On Academics and Intelligence

On Academics and Intelligence 

My Hypothesis 

    In simplest terms, I've come to realize that incredible academics does not require incredible intelligence. Many of you will immediately say "Why, that's preposterous!" but hear me out on this. We can all agree that today's IQ tests are not of definitive means to measure intelligence. However I'm willing to claim that a GPA as a measurement of intellect is just as unreliable, if not, far more unreliable than that of an IQ test. What I do think GPA's reflect is pure dedication and attitude.
 
    What I've gathered from my own experiences has lead me to the conclusion that with intellect comes cognition, but with academics comes repetition. You may think of this as a contrast between "book smart" and "street smart" or as I like to call it, "common sense vs. the rest".

Experiences

    Firstly, you must understand that these accusations are not coming from me out of jealousy toward my high school valedictorian. I have come to realize that high GPA's can come from any person of average intelligence. No student should be thought of as a genius for having straight A's. Especially not if their fate would be met once they are placed in a wet paper bag.

    All jokes aside, let me seriously demonstrate why that analogy suits this particular topic. First I must share with you some personal background.

    -   Back in high school I had this girlfriend. Over the course of our two year long relationship, I began to notice her intellectual shortcomings. She was clueless when it came to knowledge that cannot be acquired by school alone. She spent countless hours every night studying and would still not score as high as me on exams. This was confusing to me as I neither studied nor did homework. I was the stereotypical kid with great potential but was too lazy to apply myself. She would argue that she learns differently and that is not wrong, however, the difference between her and I, was that she didn't learn all that well. She would constantly say she never understood anything teachers said, all she knew was that certain answers are correct but she did not know WHY they were correct. That is the point of this summery. So now I continue where I left...

    Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I will say this; there is a enormous difference between memorizing and understanding. For example, let's think about what goes through the mind of a parrot. When the parrot speaks in phrases and words, does the parrot know the meaning of those words, or is it simply repeating behavior that it has learned gets rewarded.

Clarification 

    The purpose of this document is not to criticize those that are better at memorizing than understanding. There are two distinct different learning styles however I must stress one thing. In math, there is a seemingly unnoticeable difference between an individual that is capable of plugging variables into a formula, solving the equation and getting the correct answer, and an individual capable of understanding exactly how each variable acts on another, why they do, and how that will bring you to a correct answer. Of course this is based off of my own experience, so with any generized idea I propose, there are exceptions. Are there people with flawless GPA's with common sense? OF COURSE THERE ARE!

    If you want to take offense to my observations, please go ahead, it will only add to my previous post titled On Ignorance and Aggression. 

A Deeper Look

    The mind of an individual with intellect, is flourishing with curiosity. They are always scanning, analyzing, dissecting and learning. This is their own doing. What makes them tick, is figuring out what makes other things tick, without the aid of anyone else. In contrast, a purely academic mind lacks this curiosity. They simply do not care. Things are the way they are and they have no desire to figure out why.

    

    Oftentimes, the true intelligent ones, are too busy observing and thinking, to be noticed by others as intelligent. Furthermore, when these individuals share their knowledge, more often than not, nobody takes them seriously. Especially if they are considered "social outcasts" as I once was.