Their ability to charm women like you. Stultus for president.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9pD_UK6vGU

Some people who can't understand basic logic aren't very smart. Opinions can't really be "stupid" unless there is no logic behind it. Making speeches and persuading is a separate skill. I just say test scores and how quickly and how well you can grasp concepts that are new to you kinda shows how smart you are. Just my thoughts.

Thinking critically is a good answer ._.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SWvDHvWXok

the ability to impress others, i think

Doesnt it have something to do with your dick size?

Just a thought

I think it's the ability to use what you know; essentially, to use tools. Logic and knowledge are tools, and "smartness" is determined (if it really can be objectively determined) by how well you can use them.

Of course, I'm sure someone who's actually smart would give a better answer.

Intelligence to me is:

-The speed with which one grasps knew concepts
-Strong adherence to logic
-Exemplary critical thinking
-Ability to apply knowledge in an efficient manner

Intelligence is a huge factor for me in choosing friends and partners, which may be contradictory to some when you consider my inability to cope with mathematics entering Algebra and beyond, and difficulty picking up social cues and grasping humor.

Although there's probably some strict rule, I think it boils down to what traits people value and label as signs of intelligence as individuals. For example, I don't believe that academic test scores are a very good reflection of intelligence. You could argue a low score is exemplary of an individual having difficulty grasping new concepts, but I would have to point out that while my mathematical thinking is poor, I excel in visual art and literature.

Intelligent people often won't claim that they are intelligent. More often the intelligent ones are the people who are focused on increasing their knowledge, regardless of how much knowledge they have. This is of course just my opinion.

I agree with this. The smartest people are the ones who are able to not only learn, but to come up with original ideas using knowledge, logic, and critical thinking. I think there's an important distinction to be made between knowledge and intelligence...it's not difficult to emulate, memorize, and learn facts (knowledge), but to truly understand concepts, theories, etc. and be able to evaluate and apply them and come up with new ideas is true intelligence, in my opinion.

I also agree that tests aren't usually good indicators of how "smart" someone is because they tend to test knowledge rather than intelligence. (Among other issues such as cultural bias in tests and the many very intelligent people who don't test well or don't care about those types of things.)

I think the ability for a person to make inference actually represents their intelligence fairly well. If there's a particular individual you want to gauge the intelligence of, try arguing with them. That'll usually tell you pretty quick.

I once had a friend who, like Renhet up there, cared a lot about intelligence in his friends and it rubbed off on me for a while. After he disappeared (still don't know what happened to him) and I migrated back to my previous mindset, I realized I'd been pretty miserable caring so much about smarts.

so basically, intelligence level is like dick size- it's nice to have but you can't do much about it so don't bother worrying. Enjoy your life.

#12

It isn't a matter of dick size, although I would be lying if I told you that I had never considered intelligence as such. I just get along better with smarter folks. We tend to have more common interests and ideals than the average Joe.

The ability to get things done.

Nothing else matters.

Impossible to quantify, entirely subjective to whatever context the intelligence is being observed in, assuming that, definitionally, smart = intelligent for this this conversation.

I think if we ever did agree on a definition of smart it would be defined as some gauge of how efficiently the physical mechanisms of one's brain operates. But by the time we become advanced enough to precisely measure that I think we'd be to the point where we wouldn't categorize 'smartness' as only pertaining to humans or human biology. I dunno, I don't think I'm very smart.

I've always thought of intelligence as being able to learn and understand new things easily. Then being able to put that knowledge to use through critical thinking, rationalization and logic.

Having the opinion of someone's intelligence is entirely based on one's own ability to recognize and understand these things. The smarter you are, the more easily you will be able to tell smart people apart from the dumb ones.

I've seen a lot of examples of supposedly smart people making incredibly dumb decisions, or people who knew a lot of facts, but weren't able to understand them or put them to any use. I've also been mistaken for being smart by people simply because I know lots of things.

.

Being smart isn't knowing a lot. A complete genius at the age of 5 is smarter than a 30 year old construction worker, regardless of having less concrete knowledge. It's of more the ability to grasp and apply logic, as well as the ability to learn more in a small amount of time.

The argument of logic is understandable; however, different subjects have different levels of understanding for each person, e.g. a person who majors in English would most likely be "better" at english than math, and vice versa. Does this make one smarter than the other? (mediocre argument imo)

In addition, phobias and preferences of taste and smell, visuals, music, etc. are to a certain extent impossible to explain to another person. I can't exactly why I like the color green, for instance; and I believe that you can't "make" someone like/dislike/fear/etc something. Does that make people's opinions towards things illogical? (if my previous statement is correct)

In addition, the ability to learn or understand new things as a measurement of intelligence: different types of learning styles exist

Visual learners
Auditory learners
Reading- or writing-preference learners
Kinesthetic learners

where, if accepted, shows that each person learns differently. Is someone who struggles in-class about abstract concepts but picks up something interactive (i.e. sports, games, an instrument) less smart than someone who is the opposite?

I am not trying to discredit your opinions because on one hand I agree with these characterizations of intelligence. However I don't think these are enough to differentiate "who is smart and who is not smart."

I also admit that I haven't watched that interview of Neil Tyson yet. If my questions are answered already then I apologize

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence

There isn't one right answer. What Wikipedia will tell you is that statistically, better outcomes seem to be correlated with higher performance on IQ tests and the general intelligence factor. Two people who score the same on the same IQ test may have gotten that score in wildly different ways depending on the nature of their thought processes and brain chemistry, but that score will nonetheless be an adequate judge of their general intelligence.

The "learning style" dichotomy is largely bunk. The idea that you have multiple different levels of intelligence may hold some merit, but the theory is not scientifically testable as it's currently stated.

Having high general intelligence isn't adequate for most complex tasks. If you want to apply your intelligence and not just "have" it lying around collecting dust, you have to build an intuitive knowledge and experience base in a complex field. That's what education and job training are for.

Sal's answer is best; intelligence is incredibly hard to define and compare without the specific context it's being measured/used.

Fact: Albert Einstein couldn't make a cup of coffee.

I try to judge people based on how they act, not how intelligent they are. Some of the nicest people I know have a very low IQ, but they will treat you better then some hot shot with a chip on his shoulders.

However, the super intelligent friends I can have decade long debates with are the ones I'm closest with, of course. And my wife, had to be intelligent, since we need to spend the rest of our lives together.

Intelligence doesn't exist.