Really enjoyed this piece and thinking about the contrast between UK policing mythology and US and Canadian - very thought provoking.
In terms of intelligence - I tend to see it as something akin to the world cleaving to you a little more easily, tending to see things more quickly, come up with more connections and pattern match faster. Other people get there but it takes longer and they have to work harder - so its a time advantage if anything except perhaps in a few areas.
Anyway, I have never left a comment before, but thank you for an interesting blog, came here after Venkat shared something last year.
I know what you mean in re intelligence, although I think it's a lot easier to determine when there is an unfitness rather than a fitness; it's a lot easier to imagine a form that is unfit for any context, but in practice a lot harder to tease apart traits that are fit from the context in which they perform. Like if you owned a Lamborghini but never left the city with immaculate roads where there was never a crack, let alone a pothole, let alone a dirt road. A Lamborghini wouldn't get ten feet on a mountain trail.
My point I guess is that only certain parts of the world may cleave to you more readily, and it's entirely plausible that you could live out your entire life without ever encountering the parts of the world that don't. "Intelligence" is not something you can really evaluate without any context. Though I wouldn't rule out some kind of "sports gene" for intelligence (ie you can get all the way to the olympics with practice but you need genes to get on the podium) I am much less confident in being able to tease it out from the environment.
It really is narrative all the way down isn't it.
hehe don't worry I won't take that as legal advice…
But yeah, I guess there are three things I've been ruminating on for a while:
• one is Cicero's De Oratore (which is actually quite readable, this translation at least: https://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/view/10.1093/actrade/9780195091984.book.1/actrade-9780195091984-book-1 )
• another is this transcript of a keynote by by Alan Kay: http://worrydream.com/refs/Kay%20-%20Powerful%20Ideas%20Need%20Love%20Too.html
• and finally this paper by Mercier and Sperber: https://www.dan.sperber.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/MercierSperberWhydohumansreason.pdf
Put all these together and you get a picture that looks kinda like:
• logic/reasoning is a crappy way to convince anybody of anything
• most people can't even think clearly in terms of logic anyway
• because it requires them to actually concentrate which is uncomfortable
• you nevertheless need logic because a weird side effect is it's how you solve problems
• this has been known for a very long time.
It's kinda funny how much has been known for a very long time.
Really enjoyed this piece and thinking about the contrast between UK policing mythology and US and Canadian - very thought provoking.
In terms of intelligence - I tend to see it as something akin to the world cleaving to you a little more easily, tending to see things more quickly, come up with more connections and pattern match faster. Other people get there but it takes longer and they have to work harder - so its a time advantage if anything except perhaps in a few areas.
Anyway, I have never left a comment before, but thank you for an interesting blog, came here after Venkat shared something last year.
Thanks, I appreciate it!
I know what you mean in re intelligence, although I think it's a lot easier to determine when there is an unfitness rather than a fitness; it's a lot easier to imagine a form that is unfit for any context, but in practice a lot harder to tease apart traits that are fit from the context in which they perform. Like if you owned a Lamborghini but never left the city with immaculate roads where there was never a crack, let alone a pothole, let alone a dirt road. A Lamborghini wouldn't get ten feet on a mountain trail.
My point I guess is that only certain parts of the world may cleave to you more readily, and it's entirely plausible that you could live out your entire life without ever encountering the parts of the world that don't. "Intelligence" is not something you can really evaluate without any context. Though I wouldn't rule out some kind of "sports gene" for intelligence (ie you can get all the way to the olympics with practice but you need genes to get on the podium) I am much less confident in being able to tease it out from the environment.