Are you smarter than the average human being?

Question

If so, is it because of curiosity, or what? What makes a person increase in intellect? Or are we born with the hard drive, and there is no increase?

Answer 1

i believe people are born with a certain amount of intelligence. its up to you to enhance it. i wish more people were born with common sense.

Answer 2

Big difference between intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence deals mostly with knowledge, but wisdom deals more with application and common sense. I believe that people who are more curious can become more intelligent than others, but that's not a hard-and-fast rule. Some people have photographic memories and can pick up a myriad of skills very quickly, but others take longer to learn things and may never have good recall ability. That's the essence of intelligence. Wisdom, however, is taking what you have learned and applying it to your life, especially in dealings with other human beings. Have you ever heard of the guy or girl who didn't even get a high school diploma but was shrewd enough to start their own multi-million dollar business? Those people may have lacked intelligence but they had wisdom. By contrast, have you ever met someone with a Ph.D. who was completely CLUELESS about the simplest things like how to pick out clothes that don't clash or balancing a checkbook? BOTTOM LINE: I consider myself smarter than the average human being, but I was labeled as a "gifted child" early on, so I don't know if I was born with that ability or developed it over time -- I guess if I didn't apply myself in school or in life I wouldn't really be smarter than anyone else, would I? But in terms of increasing in intellect, if the desire to learn is there the intellect will increase.

Answer 3

By smarter, do you mean more intelligent or having a greater amount of knowledge? If the first, I am about average. If the second, I'd say that in a number of areas I have accumulated a greater amount of knowledge than the average person, partly due my job as a librarian and partly due to my wide (some might say dilettante-ish) areas of interest.

I would say that our intellectual capacities are at least partly due to genetics and partly do to what we are exposed to as children.

Answer 4

I agree that most people are born with some aptitude for intelligence. And I think intelligence has to be measured by both "book smarts" as well as comon sense and "linking" ideas. I have known many intelligent Phi Beta Kappa graduates who can't figure out simple daily tasks or common little problems. I think both are just as important.

Answer 5

If you are asking, is my IQ higher than 100? Yes.
Staying involved and having endless curiosity increases that, and slows down, possibly stops, degeneration at advanced age.
Also it has more to do with judgment (which most people don't have) than with memory
Being able to apply what you know constructively.

Answer 6

I completely agree with yomamma's response!! It was very intelligent, by the way... thanks for sharing it. I also completely agree with Sarge's point of wisdom. I believe it's much more valuable in terms of living a "good" life, and deserves a higher place in our culture & education systems.

I think there are Many other different intelligences.....like EQ, visual, mechanical, kinesthetic (physical), musical, verbal, etc...... all of which, it seems, people have varying natural talents with, which can be improved, some more efficiently than others... but I wouldn't know how to compare the values between them.

But if you're just talking about intellect, then yes, I think the intellect is like a muscle. If you use it a lot, it gets better, stronger, quicker. If you don't use it as much, it doesn't. But just like any other muscle, it has to be "exercised" in the right way in order to become stronger.

That was my experience, anyway. I can remember becoming more of a Thinker (and Daydreamer) in high school. (It was the only way I could escape.) But since I wasn't really taught "how to think," I'd just get stuck on certain ideas or problems in life, and if I couldn't solve them, I'd just mentally go around in circles or bang my Mind into them (especially the problems), and just feel depressed.

It took me over 10 years to realize that I didn't have to do that (see how stupid I was!), and that there were Principles, Perspectives, & Methods (PPM) & that could be used to aid in problem-analysis & solving (including putting them on temporary hold, which I didn't know how to do). They don't teach PPM of solving problems in school.

Now, sometimes people will say I'm "smart" (they never said that before), but I have to tell them, it's not true! It took me 15+ years of thinking work/experience, and I only think about things that I'm passionate about. I'm pretty stupid in other areas - just like everybody else.

Most people think "smart" is natural, but in my experience, anybody can get smarter if they believed they could (many people think "smart" is genetic), were inclined to, or taught to. I also believe: Everybody is naturally stronger in certain intelligence areas, and weaker in others - smart in some things, and stupid in others. That's definitely true for me, anyway. (So to answer your title Q, no, I don't think I'm smarter than the average human being.) I think it's important for people to identify their natural strengths or interests and develop those.

You also bring up a great point about curiosity - I think that's pretty essential for intellect, too, if you want to "get smarter". Curiosity is the hunger that feeds it. Asking questions is great - just like you did. It also depends on what areas you want to be smarter in: eg, I think being smarter in business VS. science, will require 2 very different sets of intelligences. So again, it's probably better to discover your interests, and then develop the intelligences related to them. For general intelligence, maybe logic & philosophy are a good place to start. A lot of thinking might also be a good idea - but I think it has to be disciplined (which requires PPM), otherwise it can be a little dangerous. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to give you better answers!!!

Thanks for asking an interesting question, though! It made me think. I've been meaning to do some reading up on different intelligences, lately, but I always forget.....

I wish you the best of discoveries in your pursuits .....

Answer 7

I think what makes a person "smart" is the ability to recall information they once read as well as the ability to have confidence in decisions they have based on logic drawn from things they learned in the past. I guess what I'm trying to say is that everyone can be "smart" if they are able to recall information. The more information they can recall, the better their ability to reason...and consequently, the "smarter" they can appear to be.

Answer 8

Are you being sarcasic with us? extra smarter?you realize it incredibly is meant to be SMARTER.My intelligence isn't appropriate here,so I fail to be certain the factor of my answering one among those question.

Answer 9

Yes I am.
I was born with it, my father was amazing, intelligent man. His sister my Aunt has an IQ of 160. (Mine is only 133-when I was 16 yrs old)
I think intelligence is hereditary, some poeple are just more developed and use it better than others

Answer 10

hee hee...I don't think I am smarter than anyone however it's people sees me, I am smarter among the average human being.

And everyone can be a multi millionaies around the world as long as everyone meet the right people and if everyone meets the bad one, ding dong, it's game over and your life is as good as dead. Intelligent or not, it doesn't concern. It's the people around you.

Answer 11

Hmmmmm. I think you could increase your intellect. But I also think that most people are born with it.