6 Tell-Tale Signs That You're Highly Intelligent

We are obsessed with being unique and highly intelligent. Some people go crazy over their IQ scores and test scores claiming those are a testament to their incredible intellect. Frankly, science doesn't actually back up any of these claims. In a nut shell, studies have shown that intelligence is a hard quality to measure. It's simply too multifaceted. Psychologists Howard Garner claims that there are approximately 8 intelligences, some examples being musical, verbal and logical. Fact of the matter is, we don't understand much about intelligence at all. However, what we do know is that there are few experiences and behaviors that highly intelligent people experience more often. If you've felt a little different from others and you're unsure if you're highly intelligent, hopefully this list will be a step closer to providing you with some answers.

Your Mind is Always on Maximum Overdrive

Okay, so that was a bit of an over exaggeration, but you get the picture. Day in and day out your mind is rolling! It comes up with crazy ideas for stuff, thinks of funny jokes, over analyzes conversations, comes up with weird scenarios, asks questions about stuff it's curious about, overthinks up-coming events, becomes anxious about random stuff- it never really stops. However, you don't always mind it. If you find that you think a lot, and find that you STILL love being alone with your thoughts, you're probably among the more highly intelligent. Let me give you an example, my mind races 24/7 but I prefer to be alone so I can encourage these thoughts. Not the bad ones of course, but the interesting ones. I'll let my mind wander and think about weird stuff, because I find it interesting. In fact, I like to feed it with new information, knowledge and content so I think even MORE interesting thoughts. 

You Want To Find People to Have Deep Conversations With, But Often Can't 

You crave deeper conversations and deep connections with people. You desperately want to share your intricately bizarre thoughts with someone who will understand them. You want to talk about the more intellectually stimulating topics that the average person will want nothing to do with. However, you have a very hard time finding this person. Maybe it's because you're to anti-social, or maybe it's because you don't know where to look. Whatever the reason, you feel disconnected from other potentially intelligent people and it bothers you. As result, you probably feel very lonely.

You Are Critical of What You See and Hear

You don't just blindly believe what you read, hear or see. You like to question it's validity, do research on it, consider its flaws and think of potential ways to prove its inaccuracy. Its not that you don't trust the person delivering the message, it's that you don't just believe anything. If you're like me, you stumble upon a great deal of articles that boast "ways successful people think differently", "tips to succeed from successful people", or "habits of successful people". It's so monotonous and the tips are all the same. If you're highly intelligent, you are skeptical of the practicality of this advice. You understand that everyone's path to success is different and that broad advice about success may not apply to you. Success is also partly driven by luck, so you take that advice with a grain of salt.

You Constantly Seek Knowledge 

 You think about the things you don't know and are always seeking to fill the gaps. You read articles, books, scientific studies, videos - anything that enriches your life by contributing to your library of knowledge. You're not opposed to admitting when you're wrong or don't know something. Saying "I don't know" is not a testament to something you lack, but more of an opportunity to add to your knowledge.

You're Open Minded 

Your curiosity often leads you down deep rabbit holes of sometimes bizarre information, however you like to stay open minded to new information, experiences and people. You don't dismiss different ways of viewing things without understanding it as best you can and doing your research. You consider alternative views and weigh their merits.

You're Probably Very Introverted

Studies have shown that there is a correlation between high intelligence and introversion, however, notice I said probably. Not all highly intelligent people are introverted. You can very well be extremely outgoing and be intelligent. Studies have just noted that more intelligent people happen to be introverted. That still does not necessarily mean that extroverted people are naturally less intelligent.

How To Move Forward in the Current Political Climate

You don’t need to look at the news to tell that there’s a lot of chaos in the world right now. All you need to do is scroll through your Facebook feed! The chaos isn’t in any isolated location, it’s all around us. The recent political events, that resulted in Donald Trump as the President of the United States, has shaken us to the core. Riots and protests have risen in the streets and social media has exploded with crazy sauce! Many people have made their opinions hard to miss and those who oppose these opinions have been fighting them tooth and nail. It’s a constant back and forth that will never lead to progress. However, do not mistake my words for apathy. I do understand where people’s frustrations are coming from, but I also recognize their flaws. I think two of the biggest issues facing us today are that people are not listening to one another or thinking critically about many issues. I have known people who support something for reasons they cannot provide. Sometimes they just do so because another person who shares in their general belief system says so. As an intelligent people, we need to think critically for ourselves and we need to encourage others to do the same.

