Ask Lemmy

They know what questions to ask when dealing with a subject they don't know about.

If they admit they don't know stuff and ask smart questions, they are intelligent.

If they pretend to know, they aren't smart.

When people admit to being wrong or can laugh at themselves/give others grace for doing something stupid, instead of getting super defensive or nitpicky about it (which is not an easy thing for humans to do) I'm always left with a sense of admiration.

Like we always grow up hearing about how everybody is smart/talented in their own way. To an extent, I honestly believe that's true.

But I also believe the reverse is true. We're all very dumb in our own unique way. That's not to say there aren't general levels of intelligence and stupidity, or that anything is predetermined. Just that you would have to be pretty stupid to believe you're exceptionally talented gifted in every possible way.

It's not easy to accept about ourselves, but most people seem to understand that to some extent. There are some very special people that seem determined to dedicate their lives making sure there can be no doubt about their capabilities and skills, whether it's traditional intellect or anything else.

Behind Kim Jong Il’s Famous Round of Golf

Acknowledgement of the limits of their knowledge is the most important trait if an intelligent person.

"Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell."

For me, intelligence isn't about what someone knows - it's about how they think. There's no single thing someone could say or do that would instantly make me see them as intelligent. It would have to be the consistent demonstration of logical, rational thinking over a long stretch of time.

Frankly, it's way easier to spot stupidity, and a huge number of people can hardly wait to broadcast their ignorance.

The ability to at least hear that I'm saying something, too often people cut me off to ask me what I'm already telling them.

Honestly, for me, it's when someone knows when to keep their mouth shut or opinions to themselves. I could, in theory, consider the dumbest person in the world "intelligent" so long as they don't open their dumb mouth and make situations worse.

Basically, any idiot can speak, but it takes intelligence and/or wisdom to know when not to.

Being able to reason from different perspectives, to change their worldview due to new experiences or arguments, the ability to adapt to different circumstances.

Someone who can sit back, quietly read a room and the situation. Not letting emotion control when to have input, actually hearing what someone else is saying and thinking about it before replying.

Checking on others comfort or thoughts. Looking out for their friends. Being nice to service staff. I measure intelligence based on how they treat people close to them. And how they treat people who they would gain nothing from.

When they’re curious and quick to acknowledge the limits of their own knowledge.

Someone who’s truly intelligent knows there’s always more they could learn, especially when it comes to their area of expertise.

For me the most important marks of an intelligent person are, similar to other responses in this thread, the ability to entertain a thought without accepting it, and the willingness to update your beliefs when confronted with convincing evidence.

All too often on Lemmy we see people immediately jumping to one side of an issue or the other as a knee-jerk reaction, uncritically parroting their side's talking points and lambasting anyone with the audacity to disagree without even listening to what they have to say. The comments that get my strongest upvotes are the ones that go against the grain of a thread while also bringing up additional relevant information or perspectives. Not because they're necessarily right, but because they're positively contributing to a thread in a way that circlejerking doesn't.

And no, this doesn't mean that the enlightened centrist take is necessarily the correct one, but it does mean that you should at least consider counterarguments to your position.

And while yes, sealioning exists, I see Lemmings talking past each other far more often than I see them constructively engaging with each other when they disagree.

And "updating your beliefs" doesn't need to mean "completely changing your mind about something" (though that should always be a possibility). It can mean adding nuance to your position, or replacing one peripheral idea with another.

As a random example, acknowledging that AI does have a few genuinely useful use cases doesn't mean that its current implementation isn't also mostly a dystopian and environmental disaster. This nuance helps ensure that we take the right action in addressing the problem, instead of a knee-jerk blanket response that, while popular, might end up being just as harmful as the status quo.

While I think Lemmings in general are a good deal smarter (or at least more educated) than the average person, I honestly don't think they're all that much more intelligent.

'Intelligence' means something along the line of 'ability to pick, to understand'. So, I would say behaving intelligently would be a good starting point.

