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What is Intelligence, Anyway?

Link link by JulieHamar on 05 December 2007, tagged as aptitude test, intelligence, asimov, and smart

This is a short light hearted story written by Issac Asimov regarding aptitude testing scores and intelligence. It explores the commonly held beliefs about intelligence and the academican. Asimov humbly admits that having a high IQ and being smart can b

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One wonders by scottb :: NR7 :: on 07 December 2007

If Asimov had taken sufficient offense to the rather insulting comments of the mechanic, it seems likely that he could have learned everything he needed to know to care for his own car. It may have taken as long as a year, but I honestly doubt it would have taken longer.

Asimov was an incredibly prodigious writer with interests that spanned the entire spectrum of knowledge. He's published in all but one of the ten categories of the Dewey Decimal System (no Philosophy). So maybe it wouldn't even have taken a year.

One wonders how long it would have taken the mechanic to gain the knowledge necessary to become a tenured professor of biology at the Boston University School of Medicine. Or to write even one successful book - Asimov wrote over 500, quite a few of which were very successful.

It's a cute story, and Asimov was undeniably a modest man, but there's not any real doubt that he was also a very intelligent one.