Think Critically

There is a perfusion of “fake news” or news that is mostly or entirely false, but used as click-bate to attract readers. The headlines are often so obscure and insane that it often demands a double take, then after you read it carefully it demands a hearty laugh as you continue to scroll past it. However, several people, excuse me, millions of people have been duped into believing fake news. An NPR segment with Craig Silverman, media editor for Buzzfeed, shed some light on the topic by sharing the truth about fake news to willing audiences. Surprisingly, hundreds of fake news articles come out of Macedonia in the Balkans, where young teenagers (who know little to nothing about American politics) capitalize on the intensifying political climate in the U.S. According to Silverman, who was able to interview some of these fake website owning teens, they follow the trends, create websites they know will attract viewers and make money. A lot of their content is based loosely on very biased conservative media content that they have tweaked to gain attention. They often evoke a strong emotional response. They understand that feeding into extreme biases is the way to more money. As a result, media platforms, that actually broadcast truthful content, get left in the dust. In the 35 minute interview Silverman talks about the phenomenon: “…For the pages that were partisan pages on the right and the left, if you had stuff that really appealed to people's existing beliefs, [content that] really appealed to a negative perception of Hillary Clinton [or] a negative perception of Donald Trump - even if it completely bent the truth, that would perform much better than a sort of purely factual thing.”

The fact of the matter is that we as people do not psychologically like to be wrong. So we look for media that confirms our biases. If it disagrees with us, we probably won’t consider it, we’ll probably double down on what we already believe. That’s the power of false news. As the interview goes on, Silverman also states, ““So if you're reading stuff that aligns perfectly with your political beliefs, it makes you feel really good and really excited and you share it, Facebook is going to see that as a signal that you want more of that stuff. So that's why the false misleading stuff does really well is because it's highly emotion-driven. It tells people exactly what they want to hear. It makes them feel very comforted and it gets them to react on the platform. And the platform sees that content does really well and Facebook feeds more of it to more people.”

We need to be critical observers of media content. Be very critical of what you read always, because biases and information often creep into news content and you need to keep yourself informed not brainwashed. If you come across some piece of information, try to look it up using multiple websites. You want to view the issue from a few different prospectives. We must educate ourselves every day. Learn what motivates the opposing side. Where do their beliefs come from and why do they believe the way they do. Educate yourself, educate yourself, educate yourself.

Listen 

No one is going to want to hear this, but we need to have more dialogue between the two opposing sides and actually listen to each other. Many of my friends on Facebook are assuming things about the participants of the Women’s March without actually having ANY evidence to back it up. They simply think they know what liberals are thinking. Liberals are guilty of this as well! Many assume that Trump supporters are all racist and sexist. That isn’t always the case. Lack of understanding and the profusion of misinformation, I believe, can stem from people being unwilling to actually want the truth, so we’ll believe anything that lines up with our views. Try not to let your emotions get the better of you while researching ideologies of the opposing side, simply seek to learn. I know this is VERY hard, but please understand the incredible benefits it will have for you and others around you. One, you will not be able to count yourself as one of those poor misinformed people shouting non-sense that isn’t actually true. These people contribute to the problem. You want to be part of the solution. Two, you’ll be able to eloquently state facts instead of “feelings” or “opinions” whenever faced with someone who is attacking your side. I say that no one wants to hear this because some people may say “I’m tired of listening! These people are insane!!” But have you really been listening?

Please don’t think I’m condoning complacency, but I do think you should educate yourself and do your research BEFORE moving on to the more active responses. The more we educate ourselves and try to understand each other the better off we’ll be.


Source: NPR

This Extraordinary Letter Will Help You Find Your Calling

In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote a letter on the meaning and purpose of life when asked by his friend, Hume Logan, for advice. In just a few paragraphs, Thompson’s letter offers deeply thoughtful ideas, and what makes it all the more profound is the fact that at the time the world had no idea that he was about to become one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.

This letter is particularly extraordinary because the timelessness of its applicability. These words still ring true in the ears of youth and adults alike and its message is still considered among the wisest ever written. 

April 22, 1958
57 Perry Street
New York City

Dear Hume,

You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal — to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.

I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles … ” (Shakespeare)

And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you’ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don’t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect — between the two things I’ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming.

But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure he’s not after the “big rock candy mountain,” the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance?

The answer — and, in a sense, the tragedy of life — is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your perspective has changed. It’s not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.

So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?

The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on “the meaning of man” and that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use the term “god only knows” purely as an expression.) There’s very little sense in my trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because I’m the first to admit my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two paragraphs.

