It seems that everybody poses a trick these days to keep a brain from aging or to make it more intelligent in spite of age.
And some anti-age brain ideas are well worth the read. Scott Adam’s post… Aging Brains over at Dilbert.Blog starts this way…
“They say you get smarter every day that you’re alive until some tipping point. After that, because your brain starts to rot with age, you get dumber every day. I wonder if I'll know when it happens. That would be a bad day. “Something feels different today. I wonder what…uh-oh.”
People have their own way of dealing with secrets the brain still refuses to yield. Scott decided to make a deal with his brain… “To compensate for my inevitable mental decline I am already doing triage on entire categories of my memory. Anything I don’t need will be purged to make room for new stuff. I already got rid of the category I call “who wore what.” If I see you in the gym wearing a full chicken outfit I will remember that as “saw you working out.” Luckily I’m male, so it didn’t take much work to purge that category.”
It’s worth a look at Scott’s faithful crowd of 336 respondents also, for a few tips on intelligence. Not all hold water with researchers – and many lack currency from cognitive fields – but readers tell you who’s smart and where today’s genius hangs out.
One reader, for instance, pointed blog readers to join the Triple Nine Society – which is a group that welcomes people who test in the 99.9th percentile in one of several adult standardized tests.This self-proclaimed smart society, promises its members … “Opportunities for social contact include the annual meeting and local meetings in some areas, an email discussion list, and real-time chat channels.” What do you think?
I used to write a regular column for Mensa … a similar self-named smart group’s magazine,. You likely have your own ideas about self- publicized smart circles, but I see one key problem.
These intelligence groups who welcome the top 1% of all intelligent people, seem unaware that the definition for intelligence has changed. Those people we named as smartest – more often than not are far less intelligent than once thought.
In the past era, with amazing technology to test people’s acumen from multiple intelligences. We name people smarter because they solve problems and create products that lead to innovation in several intelligences and with evident results that are measurable beyond any classroom or textbook.
So, to keep up with who’s really smarter, intelligence clubs such as Mensa and Triple Nine Society, will want to change their question.
Instead of asking prospective members …. How smart are you? (which implies a number score in response, and lacks current accuracy) they’ll need to ask the more relevant question … How are you smart? (which expects multiple ways of using knowledge to solve problems and create solutions that show evidence of real intelligence applied).
So, with this new definition … who’s smart in your organization? Better still - take a survey to check out… ‘How are you smart?”
Hello Ellen:
Your How Are You Smart Survey is an excellent resource. It's a great practical intro. to the notion of multiple intelligence. It catalysed me to get a better handle on my intrapersonal intelligence as a distinctive competence.
Unless there is a proven connection between high intellectual attainment and effectiveness in life I for one would not apply to be part of a "smart club" (in the event that I was deeemed eligible :)) My 2 cents worth is that I'm much more interested in being involved in communities like Brain Based Business and the EQ Alliance, which will help to improve the quality of life of all of humanity. Multiple intelligences, including Emotional Intelligence, have a more profound impact on human effectiveness than intellectual intelligence. Another way of putting it is this: I'd rather live in a world where multiple intelligences are recognised, valued and shape our values than one where the highly (intellectually)intelligent are venerated.
Posted by: Galba Bright | December 18, 2006 7:07 AM | Permalink to Comment