[Finally] Practical Definition of Intelligence

Level 1... and that's okay

*Paid subscribers will be getting two emails today. This is the first. The second will be an invite to the Allegiance Capital workshop tonight. Details are at the bottom of this post.

Future Guardian,

What is learning?

How should we define “intelligence”?

We’re going to share out working definition of both.

Our goal is that you become more intelligent by learning something from our writing, videos, audio and event.

Of course, you don’t have to agree with our working definitions, but it will be helpful to know what we mean what we say it. And, if you find it as practical as we do you, perhaps you’ll adopt it as your own.

Let’s break this down:

“We hope to increase your intelligence”

Does this mean that we hope to help you score better on tests? Or that you sound smarter while arguing on the internet? Or something else entirely?

Some questions to ponder:

Who is more intelligent...

1. The student who can recite the “Good Samaritan” to a captivated audience but treats others poorly out in the world or…

2. The student that keeps forgetting the words of the sermon, but treats others with kindness and respect?

How about...

1. The college student who understands the various theorems of thermodynamics inside and out. He is even asked to help teach it. But can't ride a bike or...

2. The college student that is barely passing physics but rides his bike all around town?

One more...

1. The group experts in germ theory that forget to boil their water when they travel to a third-world village or…

2. The villagers who boil their water and remain clueless about germs and microbes?

Who would you consider more rational or intelligent?

It depends on what they want.

If the priority is to be a kind human, the student that is kind is more intelligent. If the priority is to sound like a good human, the student with the golden-tongue, steamrolling strangers is more intelligent.

If the priority is to be able to ride a bike, the student that can ride the bike is more intelligent…Even if he doesn't know why it works. If the priority is to sound smart or test well, the student that has mastered the theorems of aerodynamics is more intelligent.

If the priority is survival, the uneducated villagers are more intelligent and rational than the experts - since their behavior is more likely to get them what they want.

Remember:

- theory and practice are different things.

- practical application must come first to be considered rational or intelligent.

If what is good for survival is rational, what is intelligence?

[Finally] A Practical Theory of Intelligence

If what is good for survival is rational, what is intelligence?

Guardian Dr. Todd Snyder¹ recently gave a graduate presentation called:

"How To Upgrade Your Intelligence"

It started exactly how we would expect an academic to start a presentation. A lot of words, definitions, facts, and theories.

Here is the third slide:

Typical classroom stuff.

But Todd quickly diverges from the expected path and goes on to tell two stories:

Story 1: Working with a kid that was low intelligence by nearly all testing methods. Todd noticed that even though the kid didn't know the answers to the questions, he could answer them correctly. He would listen closely to Todd's voice as he asked the questions. This kid could guess the answer based on how the question was asked. So a few things happened here:

First, the kid realized that if he answered correctly he could get what he wanted. Then, he figured out a way to answer the questions correctly.

Story 2: Working with a kid that was high intelligence by nearly all testing methods and types. He also noticed that the kid was extremely OCD. He wanted everything perfect, and he wanted to pass his tests so badly that he couldn't finish any of the tests he was taking. His perfectionism caused him to keep circling back to each answer multiple times and run out of time.

This kid recognized that by testing well, he would get what he wanted. But was unable to do it.

Todd asked himself a better question, a version of:

"Who is more intelligent...The kid that has figured out how to get what he wants or the kid that can't?**

And then Todd proposed the most practical unifying theory of intelligence I've heard:

"Intelligence is the ability to get what you want."

It's saying:

"You can find a million and one ways to convince yourself and others that you are intellectually superior to someone else. But if you can't get what you want, who cares?"

We are here to increase your intelligence. Dr. Todd went on to say:

"If it increases your ability to get what you want, it has made you more intelligent"
- Dr. Todd Snyder

Does higher education make you more intelligent?

It depends on what you want.

Does a lack of higher education make you less intelligent?

It depends on what you want.

Do things that increase the probability that you get what you want and you increase your intelligence.

So…

If increasing your ability to get what you want is increasing your intelligence…

What is learning?

Simple…

Increasing the ability to get what you want means you have changed your behavior in certain circumstances. Learning is:

Same Circumstance, Different Behavior.

It doesn’t matter what you think you know if your behavior doesn’t change in the situations that what you know would need to applied in order to benefit you in reality.

The Guardian Academy is designed to help you change your behavior in a favorable way. “In a favorable way” depends on what you want.

The tools and resources available will only benefit you if you are clear on what you actually want² (Bumpers³ is one of our favorite resources for this) and willing to do the work.

Homework:

Each time you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or leave an event feeling like you got smarter - think deeply about whether or not that’s true. Better, make it true by taking a few moments to determine how you are going to change your behavior and in which circumstances it applies - and then follow through on it.

THEN… you have definitely learned something and increased your intelligence.

Live To Learn. Give To Earn.
Guardian Academy.

Allegiance Capital Workshop:

Build trust and authority at lightening speeds

Increase conversion across all marketing, advertising, and sales efforts.

Increase employee and client retention dramatically

and....

Improve relationships with the people that matter most

Allegiance Capital is one of the most powerful concepts to learn for development relationships. That means it makes you a better marketer, salesperson, spouse, parents, partner, etc.

Time: 4PM Pacific
The invite will be sent to paid subscribers 30 minutes before the workshop starts, so keep an eye out.

Hope to see you there

1. Dr Todd Snyder

2. Solvable Problem

3. Bumpers: Amazon - Free Digital Copy Note: Founding members get free Bumpers workshops a couple times a year.