Showing an ability to recognize and to appreciate differences, to be able to accept people having conflicting ideas, for example, or being of different origins and cultures, believing in different values or morals. To realize those differences are a strength and not a weakness, an opportunity more than it is a threat. Also, not feeling any need to always 'be right' would come close second for me.

Third and finally, if you’re going to tell me to read more, recommend specific literature.

Read more about what ? Intelligence? That's a bit too... broad, I'm afraid.

But if I was to suggest any young person (which I suppose you are, which I'm not anymore) showing a desire to get acquainted with some of the brightest and most intelligent people our species have ever created, I would tell them to start reading. Books. And not any books, mind you. Read classics.

Yeah, I know, boring. Save that they are not. They're just different than what most readers are used to read. Here again: being open to differences, welcoming them, is a sure sign of intelligence ;)

Read literature, and poetry, and essays, plays,... Read as much of them and read them as regularly as possible. But why classics, why not the latest 'XYZ series about some amazingadventuressomewhere'?

Too many people consider books a mere 'fantasy', an escape door from the sad reality they're trapped in, we're all. And a lot of books are indeed just that, and they're doing a great job at being that. No issue with that. But books and literature is so much more.

Books, the written word, is the way through which mankind have shared ideas and reflections through time. It's how we have maintained on ongoing dialogue between some of our smartest people for thousand of years. Reading them is taking part in their conversation! That is why I can read Homer to this day, almost 3000 thousand years after his death, like if he was sitting here with me like if it was him that was singing his amazing stories, just for me!

So, be it by reading Homer, or Ovid, Shakespeare (and my dear Molière), or by reading the Bible or the Upanishads. Or some philosophical work. Or by reading novels by Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, Flaubert. Stories by Borges or Kafka. Or by reading the essays of Montesquieu and those of Montaigne, or by reading Diderot (so undervalued, nowadays!) or this poor Rousseau whose ideas have so often been caricatured and misunderstood (not always by accident), read 'The Social contract' and the 'Discourse on Inequality' and read it in French if at all possible because their writing is so fine tuned, every single word matters (yes, I'm French).

Poetry is another great way to get familiar with (another form of) intelligence, through rhythms and attention. But that would deserve a threat of its own.

If you're from the USA, there was a time this once great and inspiring country had to offer the world more than angry buffoons. Go read Henry David Thoreau, Emerson, or the poetess Emily Dickinson to name just three that I think of right now.

Heck! If you want to read an old (but still alive) amazing and very critical US thinker, and a poet, and a fiction writer, and a man that lives his life in accordance with his personal values, look no further than to your unique Wendell Berry. Mister Berry deserves more Nobel Prize than anyone else, and not just in literature. Being able to meet him and to discuss with him, even for a few minutes, is the only reason I would agree to travel to the USA. Edit: but since I've refused to travel by plane since the early 00s, it probably will never happen but would I like to be able to meet him? Yes.

The ability to learn and adapt quickly.

Being able to admit fault, admit being wrong, updating their worldview, emotional regulation.

You've probably all encountered the kind of person who when challenged has a whole melt down. You say something like "I'm not eating meat today because it's bad for the environment and animals" and they have a whole name-calling meltdown. Too stupid to handle their sense of being good person threatened.

Knowing how to “read the room” is just as important as any other information an intelligent person may possess. Just because I’m talking about a problem with my car doesn’t necessarily mean I want an exhaustive lecture on fuel pumps. Similarly, knowing how and when to correct someone without hurting their feelings is absolutely vital. Intelligence is a lot less useful if everyone thinks you’re a pedant or an asshole.

For me, I find humbleness and the non-decisiveness of knowing there's a lot to know and understand on almost anything to be a good sign of intelligence.

Someone who still finds joy in indulging their curiosity.

Nothing says "I know how to use the wad of soggy bacon between my ears" like a lifelong commitment to, and love of, learning new things.