning.

So basically, study philosophy, probability, decison-making under uncertainty, and heuristics.  Also, exercise, sleep, and protect your health.

Intellectual habits.  Good intellectual habits like having integrity, admitting when one has been proven wrong and changing one's mind when one is wrong are necessary.  One can improve one's habits to increase intelligence.  One thing to do is get ready to be wrong and to quickly change your mind to the stronger argument rather than trying to hang on to weak arguments that you have come to identify with.  Stop identifying oneself with any arguments.

In argumentum:

In argumentation, the person of greater intelligence will often run into the Dunning-Kruger effect.  Greater knowledge tends to induce humility and lack of asserting one's position over others, while ignorance engenders a false confidence and assertiveness.  Thus, in arguments, the stupid one thinks he is right because he is stupid.  How do you know if you have over-matched your opponent (and thus will eventually become embarrassed)?  If you know all that your opponent knows and more and also have more thinking strategies and philosophical strategies, you have over-matched your opponent and should not expect a good debate.  You should leave immediately if you do not want to deal with embarrassment.  It is like arguing with a child, you are likely to become embarrassed at having taken a child seriously.  Also, the child will not admit defeat and will be unable to appreciate the points you are making.

Philosophical strategies and heuristics are important because they can trump alot of content knowledge that is irrelevant.  Many mistake quantity of data with truth and relevance of data.  One can be a believer of and genius at a volume of literature or pseudo-science that is fully illusory and wrong, despite the amount of data.

Next, I will examine:
cognitive versus physical explanation of the information processes
How to find the smartest people.

How to find intelligent people for work and school (intelligence is not the only factor in success at work and school, conscientiousness is probably the most important factor).

Stay tuned and please discuss.
This is a work in progress.