I’m going to steer clear of the word “existentialism,” but you might keep it in mind as a key of sorts. You might also try something called “Being and Nothingness” by Jean-Paul Sartre, and another little thing called “Existentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre.” These are merely suggestions. If you’re genuinely satisfied with what you are and what you’re doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) But back to the answer. As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors.WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES.

But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors — but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every man, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and desires — including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that his life will be MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter.

As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires).

In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life — the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.

Let’s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let’s assume that you can’t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN — and here is the essence of all I’ve said — you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.

Naturally, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. You’ve lived a relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. So it isn’t any too difficult to understand why you seem to feel the way you do. But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.

So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. But you say, “I don’t know where to look; I don’t know what to look for.”

And there’s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don’t know — is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice.

If I don’t call this to a halt, I’m going to find myself writing a book. I hope it’s not as confusing as it looks at first glance. Keep in mind, of course, that this is MY WAY of looking at things. I happen to think that it’s pretty generally applicable, but you may not. Each of us has to create our own credo — this merely happens to be mine.

If any part of it doesn’t seem to make sense, by all means call it to my attention. I’m not trying to send you out “on the road” in search of Valhalla, but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that — no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company.

And that’s it for now. Until I hear from you again, I remain,

Your friend,
Hunter

The Problem With Understanding Intelligence

There are a lot of articles out there claiming to understand what comprises an intelligent person. They’ll site flimsy studies that affirm a myriad of very stereotypical traits about intelligent people. You’ve heard it plenty of times I’m sure. “You might be super smart if you are a night owl, introverted, don’t smoke, or have a cat instead of a dog.” To me, a lot of these claims are just plain silly. For centuries, scientists and psychologists have been trying to figure out what exactly intelligence is. More importantly, they’ve been trying to figure out how the highly intelligent think. As concrete as many articles claim the research is, we don’t actually understand intelligence much at all. If we did, more people would understand that intelligence can’t be measured and that there aren’t a set of assigned traits that intelligent people have.

An article I recently read written by Big Think created a correlation between intelligence and physical activity. If you’re highly intelligent you may not be as physically active because you prefer to be thinking. It sites a study of 60 college students with varying NFC’s (need for cognition) which, after just one week of time, discovered that those with higher NFC’s were less physically active. Therefore, it concluded that smarter people must be less active. Well, there’s a lot wrong with this deduction. First of all, there was a small pool of subjects. You need to study a lot of people to accurately gauge something as ambiguous as intelligence. Second, they only conducted the study for a week! There is no way you’re going to be able to accurately deduce anything about cognition over a span of 7 days. Things change in people’s lives and the desire to be active fluctuates based on a myriad of factors. Third, the correlation itself is a bit shady. They are claiming that those who are less active chose to stay home and think. Who says that staying home to think about stuff makes you smarter? And who does that anyway?! If I stay home instead of doing something active, I’m probably at home watching movies or something. There is clearly very flimsy evidence to suggest that lazy people are more intelligent. What if going running or playing a sport helps people think? It is very possible that certain people think more clearly or more creatively when they’re moving.

As humans we can’t help but feel we have to condense things in order to understand it. We condense vocabulary words to flash cards, we try to understand personalities by assigning colors and specific terminology to them (introvert vs. extrovert), and we try to understand groups of people by assigning them to biological races. Some of these are not even backed by real science! There is no scientific basis for biological races. We do the same for intelligence, claiming that intelligent people tend to stay up late, are thinner, and are funny. These are individual personality traits that some intelligent people may have but not all of them.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that we shouldn't try to understand intelligence, I just think that before we go making concrete claims about intelligence, we should make sure we have the science to back it up!

Personally, I don’t believe that intelligence is necessarily fixed. There are always more ways you can educate yourself, learn more about yourself and the world. Here are some ways you can make yourself a little smarter every day.

1. Keep an Open Mind 

The world is a big big place and there is so much to know about it. If you’re always held up in the same way of thinking, you may never be able to expand your mind.

2. Adapt to Changes

This is a tough one, but you must be able to adapt to changing environments and conditions. If you’re working on a project and a bunch of set-backs come your way, just adapt and re-asses.

3. Understand that there is a lot you don’t know 

You are never going to be able to know everything, but it’s better to learn as much as possible than to be content knowing nothing. Once you understand that there so much to learn and so much knowledge you don’t have, you’ll find yourself curious to learn more about stuff.

4. Be curious about stuff 

It doesn’t really matter what it's about. Just start with some interest you have and fall down the rabbit hole of information. In one day I go from technological advances in robotics to the art of meditation. The sky is the limit, so learn whatever you can!